All posts in: reading

books
14 Nov 2013

put a bird on it

Do you have stories that haunt you? Do you find yourself reading book after book about some topic you find completely obscure and nowhere near up your alley?

I’ve probably posted about this before, but it’s one of those weird human phenomena that that just tickles me. I am 95% positive my mother will never climb Everett or K2, would never pick up a book called My Life Climbing Mountains. Nevertheless, she finds herself reading mountain climbing books. Crazy!

I’ve wondered if I have one of these. Most of the weird repeating topics in my reading life are my own, weird doing.

And then I met the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

 

As all barely interesting stories do, this story begins in grad school. I was assigned Phillip Hoose’s The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. A good IBWO primer.

A month later, I picked up John Corey Whaley’s Where Things Come Back. Suspicions rising…

This fall, the dang bird started showing up every which where. The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt. The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. I didn’t read the latter, but that’s TWO woodpeckers on the National Book Award short lists this year. Strange indeed.

 

Maybe it’s just birds in general? Maybe once one is exposed to one distinct bird, other birds become more noticeable? James Audubon too, for that matter. I learned a little about him in Race to Save the Lord God Bird, then read what felt like an ode to him in Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now. When his name popped up in Sugar Man Swamp, we were old pals. That book is like, bird city.

Perusing my Read shelf on Goodreads reminded me that I’ve also read Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets this year. Does one bird count? Even if he’s a pigeon? And imaginary? I also read Phillip Hoose’s Moonbird last winter. I would recommend this title to bird sympathizers, yes, but I don’t think it necessarily counts for this particular purpose, because A) It’s nonfiction and B) It was Required Reading for last year’s Cybils award. It lacks kismet.

Perhaps it is possible that I am trying to invent myself a reading quirk? Maybe. Stranger things have happened. I tend to my reading life like other tend to homes, careers, families, children, massively multi-player online role-playing games, stamp collections, fantasy sports leagues, classic cars. I find pleasure in my reading life. I find value in my reading life.  I often ascribe meaning to the books I read that really has nothing to do with that book. And yeah, sometimes, I’m downright weird about it.

Now excuse me, I’m going to make like a hipster and buy this night-light for my apartment.

 

books
11 Nov 2013

a hundred

Last weekend, I finished my 100th book of 2013 – The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb. One hundred! Every year I challenge myself to finishing 100 books, so now I am done. Consider this blog shut down until 2014. Closed for hibernation.

Oh, I am just kidding. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually have things I’d like to post about between now and January 1. And remember when I made a huge stinking deal about not reading for a week? Yeah, it’s not like I’m going to stop at 100. Heck, I had to read like 104 to convince Goodreads I’d met my goal of 100 since I re-read Game of Thrones so many damn times.

It’s actually been a few years since I had to put in any real, concerted effort to get to 100. Grad school will do that to a person. Serving on awards committees and writing professional reviews will do that to a person. It’s not much of a challenge anymore.

But I’m reluctant to tinker with the number. I like reading 100 books a year, but it never feels like “not enough” reading. If anything, I sometimes wish I could read some longer, intense books without feeling the constant pressure to move forward. Once, I seriously considered giving myself a “reverse quota” – only reading 50 books in the year. But then I think about allllll the books in the wide wide world that I will never get to read if I don’t read more more more more and then I want to read 200 a year.

I will probably just stick with one hundred. It feels substantial. It’s doable. It’s round. It’s high enough to keep me from slacking off and low enough so I’m never frantic. It’s nice. It’s familiar. I’ve been doing it for years. I’ll probably do it again.

I love reading about how other people read, so I’m looking forward to reading about everyone’s 2014 reading goals in the coming months. If I think of anything more creative than “I’ll just read 100,” I will let you know.

1
books
05 Nov 2013

the ones you don’t get to read, part deux

I am a bit of a reading voyeur/exhibitionist.

This is news to nobody.

I enjoyed reading Janssen’s post last week about books she gave up on.

