Category Archives: reading

July 06, 2012   Rachel   fun, Rachel S., reading, recommendations  
8

Friday Reads

I’ll begin by stating two obvious things:

  1. It’s Friday
  2. I like to read (and my guess is that most of you out there do, too).

Why, then, have we never, ever discussed Friday Reads before? Oversight of the grandest scale!*

As any avid reader does, I’m always very interested in what others are reading, too, and am always seeking out new things and recommendations. I don’t, however, spend my days inquiring of everyone I meet, whether or not we have ever seen each other before, about their daily reading choices. But it would be so nice to know! Quickly! And easily!

This is where Friday Reads comes in. Fridays, the loveliest and most leisurely weekdays are bastions of possibility. The whole weekend is wide open ahead of you and you have nothing to do but things that you actually want to do and choose to do. (I’m getting really operatic here, but bear with me). Books are better on Fridays!

Friday Reads offers a forum where readers can post their Friday reading choices for others to peruse, comment on, or take note of. More than just a list of titles and excited notes, Friday Reads aims to raise the visibility of readers. Reading is generally such a solitary pursuit, yet so many people engage in it every day (not just Fridays!). Friday Reads wants to showcase the fact that reading can be a communal pleasure pursuit and encourage everyone to proudly display their literary loves.

It’s also fun to see if others are reading the same book as you or to discover a new title you would never have found on your own. Friday Reads is also accessible on Twitter, with the hashtag, surprisingly, #FridayReads.

Try it! The more people involved, the more opportunities for inspiration, discussion and general warm fuzzy feelings of community there are. My Friday read this week is The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. So far, so (so, so) good! What’s yours?

 

*Not actually the grandest oversight ever, I don’t think.

June 26, 2012   Brenna   book club, Brenna, classics, feedback, literacy, news, reading  
4

Redemption through Reading

Brazil made headlines yesterday for introducing a new program to reduce prison sentences, aptly titled “Redemption through Reading”. According to this article from the Huffington Post, inmates in Brazil’s federal prisons can now minimize their sentences by up to 48 days per year by reading one book every four weeks, then writing an essay on it.

While there’s no shortage of literacy programs in prisons all over the world, I thought this was the first case where it actually had a concrete impact on a person’s punishment, but I was wrong. After a little searching online, I found Changing Lives Through Literature, a rehabilitation course introduced in the early 90’s in Massachusetts as an alternative to prison. Created for repeat offenders of serious crimes, this initiative forms reading groups where offenders discuss the classics.  It has proved to significantly reduce recidivism rates and violent behavior among participants.

Avid readers know that literature has the ability to change lives, but these programs bring this concept to fruition. By reading about characters and situations they can relate to, convicts get the chance to look at their own lives, and the way they affect others, through a different lens. They also develop skills to analyze, articulate, and communicate more effectively, equipping them with the ability to make more positive contributions to society.

Does anyone here have experience working in this capacity in the penal system?

June 19, 2012   abby   Abby, characterization, characters, fun, reading, relationships, trivia  
1

You Are What You Read

I’m something of a science nerd, so I love it when science and literacy come together. Fortunately for me, I get just that in this Jezebel article about readers emulating their favorite characters. The study reveals that readers can shift their thoughts and actions to match their favorite literary character and attempt to live vicariously through a character by taking on what we think would be his or her thoughts, actions and emotions.

I know that there have been plenty of times when I have stopped to think, “What would so-and-so do in this situation?” and this article really made me think back and reflect on my habits and reading. I love to re-read Gone with the Wind, and I feel protective of Scarlett as I imagine what life might have been like for her. Now I wonder if I’m more flirtatious or take on more of a ruthless attitude towards the world as I read and think about Miss O’Hara.

What do you think? Have you ever lived vicariously through a book character? Do you think you emulate your favorite characters?

June 15, 2012   Lauren   fun, genre, Lauren, opinion, reading  
5

Diversity

One of the greatest things that publishing has done for me (besides pay my rent, for which my landlord is surely grateful!) is broaden my horizons dramatically.  As the DGLM old guard will surely attest, I showed up here as a huge snob, albeit a snob without much love for the classics.  This meant, as you might imagine, there wasn’t much variety in the books that I enjoyed.  Much of the advice I received when I started here was along the lines of “Get over yourself” because of my great wiser-than-thou proclamations on what was just not good enough for me.  It’s actually a testament to his restraint that Jim has never punched me in the face, actually.  I was insufferable.

 

But more than that, I was wrong.  Holding books to a high standard is important, and I still do it, but it took me a while to recognize that books don’t all have to serve the same purpose to be worthy.  Now I’m lucky that when I found myself in Barnes & Noble yesterday, where I’d gone for a magazine but needed to buy a book to hold to my 2012 rule about not walking out of any bookstore without a new book in my bag, I felt like I had all the choices in the world.  Ultimately I was weighing my options between a book of critical cultural essays and young adult historical fiction—a debate that took me about 7 minutes of standing thoughtfully near an escalator, deciding whether to go up or down a floor.  But I could just as easily picked up a new paranormal romance or thriller, or a sports book or political polemic.  That’s the great thing about books—whatever experience you’re looking for, there’s always different book to turn to.

