So Many Books, So Little Time For Rereading Them

People ask me often -- especially those who are helping me move -- why I keep as many books as I do. My uncle, when lugging another box of books up the three flights of stairs to my new apartment last summer, said, "But you've already read all of them," when I apologized for how many boxes of books there were.

And it was true. Outside of maybe one or two boxes, I'd read all the books. And I'd love to say I keep them all so I can reread them on a whim, but most I probably never will.

There's this undeniable comfort for me to be surrounded by books. It's not always that I'm going to go reread that book in the bottom corner of my bookshelf, but just that I have the option to. That no matter what is going on in my world, I'm surrounded by countless others.

In just the past week, upon hearing the news that Wislawa Szymborska had passed away, I was able to find my copy of View With a Grain of Sand and read a few of her poems. I was introduced to her in a Polish culture class in college and really enjoyed her poetry.

From Amazon.com

Then I decided to reread Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere, and when I found it on my shelf I first noticed the tabs sticking out the side, marking some of my favorite quotes. I read the first paragraph and remembered the voice that made me fall in love with it the first time, then fell in love with it all over again.

So I wonder, what makes you decide to reread a book? Do you keep a lot of books around, in case the desire to reread one strikes you?

To be honest, most of the time I don't reread books because I feel overwhelmed by all of the other books out there I want to read and haven't found time for yet. But sometimes I love one so much, I want to get lost in it again. This past week in particular, I had just read a series of meh books -- ones that I enjoyed but hadn't really consumed me. I was waiting on a bunch of books from the library and just wanted to read something I would truly love, so I turned to The Sky is Everywhere.

I'm excited that it's 2012, because I've decided that the only way to exist in this world is by rereading all of Harry Potter, in order, every two years. When someone finds a way to add more hours to the day, I'll allow myself to read them every year. But, well, we're stuck with 24 hours, and I last read them at the end of 2010, so I, for one, am psyched about 2012.

What books have you reread lately? Are there any you read regularly?

Books I Read in 2011 that I Recommend You Read

I'm awful at picking favorites, so I don't have a top 5 books list of 2011, or even a top 10 list. But below are some of my favorite books I've read in the past year that I highly recommend. They weren't all published this year, and they're of all sorts of genres, and I recommend them for all sorts of reasons.

• Looking For Alaska – John Green
• Everything about John Green's writing just makes my heart happy. It's smart and funny and compelling and rings true.
•  Room – Emma Donoghue
• This one's a bit disturbing, but it needed to be. And the five year-old narrator is extremely well done.
• An Abundance of Katherines – John Green
•  Paper Towns – John Green (Can you tell this is the year I discovered John Green?)
• Fall For Anything – Courtney Summers
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – John Boyne
• This one might break your heart a little. A quick, lasting read.
• Where She Went – Gayle Forman 
• I highly recommend the first book, If I Stay, too. I wasn't sure how I felt about this second one switching point of views before I read it, but I think I may have even loved it more than the first. 
• Divergent – Veronica Roth
• Don't start this if you've got a lot to do. I was sucked into this world and the voice of Tris and couldn't put it down.
• Imaginary Girls – Nova Ren Suma
• Immediately after finishing this book, I couldn't decide how I felt about it. But I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since, and that says a lot.
•  Before I Die – Jenny Downham
• The prose is just beautiful and heartbreaking.
• Invincible Summer – Hannah Moskowitz
• I couldn't get enough of the families in this story. The book takes place over four summers, but it's about so much more than summer and teenage summer love.
• Wintergirls – Laurie Halse Anderson
• If you loved Speak, you have to read this. It's just incredible.
• The Help – Kathryn Stockett
• I didn't think this was my sort of book, so every time someone told me it was great I just smiled and nodded. But it really is as wonderful as everyone said, and it certainly made me stop and think about the world we live in and how people are treated.
• How to Save a Life – Sara Zarr
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan
• Beyond Belief – Josh Hamilton
• This is a memoir of one of my favorite baseball players who very easily could've died from a crack addiction. His story is so complex and inspiring, I can't recommend it enough.

Here's to another great year of reading in 2012!


Have you read any of these? What were your favorite books you read this year?

