Category Archives: reading

For the Love of Books

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I have also been a reader, you know, that kid on the bus curled up with a book. I once missed my bus stop because I was tucked behind the seat reading so intently I missed the stop, and the bus driver didn’t see me. In the days before cell phones, I remember it being pretty traumatic. Someone called someone who called my mom to let her know I would be very late as the driver had to do the whole rest of the route.

The last two books I’ve read have both been a celebration of books and reading and I felt like I spent a week with people who understood that little girl behind the bus seat.

In Well-Read Black Girl, Glory Edim has collected heartbreaking, joyful essays by women of color about the books they loved, particularly the ones that seemed to draw from their lives, honoring those stories and inspiring these women to tell their own.

Books for Living is Will Schwalbe’s second books about books. (I have not read The End of Your Life Book Club…yet.) These are the books that have made a difference to his life, his beliefs, the way he lives. I had already started moving away from constant connectivity before reading this book and was rediscovering my love of reading, curled up with a book for an hour, being away to lose myself in a different world:

Books are uniquely suited to helping us change our relationship to the rhythms and habits of daily life in this world of endless connectivity. We can’t interrupt them; we can only interrupt ourselves while reading them. They are the expression of an individual or a group of individuals, not of a hive mind or collective consciousness. They speak to us, thoughtfully, one at a time. They demand our attention. And they demand that we briefly put aside our own beliefs and prejudices and listen to someone else’s. (p. 14)

Schwalbe suggests we should each construct a list of the books that have been important to us. It may change but those changes will be of interest, too.

I’ve been thinking about that list but am not ready to share it yet. I would love to hear what might be on your own list. Meanwhile, I have another book to read.

 

Short Bits: What kind of birder are you?

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Ornithologist Scott Weidensaul’s book Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding, is a loving portrait of American birding, including the fathers AND mothers of birding. Weidensaul also describes two types of people who chase birds: listers and birders. Listers chase birds, spending money and time to find the most unusual and exotic to add to their life lists. They are encouraged by annual competitions to see who can get the most birds in their Big Year. Weidensaul describes their enthusiasm when they see a new bird, but they quickly lose interest in the birds the moment they have made the check mark on the list. They are immediately on to the next bird.

Weidensaul suggests that the second type of people who chase birds are really the birders: those who care less about the list and more about the birds themselves. They are excited by the unusual but also intrigued with the familiar. The author seems to come down on the side of this second type, those who genuinely enjoy birds rather than aggressively pursuing the list. The blurb from The Washington Post on the cover calls the book gossipy and scholarly and that’s just about right as the author has hung out with the contemporary folks and likes telling tales about the characters from the past.

I think this brief history–there is just enough detail–will be interest to anyone who has paged through a field guide. And, if you a bird nerd, I can highly recommend Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman. As a teenager, he embarked on his big year–the year when serious birders try to see more birds than anyone else–with little more than a backpack and a map. Even an extreme lister like Kaufman, who almost won the annual competition, has since lost interest in the list. Weidensaul quotes him, “As for me, my own passion for list-chasing was dwindling fast, while my interests in the birds themselves was becoming ever stronger. So the contest was coming to matter least of all to the contestants.”

Challenges can be positive ways to change habits and push limits. But, when the challenge itself becomes the focus, it can lead to superficial successes.

Stories of Books: Instructions by Neil Gaiman

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I am in the middle the 7 Book Cover Challenge: posting covers of books I love without comment. I think my postings may be a little eclectic: I took the word LOVE to heart and looked across my getting-close-to six decades of reading.

But, I find it frustrating not to be able to tell the stories of these books: how I found them, why I love them, what makes them unique. I read a lot–100 books last year–but these stood out as books I might return to again and again, something I rarely do, or books that helped me understand other people, or just books that make me smile or remind me of a simpler time.

For today, I want you to go read the poem that inspired the children’s book Instructions. Neil Gaiman partnered with illustrator Charles Vess to create the manual for life’s adventures. You can read the poem at the now archived Journal of Mythic Arts. It is just lovely with lessons of empathy woven through its words. Vess’s illustrations in the book play on the fairy tale theme of the hero’s journey.

You can also listen the Gaiman reading the poem with images from the book:

If you aren’t familiar with Gaiman, you should be! He ranks right up there as one of my favorite authors. After I watched the video above, the next one was the link to Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book, a scary ghost story where the ghosts are friendly and the living are evil. I do love that book, but I don’t want to just post books from one author.

ala Austin Kleon

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I’m not sure how I discovered artist and writer Austin Kleon. Probably on Twitter. I have his books and the new one is on preorder. But, it’s his weekly newsletter that makes him an integral part of my life. I look forward to it every Friday. He seems to have mastered the art of the email newsletter: ten quick items. He highlights his blog posts which are always thoughtful and also introduces his readers to music and books and art, all in the name of supporting our own creativity. If you don’t get the newsletter, you should.

Go ahead…subscribe now. I’ll wait.

I’ve thought about crafting my own Austin Kleon style blog post each week, but I’ll be honest: I’m a little intimidated. Kleon has a breadth and depth of knowledge of culture and the arts that make my offerings seem meager. But, as the saying goes (at least if you grew up with Risky Business), sometimes you just have to say WTF. So…here you go: five items from the week ala Austin:

  1. I was sad to finish The Books By the Bay mystery series by Ellery Adams, but she knows when a good thing is done. Using the setting in coastal North Carolina to craft the stories, Adams drew on Native American and Appalachian culture while painting a loving portrait of the fishing community that resides along side the tourists in Oyster Bay.
  2. This Newshour feature on conductor Jessica Bejarano inspired me to stream some classical music, including Beethoven. I’m also learning to play Piano Sonata No 20 (short and pretty simple), and it feels good to sit down at the piano in the evenings for a little practice. I have never been much of a music memorizer, but I would like to try to get a couple pieces under my belt (or my fingers, as it were). I may try this easy tip.
  3. The Electric Light Orchestra has always been a favorite, and Mr. Blue Sky has been running through my head lately, probably because it has been raining so much! As though the Internet was reading my mind, I stumbled on this animated version.
  4. It is February 1, and I like Austin’s idea of starting my resolutions now. I often wait until my birthday month in May as that’s really the start of my new year, but May seems far away. Today is about this blog post and 10,000 steps, something I haven’t done regularly since Christmas Day.
  5. Thursday was the last day for the 4H STEM Club. As I said on Twitter:

Happy Friday!

Planning my Reading for 2019

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This is the time of year when the Library Thing community starts creating groups and challenges for the new year. One of my major goals for 2019 is to read books from my own shelves or from the library. It is time to do some serious shelf cleaning. Library Thing challenges provide a way to browse the shelves, connecting with books that have just gotten lost.

I am always part of the 75 Books a Year Challenge as my main community. Various sub challenges break out from that group that provide ways to make decisions about which books to read.

The BingoDOG Challenge is just what it sounds like: you complete a Bingo card by reading books that meet certain criteria. I’m also “loosely” doing a few other challenges such as the AlphaKIT. Each month features two letters of the alphabet and either author names or title words must start with one or both of those letters. For instance, I get a double hit because January’s letters are A and Q and I read Anna Quindlen‘s book Blessings. I am reading a few other A and Q books, all of which have been sitting on the shelves for awhile.

I have started making various piles related to the challenges as well as just books I want to read in general. I tag the books Read in 2019, and you can follow the tag.