Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Books: Wonderful things indeed

Some books on my "read soon" list. My Nook sits on top.

Books on bookshelves and on bedside tables at home; books in the public library; books in bookstores: I love to be surrounded by books.
My love affair with books began when I was a child. I remember taking books down from the bookshelves in the living room before I could read. I searched the pages for the one word that I knew, the word “the.” I ran my finger along the sentences until I saw my word, and then I would say it aloud: “the.”
I don’t remember learning to read. I just remember being able to read and loving it.
Even as a child, I enjoyed reading more than one book at a time. I carried a little stack of three or four books around with me, from one reading spot to another, entering first one world and then another as I switched from book to book.
I probably very much needed books as a child. Sometimes I needed the comfort, and I certainly needed something constructive and beautiful to do while I waited in hospital waiting rooms, doctor’s offices and at relatives’ homes.
I loved mysteries from the start. My favorites were the Trixie Belden books and the Nancy Drew books. I also loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, books by Maud Hart Lovelace and any book about horses.
I liked biographies, too, especially about strong women who made their way in the world like Amelia Earhart.
I like to say I practically grew up in our local public library. I loved walking the aisles, looking for something new. I loved the smell of the library. I loved the quiet. I loved the love of books that hung in the air.
During high school, I usually had a pleasure reading book with me so that, if I finished my work in class before everyone else did, I could bring it out and read a few pages before class picked back up.
I loved books so much I majored in English in college and got a master’s in English.
I have written before how obsessive-compulsive disorder has affected my reading on and off for years. I obsessed over whether or not I had “really” read every word and would reread passages until it felt “right” to move on.
It’s one of the most awful ways OCD has affected me because it hits at part of what defines me.
Thankfully, I can now usually push through the obsessions and keep reading until the anxiety subsides.
Most of the fiction books I read now are mysteries and thrillers. My favorite authors in those categories include Sue Grafton, Kathy Reichs, Meg Gardiner, Lee Child and Nevada Barr.
I also enjoy memoirs and other nonfiction books. Some recent reads include

*The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life. By Dinty W. Moore
*The Foreign Language of Friends. By Nadine Feldman.
*Here If You Need Me. By Kate Braestrup.
*Blue Nights. By Joan Didion
*The Memoir Project. By Marion Roach Smith

Some books I hope to start soon:

*Behind the Beautiful Forever. By Katherine Boo
*The Animal Manifesto. By Marc Bekoff
*Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. By Jonathan Grayson, PhD
*The Affair. By Lee Child
*Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. By Cheryl Strayed

  How much do you like to read? What are some of your favorites? What have you read lately? Please share!

26 comments:

  1. So nice you enjoy reading Tina!
    I've always enjoyed it too, fiction and non-fiction alike, and already as a little girl, just like you. But now that I'm on different medication for the bipolar disorder I find I cannot concentrate enough. A big loss but risking another psychotic episode is not an option for me, so I stick to magazines, which take a little bit less concentration as it's all short articles.
    We have lots of books, in three different languages, Dutch, English and Afrikaans, as I have lived in South Africa for 14 years. I loved learning new languages and things about the culture simply by reading magazines. And books when I got better.
    Every language has specific words and sayings that cannot be translated and I think that is wonderful. Makes your life richer.

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    1. Klaaske, I love learning about different cultures, too. I love languages, but I don't seem to have a talent for learning them. I know some Spanish but that's it. I like reading good magazine articles too.

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  2. There are few things as wonderful as a good book! I have recently begun reading the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series and they are absolutely amazing!

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    1. Keith, I have thought about reading those--are they mysteries?

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  3. Hi Tina, I'm visiting here from Roses to Rainbows. I used to read a lot of books when I was a kid. When I worked, I would read a lot during my lunch break. Mom used to read to me until I could read on my own. I loved the Trixie Belden books. I even read the entire series a few years ago. I still love those stories.

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    1. Linda, Thank you for visiting! Your comment makes me want to reread my Trixie Belden books. They have a special place on my bookshelves.

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  4. Ah, the smell of the library! LOVE it. The first word I was ever able to read was "cat." Don't know how I still remember that, but I think it's a very fitting word considering how much I love my cat. ha ha I too loved reading Nancy Drew. I also loved the Hardy Boys. As a young child I was amazed at the way a book had the power to transport me to a different world. It has always been such a great escape. As my OCD got really bad, books were a great relief from the daily pain. I'm now reading "The Me I Want To Be" by John Ortberg. I love his approach to life. I particularly like nonfiction. I also read "Blue Nights" recently though I didn't enjoy it quite as much as you did. Yep - books are a beautiful thing!

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    1. Sunny, it is quite fitting that your first word to read was "cat." One of the first little stories I wrote when I was little was about a cat. We must have been prescient!

      "Blue Nights" was pretty depressing, but I guess I loved it because I love Joan Didion.

