Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? Which would you rather read?
Either. It really depends on the story and how it fits. I have found some of the long pen pal letters I have gotten even better than some boring books I Have read.So really it depends on everything.
spent the day with my friend’s twins the other day. Twins who are learning to read, sounding out the words, trying to make sense of the stories in their books, and it made me nostalgic for when I learned. I still remember the distinct moment that the concept of reading clicked, with a meglomaniacal realization that, all I needed to do was learn the words and I could read anything in the whole world. (That’s my kind of world domination.)
Do you remember learning to read? What’s your earliest reading memory?
I do not remember learning to read. My Mom says that I learned very early. My earliest reading memory is sitting on my Dad in the living room. He was in a flannel shirt and I was reading Hop on Pop.
Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)
It depends on the book and my frame of mind. I set aside my Dead in Dallas book and have been reading the Black Stallion Series again.
Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?
I like both. It depends on the book some books are best suited for straight up prose and some are better for the images of prose. As long as the prose suits the book setting I like both.
How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?
I love maps and sketches and any kind of little pictures in my books. I find that they go along with the story and help me feel more connected to the characters. It is always nice to have something to bring you farther in.
In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?
More importantly, have you read them?
How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?
I do not have any grammar book or writing books or any stylebooks. I do plan to get some writing books however in the future. I think it would be a wise tool.
I am not that fussy about grammar however I do feel that it is important. Language skills in general and writing more importantly are really falling away in today’s society and that is a sad thing. We need to stop being so language lazy. I am guilty of that myself and I am striving to become better at it.
I’ve seen this quotation in several places lately. It’s from Sven Birkerts’ ‘The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age’:
“To read, when one does so of one’s own free will, is to make a volitional statement, to cast a vote; it is to posit an elsewhere and set off toward it. And like any traveling, reading is at once a movement and a comment of sorts about the place one has left. To open a book voluntarily is at some level to remark the insufficiency either of one’s life or one’s orientation toward it.”
To what extent does this describe you?
Sounds like someone put a lot of thought into that. I suppose it is somewhat correct with me. Truly I read for the enjoyment of it, I read for the stories, I read to work my brain I read because I like the feel of a book in my hands the smell of the pages.
You may have noticed–the Winter Olympics are going on. Is that affecting your reading time? Have you read any Olympics-themed books? What do you think about the Olympics in general? Here’s your chance to discuss!
It has affected my reading time because I have been watching the Olympics. I am not a huge sports person but it seems when I am watching the Olympics I enjoy it and I cannot focus on much else. I have not read anything that is Olympic themed but I would be interested in finding a few books on the subject.
How can you encourage a non-reading child to read? What about a teen-ager? Would you require books to be read in the hopes that they would enjoy them once they got into them, or offer incentives, or just suggest interesting books? If you do offer incentives and suggestions and that doesn’t work, would you then require a certain amount of reading? At what point do you just accept that your child is a non-reader?
In the book Gifted Hands by brilliant surgeon Ben Carson, one of the things that turned his life around was his mother’s requirement that he and his brother read books and write book reports for her. That approach worked with him, but I have been afraid to try it. My children don’t need to “turn their lives around,” but they would gain so much from reading and I think they would enjoy it so much if they would just stop telling themselves, “I just don’t like to read.”
Well I do not have any kids of my own and both of my step kid’s love books so not an issue there. However, if I did have a child who was a non-reader I think I would select books that went for their interests. I have always been a reader I cannot honestly remember a time when I was not interested in books. My sister was a different story however, she took a while to warm up to books and I remember many summers when I was baby sitting her I would purposely select a few books from the library that were more her interests. Sometimes she did start reading them.
Now she reads a lot. I like to think I helped.
The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?
It depends on what kind of mood I am in, and what is going on. I usually do not want to read books that are specifically set in winter though. Mostly because I am already freezing and stuck in the snow so why do, I want to go there in my books too (on purpose). However, as far as genre it really does not matter what time of year it is, it is all about what I am in the mood for. I just finished a chic lit book and now I am onto something semi historical.