 

Working in publishing, particularly as an agent, I find I sometimes forget that not all readers read this way.  When selecting a book for the book club I started with friends, several people decided to bow out based on the choice, because it’s not their kind of thing.  It startled me to realize that I’m not the kind of person who’d feel that way anymore—if it wasn’t my kind of thing, I’d want the social pressure to read it and experience something new.  I might still have my tastes and preferences, but I’m now someone who is always willing to give a book a shot.

 

What about you?  Do you stick to what you know you love (because, frankly, whatever the category you’re unlikely to run out of books!) or branch out?  Do you love books across genres and categories or prefer to stick to one or two?  And if you’re a writer, how do you think the diversity or lack thereof in what you read impacts your writing?


June 12, 2012   Brenna   Brenna, cookbooks and food writing, food, great books, holidays, reading  
1

Books for Dads

In resisting the urge to write about my fantastic (and first!) experience at BEA, I’ll write about another major event, relevant not just to those in the industry.

Father’s Day is less than a week away, and until this morning, I was all out of gift ideas. Fortunately, I happened upon today’s post on the Washington Post’s All We Can Eat blog and found a list of cookbooks specific for those fathers who love to grill (and really, don’t they all?). I never would have chosen a cookbook for my dad, considering I have yet to see him cook inside, but Grillin’ Wild with Rick Browne and The Gardener & The Grill just seem too perfect to pass up.

Then again, if your father is more into cars than cooking, check out these suggestions from the New York Times. Or, take your pick from the Huffington Post’s 10 Books Every American NEEDS To Read.

What about you? What books have you given as gifts for Father’s Day and gotten great feedback on?

June 01, 2012   Lauren   advice, book club, feedback, fun, Lauren, reading  
2

Organized nerdiness

Despite my love of reading and the sheer volume of it that I do every week for work, I feel like I don’t often enough do it just for fun.  I tend to cram it in in phases, desperately scarfing down book after book, before returning to a world in which TV and games on my phone exist and sometimes steal my attention away.  As much a fan of books as I am, I’m also a big nerd for systems and rules, so I decided to find ways to make sure I’m keeping up to a reasonable level of pleasure reading.  It’s hard to turn off your inner editor (maybe that National Book Award winner doesn’t really need my marginalia) if you never read enough for fun to find the work mode off switch.

My first step was to form a book club with my friends.  DGLM book club is great, but it’s geared toward learning rather than enjoying, and we don’t usually all read the same book.  I want to be able to chat about books with my friends, but with varied tastes and busy lives, it’s often the case that even those of us who are well read don’t overlap much.  Our first book is Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Marriage Plot, which I’m actually not that sure is going to be my cup of tea.  We shall see, I guess!  Those who’ve already read it suggest we’re going to have lots to talk about, so at least it should be interesting.  I’m pretty adamant that we not pretend to read a book and then gossip about other things instead—we do plenty of that without forming a book club, after all.

So I turn to you for tips:  are any of you in a book club?  Any pitfalls to avoid?  Ways that your book club really made things interesting?

May 29, 2012   Brenna   Brenna, fun, independent bookstores, reading  
2

Summer Reading List

With this brutal heat wave we’ve had recently, I think it’s safe to say that summer has (un)officially begun! Here at the office, we’re fortunate to have summer Fridays, when the office closes at 1 pm from Memorial Day until Labor Day. For some, it’s a most welcome opportunity for a long weekend away, and for others, a great chance to catch up on some recreational reading.

Over the long weekend, I came across this pretty terrific list of 15 Summer Reads Handpicked by Indie Booksellers, and suffice it to say that more than a few of these titles have since infiltrated my own summer reading list.

What types of books do you prefer to read during the summer? Captivating thrillers that will chill you to your core? Adventure novels set in the Arctic where you can easily imagine yourself when it gets too hot to bear?

May 25, 2012   Rachel   fun, Rachel S., reading  
5

Common (under)ground

Most people would agree that public transportation, while convenient (ostensibly), is not always the most pleasant of experiences. Trains are late, buses break down, there’s traffic, people rushing and smushed together all at once. My favorite way to start the morning, hard as it is to believe, is not with my head practically cradled in a large sweaty man’s armpit while trying to remain upright with my hand on the ceiling because I’m not close enough to any poles to hold on to.

These are, of course, the worst case scenarios, and there are some nice things about commutes, too. As I was bragging about this morning, my commute actually isn’t very long and half of it is on bicycle, but for many, it’s a good chunk of time spent sitting on a bus or subway car. Could be endless boredom, or it could be the perfect time to get some reading in.

