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Posts from the ‘Reposts’ Category

Dec 31

jessica redfield
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#1 in 2012

From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, I’ll be recapping the top 5 posts from 2012 on 101 Books. 101 Books will return live on January 2nd, 2013!

Today’s post, “The Aurora Tragedy: When Life & Art Intersect,” was originally posted on July 25. 

The Top Post from 2012: The Aurora Tragedy: When Life & Art Intersect

I’ll do my best to keep today’s post on subject. To me, it makes sense how this relates to the theme of my blog. I hope it does to you too.

As I put together some of my last few posts about The Bridge of San Luis Rey over the weekend, a book that details the lives of people who fall to their deaths in the collapse of a rope bridge in Peru, I was reminded again about the randomness of tragedy.

Just last week, I posted about how this novel experienced a rebirth after September 11, when Tony Blair quoted a passage from the book during a memorial service for the victims of 9/11.

On the heels of the awful events in Aurora, Colorado last week, this novel seems relevant yet again.

In The Bridge, Thornton Wilder reminds us that any one of us could’ve been on that bridge, just like any one of us could have been watching Batman in that Aurora theater.

Wilder, through the main character Brother Juniper, attempts to explain the “why” of tragedy. Why were those 5 people on that bridge? What brought them all together at that moment? Why wasn’t it someone else?

Brother Juniper begins a process of going back through their lives, telling their stories, and trying to make sense of their deaths. It’s no surprise that a question of that magnitude doesn’t bring an answer that will satisfy everyone.

It’s a messy question with a messy answer—actually there is no real answer. I don’t think any human mind can ever understand why crap like this happens.

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Dec 28

dictionary
2 Comments

#2 In 2012

From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, I’ll be recapping the top 5 posts from 2012 on 101 Books. 101 Books will return live on January 2nd, 2013!

Today’s post, “7 Annoying Words That Should Die A Horrible Death,” was originally posted on March 2. 

#2 In 2012: 7 Annoying Words That Should Die A Horrible Death

Time Magazine recently released a list of 15 words that should die in 2012. The list included some rather annoying, trendy words and phrases from 2011—like baby bump, occupy (wait, wasn’t that Time’s word of the year?), bro (as in “bromance” and “bro date”), and sexting.

Those, indeed, are extremely annoying words. But I think I can do better. As an avid book reader, writer, and Twitterererer, I’d like to think I know a few things about words.

So, with a tip of the cap to our friends at Time, I present 7 trendy words or phrases that should die a miserable death in 2012. (Of note, this list is different from the words that make me cringe—which are time-honored words that have been auditory nuisances since they were first spoken).

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Dec 27

snob
5 Comments

#3 In 2012

From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, I’ll be recapping the top 5 posts from 2012 on 101 Books. 101 Books will return live on January 2nd, 2013!

Today’s post, “How To Know If You’re A Book Snob,” was originally posted on June 8. 

#3 In 2012: How To Know If You’re A Book Snob

At different points in my life, like maybe right now, I’ve confessed to being a book snob. For the longest time, I gave up fiction…because what can you learn from fiction? I was a nonfiction snob…and a contrarian, too.

These days, as is obvious, I’m all about fiction. But now I fight back my snobbiness in other ways—like my disdain for the Twilight series or my love of the printed book.

So, yeah, I tend to have snobby reader tendencies. And since I can speak from authority, I came up with this short, marginally helpful guide, to help you determine whether or not you, too, are a snobby reader.

Here are the signs.

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Dec 26

shakespeare
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#4 In 2012

From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, I’ll be recapping the top 5 posts from 2012 on 101 Books. 101 Books will return live on January 2nd, 2013!

Today’s post, “Shakespeare On The Coffee Table,” was originally posted on June 14. 

#4 In 2012: Shakespeare On The Coffee Table

When my wife and I were dating, I wanted to impress her with my scholarliness.

I owned this massive green, hardback book that included the entire work of Shakespeare. All of it. This thing was enormous. I don’t exaggerate when I say it weighed a few pounds. Each page must have been one-tenth the thickness of a normal page. The type was tiny.

After taking a 400 level Shakespeare class in college, I decided to keep “Mean Green,” as we affectionately called it, instead of selling it back because…you never know when I might need to beat an armed robber over the head with a little King Lear.

But a few years later, in the height of my bachelordom, I decided to pull Mean Green out of my bookcase and place it on the center of the coffee table in the den of my one-bedroom apartment.

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Dec 24

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#5 In 2012

From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, I’ll be recapping the top 5 posts from 2012 on 101 Books. 101 Books will return live on January 2nd, 2013!

Today’s post, “If Famous Authors Were Football Players,” was originally posted on September 7.

#5 In 2012: If Famous Authors Were Football Players

A famous philosopher once said, “Football is an awesome sport.” And I agree.

In the last few days, football (the American version) has kicked off here in the States. To me, it’s like the Christmas season in September. College games kicked off last Saturday, and the NFL starts in full force on Sunday.

You might remember how, last year, I posted about the art of reading while watching football. It’s a talent few have. Today, I’d like to combine my love of reading and football into one of the weirdest posts in the history of this blog.