The book that healed my sports-heart AND my writing

In light of my sports-heart being broken during an incredible World Series, I wanted to lose myself in a book. But the book I was reading that week, while good, wasn't sucking me in. It wasn't enveloping me like I needed a book to at that moment.

So I decided to reread one of my favorite books that I'd only read once before, probably six or seven years ago. It was exactly what I needed and every bit as awesome as I remembered.

from Amazon.com

The funny thing is, it's not the sort of book I normally liked when I first read it in high school. And the further into it I got, the more the writing style reminded me of my own. Six years ago, though, I was writing poems, maybe some short stories. And it intrigues me now, as I try to figure out if I loved it then because of a style that was already some inherent part of me, or if it influenced my writing style, just in one reading.

I'm revising a manuscript right now, and it was actually very helpful to read this book while I revised. One's in first person past, one in first person present. The subject matters are entirely different. But it has this heartbreaking lyrical flow and does all the little parts of writing so well. It reminded me how a book feels when there aren't any extraneous, useless words, which the manuscript I'm revising is full of.

Oh, and this book I love so much? It's A Year and a Day, by Leslie Pietrzyk. I highly recommend it! And if you've read it, please let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

What I Learned at Midnight

I went to my first ever midnight movie last night, and we all know what it was. I'm not a huge movie person in general, so I've never felt it was necessary to go see one at midnight before. But I absolutely love Harry Potter and well, if there was ever a movie to see at midnight... this was it.

I expected the costumes and the crowds and the general craziness, but I still think I underestimated it all. I didn't expect the theater to clap for seriously every preview, for example. I didn't expect to be one of the last people to find their seats... an hour and a half before the movie began. (This post is free of movie spoilers by the way, in case you were worried!)

From pastemagazine.com

Here's the part of the story where I sidetrack for a moment (bear with me). When the first Harry Potter movies came out, I didn't go and see them in the theater. There were still books left, so the movies didn't interest me in the least. But eventually I saw each one, and after the seventh book came out and I had savored it, I began to anticipate the movies because, well, it was all that was "new" that was still left for Harry Potter. The movies meant this thing that had accompanied me and so many others through their childhoods wasn't quite over yet.

So I was at the movie last night, and at one of the funny lines the whole theater laughed. But they laughed too long, and I missed the next line. I don't like to miss things (unless it's a movie I've seen before, or don't like, in which case I talk through the whole thing. Hypocritical, I know...) so I was annoyed by this. And as the movie went on, cheers would erupt, and then at the next little victory the cheers would be louder. Then even louder at the next one. And my friend that I went with was sobbing beside me so much my chair shook.

And even though there was the unmistakable pressure behind my eyes of building tears, they never fell. Everyone else around me was so present, they were distracting. They made the moment one I had to share, so I didn't have enough time to process anything for myself. I didn't have the chance to decide that this particular moment was one worth shouting about. Everyone else decided it for me.

And that is one of the reasons I will always love the Harry Potter books (and any book, really) more than the movie. Even the best movie that could ever be made. Because when I read, I'm isolated in this world that feels like it has been created solely for me. I get to decide if there was something 200 pages back I need to confirm now that I know something new. I get to decide that this moment is so troubling and heartbreaking I can't help but cry. I get to dwell on a line that strikes me and find a post-it note to mark it with so I can write it down later. It is my world, and no one else's world in that same book will be quite the same.

One of my favorite lines from all of Harry Potter is Dumbledore telling Harry, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Books, when we read them, feel like they are entirely in our heads. But in our heads they are so alive, so tangible, that the characters can become embedded in us. Their plights become our plights. Their joy, our joy. And too often that--that realness--I do not experience when I see things on a screen.

So Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II was very well done, and very moving, and I strongly suggest everyone go and see it. But I won't be going back to the movies at midnight any time soon. In fact, I'll probably spend many more wonderful hours trapped in a book before I see whatever movie I'm going to see next, and that's precisely how I prefer it.

Also, I know I've been very absent from this blog as of late. There was this whole matter of graduating from college and moving 900 miles, then moving across town a few days later, then starting my job -- all in the span of a week. So I've been a little out of sorts, but things are calming down now, and I shall try to post more regularly. Thanks for sticking with me!  