Ah. How interesting. I have plenty of friends who just can’t give up on books! They balk at the very suggestion that instead of wasting their time on a book the so obviously do not enjoy, they might, you know, not read that book. Heck, I even have friends who read entire bad SERIES! I’m not here to slam your reading habits, though. I only rarely give up on books myself, but I try to reserve the desperate-reading-slog for books I have another incentive to finish.

Just Read What You Want.

Anyway. While I don’t have enough DNF books in my recent memory to share them with you, I do have an ABUNDANCE of unread books from my main source of non-reading bad habits: the good old, Check-out, Don’t Read, Return dance. Otherwise known as The Ones That Got Away. Or, One Librarian’s Quest to Singlehandedly and Artificially Boost Her Library’s Circ Stats, One Book At A Time.

Anyway, these books, I didn’t get to read. Allow me to exhibition them for you.

 

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Hot summer title buzz. We ordered and reordered this one. My new-found fantasy radar dinged. I placed it on hold.

… I wondered why it was so huge and heavy looking. I think my Favorite Roommate texted me to lament over the ridiculous family tree printed on the inside cover.

Basically, I did not accept the challenge. Wimpy wimp wimp.

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

This one was huge and heavy looking, too, but OH how I wanted to read it. I did. I read the first few pages and my heart sighed. Remind me to tell you about how much I love Elizabeth Gilbert. Go ahead, judge away, you cannot halt my affections. Her writing just sings to me. And I was so sad to have to return it.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Look guys. I don’t want to give up on reading Gayle Forman, but if you knew how many times I have checked out her books without reading them, your head would spin. I don’t know why! Maybe I need to apply the good old Bring One Book While You Are Trapped on an Airplane technique. Or try audio, which is actually a similar tactic. “You are going to LISTEN to this book while you DO THE DISHES and there’s NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO AVOID IT.” Force-reading. Yeah, THAT’S fun…

The Yonahlossee Riding Camps for Girls by Anton DiSclafani

I got an inkling that I wanted to read a lot of summer camp books this summer, since I love summer camp books. This adult fic book popped up right around that same time, so I was excited.

Then the summer got away from me. Ah well.

I am questioning the validity of this post. Does anyone actually want to read why I *didn’t* read a random set of books? Am I making a valuable contribution to… anything? I’m afraid I’m too far into this post to worry about that now. I must trudge forth.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

Another Hot Summer Book that languished, ignored, on my shelf.

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

And a Hot Summer YA Book that I let go to pasture, as well. It feels worse when my unread books are light and fluffy. It would have taken me one Saturday morning to finish this one. ONE Saturday morning! What was I doing for all of those Saturdays? Statistically speaking, playing Skyrim. Shame shame shame.

books
12 Oct 2013

flora belle and hazel grace

This week I was reading two books at once. As I am wont to do. I was actually reading like, five books at once, but the two books I’d like to mention are Kate DiCamillo’s Flora & Ulysses and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.

Flora & Ulysses is Kate DiCamillo’s latest middle grade novel. It’s on the National Book Award long list. It stars a precocious, cynical 10-year-old who loves comic books but finds her parents irritating. She finds a squirrel who has superpowers and has to defend him from the evils of everyday people who don’t think squirrels can have superpowers and want to hit him over the head with a shovel.

You may have heard about this book called The Fault in Our Stars. Once or twice, at least. It stars a precocious 16-year-old realist who loves an obscure book by a reclusive author. She finds a cute boy who has an artificial leg and they fall in love and go to Amsterdam.

I would argue that Flora Belle Buckman and Hazel Grace Lancaster are kindred character sisters. They both have a similar perspective of the world, a distinct point of view, a sense of humor. Flora could have been a younger, pre-cancer Hazel… or at least Hazel would have been Flora’s favorite babysitter.

I liked both of these books a great deal. While I was reading Flora & Ulysses, I was tickled by DiCamillo’s punchy dialogue and silly characterizations – especially her unnaturally verbose child characters. I think my favorite line was Flora’s friend William describing his father:

“My father, my real father, was a man of great humanity and intelligence… also, he had delicate feet. Very, very tiny feet. I, too, am small of foot.”

