The Reading Life – Page 3

October 6, 2016May 30, 2017

Happy National Poetry Day!

At the end of Elif Batuman’s memoir The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, she writes—and I promise this won’t spoil the book should you choose to read it:

“If I could start over today, I would choose literature again. If the answers exist in the world or in the universe, I still think that’s where we’re going to find them.”

This may, for me, have been the best line in a book full of great lines, and I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate ending for her memoir, which weaves literary analysis with artfully crafted, incisive portraits of writers, scholars, literary landmarks, and personal experiences.

Maybe answers are possible through literature because of its ability to make us feel deeply, which in the practical world can cause pain and so we try to prevent ourselves from doing it. And literature can prompt understanding of otherness by plunging us into the other’s experience, which can also be scary and painful and thus something we may try to avoid.

Despite my deep faith in literature to prompt empathy and insight, poetry and I have never been the closest of confidantes. Lately, I’ve taken to thinking of poetry as I would an acquaintance admired from afar, that one inscrutable person who, when you speak with her or hear what he’s been doing, you’re impressed. But somehow, you can never get past the surface pleasantries when in that person’s presence.

I’m thinking about this today because it’s National Poetry Day. Out of deference to my enigmatic acquaintance and in honor of the day, I offer three personal favorites:

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

This melancholy but beautiful poem renders an experience universal to all living things. How often can we say of eight lines that they speak to all living beings?

“This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams

The first reason I fell in love with this poem is it made me laugh (though I probably shouldn’t!). Upon closer inspection, I marvel at its exquisite construction.

“13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens

For me, this evocative poem is interwoven with the experience of reading it one stanza at a time on the Wallace Stevens Walk in Hartford.

What are a few of your favorite poems for national poetry day or any day?

September 20, 2016May 30, 2017

The Reading Life: Lifestyle or cultural pursuit?

If you had to pick just one, would you call reading a lifestyle or a cultural pursuit?

This week, I’ve been mulling over whether reading is primarily a lifestyle or primarily a cultural pursuit. Writing that sentence annoyed me. Because why must it be either/or? These false binaries are, irritatingly, everywhere.

However, for the sake of filing newspaper stories, practical decisions have to be made. Does a story on, for example, hot new releases belong under the heading “Culture” or “Lifestyle”? How about coverage of an author event? What about an essay about rereading a classic, or the latest literary fiction, or a juicy new murder mystery that will keep you up too late, rendering you sleep-deprived and grumpy at work the next day?

The issue has been on my mind since last week, when I finally broke down and read Alexander McCall Smith’s The Revolving Door of Life, book 10 in the 44 Scotland Street series. For anyone keeping track, it came out in February, and it’s now September. Continue reading “The Reading Life: Lifestyle or cultural pursuit?”

September 16, 2016September 13, 2018

Homer’s The Odyssey: How I chose which translation to read

Note: I wrote this before the publication of Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey. My thoughts on it are here.

“You know what the ancients said…”

Growing up, I heard this phrase more times than I can count. The “ancients” referred to the ancient Greek philosophers, poets, playwrights, etc. I don’t know if this is true in all Greek families, but in mine, ancient wisdom was standard fare.

One bit I remember my dad repeating (and he still has to remind me from time to time): Πάν μέτρον Άριστον. Everything in moderation. First he’d say it in Greek, then in English. It’s an important message, so it bears repeating! I’ve also seen the Greek phrase translate to “Moderation in all things.” The basic idea is the same: Maintain a sense of proportion in life. It’s a pretty excellent motto, really. (We could you some of that these days, yes?)

Getting to the implied question in my title (finally): When I first began reading The Odyssey, I shuttled between Robert Fitzgerald’s translation and Robert Fagles’. I couldn’t decide which I preferred and often found myself rereading chapters to figure it out. As you can imagine … time consuming! The Odyssey was becoming an odyssey. Know what I mean? Continue reading “Homer’s The Odyssey: How I chose which translation to read”

August 9, 2016May 30, 2017

For National Book Lovers Day, 5 Reasons to Read

For National Book Lovers Day, 5 benefits of reading

The bookish interwebs are buzzing today with fun and funny tributes to National Book Lovers Day, celebrated on Aug. 9 each year.

For some of us (like me!), every day is book lovers day. But I feel the spirit of setting aside one day a year to acknowledge and celebrate what you treasure. I mean, if grilled cheese sandwiches and yo-yos get a day, then books deserve one too, am I right?

To honor the occasion, I offer five great reasons to cultivate a love of books and invite you to share yours in the comments! Continue reading “For National Book Lovers Day, 5 Reasons to Read”

July 29, 2016May 30, 2017

I thought I was book quitter until I checked the stats

I thought this was going to be a piece in which I gleefully recount my exploits as a book quitter. Except I haven’t actually quit on many books this year.