A book from my childhood

There was one particular book I would not stop reading as a kid - Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park - and when I look back on it, it's sort of weird and morbid that the book I read over and over again was a book about death. A short, middle grade book about a girl whose brother dies in a bicycle accident when they're in middle school. I just reread it last night, and I realize now that one of the reasons I probably loved it so much is the voice. It feels like a friend talking to you, like someone you know and care about, so you want to hear their story, however sad it may be.

But when I was doing an assignment recently for class, I ended up writing about how I often felt creatively cursed by my relatively easy childhood, because I didn't have some huge catastrophe or deeply emotional experience I could call upon as a muse when writing. Only now am I realizing that I probably wrote about death so much in my stories because, for such a long time (truly a blessing), no one close to me had passed away. I was scared of when it would happen, because I'd had no experience with it, so I explored it through writing. And books, I'm realizing - I was drawn to Mick Harte Was Here because it explained how someone dealt with death, one kid to another.

So I'm wondering, has this happened for anyone else? Have you found yourself zeroing in on certain topics or themes in your writing and the books you read because a specific relation they have to your life - even without you realizing it?

And if you can get your hands on that book, I recommend reading it - it's a quick read and full of heart, even so many years later.

A very scientific calculation of good books vs. great books...

I read at least once a day, before I go to sleep, regardless of the day or hour. But in the hours outside of that designated reading time, I can calculate this:

The difference between a good book and a great book, as portrayed by my thought processes.

Good book:
I actually have some free time! What should I do with it? Is there anything good on TV? Anything I can do to get ahead on homework? Oh, I could read my book for awhile.

Great book:
I have a million things I need to do. There are NOT enough hours in the day. Gah gah gah. But I MUST find time to read this book!! *Ignores everything else and reads*

What I Learned Reading John Green

At a certain point in my childhood, I discovered that my biggest sticking point with books was their ability to grab me right away. If I wasn't hooked quickly, I really had to fight my way through a book. I couldn't just enjoy the writing, if you will, or the setting. I'm not a details person - I never really care what a room looks like unless it is very, very important.

So I started only reading murder mysteries and legal thrillers. Someone was usually killed on the first few pages, and I was always immediately sucked in. But eventually I acknowledged that I would never write one of those genres, so as I became more serious in my efforts to write a novel, I tried to focus my reading more to a genre that I would be more likely to write.

I still read a wide variety of genres, but last summer I discovered the genre that I wanted to write in and that worked best for me: contemporary young adult. So, as I went to the library and started reading as many in that genre as possible, I discovered something.

Contemporary can grab you on the first page, too. A book doesn't have to be high concept or a mystery of some sort to suck you in right away. It can be done with voice, or an intriguing circumstance, or a character I can't resist knowing more about.

from Amazon.com

I remember, months ago, reading a synopsis of Looking For Alaska, by John Green, and thinking that, even though I had heard it was amazing, it didn't sound particularly intriguing to me. But I kept seeing it mentioned, kept hearing it was great, so I finally picked it up from the library.

And it. was. incredible. It isn't high concept. The protagonist is clearly going through a major change as he's moving away to boarding school, but there's no major plot hook. However, I was immediately pulled in, and I had a hard time putting the book down.

One major reason why is because, instead of chapters, there are headings that count down. The first one is one hundred thirty-six days before. Instantly I wanted to know, before what? So the reader knows that something major will happen, and that it will be so defining that there will be a before and after. And as the numbers wane, the tension builds.

I felt it important to note, then, in this world of short attention spans and high concept hooks, that there are many, many ways a contemporary novel can be just as gripping as a murder mystery. Also, I would like to say - read Looking For Alaska.

Have you ever read Looking For Alaska? Do you have any thoughts on contemporary novels? High concept books? What in the beginning of a book convinces you to keep reading?

A "Screaming" Voice

Whichever part of my brain decides which book I read next deserved a high five a couple of weeks ago. I was contemplating voice, and what it means for a novel to have a strong voice. Sometimes this seems so simple to me - voice is just... the author. Two writers can take the exact same conflicts and plot and will not write the same story. The difference between the two, among other factors, is their voice.

It's one of the things I can't come up with a tangible explanation of...voice is just...voice.

