Category: books & reading

From Booking Through Thursday:

So, this is my question to you–are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?

Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?

Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

My answer is no. I am not a Goldilocks reader. I think that I could read in almost any situation, although I do better without TV or music because I do get distracted by that. Not that I don’t still read at those times, just slower. Some places that I have been known to read (other than on the couch or in bed):

>The bus (frequently)
>The checkout line at the grocery store
>On road trips (when other people are driving)
>My car (when I am driving – I know, I know, this is probably my worst habit so spare me the lectures!)
>The bus stop
>Waiting rooms
>Pretty much anywhere when I have a spare minute and a book with me

From Booking Through Thursday:

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

Let’s see…almost all of my closest friends are readers. I can’t think of any that have not read a book in the last year. My roommates and I started a book club in October of 2005 and it is still going strong. When we started it was just the three of us, and now we have five regular members. Small, yes, but flexible and personal. We read a book a month and then get together at a coffee shop and discuss it.

My boyfriend loves to read, which is a huge turn-on for me! I really think that he has read more books than me in his life, although he protests. Our normal genres are completely different, but we like to venture into each others’ every once in awhile. For example, I promised him that the next book I read (other than book club books) will be Stephen King’s IT. I am pretty open to most any kind of book, as long as it is decent, and I love discussing books with him because he has so much insight and comes at it from a totally different perspective than I do.

As for my family, we all read except for my youngest brother Barry who is a senior in college. When the seventh Harry Potter book came out, he asked me to tell him what happened when I finished the book because he “had to know.” I, of course, asked him why he didn’t just read it for himself. His answer was, “I don’t read.” How sad! I think I’m going to try to get him onto audiobooks, and then maybe eventually he’ll move on to the harder stuff.

My dad, as previously mentioned, is a constant reader like I am. My mom I think is usually too busy to read much, but I know she enjoys it and has done a lot of it in the past. My brother David has grown to be more and more of a reader over the years which makes me extremely happy, even though we don’t always have similar taste in books.

That’s my reading world! I enjoy it. And the people in it. :)

I discovered a blog that posts a prompt about books and reading every Thursday; it’s called Booking Through Thursday. I don’t think I’ll be responding to it every week, because I don’t have good answers to all of the questions. But if I see one that interests me, I’ll write about it.

Today, the prompt is:

When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)

Reading is definitely in my family. For as long as I can remember my dad has been a habitual library frequenter. His brother, my uncle, is also an avid reader. I’m sure that my parents encouraged me to read, but I doubt that they had to try very hard in that area with me. I’m pretty sure I just took to it.

I do have one regret. One summer when I was in elementary school my dad decided to read aloud every day to my brothers and me. He chose one of his favorite books when he was a kid, Swallows and Amazons. Looking back, this should have been a special bonding experience for us, and a chance for my dad to share something that was important to him with us. But, we were kids and were not at a maturity level to appreciate that. My dad kept trying with us, but eventually he had to give up because we just wouldn’t pay attention. We never finished the book. Since then I’ve always wondered how the story turned out. I suppose that’s a mystery that is easily solved.

I had never read this quote before, and I wanted to share it because it articulates a feeling that I constantly have, and I suspect many others have as well:

Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors. We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented….

[I]n reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.
– C.S. Lewis