Category: Book Blogger Hop Page 1 of 6

Whoa…it’s been 2 months since I’ve done one of these?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you like to annotate your books or leave them untouched?

I’m not sure what kind of monster you take me for. Write in a book? I’d just as soon dog-ear a page. Yeah, yeah, yeah…history is replete with examples of marginalia (and it’s proved to be a helpful resource for scholars), and if you own a book, you should be able to write in it–some people insist on it. But every book in the H.C. Newton Not-Yet-Memorial Library is untouched by pen, pencil, highlighter, or (shudder) Sharpie (outside a handful of autographs, which is totally different*).

There are (at least) two reasons for this–I don’t want to ruin a book with my lousy handwriting, or inability to use a highlighter or pen to draw a straight line. Let’s keep these pretty. But more importantly, I don’t like to be trapped by what I thought was interesting, important, noteworthy, and so on last time I read a book–I want to get impressions this time. (if for no other reason than I don’t want to be disappointed in previous-me). Does this hamper going back to find that one quotation, that killer argument, that metaphor that rocked my thinking? Yes. And that has been a problem. Still…books that please my eyes are worth a little effort/memory-straining.

I’m apparently so well-known for this in my social circles that friends and acquaintances will apologize to me before showing a marked-up book. Which is unnecessary, if a little nice. I bear no ill will towards people who choose to riddle their books with graffiti, sure, I wonder about their priorities, but I know they do the same for mine 🙂 I actually used to know someone who’d borrow books from me and then end up buying me a new copy of whatever book they borrowed because they just had to write in something they read. That actually worked out pretty nicely for me.

* Or is it an inconsistency that frees me from Emersonian hobgoblins?

What about you, do you deface or keep ’em clean?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

It’s back-to-school time. What book would you recommend to students, whether it’s an educational read or an enjoyable diversion from textbooks?

Let’s start with the “enjoyable diversion” bit, it’s the easiest (and the toughest to implement sometimes). Find something that appeals to you–because of the cover, because of what the back cover promises, because you’ve read something by the author, because someone you know liked it.

Now, for the “educational read” part. I don’t think I can limit it to one, really. But if I had to, I’d go with:

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Dreyer’s English (Adapted for Young Readers): Good Advice for Good Writing by Benjamin Dreyer

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs

How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds by Alan Jacobs

Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs

Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College by Michael J. Kruger

Dreyer’s English (pick the version most appropriate) is going to be my pick if I have to limit it to one. Getting language, punctuation, and other details about writing down will help in all sorts of courses (and life)–and Dryer’s book will help greatly in that way, and is entertaining enough that you won’t mind learning something outside of class.

I feel like I should have some other suggestions for Elementary and Middle School readers, but I don’t. Sorry.

For High Schoolers and above:

The trilogy of Alan Jacobs books there are ever-so-helpful. The first helps you remember that reading should be a pleasure, and not the equivalent of eating your vegetables. The second book is so helpful to train you to think clearly and charitably–something we all need. And then Breaking Bread with the Dead, helps the reader see ways they can read, profit from, and enjoy books and writers from the past, even if their lives, politics, morality, and so on, is different from our own.

Lastly, Michael Kruger’s book is a very handy book for College or High School students to read as they interact with non-Christians and anti-Christians socially or in the classroom. It’d probably be handy for non-Christians to read so they understand what they might be decrying.

As (almost) always when I’m asked for a book recommendation, I overshot. Oh, well…

What did I leave off my list?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. What role have libraries played in your reading journey? Do you have any recommendations for books or fond recollections involving libraries?

First off—Library Card Sign-Up month? I didn’t know that was a thing—glad I got to do something to commemorate it.

What role have libraries played in my reading journey? That’s sort of like…man, I don’t know, I should be able to come up with a snappy metaphor. Maybe by the time I’m done with this.

As far as I recall, I didn’t really use a Public Library until I was at least semi-literate—maybe it was after I was reading things at the Fun with Dick and Jane level. I have one or two very vague memories of that first library (mostly chaotic) before my family moved across the state.

I’ve repeatedly told the story about when my family and I realized how important reading was to my young brain—once we settled into our new town, it wasn’t long before I got a card—and boy howdy, did I use that thing. We didn’t buy a lot of books then (that got underway when I discovered used bookstores and thrift shops in junior high…but that’s a story for another time), so the public library—with a little supplementing from various school libraries—was how I got my reading material. I visited at least monthly, I think bi-weekly was the norm, although there were summers I walked there daily.

