Currently, I'm sifting through books and scripts, trying to decide what to read next, and with Heart-A-Rama getting closer I confess there has been little significant reading going on, so I decided to borrow from Shelf Awareness, the daily missive I receive from one of my trade organization.
Once a week (or so) the editors post a list of questions to a featured writer. Their answers are often surprising, always insightful, and add to the books on my "want to read" list. While I don't fancy my answers having an impact, this exercise will serve as a sort of mental jog; maybe you'll try it, too.
So....let's get going...............................
On your nightstand right now.....
Well, I don't read in bed, but I do have a book pile on a chest near a window. That's where my favorite reading chair is - a cushy chair perfect for long afternoons with the sun warming my back or the rain splashing on the pane. (No more snow, please). Among others on that pile I have a Patricia Cornwell mystery, and a book about decluttering my life.
Favorite book as a child....
Once I figured out how to read and moved past Flicka, Ricka and Dicka, and the Snipp, Snapp and Snurr series, I turned to books with strong or strange girls characters - Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker. I gave Nancy Drew a whirl when a friend gave me the second book in the series as a birthday gift. I think it was one of her discards, but that's OK. Nancy was brave.
Top five authors.....
Steinbeck, A.A. Milne, Hawthorne (short stories only), Jennifer Chevalier...and an evolving list of contemporary authors, usually whomever I am currently reading.
Books I've faked reading.....
Oedipus, twice. Once in high school and once in college. Wouldn't you know that when I began teaching it showed up on the curriculum guide for a class I was teaching in Theatre history. What a rich play filled with archetypes. My students loved to play the connect it to Oedipus game. No matter what play we read,they were able to find connections to Oed - some solid, some silly.
Book bought for the cover
Right. I've been burned so many times doing this I can't begin to list them all.
Book that changed my life....
Can't think of one but I do have a sort of funny story about this concept. Way back in the 90's, I was at a meeting, and after business was done and informal chatter began, someone enthusiastically told us about a book that had done just as the question posed - he claimed it changed his life. He carried on for a long time, never revealing too much about the content, but speaking with passion. The next day I went out and bought the book, as did several other people. I read it. I read it again. And again. Nothing. Dull. Boring. Where, I wondered, was all the magic? And when I next ran into the individual, I asked him what impacted him so much. He laughed an obnoxiously huge belly laugh and said that it was honestly the worst book he had ever read; he then confessed that he was trying out some marketing skills he had learned recently in a business class. Yup. He's now one of two millionaires who sometimes let me rub shoulders with them.
Five favorite books from the past year....
Well, the year is still pretty new so I might cheat and include a couple from last year....
At the Edge of the Orchard
Little Women
Father Bruce
Scents and Sensibility
...and I know I will enjoy Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which is my book group selection for May.
Have some fun with this. Other questions include books you hid from your parents, books you're an advocate for, book you'd like to read again for the first time......
Posts might be random for a while....Heart-A-Rama season has begun!
Thanks for stopping by.