Which was why questioning what voice was and if my writing had it was so frightening. Until I read two books in a row that screamed - yes, screamed - voice.

First I read Simply from Scratch, by Alicia Bessette, which I actually won over on her blog by telling one of the worst baking disaster stories (who knew it would benefit me someday!).

Then I picked up Cracked Up to Be, by Courtney Summers, from the library and read it in a couple of days - meanwhile telling every one that I was tired because the book I was reading was too captivating to put down.

That's the word I'd use to describe the voice in both of these books: captivating. The narrators felt so real and unique I couldn't stop wanting more.

In the midst of my "voice crisis," if you will, these books confirmed for me that voice isn't easy to adequately explain, but it is very easy to spot.

These two novels are in first person present tense, which I think is difficult to write but also lends itself to a strong voice. When I read books in that style, the narrator seems to come alive quicker for me. However, voice is still often well executed in other styles, these just both happened to be in the same one. Although Simply from Scratch had some sections in the third person point of view of a minor character, and those sections had just as strong of a voice for me.

Now Simply from Scratch is Bessette's debut novel, and Cracked up to Be is the only Courtney Summers' book I've read, but I'd be willing to bet that their other books have similar captivating voices that are still distinct to each of the main characters.

I think that for me, voice is the difference between a well told story and a story that comes alive, existing beyond the page.

But since I was having such a hard time coming up with what exactly voice is, I looked for some help and found these quotes... 

"A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more.  A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms."  Patricia Lee Gauch

"A good style should show no sign of effort.  What is written should seem like a happy accident."  W. Somerset Maugham

"It is the aspect of the novelist's work that asks to be read out loud, which appeals not to the eye, like most prose, but to the ear; having indeed this much in common with oratory....The story, besides saying one thing after another, adds something because of its connection with a voice." - E. M. Forster, Aspects of a Novel

How do you define voice? Have you read either of those books, and did they "scream" voice to you?

The pictures are linked to their source - their Amazon page.

Books and Baseball - and why they matter

There are three things I love in the hobby/passion category. Writing, reading, and baseball. And I mean LOVE.

Now, the first two you could probably guess, seeing as they are the focus of this blog. The third I assume you don't care much about, so I try not to talk about it. But I'm going to today, so bear with me, please, because I will bring it back to the first two.

I am obsessed with baseball, and more specifically the Texas Rangers. For those not in the baseball know, the Rangers are traditionally awful. As in, in their entire existence, they have won one single playoff game. That's bad.

But I still love them, and I love the game. I won't bore you with why I love it, and why I think it is better than any other sport. What you need to know is that there are 162 games in the season, and I watch most or all of about 90% of them, if not more. I even regularly watch games that the Rangers aren't playing in (such as right now...).

I get into the games. Even when I'm watching one alone, I talk to the TV and the players and I pump my fist in the air. I have gotten goosebumps when reading articles about the Rangers, found myself unable to breathe over the excitement of an important win, and screamed in frustration.

Yea, I kinda love Texas...

But every now and then, when I'm watching a game, I think, what's the point? Why are thousands of people watching a group of guys getting paid millions of dollars to play a game.

Plain and simple, it might just be a game in the literal sense, but it is so much more than that. Major League Baseball has a series of ads with the slogan, "This is Beyond Baseball." And so much of it is. It's about a team working together, persevering, defying the odds. It's about thousands of people coming together to cheer for the same outcome. It's about a pitcher going out every day with a chance at a perfect game - no matter what happened in the past - in a game where perfection isn't the goal. No team will ever win 162 games. Even the best teams lose at least 60 games each season.

Baseball (and any pro sport, I'm just using the one closest to my heart), at its basic level, is an escape. Whatever is going on in your life or in the world, you have three hours where your team winning is, for the moment, all that matters. You can find joy in their success and sadness in another losing season.

And really, at the end of the day, how is this so different from books? I once had a roommate who believed that books were pointless and their existence did nothing to better the world. I was furious, not to mention hurt. This thing that I loved, devoured in my spare time, and endeavored to create myself could not be useless - that much I knew.

So why aren't they? I can see how, to someone who finds no pleasure in reading, all the books in the world can seem like wasted space. Except you and I know that books are quite the opposite. So why?

