A dock, a book, a drink and a view. Perfection
I don't really read to be challenged on my perceptions of the world or to get a commentary on society or political structures. Realistically, I either want to be entertained well or I want to learn something. So the books I read are more genre specific and fun with an occassional literary fiction selection.
Banned Books Week
If you’re plugged into the bookosphere, by now you may have heard of the craziness that is Rainbow Rowell being uninvited to speak at Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school, after members of the district’s Parents Action League deemed the Rowell’s breakout YA novel Eleanor & Park “dangerously obscene.” The”too hot for teens and taxpayer money” novel was ordered off school library shelves and there was a call to discipline the school librarians who chose the book.
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On Building Strong Stomachs
I teach only the best. What happens with great literature is that the shadows on the pages move around. So you read it when you’re 46, and you read it when you’re—I’m 63 now, and it’s moved. Great literature organically moves, and it never stays still. You don’t get tired of it, you just notice different things about it. What is intolerable is second- and third-rate literature, because it gives up all its secrets the first time. And the second time you read it, it’s all there; there’s nothing new. It’s like an Andy Warhol painting—you look at an Andy Warhol painting once, you can look at it a hundred times and there’s nothing new in it.
The Bittersweet
I'm sure you have been there; you discover an author that you didn't even know existed. You read one of their books, and now you have found a connection, a new love and something unknown becomes something to look forward to it.
If you are lucky, they have a bunch of books for you to read - maybe even a series with the same characters.
But then the thinkable, but always in denial, happens. You are suddenly on the last book, chapters away from now having anything more from this author to read! I even start to get a little sad knowing the end is in sight.
I have found a new author that I adore. Kevin Hearne. He even writes about the area I grew up in (Tempe, but for me it was the close by Goodyear, AZ). His books are hysterical, have tons of action, some interesting relationships, lots of strategy and some good advice - with fairies, gods/goddesses, coyote, myths, Celtic and druid traditions, and a reverence for the earth.
