The person who says that reading is a solitary activity just hasn’t met the right people. Let one reader encounter another and time can stand still while they share the pleasures of their respective literary adventures, from their earliest recollections of story to the book they just put down. Reading is an activity that allows one to go on a journey with a group of friends the world over. This is more true than ever with the advent of book blogs. But even before the internet made it possible for us to share our passion for the written word with people all over the world, we were a community. I have read novels that are over 100 years old…the same road I traveled down has been traversed by many before me, from all walks of life…we shared the same road and yet all had unique adventures on that road with the same cast of characters. The knowledge of that kind of shared experience can be staggering if you take the time to ponder it.
The ease with which we can communicate with one another today has taken this idea of community to an entirely new level, and one of the people who helped form that community was Dewey. Many of you know that Dewey passed away last year and in her honor the book blog community has continued many of the events that she was a part of, one being the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon, now renamed Dewey’s Read-a-thon. This event occurs once in April and once in October. In the past I have not been able to participate due to being out of town on each occasion. This time it will be different.
–1970, W.W. Norton and Company
–458 pages
–4.5/5 stars
Upon seeing Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World for the first time last year and listening to various people on the DVD extras discuss the books and the relationship between Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, I most ardently wished to read these books. After watching the film again this past Thursday, and sharing it with my daughter for the first time, the mood struck again and this time there was no recourse. I had to give Patrick O’Brian a try and I had to do it now. Several libraries and two bookstores later, I procured my very own copy. I shipped off yesterday morning and have just now returned from a most satisfying voyage into Patrick O’Brian’s imaginings of the Age of Sail. Most satisfying.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ~Haruki Murakami
–2008, Alfred A. Knopf
–180 pages
–4/5 stars
In 1982, Haruki Murakami did two things–he began writing, and he began running. For more than 25 years he has not ceased doing either activity and both have brought him degrees of success and pleasure. In this, a memoir of sorts, Haruki Murakami uses the framework of running to showcase his view of life over the last two and a half decades and in so doing shares a variety of things with the reader that reveal at least some of the reasons that he writes unforgettable, hauntingly beautiful novels.
I have not participated in the Mailbox Monday or Library Loot posts this year, but since giving in to temptation over the last few weeks in regards to book purchasing AND going crazy with library check outs, I decided to join in the festivities today. Book porn of a different nature, as it were. Happy belated Easter to everyone and, of course, happy Monday!
“Two years of reading begat by more reading, presented in easily digestible, utterly hysterical monthly installments”
The title tag nearly says it all, and its truth held very true with me: reading one collection of Nick Hornby’s Believer columns begat reading another! His second collection was not available at my local bookstore or the library system and so I went straight to the finale and picked up–and need I say, devoured–Shakespeare Wrote For Money.
As much as I enjoyed The Polysyllabic Spree, I enjoyed this one even more.
