Category Archives: reading

October 27, 2011   Jim   Jim, reading  
19

What you write and what you read

I was at lunch with an editor today who noted, “I can’t imagine what you read for fun is the sort of stuff you represent.” It took me aback, and a sort of generic, “I’m an omnivorous reader…” response was at the tip of my tongue until I actually took a moment to think about it. (Bonus points to me for thinking before speaking!)

I represent a lot of paranormal fiction, young adult novels, the occasional narrative nonfiction, cozy mysteries, and contemporary romance. The last few books I’ve read? Chad Harbach’s literary debut The Art of Fielding, Danielle Evans’ story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (can we agree this is the best title of the year?), and Justin Torres’ stunning novella We the Animals. And I’m currently toting around the new Jeffrey Eugenides.

Sure, if you go back another few weeks, you’ll also find Marie Lu’s YA debut Legend and urban fantasist Karen Marie Moning’s Shadowfever, but as much as I enjoyed those books, when I read them, I kept thinking about them as signposts in the marketplace. “Oh, so this is what the competition is doing.” Awareness of the market is important, of course, and I’m glad I read both. That said, I don’t know that my motive for reading either was purely  pleasure.

For me, there is a healthy level of awareness of the market that needs to be maintained—not just knowing what the competition is, but also actually reading said competition. On the flip side, if that was all I read, I suspect I might actually lose my mind.  I need to read great books that aren’t at all related to what I do because I put a lot of importance on the ability to bring a fresh mind and an energetic eye to new material. The best way I personally know to do that is to recharge periodically by getting lost in a good book. And how lost can you get when your reading experience is spent analyzing a novel in comparison to other novels.

So my question for you, dear readers, is what your own approach to reading is while you’re writing. Do you exclusively read in the categories you write in? Do you also need to “turn off” and recharge with a great book from a totally different genre from time to time? Or (gods forbid), do you not read at all while you’re writing?

September 30, 2011   Lauren   Lauren, music, reading, tradition  
5

Ritual

Earlier today, Rachel and I were talking music.  I’ve recently discovered that Rachel has pretty much my exact taste in music, but is also aware of a much larger list of musicians than I am.  She’s the workplace music soulmate I’ve been missing ever since Chasya left us for grad school.  She pointed me to a list of bands she loves that I should check out, which I decided to make my weekend reading background music playlist.

Toward the end of the week, when I have a big reading weekend planned (i.e. when life isn’t planning to intrude on my desire to curl up with a bunch of books and manuscripts), I start to get excited about the ritual of it.  If I’ll be reading at home, there’s preparation that needs doing.  For one, I need to know the order in which I’ll be reading things (so that I can disregard it later, oftentimes).  My Kindle and any books that will take part in our day together need to be stacked upon the coffee table in my living room.  Coffee, of course, must be brewed.  I will have to take the French press with me into the living room, even though pouring another cup will mean going to the kitchen to get milk anyway.  I’ll begin my reading with coffee in the morning, but transition to tea by early afternoon.  Perhaps at lunchtime, there’ll be a stroll about the neighborhood or quick bike ride, just to avoid losing my mind, or an errand to run.  Then, sufficiently wired from caffeine, in the late afternoon or early evening, it shall be time to break out the red wine.  If I can patiently make it through the day from breakfast through dinner—the reading compelling enough, the body not so fidgety, the soccer games of my favorite teams not beckoning me to distraction—then it’s probably time, before bed, to settle down with the thing I’ve most wanted to read, the one that I’ve been promising myself if I am good about reading the others without calling up a friend to make plans or watching TV or going for a bike ride.  And along with that dessert of a book, it’s probably time for a stiff drink of some kind (varying with weather and book).  Then, drained mentally and sleepy from the booze, it’ll be bedtime, eventually.

The reading will be done on the couch, because I lack an awesome reading chair like Michael’s, with liberal use of ottoman (of which I now own two—one bench-like, the other smallish and square).  There will be music, of course, as I mentioned—this weekend, Rachel’s favorite bands, but always something that I like enough to not feel the need to constantly DJ but don’t know well enough to know the words.  I read best with minor distraction from background noise, because total silence makes me look for something with which to distract myself, oddly.  Probably, given the weather, the windows will be wide open, with a cozy blanket close by for later in the evening, when it would be smart to close the windows but the chill is helping to keep me alert.  And of course, the clothes, they shall be comfy.

