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Posts from the ‘Thoughts on Reading’ Category

May 30

the-hobbit
10 Comments

5 Prequels With No Equals

Sorry about the title of this post. I just couldn’t help it.

Coming off having read Wide Sargasso Sea, I thought it might be fitting to talk about some of the more prominent prequels in literature.

I’ve got to admit: I’m a little leery of prequels. I think George Lucas might have ruined them for me with all of the Star Wars prequels. A lot of them, at least in the movie industry, feel a lot like money grabs to capitalize on the success of an earlier movie.

But after doing a little research, I realized there are some pretty good ones out there.

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May 22

words on page
26 Comments

How Fast Do You Read? Find Out.

Take a break today from all this mindless book banter and have a little fun.

Staples developed a cool little app to test your reading speed. Click on the image below to read a short, timed passage, and answer three simple questions to find out how fast you read.

Thankfully, because my one-year-old taught me so much about reading, I was above the national average. So I guess that’s a good thing. I’m guessing some of you guys are much faster readers than me, seeing how you read like 4 or 5 books at a time.

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May 2

skyrim
20 Comments

Can Books and Video Games Coexist?

Roger Ebert famously said “Video games can never be art.” Man, was he wrong. He was so, so, so wrong.

Let me explain my viewpoint. I own both an XBox and a Wii. And, while on vacation, I developed an unhealthy addiction to Angry Birds.

My love for video games started around the time I was 9 or 10, when the first Nintendo came out. I spent hours and hours and hours playing Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. and Metroid. As I’ve got older, got married, and had a kid, my video game playing has waned. I’m not one of those guys you’ll read about in the news who got divorced because of his addiction to World of Warcraft. That’s just insane.

When I started this book project, I basically decided to temporarily give up video games. I simply didn’t have time to work, read, write the blog, play with my son, spend time with my wife…and play an hour long game of Madden. That’s just not going to work. Something had to give. So for nearly 16 months, I didn’t touch a video game controller.

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Apr 26

beachreading
21 Comments

Beach Reading Strategy Revisited

Last week, I made a mistake.

My wife and I celebrated our anniversary by going on a Caribbean vacation that we’ve been planning for awhile. Obviously, that wasn’t the mistake.

Despite meticulously planning this trip for more than a year, I completely ignored one of my cardinal rules of beach reading—a subject we have discussed on this blog before.

I ignored the fact that some books simply aren’t beach reading material. Instead of looking for another book on the list, I took my current read, Under The Volcano, with me. And there was my mistake.

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Apr 20

coolbooks
18 Comments

An Ode To The Forgotten Book

For the first time in like 8 trillion days, I left my book at home one morning a few weeks ago.

This cruel realization struck me when I got in my car during my lunch break and noticed an empty passenger seat—the seat that usually provides warmth and comfort to my book of choice while I’m at work.

I felt broken, beaten, shattered and ashamed. Other than eat, what should I do for the next hour? How would I survive a lunch break without a book?

Yes, this is a “first world problem” at its finest. That said, I needed a gameplan…and fast!

So what did I do? I wrote the outline for this post—which means I didn’t actually do any of these things. But had I not wrote a post about doing these things, I would have certainly done one of these things. For sure. No doubt.

Five Things To Do At Lunch When You Forget Your Book

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Apr 13

8th-harry-potter-book
21 Comments

Confessions of a Recovering Contrarian

Allow me to vent for one second. May I?

For years, I was one of those people who didn’t read a book or watch a movie simply because “everyone else was doing it.” I was, and still am at times, a contrarian.

Yeah, I was a nonfiction snob, too, so I obviously had many issues. Nonetheless, I forged onward in my daily life, content to yell “nay!” to your “yay!” and “black!” to your “white!”

Then Harry Potter came around. Actually, my wife and her love of the Harry Potter books came around. And, one summer evening, either out of blinding love of my future spouse or out of sheer curiousity, I chose to read the first Harry Potter book.

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Mar 30

acceptance world
42 Comments

How Do You Read Two Books At Once?

I don’t know how you guys do it. A lot of you are able to juggle two, three, four books at a time–somehow managing to follow the story on each and not lose focus.

I already knew this fact, but this year is proving it even more: I have a hard time reading more than one book at a time. This year, 2012, is my year of “A Dance.” While I’m reading through the regular novels on the Time list, I’m also reading one book a month from A Dance To The Music Of Time–the Anthony Powell classic that was included as ONE novel on the List.

At 12 total books, that’s one book a month from “A Dance,” in addition to the other novels. So throughout 2012, I’ll always be reading two books at a time.

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Mar 23

4860959981_209d1142f8_z
25 Comments

Want To Write A Classic Novel? Here’s How.

Later this year, I’ll cross the halfway point of this somewhat epic journey. So far, I’ve loved the experience. More than just the reading and the writing, getting to discuss great books with you guys has been awesome.

Along the way, I’ve discovered some reoccurring themes in these novels. This isn’t groundbreaking stuff, you might have heard it before, but I thought I’d try and put my spin on what you need to include in the great novel you want to write some day.

So all you budding novelists out there, take heed. Make sure you include the following in your manuscript. Almost all the classics have at least a few of these:

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Mar 21

benfolds
28 Comments

Songs That Could Be Novels

I listen to Ben Folds a lot while I’m running.

A lot of reasons for that. His songs have a nice tempo for running and they’re upbeat. But the more I listen, the more I appreciate how good of a storyteller Ben Folds can be with his songs.

In fact, some of his songs are like mini novels. They have characters and tension and even resolution.

We’ve talked about great literary bands before, but what about songs? One of my favorite Ben Folds songs is “Fred Jones, Part 2″–a slower song (not necessarily great for running) about an older guy who gets laid off from newspaper he’s working at for 25 years.

The lyrics:

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Mar 9

confuseddude
8 Comments

The Readers Guide To Overcoming A Bad Memory (In 5 Easy Steps!)

A Tuesday morning. 6:30 a.m.

Me: “My jacket! It’s 25 degrees outside. Honey, I have you seen my jacket?”

A Wednesday afternoon. 2:20 p.m.

Wife: “You forgot to go by the Publix at lunch to get more diapers, didn’t you?”

A Thursday morning. 8:00 a.m.

Brother: “When do you plan on sending me a check for the fantasy football league?”

A Monday evening. 8:45 p.m.

Me: “I have no idea what the chapter I read last night was about. Crap. What did I read last night?”

All of the above has happened, though the names, times and places might have changed to protect the innocent.

You see, my memory sucks. Maybe your memory sucks too.

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