Should adults be reading books supposedly aimed at children and teenagers? According to the literary establishment in 2014, this is a question fraught with difficulty. But is it really as hard as all that?
“For readers of all genders and of all ages, I think what it really comes down to is the idea that every time a book is read, it’s read differently. We have different ways to ground ourselves in the text – backgrounds, sets of references, desires and preferences and biases. And those backgrounds and preferences determine the way we read – how we choose to engage, what kinds of conversations we have, what we’re after from the written word. I can read the same book as someone half my age or twice my age, adult or YA or any other label you want to saddle it with, and, in a way, we’re each reading a different book: we find the same book, the places we overlap, in the “conversation”, whether that’s a fannish one or not. In any ridiculous literary debate, where one kind of book is privileged over another, perhaps the problem lies in an inability to see these other readers, to acknowledge that another person’s unique reading DNA makes them just as capable as you to read any book in an intellectually rigorous way – or, on the flip side of that, to find any book pleasurable to read.”
“Considering how we evolve intellectually and emotionally over the course of a lifetime, how “different” we do become, our reactions to what we have read — to the figures in the diorama, as it were — should change and evolve, too. One of the strange and sometimes disconcerting pleasures of getting older is, in fact, finding how radically your opinion of once favorite (or hated) characters can change.”
Anecdotal research shows—and my personal experience echoes this—that children reading Enid Blyton do not notice the traces of xenophobia or elitism. They are far more engrossed in the midnight feasts and climactic denouncements.“
“If you’ve read your Kindle or iTunes EULA, you’d know just how little control over your e-books or music you have. Every time you hit “buy” at the Kindle store, you are not purchasing an e-book; you are licensing it for your personal use only. Even if you reread your e-copy of The Hobbit twice a year for 10 years, you are no closer to owning it, and without Amazon’s permission, no closer to being able to hand it down to your children.”
There are days when you go through your trove of books and realize that you have multiple copies of the same book. Some daft idiot might start thinking, ‘O heck, I better decide which one to keep, and which ones to give away as gifts or sell on to second-hand books’. But, wouldn’t that be like asking a mother, 'Say Mater, which one of your many children, all of who are oh so identical in appearance, temperament, and demeanor, is your absolute favorite? Tell us so, and the rest shall be bundled off to foster homes or sent off to the orphanage.’?
You should read the book that you see someone on the train reading and trying to hide that they’re laughing.
You should read the book that you see someone on the train reading and trying to hide that they’re crying.
You should read the book you find in your grandparents’ house that’s inscribed “To Ray, all my love, Christmas 1949.”
You should read books mentioned in other books.
Over at The Millions, Janet Potter, who has worked in bookstores all over the world for more than a decade, responds to Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime and similar rankings with a beautiful blueprint to the reading life.
Pair with Joseph Brodsky on how to develop your taste in reading.
(via explore-blog)
reading is not a competition it doesn’t matter if you have 5 books and someone has 600 books it doesn’t matter if you can only read ebooks and someone can afford book hauls don’t compare your reading experiences with others this is not a competition
Paper books were supposed to be dead by now. For years, information theorists, marketers, and early adopters have told us their demise was imminent. Yet in a world of screen ubiquity, many people still prefer to do their serious reading on paper.
piano-after-war asked:
quoted-books answered:
Ooh, this is a fun one! For the record, these are all, but ones with such direct attributes make me really have to think! I love reading books with strong female leads, though. I’m always surprised there aren’t more of them I automatically think of.
1. A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L’Engle (this was just the first book I read that I was like YAY for a female …hence why it’s on there)
2. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte
3. CODE NAME VERITY- Elizabeth Wein
4. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by STIEG LARSSON
5. THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margarett Atwood
6. UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld
7. A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray
8. TRICKSTER’S CHOICE by Tamora Pierce
9. CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare
10. TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGN by John Marsden
Anyone have any more ideas for a strong female lead?
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
wronghands1