What about you?  Do you have reading rituals?  When you prepare yourself to really hunker down for a good spell with the written word, do you do things differently than you would to read on the morning commute or before bed or when just picking up the paper casually?  What helps you really immerse yourself in the worlds others present to you?

September 30, 2011   Rachel   censorship, controversy, Rachel S., reading  
3

Don’t read that, it’s bad for you!

In case you weren’t aware, it’s Banned Books Week right now! An annual event from the American Library Association, Banned Books week celebrates “the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.” These are important things! Censorship, in most cases, is stilting and leads only to frustration and ignorance. However, it also makes things enticing. While this is hardly an original thought, it’s undeniable that banning or censoring something only makes it more desirable to those being denied the knowledge or access. One could even argue that it encourages would be non-readers to pick up a book or article simply because they know they’re not supposed to.

My own affinity for seeking out banned books started when I was in junior high and came across Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers, edited by none other than YA censorship queen, Judy Blume. I remember not even knowing, at the time, that books and writers were still banned. My only conception of censorship came from history class or photos of letters to the home front in WWII with words and information precisely chopped out, rendering the missile something of a paper snowflake. Surely these things didn’t happen in my lifetime. But it did, and still does in many places—schools and libraries especially. I can understand a guidance system, similar to movie ratings, say, where young children wouldn’t have access to racier topics, but outright forbiddance is unacceptable.

In any case, it was with excitement that I bought Places I Never Meant to Be and raced through it’s contents, hardly feeling scandalized by the writing, but sensing a little thrill of deviousness nonetheless. These were stories by people you weren’t supposed to read. I’ll admit, I felt a bit superior, having devoured already Judy Blume’s oeuvre and books by a couple of other included authors as well. We had just gotten our first computer, and so with this new world of home internet, I looked up lists of other banned books and counted off ones I’d heard of or read, scoffing at the craziness of some people.

While it’s fought at every turn, censorship and book-banning is still very much a part of our world, though I imagine it’s getting more and more difficult with the ever increasing permeation of the internet and other electronically accessed sources. Do you have a strong argument against–or who knows, even for–censorship? Are there any books that you love that were discovered only after you learned that they were banned?

September 27, 2011   Stephanie   editing, opinion, reading, Stephanie, writing  
5

Time spent

Whenever I’m asked what I do for a living, invariably my response is followed by questions. For starters, most seem to be pretty unsure of exactly what it is I do. I’ve been called an editor more times than I care to admit, which…while sort of true, is only sort of true. But in my time as an agent, there are a few questions that I have heard repeatedly along the way. It always starts with: so what does an agent do? Then I usually get asked whether I’m nervous about the “new rumor” someone’s heard that publishing is all but extinct. The last question, and segue to my topic this week, is almost always: do you write your own material as well as sell books?

And it always throws me for a loop.

There are undoubtedly plenty of people who work in publishing who also write on the side, but I have to admit that writing was never something I felt I was good at—it was always the reading and editing that I enjoyed.  But that’s just me.

Regardless, it always made me think of my own situation, and now leads me to wonder about YOUR situation. What I want to know from you, our readers, is this: do you spend more time writing or do you spend more time reading?

September 22, 2011   Michael   Michael, reading  
4

A quiet place

It’s not a great news week. I’m particularly disturbed by all of the executions in the news, to the point that I can’t seem to articulate my feelings. As I write this, the Dow is dropping precipitously, and the world’s economy seems in freefall. And I just read that subatomic particles may travel faster than the speed of light, which while not bad news, messes with my head in uncomfortable ways.

So it’s with great anticipation that I await the arrival of my new reading chair next week. I’ve been wanting a really comfortable, high-backed, nice-looking chair for some time, but it wasn’t until a recent trip to a furniture store that I found something that fit the bill. Ever since I moved to L.A., I’ve been more cognizant of the fact that I just didn’t have a good reading spot. My desk chair is fine, but I like getting away from the computer to read. There’s more than one couch here, but I find myself shifting from sitting to lying in one position, then another, then the other direction, then back up to sitting–every few minutes. I like to sit out on the balcony, but as winter approaches, light starts to be an issue. None of these options was great for immersive reading.

I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my butt in the chair, reading submissions, clients’ manuscripts, and even books that have nothing to do with work! Because reading time is, dare I say, sacred, quiet time, and I’m excited to have the right chair to do it in.

How about you all?  Do you have favorite reading spots?

