2 posts tagged “reading”

Ha! Could I have picked more disparate books to read?

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is a book I've been trying to read for 10 years, literally. It is a fantastic book -- exciting, heartfelt, intelligent -- but there was something star-crossed about my relationship with this book. I first started reading it when I was pregnant with my son. I was loving the book, taking it everywhere with me, and somehow I left it at someone's house. When I attempted to retrieve it, my friend was already reading it and I agreed to leave it for a while. Needless to say, I never got it back. 6 months ago, there I was in a thrift store, perusing the used books, and I saw  copy of Lidie Newton on the rack for $2. Hooray! I took it home, ran a hot bath, and started reading. I forgot the book when I went to get my pajamas, and when I came back, my two new puppies had eaten the entire middle half of the book. :( So, flash forward to Christmas, when my daughter bought me a new copy of the book. And thankfully, I got to finish this one! And it's still in one piece!

Lidie Newton is the story of a woman who marries an abolitionist and moves to Kansas at the height of hostilities between the pro-slavery and abolitionist movements. Lidie Newton is a true historical fiction piece, but with a strong emphasis on the history. Set in Lawrence, KS, just before Quantrill's Raid, Lidie Newton features characters and places that are familiar to anyone familiar with Kansas history, but it's also a love story (of a sort) and an adventure story, featuring a strong female protagonist. Jane Smiley, the author, is a product of the renowed Iowa Writer's Workshop and the winner of the Pulitzer for A Thousand Acres, and she shows clearly her acumen in the midwest aesthetic. She gets the voices right, she gets the emotions right. This book, even though it's set 150 years in the past, feels as honest as any contemporary story. I couldn't recommend this book more!

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Jane Smiley

Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, is another book I've been trying to read for a long long while. I think I can wholeheartedly attest that Palahniuk's books are the most often-thieved tomes in any college library, maybe any library. I've searched high and low for library copies of any of Palahniuk's books, and come up empty each time. Whenever I find them second-hand, since that's how I buy most of my books, I buy them. This year, also for Christmas, my son bought me my very own copy of  Fight Club, and it was well worth the wait. This book was familiar, as I have heard Chuck reading the short story that eventually became the novel, but of course, there was a lot more of it. Palahniuk's voice, as always, as I've come to expect, is fragmented, sarcastic, ironic, but always unforgettable. I find the more of Chuck I read, the more I want to read.

Although I liked Fight Club, I still have to count Diary as my favorite book of Palahniuk's. But that's like saying "Billy Budd" is my 2nd favorite Herman Melville :) 

Fight Club: A Novel

Chuck Palahniuk

I stole this from Cori -- thanks :)

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I prefer trade paperbacks, but since I buy most of my books secondhand, I'll take what I can get. My biggest gripe is the lack of margins in books -- I'm a note jotter, and I LOVE big wide margins for writing. I'd like to publish a line of books printed in just this manner.

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Brick & mortar.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
I like Barnes & Noble. However, I have a couple of used bookstores that I much prefer to either. Burwood Books (Beatrice, NE) is housed in the historic Burwood Hotel downtown, a beautiful turn of the century place with three stories of used books. The Antiquarian in Omaha's Old Market District is much the same. Stacks of books everywhere, really reasonable prices. My only gripe is The Antiquarian's regular clientele smoke. A lot.

Bookmark or dogear?
Bookmark, usually of a haphazard variety: a kleenex, a gum wrapper, a leaf, or a grocery list will do. I've made beautiful bookmarks for friends & family for Christmas, but I usually don't have one.

Alphabetize by author or alphebetize by title or random? 
Maybe this is part of my problem. They're all grouped by subject: Great Plains literature, Native American literature, horror, short story collections, anthologies, 18th century British, 19th century American, etc...  

Keep, throw away, or sell? 
Keep. Unless I really really hate a book, it'll be mine forever. 

Keep dustjacket or toss it? 
I always keep them, but I flatten them and keep them on the top shelf. Just in case I end up with an accidental collectible :) 

Read with dustjacket or remove it?
I can't read with a dust jacket. 

Short story or novel? 
I love them all. I Iove the short story form -- so compact, so forceful. It's just beautiful how tiny details can paint a complete picture. But... when you find a novel that is fantastic, it's so lovely to get lost in that world and be able to stay there for days and weeks. 

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Again, I love them all! Collections are great when you're trying to get a feel for a particular author, pick up his idiosynchrasies and figure out "what's it all mean?!" Anthologies, though... of course you can never completely trust that you won't get an editor with an agenda, but the quality of literature in an anthology gives a really high bang for your buck. If you can only have one book, make it a Norton Anthology that's 4 inches thick!

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?  
 I've never read Lemony Snicket. I did love the Harry Potter series, but I'm glad to see it wound up.  

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I just stop whenever. I carry my books around with me, so I may read a half page while waiting in line, or 43 pages while eating my lunch.

"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?

"Dark and stormy!"

Buy or Borrow?
Depends on the book. I buy fiction and non-fiction related to things I'm especially interested in. I borrow non-fiction for research and school.

New or used? 
I love to sniff new books, but I love a used book too. I never buy one that stinks of basement though. 

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? 
I'll take any kind of recommendation, even if it's only a pretty cover.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Tidy endings.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? 
I read during carpooling, read at lunch, read while I'm eating, read in the bathtub, read before bed. 

Favorite series? 
Harry Potter, probably. I don't do many series. I remember liking the Green Mile series by Stephen King. 

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Ada the Ayrshire. :) This was a cartoon that ran in my farmer father's favorite magazine, "The Grass & Grain." We had an Ada comic book, and over the years, I never knew what happened to it. But at Burwell Books one afternoon, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I looked down and saw a copy of Ada. It cost 10 cents and is a priceless memento of my childhood. My kids think I'm odd. Who else would get so attached to a cow-comic?

Favorite books read last year? 
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy; The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick; Rachel Calof's Story, Rachel Calof; Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman. 

Favorite books of all time? 
On Writing, and Misery, Stephen King; Walden, Henry David Thoreau; The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck; My Antonia, Willa Cather;