This kind of wordplay just tickles me. Is this a necessary character detail? No. Is it over-the-top? Yes. Do kids talk like this? Absolutely no.

You know who else talks like this? Hazel Grace and her boyfriend Augustus. I am similarly tickled when their “Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children.” Is it over the top? Yes. Do teens talk like this? Probably not.

I just think it’s so sad that there have been so many reviewers who dismissed The Fault in Our Stars entirely based on this point. I get that Green’s dialogue rubs many readers the wrong way, that he shows his authorial hand more than others, but I don’t think either of those rationale are reason to completely pan a book. And most negative reviews I’ve read are by reviewers who aren’t actually terribly familiar with YA in general; to such reviewers, for a character not to seem Teen-y enough is criminal. When you dwell in a world where most of your friends, colleagues, and fellow professionals have a respect for YA, it’s easy to forget that the rest of the book-reading populace – professionals included – think YA exists only to portray teens realistically.

Their hamartia? (Thanks, Hazel) If you are a reader casting a judgment over a book for not portraying teenagers accurately or realistically, you are also arguing for a particular view of Teen-hood, of childhood. One that is flavored by your own experiences, perspectives and biases. One that may be accurate, but probably isn’t.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not liking Green’s dialogue. But in general, I think we hold YA up to a lot of bizarre standards that nobody requires of adult literature, or even children’s literature. Nobody is lambasting little Flora Belle Buckman for exercising her flamboyant vocabulary all over DiCamillo’s book. Nobody who reads adult literary fiction feels it necessary to analyze whether or not the average adult would utilize a particular fictional cadence or turn of phrase. It’s annoying. It perpetuates false perspectives of teen literature and teenagers. It’s lazy. It’s professionally irresponsible.

I think Flora and Hazel would approve of this diatribe, too.

1
audiobooks
09 Oct 2013

life on overdrive

Many, many moons ago, my mother recommended that I check out the public library’s new downloadable media service.

“You can download audiobooks right to your computer,” she said. “But maybe not with iPods. Unless you download them and then burn them to a CD and then I don’t know, that’s what somebody told me. But you should check out Overdrive.”

Alas, alack, I was never able to transfer an audiobook to my bulky little iPod mini with any success. Years passed, I ripped audiobooks onto a number of computers and transferred disc after disc to iPod after iPod. Meanwhile, despite maintaining a fairly atrocious public interface (and, I now know all too well, a blood-curdlingly awful acquisitions side), Overdrive caught the tidal wave of eBook lending and has become the primary vendor for public library eBook and digital audio lending.

Judging by their success,  I’m guessing they solved that “we don’t play with Apple” problem years back, but there was still the whole process that turned me off. Put the book in a cart. Check out the book. Enter your library card number AGAIN. Download file. Open file in special Overdrive program. Gack. Ripping discs was obnoxious, but still preferable, especially when your Overdrive audiobooks would expire after a mere fourteen days.

This a really long set-up to tell you this:

  • The Boy got an iPhone a few months ago
  • The Boy said: “Man, you can just use this Overdrive app to get audiobooks and it’s super easy!”
  • I tried it out and said: “Eh, I don’t know, I’m still stuck in 2005, I like burning all these CDs…”
  • A week later, I was completely obsessed

Since my audiobook rampage began, I’ve listened to 2.9 audiobooks. In less than three weeks. And that .9 is significant because it is .9 of Libba Bray’s The Diviners which in its paper form be used to stop heavy doors or used as a blunt weapon. Also, in this three weeks, Janssen over at Everyday Reading posted a HOW TO GUIDE for downloading audiobooks directly through your phone. Can you believe that? Leave it to Janssen, I say… once a librarian, always a librarian.

I should also mention that if you are disappointed in your library’s Overdrive collection, every public library worth its salt will be happy to try to get you more stuff you’d like – downloadable audio, too. Talk to your librarian. Make suggestions. Also, publishers are more friendly about selling digital audio than eBooks – you’ll likely find more popular audio titles on Overdrive than ebooks.

