Identify what is most important )0( Eliminate everything else
The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world. Dr. Paul Farmer
The suffering of others is not alleviated when no one knows about it.
There is no one right way to live. Daniel Quinn Ishmael
The only thing that you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right sort of people.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. Kurt Vonnegut

Monday, May 15, 2017

reading and books, but mostly reading

This came to me via another person, and I am sharing it because I sort of kind of only partly agree with the premise.




https://booksien.com/2017/05/15/about-wanting-to-read-it-all/

I agree that it helps to reduce angst by being choosy about what books I choose to read.  I read every day for at least a few hours and am recently reading all night to find out what happens next, what new twists and paths will be taken by the characters and reacting with wonder each time.  The book is Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.  It has been recommended to me many times and the only reason I am reading it now is because I do not have time to pick up my reserved titles at the library, but I bought this copy for a dollar whilst I was volunteering at our library's recent book sale.

But, that is not my point.  Maybe it is, but one of the things the author was doing was no longer reading Young Adult books, and I think that is a damn shame.

That means she has missed the treasures that are:
Anna and the Swallow Man, by Gavriel Savit. 
With Malice,by Eileen Cook. 
Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin.
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusaki.
Between, by Jessica Warman.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry.
I cannot leave out the Maximum Ride books by James Patterson.



When I do not fancy any adult books, I re-read the Newbery books.  I have read all of them and until I left that other life, owned a copy of each.  Many are out of print, some are no longer available even in libraries, but every one is worth reading, by people of all ages.  I have yet to enchant my grandsons with any of those books, except for one that my oldest grandson was required to read for a class assignment.

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal#20s

This is just the tip (and the only books that I can remember right now) that are just as important as re-reading Ulysses

If you are going to find and read books that will hold meaning or learning or help you to gain what you need to be the person you want to be, perhaps supposed to be, you have to be open to and kind of trust that books you never would have considered reading are going to do exactly that.  YA or something else, you just never know what will come along.

Do I end up with dreck?  More than I would prefer, but even those books have led me to similar topics, new authors, the rediscovery of old, favorite authors and absolutely new stuff that I never imagined what out there, just waiting for me.  And, I have long abandoned the belief that if I begin a book that I must finish it.  What an unexpected pleasure and relief that was!

As for classics, I know what and where they are and I have pretty much read all that I care to right now.  Who knows what next week will toss in my path.


This is only about fiction.

Rock on...we will, we will read you!

4 comments:

  1. J, I am hopeless when I start reading a book as I can't put it down and end up having really late nights finding out what happens to the characters.

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  2. That experience is worth all the other less worthy books you have to sample to get there. Oh, yes!

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  3. I have come to my own conclusion that if the book doesn't interest me in the first page or so, or the first chapter if I determine it may improve, then I don't have time to waste on it. I'm certain this has saved me many otherwise wasted hours and given me the opportunity to peruse more worthwhile fiction and non-fiction tomes.

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    Replies
    1. Why does it take us so long to come to that understanding, Robyn?

      Books were...still are...so precious to me that any investment of time seemed sacred and I finished way too many books in misery.

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