Tag Archives: Reading

Book Lovers Day

Posted on by
8

Of all the made up holidays, National Book Lovers Day is my very favorite. Sadly, I almost missed it this year. It was yesterday but I didn’t find out till the day was nearly over.

If you are a reader, odds are good that you read for a variety of reasons. It could be for the escapism that comes from getting lost in a story. It could be for learning and enrichment or for the pure joy that comes with a truly great book. 

There are as many types of readers as there are people in this world too. Some read multiple books of varying genres all at one time. Others read from a narrow catalog of one specific genre. Some prefer extremely long books. Others do audiobooks rather than traditional ones. 

Personally, I read just one book at a time. I read fiction and non-fiction in various genres and covering an array of topics. I prefer books of average length and have little patience for those that are long for the sake of being long. 

I once was an avid library supporter but found that purchasing the books I wanted to read was preferable to visiting my local library. Not to mention, it gives me an opportunity to support authors and that’s important to me. 

I did celebrate National Book Lovers Day – mainly because I live as though every day is best used to celebrate books. I read some from Patrick Dewitt’s The Librarianist and researched a bookstore I want to visit on our next foray into Dayton. I also took a few minutes to consider books I want to read this fall including a couple of Alice Hoffman novels and one about winter in the forest that I’m holding onto until January. Not to mention, I got to hear my fella talk about a biography of Leonardo Davinci that he is reading!

There are so many incredible books out there, most of which I will never have time to read. My To Be Read pile is growing seemingly by the minute and there are books I would like to revisit soon including some classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird which I revisit every few years and George Orwell’s 1984 which I haven’t read in ages.

Whether you’re a bookworm or a book dragon, I hope you remember that every day is Book Lovers Day and that there’s always room for one more book. Also remember that it isn’t hoarding if it’s books and that there are worse addictions!

If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.

Ronald Dahl

Thanks For The Good Reads, Francine Pascal

Posted on by
6

If you were a young girl in the eighties or nineties, odds are pretty good you read at least one book from the Sweet Valley High Series. This series followed teenage twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. The two girls lived in a fictional town in California called Sweet Valley and the books follow them and their friends through all kinds of drama and fun.

These books have been on my mind since reading about author Francine Pascal who died Sunday at the age of 92. She created the series and authored the first twelve books before going on to oversee ghost writers who stretched the series to a total of 181 books over twenty years.

I was already a reader when I discovered the series in the late eighties and was quickly hooked. I collected many and borrowed some from the library. Somewhere in this house there is a tote filled with these once treasures paperbacks.

The series inspired some spin offs as well as a tv show that ran for four seasons in the late nineties. I don’t recall reading any of the others and the tv show was awful but the kids at Sweet Valley High entertained me for several years before I discovered other authors and deeper stories.

I can’t be the only one who can say that these books kept me reading at an age when a lot of kids stop reading at all. I wonder if Francine Pascal had any idea what sort of influence her books would have on an entire generation of young readers. It may seem like a silly little series but what Francine Pascal achieved is so much more than the sum of 181 paperback books.

I bet there are a lot of readers out there who can thank Francine Pascal for their love of books and storytelling. I know I can.

A Peaceful Retreat

Posted on by
10

Doesn’t this look peaceful? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in this room with nothing to do but to wile away the hours with a book from one of those shelves?

This library is in Lithopolis, Ohio and is well worth a visit if you’re in the area. I wrote about it once and you can read that story here.

A quiet place in a beautiful old building to just sit and think sounds so welcome right now. There are some days when it feels like I have no quiet at all.

One of these days, maybe I will leave my phone in the car and sit here for a morning to just read and think. How luxurious!

Summer Reading Challenge

Posted on by
16

This spring has found me in a reading slump. I’m usually pretty good at snapping out of it but I just can’t seem to quiet my mind enough to focus or enjoy anything.

I respond well to a good challenge so I have been working on my own for the last couple of weeks and thought I would share it with you:

1. A book you’ve been meaning to read for a while.

2. A book you chose for the cover.

3. A children’s or middle grade book.

4. An audio book (you can find some great stuff on YouTube for free)

5. A book that won an award.

6. A book recommended by a friend.

7. Reread a classic that you read in school.

8. A genre that’s outside your norm.

What are you reading? I could use some inspiration and you might be able to help me with number six!

Wanderer of the Wasteland

Posted on by
7

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I’m not above buying a book specifically for its cover. This is especially true when the book is an antique because I have found some beautifully done antique and vintage covers that are just too pretty to leave behind.

In today’s digital world, it’s challenging to find a book that looks and feels like a piece of art. One exception is my pal Eilene’s book Fortune’s Frenzy with a captivating cover and title. Read about it here.

This copy of Wanderer of the Wasteland took me by surprise while browsing the section Half Price Books calls rare and collectible.

Written by Zanesville, Ohio native Zane Grey, this book has a gorgeous cover but the spine is what caught my attention. It is uncommon to see a spine with hyphenated words. They easily could have made the font smaller or rotated the words so it feels like sort of a mystery.

This book once had a dust jacket but, for three bucks, I could hardly complain about the missing jacket.