The librarians got to know me pretty well—as well as my shy/timid near-pathologically introverted self would allow, at least they got to know my reading habits. Looking back on it, I know it was small—I may have known it then. It certainly didn’t get a lot of new books—particularly in the “Juvenile” sections (except for the very Juvenile books). That selection probably led to my love of re-reading. I knew where my friends were found on the Fiction and Non-Fiction shelves, and visited them often. But I enjoyed the variety it did have—especially when I could start reading the things in the non-Juvenile section. I honestly don’t know if my being unable to go there was a parental rule, a library rule that I aged out of, or just an impression that I had that no one corrected. But Ian Fleming, Erle Stanley Gardner, Eric Van Lustbader—and soon Robert B. Parker, Rex Stout, and Mickey Spillane—were waiting for me to discover.

In high school, we moved to a larger town—the library was bigger, and the collections were, too—I was able to read a new-to-me book or two from authors I loved that I hadn’t been able to find in my old library and I was able to find some new friends, too. The catch was that we lived outside of city limits, so my parents had to pay for my library card to make up for the taxes we didn’t pay. What a relief it was (for my conscience) the next year when I got a job there, so I got that fee waived.

Obviously, I was in hog heaven working there—and it exposed me to so many new authors, new topics, new…everything. Reshelving returned books helped me see what people were consistently reading, and eventually, I’d get curious, too. Or putting one boring-looking book back next to something else would get me to pick up the something else. Dave Barry Slept Here is one that I distinctly remember coming from that. That’s also how I learned that C.S. Lewis wrote things other than the Chronicles of Narnia, I’m inexplicably embarrassed to note.

Other than the University library, I pretty much stopped using them for a decade or so after High School. I wasn’t going to pay for a card just to use over the summer months as I scrambled to save up money for the next year—also, I was buying enough by then that I could keep myself in books when I found/made time to read things that weren’t for class.

Fast-forward to the time when my older kids could write their own name—which was the library’s standard for getting their own card. I’d let them browse for something that’d catch their eye, and while they were doing that…I’d go browse myself. This got me experimenting more about what I was reading—oh, also, this library was bigger yet than the last one—and kept growing. That experimenting—plus my reading priorities shifting and freeing up—led to me reading more and more, and…well, here we are.

I read my first Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Benedict Jacka, Faith Hunter, Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire, Lee Child, Rainbow Rowell, David Rosenfelt, Rick Riordan, Mick Herron, and Ian Rankin because of that most recent one. I could go on and on, but I just thought I’d pick a few names that show up time and time again here. I don’t browse the stacks too much anymore, I have lists of books I want to get—and usually place requests via the website. But I’m still using that library regularly, and my not having at least two books checked out from there at a time is strange (I have two on my desk now and two waiting for me to pick up as I write this).

Really, I wouldn’t read what I do now if I hadn’t read something in the library that sparked me to look for more like it—or encouraged me to move far away. Which would lead to/from something else, and something else, and something else for 4+ decades now. And I hope that continues for decades more.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the “do you have any recommendations for books…involving libraries” part of the prompt—I covered that in my Books about Books and the People Who Love Them post last month (along with a few other things).

Are your stories about libraries sound similar? Or have you had a different experience with them?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Which do you enjoy doing more on the 4th of July: watching fireworks light up the sky or reading an inviting book?

I know when I was younger, I enjoyed fireworks—but that ended at some point in my teens. Outside of one night at Disneyland about 18 years ago—I don’t get the appeal of them anymore. I can appreciate them for about 40 seconds nowadays.

Even if I enjoyed them, I think anyone who knows me would expect me to say “reading an inviting [or even simply not-unappealing] book” is what I enjoy more. That’s pretty much the case when the choice is “X or reading” for most values of X, truth be told.

However, on Thursday, I’ll be commemorating—as has been my habit for the last several years—Scare-The-Crap-Out-of-Your-Dog Day. It’s not that fun—and it frequently leaves me in rough shape for work the next day. But, good quality time with my dogs (even if they’re certain the word is ending) is one of those values of X that can beat reading.

Do you prefer pyrotechnics, the printed word, or perhaps another option?

Book Blogger Hop