And that app is the key. The app eliminates all of the hold-rip-load, the hold-checkout-download-transfer-load – browse in the app, check out in the app, download in the app, and listen. I still don’t have any problem downloading disc after disc to my computer, conceptually, but without all that crap in the way, listening to audiobooks is just more fun. The selection isn’t always the best, but it pushes me to listen to books I’d like to read but know I will never otherwise actually take the time to read. The 14-day limit is still daunting for longer books, but I’ll take that as a challenge.

And maybe that’s the secret reason for my obsession – I’m sickeningly competitive. If I download a book I want to listen to it AS QUICKLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. For no apparent reason, other than to beat that deadline!! !!! !! My podcast listening has dwindled to nothing, but that’s probably okay – it’s not really necessary to listen to an entire year’s worth of This American Life over the course of a week. I guess it’s not really necessary to muscle through 2.9 audiobooks in three weeks, either, but here we are.

All freakish obsessions aside, I think keeping a steady stream of audio will be a great way to get my fiction fix while my print reading time is devoted to nonfiction.

I would say that I would keep this obsessive book downloading spree going for awhile longer, but Storm of Swords just came in on audio for me downstairs… so… back to the old rip and transfer, for the next 30 discs or so anyway.

audiobooks
24 Sep 2013

what to listen to next

Earlier this week I told The Boy a few revealing stories about my childhood; some tales of my early childhood nerd-hood that I was sure I’d told him at some point in the past 9.75 years but apparently not. One such story was The Tale of Child Jessica and her Lifelong Audiobook Habit. This is one of those stories where the title gives away the plot, but not all of the embarrassing details. Like how I listened to the same Blossom Family book so many times that I could pop any single cassette tape into my clock radio and just pick up the story from wherever. Or the one Christmas Eve when I went to bed, knowing that sleep would be difficult, so I put in a tape of There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom – a comforting favorite – and told myself that I should fall asleep before the end of the tape. It worked, and I delighted in the discovery of a magical childhood insomnia cure.

The Boy’s response to my nerdy confession:

“You are telling me this like you don’t still do this. Like, every night.”

Ahem.

Embarrassing, but the boy is correct. Or at least correct most of the time. I do still suffer from sleep anxiety and go through stages where I decide the best way to sleep is with an audiobook in my headphones. All the better if it’s something familiar. Enter Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings, both of which I read in July, both of which I re-listened to August in September, often while falling asleep. I’ve also enjoyed Jim Dale’s soothing tones reading me various Harry Potter books in the past few years, but Game of Throne is my current sleep aid of choice.

But sometimes you want to listen to A Storm of Swords and so does everyone else at your library. Of course. Moving myself up the holds list is frowned upon at my library, and also makes me feel slimy.

Also, maybe I should give George R. R. Martin a rest and listen to something else. Something that isn’t 28 discs long. If I apply the same gusto I’ve applied to GoT listening, I could probably finish TWO audio books by the time my Storm of Swords holds come in.

This has been another episode of Jessica Rambles Too Much About Something That Is Really Not Important Just Read a Damn Book Already, Fool And Now Here are Some Book Covers.

Dead End in Norvelt. Have you ever had a book haunt you? I’ve been trying to read this book for… ugh. I can’t talk about it. I just need to read it. I thought I had the audio all ready to go on my computer, but then I looked yesterday and Disc One was missing. Disc One. Of course. I almost decided on Morgan Matson’s Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour instead, since it WAS on my computer. This choice also meets the re-read criteria for easy sleep listening.

When I finished Clash of Kings yesterday, though, I was not AT my house. Enter the Overdrive Audiobook. The last time I attempted this feat I had a Mac with an iPod and MAN that whole check-out/download/oops-that’s-a-WMA-file-you-dumb-ass thing was pretty frustrating. Not so much with an iPhone and the Overdrive App! Even the browsing was improved – it was really quick to browse YA and children’s and limit by what was available. I snagged a handful, including DC Pierson’s Crap Kingdom. Hey, remember when DC Pierson was on EVERY SINGLE PODCAST earlier this year promoting this book? Well, apparently that’s enough to at least get me to download the audio for free 6 months later. Or, I could be wholesome and productive and read a NBA longlist nom, Tom McNeal’s Far Far Away.