This first edition was printed in 1923 when Grey was about 51 years old. In case you don’t know, Zane Grey was a prolific writer in the Western and Adventure genres. He even wrote nonfiction books on fishing and baseball.

He was one of the first writers to become a millionaire and was said to be a favorite author of President Eisenhower. Here’s a story about that.

Throughout his prolific career, Zane Grey wrote over one hundred books and collections of short stories, some of which were adapted by Hollywood. He even formed his own motion picture company to maintain control over his stories. Early television enthusiasts might recall Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater that ran in the mid-fifties.

But I digress.

I learned a lot about Zane Grey by visiting a museum that’s dedicated to him and to the National Road here in Ohio. Oddly enough, I didn’t really write about the Zane Grey part of the museum in this account.

I haven’t read many Zane Grey books but it’s clear that his infatuation with the old west helped to shape early 20th century views of this piece of our history – both through his books and film.

Grey himself was an interesting character. An athlete, he played baseball in college while studying dentistry. He was an outdoorsman and conservationist. The son of an abusive father, he made friends with Muddy Miser, an old man who supported Grey’s love for the written word and for fishing, a popular pastime in their river town. It’s good to know there was someone in his life who supported his love for the things that would shape him into the man he would become. If you find yourself in Zanesville, check out the restaurant named for Muddy Miser.

By the way, that river town is named for Grey’s ancestor, Revolutionary War patriot Ebenezer Zane. Lots of cool stuff where Zane Grey is concerned.

In case you’re curious, this book I bought for the cover starts out strong.

Adam Larey gazed with hard and wondering eyes down the silent current of the red river upon which he meant to drift away into the desert.

The Rio Colorado was no river to trust. It chafed at its banks as if to engulf them; muddy and thick it swirled and glided along in flood, sweeping in curves back and forth from Arizona to California shore.

They just don’t write ‘em like that anymore!

So, yeah, go ahead and judge a book by its cover. You might find a great one!

The Women

Posted on by
12

Fiction writer Kristen Hannah has somehow transitioned into the writer that everyone either loves or loves to hate. Her name frequently gets bandied about in social media book groups and I’m always shocked at how combative her haters are and how overzealous her supporters can be. 

Personally, I like her more recent works but that’s not a hill I’ll die on. Meanwhile, I despise Stephen King but would never dream of going to a discussion about how great he is to rain on someone’s parade. 

That’s probably bordering on unAmerican these days but, there, I said it. Discouraging others from embracing what they like isn’t my thing. I clearly don’t know how the internet works. 

This has been on my mind since I finished reading Hannah’s new historic fiction book The Women earlier this month.

It’s about a young nurse who enlists in the Army to serve in Vietnam. She serves two tours before coming home a changed person with PTSD. I won’t tell you much because I don’t want to spoil the story for you but I will tell you some things that are general facts about Vietnam.

Her time in country was brutal. The hours and the devastation of endless waves of soldiers and civilians ripped limb from limb are described in this book. The horrifying and utter loss of it all was experienced by soldiers and the doctors, nurses and camp support staff there to help them. 

Then, these veterans returned home to an ungrateful nation that was fighting its own war in the media and in protests across the country. They were spat upon, called unspeakable names and denied basic services. The federal government didn’t even consider these women nurses who served bravely in dangerous conditions to be veterans. 

Yet, we don’t talk about these things enough or very well. We have generations of people living in this country today who know none of this and I have witnessed plenty of them lately showing their ignorance in online conversations about this book. 

They don’t believe a combat nurse would be relegated to changing bedpans and taking temperatures in hospitals back home. They don’t know that women of that era couldn’t get a bank loan without a signature from her husband or dad. They don’t understand any of it or how our activities at the ballot box today can either advance women’s rights or turn back the clock decades at a time. 

They don’t understand how those women were treated or how they suffered because their own government didn’t recognize their service.

I was in a Barnes and Noble recently and found just three books about Vietnam on the shelves. There was another one about President Johnson’s mucking up of the war but it really was about the man and his strategies rather than the people fighting under his leadership. Three books. 

The section on feminism and women’s issues was pretty scrawny too. 

It was downright sad. 

Kristen Hannah has written some good books and some not-so-good books throughout her career. In this book, I found a couple of mistakes that should be attributed to her editors. The book stretches on a little too long. It’s like she got stuck in a loop and got herself lost on the way to the end. The main character isn’t the most likable. 

But I’m happy to recommend this book and am glad that it exists. After all, with her enormous bestselling reputation, she has a platform to reach a breathtaking amount of people. 

This story needs told and it needs heard. We still have plenty of Vietnam veterans living in this country today who deserve our sincere thanks and apologies and who might find some small comfort in knowing that history will judge them differently than their peers did. 

When you read this book, check out the list of recommended reading in the back. Not a fan of fiction writing? Ken Burns did a fantastic documentary about Vietnam you might want to check out. 

Yes, there are more and probably better ways to learn about Vietnam. This is one avenue and a darn good one if you want to learn the human side of war. The Women is available for purchase in hardback and audiobook right now. Your local library probably has a copy too. Give it a chance!