Rebecca Reads

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

To my surprise, I greatly enjoyed reading The Book that Changed My Life, edited by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannesson.
The Book that Changed My Life is a collection of essays by writers, and since I don’t often read modern fiction, I didn’t expect to recognize many of the authors highlighted, much less did I [...]

I’m finishing my review of Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories, which I loved reading. I hope to have it done by tomorrow.
But I feel I can’t write a post about Nabokov (even his short stories) without mentioning another work by this author that I probably don’t even need to name.

I saw How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster on the “New Nonfiction” shelf at the library. I thought I’d take a glance through it when I got home, but I certainly had no intention of reading it: I have a lot of books either in progress or on my bedside table, [...]

I love lists. Lately, I’ve been making lists of my books to read. Weekly Geeks a number of weeks ago was to update something: that tells you something that it’s taken me this long to get my lists updated.
My husband says I’ve been working on reading lists more than I’ve been reading lately. But that’s [...]

I know I’m insane to think about another challenge when I’m already feeling overwhelmed. But I love the concept and the reading list for the Martel-Harper Challenge.

I wrote the other day how I visited the library and got a number of novels.

Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Atonement by Ian McEwan

I am very interested in reading all of them. I’ve only heard great things about them. I [...]