Before Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon started, I set myself the goal of enjoying the experience, no matter how many books and pages I read and how many hours I lasted. Since this was my first go, I knew I’d be figuring things out and exploring the social media communities. For me, the point of participating was to …
The Center for Fiction has a lovely series called “The Book That Made Me a Reader.” It features acclaimed authors sharing their gateway books—the ones that inspired them to become readers. I love discovering what books moved authors as children and trying to find connections between that work and their work. As for me, I can …
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After a cold snap, a snowstorm, and a handful of rainy days, Sunday finally delivered some April-worthy weather. I took advantage of the sunny day by going for a long walk in Westport, Connecticut.
For some book lovers, a list of major no-nos would go something like this: Do not dog-ear a book’s pages. Do not dribble coffee/tea/wine on your book. Ditto foodstuffs. Do not break a book’s spine. Do not allow the dust jacket to be torn or otherwise defiled. Do not deface the margins by scrawling your (likely inferior) …
I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out which Gilmore Girls episode features The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby’s delightful collection of book pieces. Music by The Polyphonic Spree is featured in “Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller” (season 5, episode 1), but I have yet to find a reference to Hornby’s book. Was its inclusion on the …
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It’s a curious exercise, thinking about why something moved you. Reading Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie* last weekend, I wondered, Why can’t I stop the water from leaking out of my eyes?! (Something that also tends to happen when I read Brian Selznick’s books!) It wasn’t just during the sad bits, either. It was non-stop waterworks and …
Do spoilers ruin a reading experience or just change it? Does knowing what’s coming in a story put one off reading it? Thinking about these questions reminds me of something one of my favorite professors once said. It was during a Jane Austen seminar, and we were discussing Austen’s endings. “Reading a Jane Austen novel …
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Groundhog Day makes for a festive mid-winter distraction, when it’s not going horribly wrong. But it’s not exactly the stuff around which writers have penned great books. It does, however, provide the backdrop for one of my favorite films, “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Murray plays self-absorbed Phil Connors who is grudgingly sent …
Continue reading ““Groundhog Day” as Expressed by 7 Revered Writers”
Charles Dickens packs the whole world into David Copperfield, his classic, autobiographical novel that presents as the autobiography of David Copperfield (meta alert), from his birth through adulthood.
Years ago, I took a Victorian poetry class with a professor who looked like Satan dressed up as Colonel Sanders. He was elfishly tiny and wore an ecru linen suit, complete with black string tie. His neatly trimmed beard created a perfect “V” from his laugh lines to his chin. Among these distinctive features were …
