Showing posts with label genre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genre. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2010

Booking It--Break


Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

Not really; kind of; and, it depends.

Novels, I read straight through. As quickly as possible. Using any available minute of the day, if it's an especially good one.

However, I'm usually reading one actual novel and listening to one audiobook at any given time. But this works because I only listen when exercising, driving, cleaning, etc.--only when reading is impossible or dangerous. So, although technically I guess you could say I'm taking breaks between books, I'm not really. I read straight through and I listen straight through, and never the twain shall meet.

I usually keep one non-fiction-type book going that I read only a chapter a day of. This is an early morning thing. And I keep only one of these going at a time.

But, if I'm re-reading a book for a class I'm teaching, all I'm really reading for is to get the details back in my head. So, I might read for a while and then stop, not worrying too much about it as long as I have it finished by the time I teach it. This might go on at the same time as I'm reading a novel for pleasure, or not. But it doesn't interfere because it's in the "work" category.

Confused? I know I gave a convoluted answer, used fragments, began sentences with conjunctions, and ended a sentence with a preposition, but it seems crystal clear to me. And I was feeling slightly rebellious. So there.

I can only imagine what an editor would do with this post. . .

Monday, February 2, 2009

Booking It--Inspiration


“Inspiration” is the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

I had to think about this a while. Reading gives me much pleasure. It always has, and I trust that it will for many years to come. But I don’t think that pleasure is what “inspires” me to read.

Deep down, I think I read out of a need to know, to more fully understand, to be a total participant in the human experience. I think that’s why I enjoy different genres, why I read novels and poetry and plays but also memoirs and biographies, books about history and health, psychology and sociology, books of religious contemplation or outright denial. I want to know the world, other cultures, other peoples. What do they believe? What motivates them? Why do they feel as they do? I want to understand history, what it was like to live in other places at other times, to comprehend the contradictions, the pains of the queen, the pleasures of the peasant. I want to understand how we got where we are now, what’s in my food, and how to do better take care of myself. And since I’ll never know it all, I have motivation to keep on reading.

What’s your inspiration?