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As Kirk knows, I have tended to struggle with
an ingrained and somewhat puritanical notion of what are "productive" ways to spend my freetime. Thankfully, I have never
felt guilty about reading - or about buying books, which is why our house tends to resemble a library more than a living space!
Reading was a highly sanctioned pastime when I was a child, something that was definitely considered "productive",
and my parents encouraged me to read books that related to the places we visited. There was something magical about visiting
Prince
Edward Island after reading Anne of Green Gables or reading Tom Sawyer and then touring Hannibal, Missouri. My parents and I frequently took turns
reading the same book, which sometimes resulted in my reading books with themes a bit beyond my age, as when my father passed
on to me James Michener books before my mother had a chance to read them. There are some fairly explicit scenes in some of
his works... I remember sewing little felt people to act out scenes from Texas, Chesapeake, and The Source.
When I
was 9 years old, my parents and I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and all the way back and, as my parents like to remind me, I
talked almost nonstop for the entire 2-day period. My topic? The story of The Hobbit, which I had recently read. Several years later, as we
drove along the breathtaking fjords of Norway, I distinctly recall the exasperation in my father's voice as he told me to
put down my book and look out the window!
When we visited Great Britain, I plowed through Hardy (whose books I never liked),
Dickens (whose books I thoroughly enjoyed), the Bronte sisters (beginning my life-long passion for Jane Eyre), Richard Adams
(my parents loved Watership Down as much as I did) and so many others. In France, we practically fought over whose turn it was to read more
in The Count of
Monte Cristo. In Spain, I remember Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. So many books...
Whenever we had the opportunity to
visit a library with English books we would spend the better part of a day doing so. I remember a rainy day spent in the children's
section of some fantastic Canadian library, where I first found the book They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth - it would take
me years to find that again and add it to my collection! Out in the West of the United States I became obsessed with Native
American cultures and spent hours in museums and libraries reading and taking notes about different tribes. I couldn't have
been more than 10 - it shouldn't have been a surprise that I would study anthropology in college. Somewhere in Scandinavia
I remember visiting 1 of the wonderful Culture Centers that are attached to some American embassies. I read Scandinavian poets
in translation, copying my favorite verses into a little notebook that I still have.
The power of a good book to absorb
the mind has always awed me. I've occaisonally done some writing, but my insatiable appetite for good reading is a much
stronger force. I still have a great love for children's literature and try to keep up with new picture and chapter books,
though the volume of new writing in this area is a bit overwhelming. I try to fill in the gaps of my classic reading and to
keep an eye out for interesting book reviews that can lead me to authors I haven't known before. My favorite perk of my current
employment is my Library
of Congress borrowing privileges. At last, a way to satisfy my literary hunger without breaking the bank!
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Favorite books to read aloud:
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter series
C.S. Forester
Horatio Hornblower series
Alexander McCall Smith
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series
Favorite comics: Favorite Buddhist books:
Favorite music for reading:
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I don't just read books, I devour them. This is likely the reason that I enjoy rereading my favorites - when I get wrapped up in a good plot I practically fly through the pages and no doubt miss a good bit of the flavor text. Kirk, who is a slower and more thorough reader, has very little inclination to rereading. This, however, makes him excellent for reading books aloud. We've been reading aloud to each other ever since the Harry Potter series, I believe, though by the time we started that series there were already 3 published. At first we took turns reading, but my eyes are too quick and I found myself reading ahead as I read aloud - not good for either of us. Kirk has really become a wonderful reader and I absorb a lot more in listening to him.
It is challenging to find books that are good to read aloud. There has to be a healthy amount of dialog and action to make it entertaining. Best of all is finding a good series to get wound up in together. So far, we've read all of the Harry Potter (J.K. Rawling), Horatio Hornblower (C.S. Forester), and Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) series, and are currently on the 2nd book in the Temeraire series (Naomi Novik). All of these have been ideally suited to being read aloud.
There have been some failures along the way. The first book in the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand) proved to be agonizingly long-winded (with Kirk frequently commenting that Stroud must have been paid by the word). The first Dragonlance book (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) reminded us too much of a beginning DM's campaign setting and we kept interrupting the reading to make cynical side comments. Then there is the entertainment factor. We started Mohandas Gandhi's Story of My Experiments with Truth almost a year ago and it is currently sidelined on the nightstand. Definitely interesting and thought-provoking reading, but not quite as gripping a read-aloud tale as dragons in the Napoleonic era...
I think I can finally admit that I am a sucker for romance. But only in the most classic sense please! I'm pretty prickly when it comes to technique and a book has to be well-crafted for me to be able to commit to it. After all, I do spend a good portion of my working day making sure that things are tightly and correctly written. The best plot in the world can be ruined by sloppy writing. Now that I've nailed that point to the floor, onto the books.
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre for many years was my favorite book to reread. I am still very partial to it. The story has it all - the orphan girl who loves books struggling against prejudiced relations and oppressive society to make her way in the world, a mysterious and passionate older man, a heart-breaking escape from the temptation of illicit love, a tender and thoroughly satisfying reconciliation. Yes, there is a certain degree of Gothic sensationalism to the book, but it has always been a favorite.
What proved particularly eye opening for me was reading a book by another favorite author, Louisa May Alcott, author of my dearly beloved Little Women. In 1873, Alcott published Work: A Story of Experience, which tells the didactic tale of Christie Devon, a young woman who works in a variety of jobs while maintaining her independence and morality. At the end, she finds love in a relationship of equals with a man of great principles, though the 2 of them are off to serve in the Civil War before their marriage can even be consummated. Not exactly a story of great passion or intrigue...
However, on reading it, I was immediately struck by the fact that it is a lambasting response to Jane Eyre, published 26 years earlier. Although Word: A Story of Experience is not nearly as enthralling a read as Jane Eyre, nor as well-crafted, it successfully shamed me for my love of the latter. I had the distinct feeling that Alcott was reaching out to chastise me for idealizing a heroine given to romantic fancies, who very nearly subsumed her own worth and morality for a man of many failings. Who is Mr. Rochester, Alcott seems to ask, to deserve someone like Jane Eyre? Should we not exert as much control over our passions as we do over the rest of our lives? A true partner in marriage should be a helpmate with as much dedication and morality as we ourselves possess, or else we do little better than selling our flesh into union with his.
Interesting, of course, that of the 2 authors, Bronte was the only 1 married, and is reputed to have had deep feelings for a married man when she herself was a single teacher. Perhaps this is why Jane Eyre resonates more truly. In the end, the model of the passionate woman, fighting with herself and society to find an acceptable compromise for what she most wants, is more appealing (and relatable) than the detached and objective Christie Devon. Still, I found the reading to be highly thought-provoking and a reason to rethink my somewhat blind enthusiasm for Jane Eyre.
Now to my current favorite, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I suppose that gushing about how magnificent the book is doesn't really do much to capture it. Suffice to say that after more than 4 readings, I consider it to be a perfect story of true love, that happens to also involve time travel. It is told in alternating (and completely convincing) fashion by Claire and Henry, the protagonists. Well-crafted indeed.