September 21, 2011   Miriam   fiction, fun, great books, guilty pleasures, Miriam, reading, reviews  
21

Virtuous reading

My neighborhood book club is tomorrow night and I’m about 100 pages into this month’s fiction pick, The Tiger’s Wife.  I guess that if I stay up late and cram I can finish it in time to dazzle the ladies with my literary insights.  Problem is, I got to page 100 about two months ago and I have had zero desire to pick the book up again.  Despite the apocalyptically excellent reviews (sorry, couldn’t come up with an adjective BIG enough for the unctuous praise the book received), those first 100 pages left me pretty cold.  Sure, Ms. Obreht is a precociously fine writer, but if you’re familiar with magical realism and Eastern European novels of the last half century, you might find, like I did, that a lot of her schtick is derivative and not particularly emotionally impactful.

Or, you might think it’s a brilliant book and that I’m a boor for being bored by it.  No matter.  The point of my rambling today is that with any other book, I might have reached that 100-page stopping point and, deciding that life’s too short, buried the novel somewhere in the lower shelves of an overstuffed bookcase never to be seen again.  But, I can’t seem to do that.  This is one of those books that I feel obligated to slog through no matter how disappointed in it I already am or how certain that the next 200 pages are not going to change my mind.  What I want to be reading for pleasure is a toothy thriller, or a frothy paranormal, or literary fare that speaks to themes I’m concerned with right now, or historical nonfiction with lots of plot twists and stranger-than-fiction characters, or a totally irredeemable celebrity memoir.  What I feel obligated to do is finish Ms. Obreht’s opus just so that I can say I did.

I’ve always struggled with the notion of virtuous reading.  On the one hand, if it weren’t for virtuous reading, my literary education would be sorely lacking in some key areas (I’m thinking of you, James Fenimore Cooper).  On the other hand, with so many great books beckoning and the certainty that I’ll never get to enjoy but a fraction of the ones on my multi-page list of things to read before I die, it really rankles to devote valuable time to something just because it’s supposed to be good for me.

Where do you fall on this issue?  Do I keep reading and pat myself on the back for my moral fortitude or chuck it and move on to some other page turner?  What would you do?

September 16, 2011   Lauren   fun, Lauren, reading  
10

Sneaky reading

PW ran an interesting piece on the iPad’s potential to bring joy to a whole new audience of readers, through the lens of one twelve-year-old who really discovered reading when the iPad came into her life.  Now there’s surely some takeaway about the future of publishing here, but we’ve touched on that numerous times already.  The thing that caught my attention was the reference to the childhood joy of reading by flashlight.

I can definitely recall giving the old secret reading under the covers thing a shot as a child, though I don’t think it ever really took.  I found it a little hot and claustrophobic, and my prevalent fears of various spooky things were most easily calmed by knowing I could see as much as possible of my room.  I was completely convinced that nothing could ever attack you except from behind, though I’m not sure exactly what I thought I might do if faced with a ghoul of some kind right in front of my face.  I was not, it must be said, a terribly brave child.  Post-nightmare, I usually climbed into my little sister’s bed—always careful to sleep between her and the wall.  I can actually remember trying to rationalize it, possibly even telling her I knew she preferred the outside, but I was more or less hoping that whatever might come to get us would be satisfied with taking just her if she were easier to reach.

I did love a good surreptitious read, though, and frequently stayed up past my bedtime straining my eyes to read by the crack of light coming in from the hall.  Growing up in a 100-year-old house has its drawbacks (read: bats), but also the great benefit of creaky stairs so you can hear your parents coming well before they can see you.  This habit might explain both my adulthood night owl tendencies and my terrible eyesight.

I was also a fan of the other classic kid reading maneuver—pretending to read a school textbook while actually reading a real book.  I was a bit too much of a chicken to try to pull it off most of the time, but my friend Meredith was a master at it.  I’m pretty sure she even defiantly continued after the Great Math Class Romance Novel Incident, when her math teacher completely humiliated her in front of the whole class for some oh-so-scandalous cover.  That story spread throughout middle school pretty fast, much to her dismay.  But still she read.

In retrospect, I doubt my parents were that bothered by my staying up late to read Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Now that I know so many parents, a kid who reads too much seems like the least of one’s worries!  And the idea of middle school gossip about someone reading seems so quaint.

What about you all?  Was secret reading a favorite childhood pastime?  Any tips and tricks for today’s young bookworms?

September 09, 2011   Lauren   fun, Lauren, reading  
6

Should we be concerned?