Have you ever wondered what if famous authors were football players? Of course you have. Well, wonder no more. Instead, imagine with me, if you will, a world in which talented writers charge on to the gridiron.

What position would they play?

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Jul 6

coolbooks
11 Comments

Repost: 5 Things I’ve Learned About Book Blogging

It’s rerun week at 101 Books! Today’s post originally appeared on November 18, 2011. 101 Books will return live on Monday July 9. 

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So I’ve been at this for nearly 15 months now, and I’m still enjoying it as much as the day I started.

If you didn’t know (and why would you?)  this is my third attempt at a blog. The first was a rambling personal blog that I didn’t promote and really didn’t care to. The second one was a golf blog that I updated 1-2 times a week and, at least for awhile, felt like I got into a flow of niche blogging.

But I’ve never enjoyed blogging like I do now. I don’t think you can write posts 5 days a week unless you enjoy doing it. If you’re not having fun, you’ll burn out and begin dreading sitting down at the computer. Believe me, I know.

But even though the blog is just part of this project–the other, of course, is reading 101 books–I feel the blog is almost more fun, just barely, than reading the books.

And along the way, I’ve learned a lot about blogging–and, more specifically, book blogging. This isn’t life-changing stuff you’ve never heard. But experience really is the greatest teacher, and this experience has taught me a lot.

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Jul 5

dalloway

Repost: Book #13: Mrs. Dalloway

It’s rerun week at 101 Books! Today’s post originally appeared on March 21, 2011. 101 Books will return live on Monday July 9. 

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Get your pitchforks ready. Find a stake you can set fire to. Get ready to riot and burn an effigy of me.

Because I’m about to be honest: I didn’t like Mrs. Dalloway. There, I said it. I’ve probably committed some kind of literary heresy by admitting this, but I’ve got to keep it real, as the kids say.

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Jul 3

FrenchLieutWoman
14 Comments

Repost: 101 Books Guide To Carrying An Embarrassing Book In Public

It’s rerun week at 101 Books! Today’s post originally appeared on August 1, 2011. 101 Books will return live on Monday July 9. 

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Here’s the situation: You’ve got a book with a questionable cover—nothing dirty. You’re just a little self-conscious about this book’s cover when you carry it in public.

Maybe you’re a guy who likes Danielle Steel novels. Or maybe you’re a girl who enjoys the occasional foray into Fabio-inspired grocery store romance novels. Hey, whatever floats your boat, right?

But if you want to take the book out on your lunch break, you might be a little leery of letting fellow diners know about your Fabio obsession.

If you’ll remember from earlier this year, I encountered this whole carrying an “embarrassing”-book-in-public issue while reading a Judy Blume book. Now, I’m facing it to a slighter degree with The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

So, using The French Lieutenant’s Woman as an example, I’ve come up with a few book carrying techniques that may or may not help you work around this problem.

The Confident Carry

With this approach, you are taking on the world. You’re saying, “I know you see the barechested woman with flowing hair on this cover, and I don’t care.” If you’re bold enough and confident enough in your reading selections to use this technique, then pat yourself on the back. You’ll go far in life.

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Jul 2

littlemanreading
5 Comments

Repost: Reading Tips From A One-Year-Old

It’s rerun week at 101 Books! Today’s post originally appeared on February 3, 2012. 101 Books will return live on Monday July 9. 

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One-year-old kids are an observant lot.

How do I know? I have one of those little beings, and he’s like a sponge.

See daddy reading? I want to read! See mommy doing yoga? I want to make my head appear as if it’s coming out of my knee! Watch this!

Toddlers are basically a miniature, peanut-buttered face version of you. Don’t let them fool you into thinking they are anything less. My little guy doesn’t realize it, but I’m on to him, too. I watch him like he watches me.

And I’ve realized that he’s a treasure trove of reading tips. You might not know it, but a one-year-old can teach you a lot about reading. Can he really read, you ask? Oh, stop it with the silly questions.

Of course he can(not) read. But that doesn’t mean he’s not an excellent teacher. Here’s just a light sampling of the tips I’ve picked up from my little guy:

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Dec 30

Are-you-there-God-its-me-Margaret-ebook-2010-04-13
6 Comments

Revisiting 2011: Book #15: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

This week, I’m revisiting some of my favorite posts from 2011 while I take a one-week break from writing and simply focus on reading and spending time with my family. This post was originally published on April 4, 2011. 101 Books will return live on Monday January 2. See you then!

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Unspeakable things happen in a labor and delivery room. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. With my eyes.

June 16, 2010 was the day my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world, a little boy. On that day, I was certain, absolutely certain, that I would never again–or at least until we have a second child–experience what it means to be a woman like that.  Lights. Voices. Blood. Fluids. Apparatuses. God only knows what else.

This whole giving birth thing is pretty intense, I thought.  I could never do that. Thank God for women.

So I thought I had pretty much experienced the essence of womanhood. But, oh no. Dear Lord, no. Thanks to Judy Blume’s epic tale, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I learned that there’s much more to being a woman than childbirth.

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