Starting Again

My self-imposed blogging vacation was only about a week old before I started thinking of starting up again. But I told myself I needed to enforce that blogging break, and therefore wouldn’t “allow” myself to blog again until September.  I instead spent time redesigning the site and pondering just what I want to be doing on this reading blog.

I’ve decided I’m going to start over again. My involvement will probably be far less than it was before and I reserve the right to just stop blogging or omit blogging for a week or two here or there if I’m too tired of it, if life is busy, or if I otherwise just feel like it. This is once again for me, and not for others, although I’ll try to be a part of something. Continue reading »

Reading Reflections (Reading Old Books) + Reading Journal (31 March)

I have more confidence in the dead than in the living.
—William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt was a contemporary of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, not to mention Jane Austen. He was considered one of the most important critics and essayists of the English language, although he is little read today (see Wikipedia).

I love his sentiments on reading old books, for I feel similarly. He comments that with contemporary authors, we’re distracted by their life and opinions, and they can be either for good or ill. With dead authors, if you want to know about them “you have only to look into their works.” When I read, I don’t want to interview an author and learn about their inspiration. Normally, I just want to read their books.

I also take issue with much modern literature, simply because I don’t like read about sex in books. It has to be really tastefully done for me not be annoyed. The sex in The Masterpiece was thus tastefully done. The sex in (the abandoned) Norwegian Wood – not so much.

At any rate, this quote from Hazlitt rang true to me this week:

The dust and smoke and noise of modern literature have nothing in common with the pure, silent air of immortality.

Does a modern author’s life influence your read of their books? What about a dead author’s life? Which do you prefer: the old or the new? I do like modern books, I’m just picky about which ones.

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2010: A Year of Reading Deliberately

I really love the concept of reading deliberately. Although I feel I have been doing this to some extent since I began blogging, when I saw the series of posts about this concept (who started it?!), I decided that “reading deliberately” is what I need to do with my 2010.

There are so many books tempting me, and I’ve decided to say “NO” to most of them. My reading is for me, and these are some things to make 2010 a rewarding reading experience. That said, there are a number of things I’m saying “Yes” to in 2010. Continue reading »

Reading Journal (30 Sept): The Gift of Choice (Thoughts on Banned Books Week)

When I was a teenager (probably aged 13 or 14), I selected a book on the freshman reading list with an interesting title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. My English teacher pulled me aside. There was a disturbing scene in it, she warned me, and I should think about it and ask my mother if it would be okay to read. I mentioned it my mother, and I don’t think she blinked an eye.

“I think that would be a great book for you,” she said. (She, an English post-grad student, knew the book.)

I read it. Yes, there was a troubling scene in it. But the overall message of that book, and the overall impression I received after I closed it, was one that I still haven’t forgotten. I remember feeling strongly that others should read the book to get a sense of what it means to be discriminated against. Besides all that, I left feeling amazed at the power of a life where, even while she feels caged, even when she has been abused, Maya Angelou felt she had a reason to sing. I loved the book. Continue reading »

Celebrating the Classics: A Dead Author Blog Tour? (An Idea)

Yeay! My guest post on reviewing the classics is up on the Book Bloggers Appreciation Week site!

I wrote it in response to Amy’s query on Twitter for what parts of book blogging are underrepresented. I said without hesitation, “Classics,” and I’ve been pondering that thought ever since. (This post is, therefore, rather long.) Continue reading »

Reading Journal (26 Aug): Focused Reading

I like to read lots of books at once so I can choose which to read at any particular moment. But there is something so wonderful about focused reading.

I spent a few nights just concentrating on architecture. First, I finished the last 60 pages (which took longer to read than I’d like to admit) of the book about the Chicago school, and then I started another book about architecture. I really like to look at a picture of a building and learn what it is about it that makes it so majestic or useful or beautiful. I like learning the technical terms.

And then I focused on John Donne. I’m still not done with Donne, even though I’ve finished the slim Barnes and Noble volume. I was all prepared to hate his poetry, especially after I found myself confused so often. I had to keep rereading a poem because my brain had just kind of glossed over it. And then I read the Divine Sonnets. Oh, I love that poet! I’m going to go back and read those sonnets again. Now I know what Helene Hanff (in The Duchess of Bloomsbury) was so interested in John Donne and his sermons. I loved the personal struggles he writes about as he tries to reconcile himself, a sinner, to God. I can relate. Those sonnets are so well done.

I finished a number of other books, but they weren’t intense books; I’ve been reading/listening a little every week. In the coming week, I look forward to finishing Gulliver’s Travels, which hasn’t been too bad stretched out, and starting Beloved, which is one of my favorite books. I’m feeling like focusing on fiction for a few weeks!

Do you focus your reading? What are you focusing on now?

