One of the many gifts my father has given me is my love for books and reading. So it seems fitting, this father’s day, to highlight some of the loveable dads, and dad figures, I’ve met in books. In many cases, I admire them because the qualities I love in my own dad (and there are many because he’s an excellent father and human) echo in them.
Some I’ve met this year. Some have been in my heart for many years. Each has inspired me in his own way. Continue reading “12 lovable literary dads”
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?”
It has been another slow week of reading for me, though for different reasons than last week. On the *plus* side, I’m excited to have finally finished reading a book that was languishing on my “currently reading” list for the last month.
All credit to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for WWW Wednesday and inspiring me to continue writing about what I’m reading every week.
What are you currently reading? Continue reading “Wednesday Reading Roundup: June 15”
This week has been a bear. And I don’t mean a cute, Winnie-the-Pooh-getting-stuck-in-a-doorjamb-because-he-ate-too-much-honey bear. It’s been a giant, hungry, roaring, why-did-you-wake-me-up-from-my-hibernation bear of a week.
All this is to say, reading time has been scarce. I’ve gotten some listening in while walking and driving, and I managed a few chapters before sleepy time most nights this week. Put all together, not many pages have been read.
Well anyway, here is the full, if slim, tally for WWW Wednesday, with thanks (as always!) to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats: Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: June 8”
Happy new month, readers! My May reading goal was to smash my stack. I haven’t so much smashed as gently nudged it. To be fair, though, it’s a gargantuan stack. On the plus side, I promised to read at least 80 percent of my own books this month, and I exceeded that goal. I read 10 books, nine of them my own. Thank you to JMill Wanders’ Take Back Your Stack Readathon for the final push!
Books I read: Continue reading “The unabridged list of what I read in May”
I love reading excellent short books. I love reading big books too. But when it comes to Readathons, excellent short books take the win. As a slow reader, I can read them straight through and still read them well. Plus, I love that feeling of reading a whole book in a single day. Putting it down and getting off the sofa feels like getting off a long plane journey. I’m blinking and disoriented, and the world looks different, new.
This weekend (May 28 – 30) I’m participating in the Take Back Your Shelves Readathon, hosted by Jenna from JMill Wanders. It’s a reader’s choice affair, so I’m taking the opportunity to finish May’s “Smash Your Stack” challenge strong. At the head of my list this weekend is a fun short book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (the second in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series). I began it last night and am keeping my options open for what I’ll read next. My one caveat is that it’ll be a book I already own (because #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks).
For other readers who enjoy short books, whatever the reason(s), here is a (second) list of 15 short books I’ve enjoyed or am looking forward to reading (maybe even this weekend!). Continue reading “15 (more) short books for #TBYSReadathon”
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!)
Another Wednesday, another opportunity to share my reading roundup. Many thanks, as always, to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for the inspiration!
This month’s reading challenge is to “smash your stack,” and I’m doing my level best. So far, I’m sticking to my promise to read only my own books, the one exception being Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn for my book club (well done, me!). Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: May 25”
A few months ago, I wrote about three ways to shake up your book club with new approaches, inspired by my numerous and varied failed book club attempts.
My current book club operates on the traditional “let’s all read the same book” principle. Still, I can think of many groups I’ve participated in that might have survived if we hadn’t put that particular pressure on ourselves. This is especially true when we didn’t share the same taste in books or the same goals for our book discussions.
I love talking about books and hearing what everyone is reading. In the spirit of creating community (and social events!) around books and reading, here are four more suggestions. They’re tailor-made for readers looking for a social night out and some casual book chatting but without the restrictions of reading a single book. Continue reading “Four (more) alternatives to a traditional book club”
Happy hump day reading! Taking on a World of Words is hosting this fun meme, which I first discovered at Coffee and Cats. It asks three simple but ever alluring questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
They’re alluring questions because … because … oh well, I can’t help myself:
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a book lover in possessions of three current reads and 500+ of her own damn books* must be in want of more book suggestions. Or something.
Now that’s out of the way… Continue reading “Fun Wednesday meme: Three WWWs”