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    2. I've heard "The Year of Magical Thinking" was even better, so I'm going to try that. "Blue Nights" was my first Joan Didion book, so I'll have to try that other one. I just thought that "Blue Nights" was going to be more about her daughter - I would have liked to have learned more about her. Plus, (and you can certainly disagree with me on this!) the book felt pretty disjointed to me, like it was more a collection of thoughts than a cohesive story. But then again, maybe she intended it to be that way. But, it's Joan's book - she can write whatever she wants, I guess!

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    3. Sunny, Blue Nights is pretty disjointed, but that's how she writes. You might like her essays, especially those found in the collections The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem. But I'm not offended if you don't like her--we all have different tastes, and there are plenty of books to fit all our likes and dislikes! :-) That John Ortberg book sounds interesting.

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  5. I love libraries..books & reading are my favorite things. A book can transport you anywhere in place & time. Nancy Drew books were my favorites as a kid! One of my favorite books is "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson..I read it several years ago and it has inspired me to walk the AT ever since. I love every genre; Fiction and Non Fiction; except I am not a big Science Fiction fan. I just finished "Gone Girl" and have about 30 books on my Kindle to choose from to read next. I love my Kindle but I love holding a real book in my hands too. The Kindle is great for travel because I don't have to lug books around. I can't imagine a world without books.

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    1. Krystal, I am like that with my Nook. It's great to take with me so I don't have to carry a stack of books, and it's great for downloading a book immediately, but I still like the feel of a "real" book in my hands.

      I have heard of that book by Bill Bryson. Have you read "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed? I just started it, and it's about a woman who hiked the Pacific Coast Trail. It's very good so far.

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    2. I did read "Wild" and I liked it alot. The only part that took me back was when she started wanting to have sex with these stranger - guys she would meet. It made me shudder. I'm not a prude (I don't think anyway) but I think she was craving love and companionship and confusing it with sex, maybe? "A Walk in the Woods" is really funny, it is a memoir of Bill Bryson & his friend walking the AT. Did you read "The Help"? That was so good too.

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    3. I will have to put "A Walk in the Woods" on my list to read. I've read more of "Wild" and it's very good, but, yes, there are some disturbing parts. I haven't read "The Help," but it seems like everyone who has really liked it, so I will read it at some point.

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  6. I love books! I have quite a stack to read. I just finished Eden's Garden by Juliet Greenwood, and my world stopped until I finished it. I love it when a story carries me away like that!

    I grew up with Nancy Drew, too, and Agatha Christie. I discovered Jane Eyre in 4th grade (one of the advantages of having older siblings) and was hooked for life. Even though my parents had little formal education, they were readers, and they set that example for all of us kids -- I will always be grateful for that.

    Thanks for the mention! I appear to be in fine company.

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    1. Nadine, I loved Agatha Christie, too, and I remember being swept away by Jane Eyre. My parents encouraged my brothers and me to read, too, and always took time to take us to the library.

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  7. Love books, and libraries, too - the older the better. I read just about everything.

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    1. Jennifer, I like the older libraries, too. The only thing I don't read is science fiction and fantasy. I've just never been able to get into them.

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  8. Yay! We like a lot of the same authors! Are you on Shelfari at all? If so, we should be friends on there too :-)

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    1. Lisa, No, I'm not on Shelfari. Is that like Goodreads? Which authors do we share?

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  9. Ohhh.... as you know, I love to read! I love books! I love reading!

    I also have that problem with the OCD making me re-read things to make sure I read them just right. It doesn't happen every day but it happens often enough that I feel like I could have read many books much faster than I actually did.

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    1. Elizabeth, yep, I guessed that you love to read, too! :-)

      I have wondered, too, how much more I would have read if not for OCD. At least it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

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  10. Reading - could there be a better best friend in the world?
    I think most of us bloggers are readers too, don't you?
    I don't know if I could even begin to think of the books I have read that meant a lot to me (I am 62 years old!) but starting with Enid Blyton and Trixie Beldon to how-to authors such as Adelle Davis and then thoughtful Christian author Catherine Marshall. Oh that barely even touches the lists.
    Probably the most pleasant hours spent in my life, not counting hours with loved ones, is those reading hours. I can be where I want, who I want and when I want - heaven!
    Thanks for reminding me of all of that....

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    1. Wendy, Thank you for visiting and commenting! Yes, I think if people like to write, they tend to like to read.

      I loved Catherine Marshall's "Christy"--I read it over and over.

      I've spent many, many wonderful hours reading, too.

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  11. Another great post, Tina. I've loved reading all my life too, and can think of no greater self-indulgent pleasure. It's just the reader and a story and the rest of the world fades away. I have far too many favorites to list (as you may remember from my post, Favorite Five Friday: Books), but if the book has memorable characters, real or imagined, I'm hooked. Thanks for sharing this post, and reminding me how much I love reading and yes, the smell of a library! I'm heading there today with my daughter.

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    1. Thank you, Becky. It sounds like you're continuing the tradition by taking your daughter to the library. I still get a happy feeling when I walk into a library! :-)

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