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Reading Journal (19 Aug): Miscellany

I’m behind on blogging this week, as in I have three reviews that need to be written. I’m behind on the administrative things, like memes (I still haven’t done the BBAW meme and nominations are already closed!). I’m behind on reading your blogs.

And yet, there are so many things I want to talk about.

I want to talk about how I finally caved in. I joined twitter. Do I really need to be online any more than I already am?! Is this really necessary?

I want to talk about how I got all warm and happy when I saw that I’ve been nominated for several BBAW awards. I felt like all the hard work is worth it! I know I am one of many, but I still feel all good inside: someone likes my blog! Enough to nominate me! Me! Thank you so much. It has given me such a feeling of confidence to know that my blog isn’t silly.

I want to talk about how reading everyone’s posts about classics for the Really Old Classics Bookworms Carnival I hosted yesterday was so much fun because it reminded me that there are people who still read the classics and like them! All those books I talked about yesterday? I want to read them. Now. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be so widely read? But not only that: I want to be able to converse about them. I want to be a deep reader too. I want to sit down with John Donne and the commentary about his poetry and I want to understand.

I want to talk about experiencing classics over the course of a few weeks, rather than hours.  While I enjoyed my July filled with modern fiction, I’m getting back into a classics mood. I spent almost a month listening to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and it was fun to have that complicated mystery to look forward to. It was a pleasure. Now I’m reading Gulliver’s Travels at about the same pace (although it’s shorter, so I read less every week). While Swift is definitely not as fun, it’s still a relief. I can’t describe why reading a classic feels like a relief, it just does. It’s great, and stretching it out makes it real and physical, rather than a by-passed pleasure. I’m not reading to turn pages. I’m reading to read.

I want to talk about how much fun it is to read nonfiction. The knife book I’m reading is giving me all sorts of great pointers for kitchen skills and safety, and the architecture book I’m reading is, while it may be over-my-head in many points, absolutely fascinating. I find myself browsing the web for additional pictures of these old buildings that are just gorgeous, even more so now that I know how revolutionary their building was 120 years ago.

I want to talk about how I cried when we said good-bye to Pooh again this week, and how when I put down the book and wiped away my tears, my son looked up at me and said, “More? Pooh?”

So I guess what I’m saying is, I want to focus on what I’m reading in these Reading Journals. That means I guess I’ll have to do the other stuff – memes and what not – in separate posts. I love my reading.

What do you want to talk about this week? What are you reading? Do you twitter?

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June in Review

In June, I started a new feature on my blog: Reading Journal. I have always wanted to do a weekly update, like Sunday Salon, but I don’t have time on the weekends. So I started a midweek one for myself.

I have enjoyed reflecting on my bookish thoughts, especially since I didn’t have many reviews to post. At the same time, it made my month very full of non-review posts. (In total, I had 10 non-review posts versus 10 review posts, although two of the reviews were for the same book and one was a summary of a few children’s books.) I have a goal of having more review posts than non-reviews, so I don’t want that overabundance of book talk to become a habit!

Do you mind non-review book talk? Do you have any content goals for your own site? Although I try to remind myself that my books blog is for my personal development, I do often consider the readers and the book blogging community. And I fear I am boring the readers I do have.

It may be a moot point. I’m hoping July is full of “lighter” reads, and so I’ll have more reviews than I did in June. I’m going to take things easy (other than finishing The Arabian Nights). I’m looking forward to this new adventure in reading.

As always, thanks for reading along with me. Continue reading »

My Spice of Life “Feast”: A Pool of Books to Chose From

I don’t usually write up a post for each new challenge I join; I just put my pool of books on my current challenges page. But, as I’m running the Spice of Life Challenge, I hope my list of hopefully delectable books will tempt you to join.

There are three levels of participation: “A Taste” (read just two books in any category); “A Sampler” (read four books, one in each category”); and “A Feast” (read six books from at least three categories).  To sign up, get some more information here.

Below, then, is my personal pool of books from which I will chose between six and eight for this challenge. These are just the ones I’m most likely to pick up in the next six months; there are dozens more I’d love to get to, of course. I posted a few much longer lists on the challenge site (link to by clicking the picture). Continue reading »

How to Read and Why: Short Stories Retrospective

Last June, I had just barely begun book blogging. My reading was beginning to expand beyond my comfort zone (i.e., go to the library and randomly take a book with a pretty cover off the shelf) and into the world of TBR lists. When I read the preface to Harold Bloom’s How to Read and Why, I decided I needed to focus my reading. I asked myself the question:

How can I really “read” a book, even fiction, to get something out of it?

I decided to treat Bloom’s book as a textbook as I read through the works on his list, in search of the answer to that question. The How to Read and Why Reading List can be found here; all posts on Rebecca Reads relating to HTR&W can be found on the HTR&W tag.

Since I have now finished the short story portion of the HTR&W challenge, I thought I’d take the chance to revisit the project itself. Continue reading »