Uh oh.  Apparently, per a study I first read about at The Awl, when we read about violence and aggression, it affects us psychologically and might alter the way we respond when provoked.  I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I’m on record for loving antiheroes and sociopath protagonists, plus a whole bunch of us represent books with clear violence in them.  Should our interns be watching their backs?  Or maybe just being careful not to provoke us?  I’d hate to accidentally shank someone with my letter opener when they came for help about the copier not working just because I happened to be in the middle of an edit memo to a horror novelist.  (Full disclosure, I just googled the difference between “shank” and “shiv” because I wasn’t sure if they were synonymous or if both could be verbs.  I watch plenty of police procedurals, so you’d think I’d know, but I’m still not totally sure I’m using it in an appropriate manner.  Parts of the un-policed wilds of Urban Dictionary seem to think I’m in the clear.  Others seem to disagree, since I won’t be crafting the shanking object myself from a normally non-stabby object. Anyone have an authoritative opinion on the matter?)

I’m having a hard time really wrapping my mind around the distinction that it doesn’t increase aggressiveness, but: “In both cases, provoked people who were given the opportunity to engage in a specific form of retaliatory violence were more likely to do so if they had just read a fictional account of similar activity.”  The key here may be provocation and specificity of response, but I’m not entirely sure.  Still, it’s an interesting idea, even if it’s not “Hollywood and video games! Who will think of the children?!?!”-style panic.

On the one hand, aggression isn’t good, and retaliatory violence seems ill advised.  On the other, it’s good to know that books can impact us in myriad subtle ways.  We’re readers here, so we all know books can make us think, laugh, cry.  They can move us and transform us.  It’s nice to know they can also subtly alter us and change our perceptions, since they’re still more likely to come with some sort of moral or ethical agenda—however nuanced, well crafted, and non-reductive—than plenty of video games and movies.  Nice for anyone not getting shanked as a result, at least.*

*No interns were harmed in the making of this blog entry.

September 07, 2011   Miriam   authors, canon, college, culture, fun, great books, Miriam, opinion, reading  
4

Syllabi

Yesterday, as I headed north on Broadway toward the 125th street entrance to the West Side Highway in a downpour not seen since, well, last week when gregarious Irene was paying a visit to the entire East Coast, I found myself stopped at a light in front of the main gates of Columbia University, my alma mater.  The street was teeming with rain and fresh faced freshmen looking vaguely shellshocked.  Watching them hurry to cross the street before the light changed and the homicidal cabbie in the next lane hit the gas, their overstuffed backpacks and grim expressions sent me into a reverie about my long ago school days.

One of the reasons I chose Columbia was its mandatory humanities courses—philosophy, literature, music, and art survey courses composed of the “canon” of great works.  As those of you who read this blog regularly know, most of us here at DGLM love a reading list and what better reason to go into thousands of dollars worth of debt than to emerge with a reading list full of masterpieces chosen by…old white guys, reflecting the ideology and intellectual tradition of…old white guys.  Wait!  Even with the occasional nod to a woman or person of color the canon really was rather limited and limiting in its choice of authors. All these years later, it still is.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved many if not most of those canonical choices, but I wonder what I would have changed in that syllabus for my lit hum class.  Instead of the Iliad, perhaps One Thousand and One Nights?  Borges instead of Dreiser?  Zora Neale Hurston instead of F. Scott Fitzgerald?  How about genre literature?  I know I would’ve traded a great mystery novel for the millions of pages on whaling by the esteemed Mr. Melville in a heartbeat.

Obviously, there’s no right list of classics, but if the idea is to shape young minds that will then go out and shape the world, what would your reading list include?

September 06, 2011   Stephanie   fun, opinion, reading, Stephanie  
5

Summer summary

Frankly I’m a little sad that the summer is (unofficially) over. It’s raining here, I’m already back to wearing long pants and it felt way too cold on the commute to work this morning.  But in the interest of keeping things consistent, I wanted to come full circle from my summer reading post back in May.

In that post, I had mentioned a few titles that I was interested in reading (Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, and Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall), and while I started several books this summer—and came close to finishing most—I think my plate may have been a bit too full. In addition to reading several clients’ manuscripts, I managed to get through most of Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls, Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall, and Kristin Hannah’s Night Road. All have been fantastic thus far, and I do intend to finish them. What got in the way?  Life, for the most part. A terrible excuse, yes, but oh well…autumn reading lists!

Anyway, I’d love to know how your summer reading fared. A work-in-progress, like me? Did you get through all the books you were hoping to read? Or did you find yourself falling into books you didn’t expect to pick up?

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