Or I could just pop in a random disc of Clash of Kings… you know… just so I can sleep…

 

book lists
21 Sep 2013

three kinds of realism

I spent a little time knee-deep in my Goodreads account this week, taking a gander at what I’ve read so far at 2013. I know I decided to read more YA, but really, I’ve read a TON of YA this year. Way more YA than any other genres. Pat on the back. Not everything I’ve read has been great – which is probably why I still feel like I need to read more YA – but not too shabby.

So in the interest of better selecting titles to fill the last few months of the year, I took a look at what stuck out to me from what I’ve already read. I made a list of The Bulk of My Reading: the YA contemporary realism titles that didn’t make me roll my eyes.

Then, I started to sort.

This highly scientific organization effort revealed that my most recent tastes in realism fall in one of the following three categories:

Realism in which the protagonist learns life lessons while pursuing romance.

This category should surprise nobody. I was surprised, however, that so many of the books I didn’t think were life-lessony-romances were definitely life-lessony-romances. The romances may not have the structure of a romance (see this rambly review of the lastest Dessen for more on that) and they may not all end well, but for the most part, these books are largely about love and growing up.

Humorous, voice-heavy realism in which the progatonist learns life lessons while pursuing romance

See above, except these books are just much lighter in tone; even the stories that deal with heavier issues (depression, sexuality, violence) do so with more humor than the books in category one. Also, the narrators here are much voicier than those above.

Realism not otherwise specified

The miscellaneous ends. The works of realism that were doing something entirely different, something that just didn’t fit in the other two categories. Should I be reading more of these? I think yes. This list includes my all time fave Frankie and has the best book covers.

book awards
16 Sep 2013

2013 Cybils Awards

Oh, 2013, where did you go? Wasn’t it just a few months ago that I was maxing out my library holds, throwing out my shoulders carrying home huge piles of weekend reading, waking up in the still hours of the freezing-cold-ass morning to plow through a quick book about the entire Civil War?

Nevertheless, it is time for the 2013 Cybils Awards. I am happy to be serving on the NEWLY CREATED (differentiated, migrated, mutated) Young Adult Nonfiction committee as a first round judge. Bring on the library holds! The spreadsheets! The ibuprofen!

Here are last year’s short-listed titles – some of my favorite reading in 2013, actually. And wow, did I learn so much about a bunch of random crap this year. Nonfiction committee work keeps you SMART, guys. I’m this much closer to being a certified genius.

Nominations for all Cybils categories will open October 1st – visit and nominate your favorite reads. If you have any early leads on a YA nonfiction title… uh… let me know. I have read all of zero YA nonfiction books this year! Which should make the next few months really REALLY fun! Right? But yeah, I’m going to need a 2 week head start, so send me any recommendations.

1
books
10 Sep 2013

what to read now that i read again

Hey guys, I remembered how to read!

I’m anxious to keep the ball rolling, but I also had a minor league revelation last week. Okay, it’s a less than minor league revelation. I decided that I need to cut the bullshit and read more YA. Back to my roots. Stop reading shiny adult fiction just because it’s Shiny and New and In Front of You. I returned every non-YA book in my drawer of shame, cancelled all my non-YA holds. Amazingly liberating.  You guys all think I’m crazy, right?

However, now that I am reading more than one book a fortnight, it seems that ah… I’ve nothing much left to read.

In fact, here are my only next-read options, assuming I am avoiding my own bookshelves for the time being.

(No, I don’t need to read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks for the 700th time…)

(Or do I…)

This season there were so many juicy summer camp books being published. The Interestings. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. Both of those got sent back to the library during the Great Adult Fic Purge of 2013. The only summer camp book that survived is Una LaMarche’s Five Summers. I started reading this a few weeks ago while I ate my lunch at work – a common way I “audition” books without the commitment of carrying them all the way home – and it obviously didn’t hook me in terribly hard, otherwise I would still be reading it. But the point of being a Wide and Dedicated Reader isn’t just to read what hooks you, guys. Hate to break it to you. You have to have a certain stick-to-it-iveness. Readerly fortitude. Not every book holds its value in the first thirty pages, not every book lures you to read on with an irresistible pull.

