reading choices Archives – Rebecca Reads

Reading Journal (9 Dec): Thoughts on Being a Selective Reader

December 9, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

I’ve heard more than one person express worry that they will be considered a snob because they have been only reading classics lately. Why is that?

I made a comment on Claire at Paperback_Reader’s page a few months ago (yes, that’s how long I’ve been thinking about this) and her responses got me thinking about being a discerning reader. In part, Claire wrote:

If there are any gaps in my reading then I like to fill them. I know what I like but I would never consider myself so well-read that I could simply write-off an area of literature that doesn’t appeal to me; I would be scared that it would also be to my detriment as a reader.

I hope I’m not misunderstanding, but unlike Claire, I feel okay putting off areas of literature for now. It doesn’t mean that I’m considering myself so “well-read”: it just means that I have to make choices. I’m realizing I can’t read every book that I want to read. But not only can’t I read everything that has been published, I can’t even read one thing from each genre and still feel good about my reading. There are certain fields that I’m most interesting in gaining expertise in, certain fields that I enjoy above others, and certain genres and authors that I’m incredibly interested in reading next. Those are the works I feel good about selecting to read.

As a result of those selections, there are going to be gaps in my reading, and I fully accept that.Continue Reading

Reading Journal (22 July): Reading as a Priority

July 22, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

Suey at It’s All About Books mentioned a friend who said “I don’t have the luxury to read” and this got me thinking. People are always saying to me, “I don’t have time to read.” I have to argue they don’t choose to read.

Reading is a luxury in some ways. But saying “I don’t have the luxury” is really saying “I have better things to do,” and that means “I’d rather do something else.” It’s a choice. And I want to tell all those people “Please don’t blame me for choosing differently from you! I’d rather read.”

I personally don’t think reading is a necessity. I can physically exist without reading, although my mind might be very bored sometimes. But I love the mental energy that goes toward reading! Instead of being a luxury or a necessity, I think reading is a priority. People who say “I don’t have that luxury” really just don’t want it enough, I think.

Everyone has time to read if they wanted to. I read while eating breakfast. I read while combing and drying my hair. I read instead of watching television (we don’t have it). I read by listening to an audiobook while driving and cooking dinner and sweeping the floor. I read for a few minutes in the late hours of the night before the lights are turned off. I read because I want to.

Where or when do you choose to read? Continue Reading

Robinson Crusoe Adaptations for Children

June 16, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

In Chapter 6 of my history of children’s literature textbook, Children’s Literature, Seth Lerer indicates:

Almost from its original publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe had an immense impact on literature for children and adults. It has been widely seen as one of the first major novels in English; as the stimulus for a range of adventure stories; as the kernel for abridgments and adaptations; and as the marker for particular personal and political experience. (page 129)

I can believe that. I liked Robinson Crusoe’s themes (reviewed here), and I can see how people through history could pick and choose various themes to expand upon both in criticism and when creating adaptations.

For the sake of this month’s project, I decided to look at some of the modern-day abridgments and adaptations of Robinson Crusoe to determine how it is still viewed. In Lerer’s analysis of some of the adaptations from the 1800s, he observers that many of the themes of Robinson Crusoe are taken away in making it an adventure story, and each rewritten version focused on a different moral lesson. The main difference among all the early retellings was the tone (page 137).

I came to this project torn as to whether abridgments for children are good. I wished that I could determined that adapters are more faithful to the original in this day and age, but I also wished I could suggest that everyone just stay with the original, simply because I like classics to be left alone.

In the end, I’d suggest that there are similar changes in tone in the various children’s adaptations of Robinson Crusoe today, and some of them eliminate or completely rewrite the major themes of Robinson Crusoe. But this is not always bad.Continue Reading

How to Read and Why: Short Stories Retrospective

April 23, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

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

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