I came across this lovely little blog the other night, Underground New York Public Library, and promptly spent an hour or so combing through the photos and comments, because that’s what happens when the internet, people watching, and books get combined. Comprised almost entirely of photos of people reading on the subway or waiting for the train to arrive, the pictures are captioned only with the title and author of the book, perhaps a description of any interaction the photographer had with the reader.

The community of traveling readers is all-encompassing. People from all walks of life are riding together, reading books and it’s so fun to look through the photos and see the various types of people reading the same books I’ve read or want to read. Seeing the titles underneath each photo really shows how much diversity there can be in the audience for a particular book, highlighting my own preconceptions about both books and people.

Sometimes the reader and their book seem so incongruous to my first impressions, like the no-nonsense security guard engrossed in a recent Anna Quindlen,  and others are delightfully appropriate—like the quintessential businessman in a sharp suit, accent tie and stately umbrella absorbed in Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

We’re reminded again and again, yet we all still seem to forget how books can and do bring us together. Everyone who has read the same book, or who has even read a book, is part of something. No one comes away with an identical mindset to another after reading a piece of text, but we can all share in the camaraderie that comes with the experience.

So read what you want to read—it doesn’t matter if it’s “good literature” or the books you’re “supposed” to be reading. Don’t stress about your commute, either. Just bring a book and join the thousands of people doing the same.

 

April 27, 2012   Rachel   fun, music, Rachel S., reading  
5

Multi-talented.

A shell-shocked World War I vet coming home to West Virginia trying to piece his life back together after the sudden death of his young wife, guided by an angel who speaks to him through the mouth of an old horse. By description only, this sounds like a novel I could possibly be interested in and would thumb through in a book store, but would also stand the chance of being passed over for something more salacious came along.

In actuality, this is the plot for a novel, Bright’s Passage, and is a book I bought the first week it was released. Why the enthusiasm? Because of its author. One of my favorite musicians, Josh Ritter, wrote his first novel, which is incidentally just out now in paperback, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. To be honest, it really wouldn’t have mattered if it was about aliens getting married on horseback in Antarctica while running away from polar bears—I would have bought and read it anyway.

Granted, singer-songwriters might have a better chance at actually being able to write a cohesive and coherent novel than say, reality TV stars, but the questions still remains. How likely are you to pick up or look forward to a book penned by someone who is well known (or at least well enough known) for something entirely other than their writing career, simply because you are a fan otherwise? I don’t mean, of course, a business book written by a successful CEO or a cookbook written by a revered chef, but something entirely outside the milieu of their public persona.

As luck would have it, Bright’s Passage is a lovely little book—well-written, at times both humorous and heartbreaking, and completely enjoyable, and I would wholly recommend it to anyone who’s interested. I picked it up with the hopes of it being good, but I really would have bought it regardless, simply because I love Ritter’s music and performance so much. He’s done the author-tour thing, just as other first-time writers would, but with a solid fan base to promote the book, he surely had an easier time filling seats than most.

I’m interested, though. Have any of your idols, musical or otherwise, written a book? Have you read it? Would you, if they haven’t, regardless of content?

April 24, 2012   John   children's books, classics, John, lists, opinion, parenting, reading  
4

Raising geeks

Back in the stone ages (okay, the 1980s) when I was a kid, “geek” was a pretty harsh name to call someone—maybe not as soul-crushing as “nerd,” but certainly up there with “dweeb” or “spaz.” But thanks to Bill Gates and other titans of the information age, the geek stigma has been turned on its head—today we’re proud to call ourselves computer geeks, book geeks, music geeks, etc.

And now that the geeks (I would include myself, but really, I was always more of a nerd) are of parenting age, they’re raising a new generation of geeks, no doubt with the belief that their spawn will rule the world in 20 years. Hence, we have blogs like Wired’s GeekDad, which posted a list of 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10 in an attempt to identify “what books are essential to the Geek experience.”

It’s a great list of books, and certainly just about every title is essential—but essential for geekiness? True, there might be a few more fantasy and sci-fi titles than you might see on a regular “best books for kids” list, and the lack of any sports titles does seem to favor geekdom. But Curious George? Frog and Toad? Charlotte’s Web? In the Night Kitchen?

I have to say, I’m a little hard pressed to see how these classics would help geek parents create a specifically geeky kid–as opposed to a generally intelligent well-rounded member of society. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive here (admittedly, a geeky move on my part), but it does bother me when the great books for kids are used to promote an outside agenda—would these parents approve if their kids asked for Matt Christopher’s or Dan Gutman’s classic sports stories?

Far be it for me to defend the jocks, but maybe a better title for the list would be “67 Books Every PARENT Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10”, and let the kids figure out on their own whether The Lord of the Rings leads down the road to geekdom or not. After all, isn’t self-discovery the point of reading in the first place?

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