I thought this was going to be a piece in which I gleefully recount my exploits as a book quitter. I say “gleefully” because I heartily advocate reading the books we want to read.

Outside the context of school or work requirements, reading isn’t a responsibility to anyone but oneself. So no one is obligated to finish a book or provide an explanation for why they didn’t. By all means, feel badly if you quit on hope and humanity. Feel badly for being hateful or impatient or selfish (to the extent that feeling badly inspires you to do better). But feeling badly about not finishing a book (or about what you read)? No. Full stop.

So there I was, all fired up, marching up and down my imaginary battlefield, brandishing my imaginary spear and, for whatever reason, imagining myself clothed in chain mail and a metal helmet. And then … a funny thing happened: I looked over my reading data and realized, Oh. I haven’t actually quit on many books this year. How inconvenient it is when empirical evidence contradicts what we want to believe. Ahem.

I stand by my message. It’s just that my lack of quitting has come as a surprise. At times this year, it has felt as if I was abandoning books with, well, abandon. Continue reading “I thought I was book quitter until I checked the stats”

June 29, 2016June 1, 2017

Reckoning with #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks in June

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks has challenged me to think about my reading habits and patterns as well as what I want for myself as a reader and what is realistic for me as a person.

We’ve arrived at the halfway point of 2016, and for me, that means the halfway point of my commitment to read my own books this year.

When I’ve done reading challenges before, they’ve been numbers based, along the lines of “I promise to read 100 books this year.” The numbers game hasn’t led to much reflection for me. Mostly, it’s led to anxiety about keeping up. #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks is the first yearlong challenge that has pushed me to think about my reading habits and patterns as well as what I want for myself as a reader and what is realistic for me as a person. I’ve reflected on these before, of course, but not in the context of an explicit challenge. In the process, I’ve learned quite a few lessons about reading, and myself. Continue reading “Reckoning with #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks in June”

June 20, 2016May 30, 2017

French Literature and me, in GIFs

Reading Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop earlier this month got me thinking about my relationship with French literature. Nothing distills complex emotional responses quite like a GIF...

Reading Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop earlier this month got me thinking about my relationship with French literature. Which is perhaps best summarized as, “It’s complicated.”

Nothing distills complex, at times ambivalent, at times frustrating, at times enchanting emotional responses quite like a GIF. Am I right?

Let’s begin! Continue reading “French Literature and me, in GIFs”

June 18, 2016May 30, 2017

How does reading change us?

While reading, I observe and interact with the world through another’s body and mind. Closing a book and returning into myself, I’m not quite the same person. I change from reading.

Growing up a voracious reader, I was drawn to books both for the beauty of the stories and language and for their power to transport and change me.

I mean “transport” in two ways. Books transport me to different times and places, and they transport me out of my self. While reading, I enter another’s body and mind, occupy another’s position in space and time, observe and interact with the world through another’s way of thinking. Which brings me to the change part: Closing a book and returning into myself, I’m not quite the same person. Continue reading “How does reading change us?”

May 27, 2016May 30, 2017

What makes a short story collection work?

In a successful short story collection, each story is an integral piece of a larger puzzle that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Short Story Month is celebrated in May, apparently. I only just discovered this a few days ago, perhaps because I read short stories at about the same rate I read poetry. Which is to say, not very often. (Though I might need to amend this where poetry is concerned as I’ve read three poetry books this year so far – quite a record for me!)

I can’t say the same about short stories. Helen Oyeyemi’s What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is on my list. The YA collection Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories caught my eye on Instagram recently. Stephanie Perkins edited it, and I adored her holiday YA collection, My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, the year before last. I haven’t acquired either yet, though. Continue reading “What makes a short story collection work?”

May 23, 2016May 30, 2017

Why I’m rereading Harry Potter, again

The world of Harry Potter shows me how to choose love, beauty, and meaning even when the world feels very dark indeed.

I’ve mentioned before that I first discovered the Harry Potter series when I was looking for a children’s book to read in Greek. This is because reading children’s books is one way I maintain my language skills (or try to, anyway).

The book engaged me so much that I ended up consuming it in one giant gulp, in English, before returning to work my way slowly through the Greek version, dictionary in hand. But it wasn’t until reading the third book, the Prisoner of Azkaban, that I well and truly fell in love with the series. That was when I began to see it as an allegory about growing up and becoming a grown-up, which has to do with taking responsibility for your life and choices, especially when they’re imperfect and undesirable. Continue reading “Why I’m rereading Harry Potter, again”