Readers Rock
Jun. 15th, 2004 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrdreamjeansI've been chatting with Robert (lowfatmuffin) in depth about a variety of subjects in the past couple of days and enjoy it immensely. One of the questions we've asked of each other is if we are readers. The answer for both of us is an emphatic yes. I've also been thinking about the relationships I've had and both guys were avid readers. I think readers rock!
I read constantly...anything I can get my hands on....fiction, biographies, political works, magazines, papers. You name it, I read it. I like to be informed; I like to know things; I want to write great things and have original thoughts. Reading is my escape and my continuing education. I can't imagine a world (and escaping to its world) without books; I can't imagine not finding the time to read or ever not making reading a priority.
When I was 11-13 years old, I was being teased constantly for being a sissy. Boys who can sing and dance and have fashion sense are often targets:) Reading was my escape and my salvation (not in a religious sense) from being out of sync with my peers. I figured - grind them into the ground with your intelligence, knowledge and ability to be the best. Readers often excel in the classroom and in testing. I think that is indisputable. At the very least, they have highly developed imaginations that can serve them well in diverse venues.
I still live with that desire to excel...still strive on some level to be the best, to prove the bullies were wrong...to feel worthy.... It stays with you....no matter how much your personal story changes.
The Boise Renaissance Man asked me what my favorite books are. I know that I love and have read and reread Anne Rice's "Cry to Heaven" and Alan Hollingshurst's "The Swimming Pool Library Club". I collect everything that Rita Mae Brown writes, as well as Janet Evanovich, Lillian Jackson Braun, Ellen Hart and Armistead Maupin. I really enjoy Robert Parker too. You can see the trend is toward mysteries and suspense. However, I also read dozens of political and theatrical biographies, enjoy historical fiction, Gay & Lesbian works, investment books, so I guess I have fairly catholic tastes.
Tim (BarakSF) loves fantasy and science fiction and a wide range of edgy literature. I know Tim (bluedevilsf) loves comics. (Is graphic novel an interchangeable term for this genre?) Are you a reader or do you prefer visual mediums such as film, DVD or television for entertainment and information?
If you are a reader, do you think it makes you a better writer? I know it makes me a better speller. I'd like to know if this activity is a quality of life issue for you. I know that, without books, my world would be a much more limited and limiting place.
I read constantly...anything I can get my hands on....fiction, biographies, political works, magazines, papers. You name it, I read it. I like to be informed; I like to know things; I want to write great things and have original thoughts. Reading is my escape and my continuing education. I can't imagine a world (and escaping to its world) without books; I can't imagine not finding the time to read or ever not making reading a priority.
When I was 11-13 years old, I was being teased constantly for being a sissy. Boys who can sing and dance and have fashion sense are often targets:) Reading was my escape and my salvation (not in a religious sense) from being out of sync with my peers. I figured - grind them into the ground with your intelligence, knowledge and ability to be the best. Readers often excel in the classroom and in testing. I think that is indisputable. At the very least, they have highly developed imaginations that can serve them well in diverse venues
I still live with that desire to excel...still strive on some level to be the best, to prove the bullies were wrong...to feel worthy.... It stays with you....no matter how much your personal story changes.
The Boise Renaissance Man asked me what my favorite books are. I know that I love and have read and reread Anne Rice's "Cry to Heaven" and Alan Hollingshurst's "The Swimming Pool Library Club". I collect everything that Rita Mae Brown writes, as well as Janet Evanovich, Lillian Jackson Braun, Ellen Hart and Armistead Maupin. I really enjoy Robert Parker too. You can see the trend is toward mysteries and suspense. However, I also read dozens of political and theatrical biographies, enjoy historical fiction, Gay & Lesbian works, investment books, so I guess I have fairly catholic tastes.
Tim (BarakSF) loves fantasy and science fiction and a wide range of edgy literature. I know Tim (bluedevilsf) loves comics. (Is graphic novel an interchangeable term for this genre?) Are you a reader or do you prefer visual mediums such as film, DVD or television for entertainment and information?
If you are a reader, do you think it makes you a better writer? I know it makes me a better speller. I'd like to know if this activity is a quality of life issue for you. I know that, without books, my world would be a much more limited and limiting place.
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Date: 2004-06-17 12:42 pm (UTC)Voracious reader? Could be my middle name. *grin*
Even though my English teacher at the time (my timebinding stinks, I can't remember if this was Jr. High or High School) knew I loved to read, I think I did shock her a bit when I mentioned that I'd read James Clavell's Shogun -- all ~1200 pages of it -- in one weekend, after the miniseries on TV had gotten me intrigued. For me, that's not unusual. If I don't have anything else I have to do, I can easily blast through several more ordinary length books in a weekend.
It's all my mother's fault, of course. She liked to sit me on her lap and hold the book in front of me when she read to me, something she did a LOT of. Mom had been a primary school teacher at one point in her life and had a very firm belief in the value of reading. I can only imagine her pleased surprise when she discovered a few months before my 4th birthday that she'd inadvertently taught me to read! As soon as I was old enough, I had a library card. When I started getting an allowance, an awful lot of it went for books.
Yup, I was one of the much-picked-on "four-eyes grind" type. One of my saviours in Jr. High was the school's librarian. At that school, unless one was there during class period with one's entire class, one had to have a pass signed by a teacher. This was to keep the place from becoming a secondary lunchroom/playground. Mr. Aita conferred a rare honor on me in giving me a permanent library pass -- signed by him and even laminated. There were a very few other students with this privilege, and like me they were all studious and voracious readers. I have a feeling Mr. Aita had been a picked-on kid and was doing what he could to give those of us he decided wouldn't abuse the privilege a haven the idjits couldn't penetrate.
I'm a big SF fan; my current favorite author is David Brin, whose writing is exquisitely artless in that you just become enraptured in the story; you don't remain at a remove thinking "My, what an interesting style he has." When I laid eyes on his then-just-released novel Kiln People -- in hardcover -- I promptly bought it.
Another favorite is Dorothy Gilman, best known for her Mrs. Pollifax novels, revolving around a sweet grandmother who winds up being one of the CIA's best couriers. ;) Most recently though, Ms. Gilman finally revisited a different character she'd only written one novel about previously -- Madame Karitska, who was featured in The Clairvoyant Countess and now in Kaleidoscope. I recommend all of her work, but I must say that another non-Pollifax favorite (and another batch of characters I wish she'd revisit!) is A Nun In The Closet (and no, that doesn't mean what you THINK it means!)
Comic books/graphic novels? Like anything, they can be brilliant or trash. Anyone who'd call Art Spiegelman's Maus anything other than true literature is a snob not worthy of being paid attention to. As for myself, I'm a big fan of Phil Foglio; I'm especially fond of his Buck Godot (http://www.studiofoglio.com/buck.html) series and his current project, Girl Genius (http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius.html). You can read #1 (http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius/issue1/cover.html) and #9 (http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius/Issue09/p00.html) online for free, because they're currently out of print. (And how cool is it that they DO that so people who arrived a bit late can follow the story!!)
And while I do read a lot, I'm also a fan of well done TV and movies. There's the aforementioned Shogun, as well as series such as M*A*S*H and Babylon 5. One of the most brilliant, subversive movies I've seen in the past few years is Legally Blonde -- if you haven't seen it, you need to.