I am saying this as if a mostly un-accoladed YA book about summer camp is a book packed dense with secret value. It probably isn’t. I should shut up… and read Natalie Standiford’s The Boy on the Bridge instead? My Favorite Roommate – otherwise known as The Best New Librarian in the State of Missouri – saw that I added this to my Goodreads queue and replied “DID YOU GET SUCKERED IN BY ALL THOSE BANNER ADS, TOO?” Except she didn’t do it in all caps, because she’s polite. You don’t become the Best New Librarian in the State of Missouri using all caps. Anyway, this book? Plastered all over Goodreads for a few days. Natalie Standiford is an author which I think I should like a lot, but I can never get around to actually reading one of her books. See also: A. S. King, Margo Lanagan, thislistcouldgoonindefinitely. This one is about studying abroad in the 80s and falling in love with a Russian.

Or, I could read this new Matthew Quick which is waiting for me on my hold shelf, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. This book is getting a decent amount of post-Silver Linings Playbook buzz. I like supporting YA authors who get mainstream buzz, even if I’m not a super-fan or anything. I’m a reasonable fan of Quick, not a super-fan. I also say “supporting YA authors” like I am buying books. I’m not. I should be. I know. But. I can’t. Isn’t it enough that I facilitated the purchasing of 11 copies using a municipal pool of money for my fellow citizens and I to share? I think so. Oh, and also reading it so I can potentially tell others to read it or blog about it or what have you. This is my contribution to the world, guys. This right here.

You could also lump Gayle Forman into that Paragraph #2 group of authors, except that I actually did read If I Stay. I liked it alright. Never read the sequel, and never read her new “series” – Just One Day. Another book about studying abroad and falling in love. Apparently this is what I’m into right now? Anyway, the sequel is coming out next month, which reminds me of how delinquent I am at reading anything in a timely fashion. Which is kind of the moral of this post. Which is why I’m going to stop writing it and read a motherf%^#ing book.

 

 

 

books
05 Aug 2013

to everything

I’ve only read three books since July 1.

This is unusual, unlike me, a signofthestressthatiamundergoingyouguysican’tevenreadabookomgomg.

I’m trying to trick myself back into the reading groove.

I checked out an easy-to-read-nonfiction book that is also a hot-buzz-everyone’s-reading-it title.

I reminded myself that, oh yes, sometimes I get paid to write reviews so I should you know, read those books I need to review.

I ignored my well-wishing and read some more of The Kingdom of Little Wounds because it reminds me a little of GoT.

Okay, fine. I even downloaded Clash of Kings onto my iPhone so I can listen to it before bed. What of it?

None of my self-trickery is working particularly well. The number of things I would rather do than read is unusually vast. Rearrange my bookshelves. Unload my dishwasher. Play Candy Crush (oof). Watch another episode of Orange is the New Black. Shower.

Trying to go easy on myself. My life did just go through a bit of a seismic shift. My attention span is untrained. My energy levels are uneven.

And I just moved. I moved when I was 6, 13, 18, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28. I know moving. It’s a pain in the butt, it costs a lot of money, unexpected bad things happen. But the whole Packing Up The Physical Manifestation of Your Existence puts you face to face with parts of your life that you’d rather not face. Procrastinator Jessica who hoards crafting supplies for years without using them. Pretentious Jessica who keeps fancy books on the shelf she knows she’ll never read. Clutter-prone Jessica who can’t throw away useless, ugly little trinkets because she’s had them since she moved when she was 6.

Unpacking, I found the physical manifestation of two years of my reading. Two sheets of paper folded into fourths, marking what books I read in what month.

In August 2011, I read 4 books: one was a Sarah Dessen re-read, three were Harry Potter.

In July 2012, I read 6, including New Moon, a graphic novel, and Fifty Shades of Gray.

I’m a slow summer reader with a tendency toward fluff.

Go easy on me.

(… said me, to myself)

 

1