From www.freedomlab.org

Books are magical worlds that take us somewhere outside of our own. They introduce to us people we may never have the chance to meet, and sometimes people who remind us of someone in our life - or even ourselves.

Books make us think about life and the world we exist in. They make us ache and cry and laugh. They keep us company when we're lonely and become our friends, which we then want to share with our real life friends. Books can unite us and inspire us.

And, like baseball, they are an escape. They give us an opportunity to stop thinking about our own lives and immerse ourselves in someone else's. They enrich our lives, yet still give us an opportunity to get away from our life.

Which brings me to writing, and why writers (and baseball players) aren't wasting their time, even if the world as a whole may not always agree on that.

Someone has to write the book. Someone has to write the words that uplift and challenge and entertain. All it takes is
one
word
at
a
time.

I love books. These are my random thoughts about them...

I currently have three books beside my bed, partially read. And as I read a fourth book, I've been thinking about what makes me stop reading. (For the record, though, I do intend to finish each of those three - just bit by bit.)

The reason is the same as when I was a teenager and scoffed at essentially any genre other than murder mysteries. No matter how wonderful the writing is, I have to be sucked in by the third page or it will take me weeks to finish a book. A good book I'll read in a day (given there is the necessary time). For example, on recent Saturdays I read Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall and Jodi Picoult's House Rules, each in less than 24 hours. Neither are short. Neither are murder mysteries.

But before I go on I must go back to my junior year of high school to a conversation I had with my english teacher. When I told her I had never stopped a book in the middle, she said, "But there are so many other books out there you could love, why waste your time on ones you don't?" I pondered this statement, then put down Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and never picked it up again.

Here's the thing - clearly Hemingway is an excellent writer. I'm not saying he isn't. But when I'm not invested in a book (which I wasn't with Hemingway), it takes me a while to read even though I read every day. So when I have shelves of books in my house I am itching to read, why am I forcing myself through a different one?

My bookshelf once upon a time... LOOK - it's The Sun Also Rises

In the end, I think it was pride. But there is another reason to keep reading, too. As an aspiring author, the best way to learn how to write is to read good writing. Let's take, for example, one of the half-read books beside my bed right now: Atonement.

I have passages galore highlighted in it, but I have little motivation to finish it. The writing is beautiful and stunning and I can learn from it, but the plot has taken forever (at least in my opinion) to develop and I'm still not really sure why I should care about the characters.

Somewhere around the end of middle school I couldn't find books that held my attention anymore, so I turned to murder mysteries and legal thrillers. From page one these books have suspense, so even if I wasn't crying over characters I was at least racing through the pages. I read every single Mary Higgins Clark and John Grisham book that existed, then discovered the plethora of other authors in the same genres.

Eventually, I began branching out again. I can't choose a favorite anything to save my life, but I can tell you without regret that my favorite book is The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Why? Well, I talk about that here. Not a murder mystery at all, but from page one I was drawn in and couldn't put it down.

Now I read a murder mystery only on a rare occasion, because that is not a genre I will ever write in so I do not need to be familiar with it. And I now find that a much broader range of books (and I mean BROAD, from chick lit to dystopian YA to non-fiction accounts of Mount Everest and Ebola) can suck me in and earn my devotion.

I truly believe that every person in this world could love reading, if only they found the right genre. Case in point: my mother. She never enjoyed reading. My entire life I never saw her read and finish a book. But she loves sewing, and in the past year she discovered a few series involving quilters and mysteries - and she's read several of them. She has been eager to read them, and tell me about them, and find more of them. I think that many of the people who tell me they don't like reading or don't have time for it have just never taken the time to explore books outside of what is required reading at school.

So what is my point, exactly? I'm not sure. In all honesty, I was about to go to bed. But in summary...

1. I think it's okay to stop reading a book in the middle...
2. But even a book you don't particularly love can still teach you something valuable.
3. Different genres, perhaps, are suitable for different parts of our lives...
4. and the reason there are so many different types of books is because we all have different tastes!

So what is your policy on not finishing a book? What makes you stop reading, if you do? Has your taste in genres changed over time? Seriously, I'd love your thoughts!