Category Archives: Books

The Jillian has finally learned to read. By that, I mean she can read actual books, by herself, TO HERSELF (that last is v. important). She's able to follow a more complex storyline and characterization, which means there are literally HUNDREDS, if not thousands of books I want to throw at her, like NOW.

This was a bit more of a struggle than I would have liked. It took awhile for her to get past the fact that this wasn't something she was instantly good at and maybe had to work at a little bit.

[I wonder where that comes from]

While she learned the alphabet and was able to recognize words and sentences fairly early on, it really took awhile for her to get stuck in the books. It was frustrating to watch, since the number of things I would RATHER do than read a book is exactly zero. 99% of the time, I am reading a book as well as doing at least two other things. I read all the time. So for her to NOT be a bookworm was very strange to me and I had no idea what to do with that.

For about a year, we thought she might be sporty, instead. So we signed her up for soccer and dance and gymnastics and swimming.  That year taught us a lot.  Namely: the child, she is not going to be a jock.  She seems to enjoy gymnastics and we really ought to sign her up for some dance lessons, but beyond the requirement that she learn how to swim, she's probably not going to be a sporto.  And that's fine. Maybe she'll find something later on, like fencing or juggling or something.

Then art took over our lives. I cannot tell you how many reams of paper we have gone through in this house.  We have a craft bucket that is basically 23 pounds of crayons in various stages of brokenness.  There are markers everywhere (and thank goodness for washable markers, amirite?).  There has been discussion about fashion and wanting to learn to sew and make her own clothes. There is plenty of time to explore that.

Enter Captain Underpants. I think I can lay the blame at the doors of the book fair, because I gave the kid some money and that's what she chose.  I'm not at all opposed to Captain Underpants, though.  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  You see, when I was in 8th grade (I think), Dav Pilkey  visited our school and gave a talk. I don’t remember much about what he actually said, but I do remember him drawing Captain Underpants for us. There was a breakout session later on for a handful of select students, and I do remember him telling me “just write. Even if it’s bad. Keep writing.” It stuck because he was a young guy, not a “grown-up” telling us these things. He wasn’t that far from being one of us!

That was 25 years ago and I am still doing that, so… thanks Dav!

Anyway, Captain Underpants entered our lives and suddenly, the child was reading. ALL THE TIME. We even got to the point where I had to physically take the book away from her and send her outside because she was getting all pale and sickly-looking. My proudest parenting moment so far was the night I went in to check on her before going to bed and I found her asleep and drooling on her book, flashlight in hand.

Finally, something clicked with her and she started reading everything she could get her hands on. It took some time for us to explain to her the more or less linear progression of story in most books, but now that she’s figured that out, she is plowing through everything. We love the library and will likely spend a great deal of time there this summer.

Personally, I am extremely excited that she will get to read All The Books that I read and loved when I was her age. She gets to read them all for the first time, and I am SO JEALOUS of that. I have started a list, that has Ramona Quimby at the top and I can’t wait for her to discover all the characters and stories that I grew up with. There are so many books I wish I could read again for the first time.

I love books. I love books like some women love shoes. I have hundreds (used to be nearly a thousand, but lots of moves forced me to cull the herd more than twice). I worked in a bookstore for a good four years, which were some of the best years of my life. BOOKS AND COFFEE EVERYWHERE, what more could a caffeinated nerd ask for?

I resisted when the Kindle and other e-readers came on the scene. I flew the flag of “out of my cold, dead hands” for a good long while, preferring the heft and feel of an actual, paper book. At one point, I paid an additional $65 dollars in luggage fees because my suitcases were stuffed full of books coming home with me from Chicago. That’s dedication to the printed word, friends.

Then Scotland happened. I was about to finish a whole bunch of books and I knew I would need MORE BOOKS for travelling, but I didn’t want to take up precious luggage space with huge doorstops full of words. As it was, my bags weighed in at 21.5kg and 21.9kg, respectively. Just under the 22kg weight limit, HIGH FIVES FOR ALL. So books were sort of out of the question.

WHAT TO DO?

Oh.

So I bought a Kindle, literally a week before the Kindle Fire came out. I didn’t want a Kindle Fire, however, so that didn’t faze me in the slightest. I read A LOT. And eyestrain is starting to be a concern, what with me being elderly and whatnot. The idea of e-paper or e-ink or whatever they call it was alluring. So, Arthur (that’s my Kindle’s name) entered my life, and nothing has been the same since.

In a good way, I mean.

I know! I KNOW. I’m sad about it too. But it has opened up so many new possibilities! I can read almost anywhere, thanks to the Kindle app on my phone and the light on my Kindle case. (This is starting to be a Kindle advertisement). But I read more now than I ever have before, simply because my books are so much more portable. I can easily get through 8 or 9 books in a week, and now I can read them all at the same time. Or combine physical books with the e-books!

The only thing bumming me out, however, is the amount of money I am spending. I don’t mind buying books, but sometimes I just want to read a shitty book and not have to shell out cash money for it. This is why the library has almost all of Danielle Steele’s offerings. Nobody wants to be buying that crap! I still go to the library and check out books, but then we’re back to that low-portability issue and the fact that What’s-His-Name gets crabby if I have the light on for too long whilst reading in bed. Plus, it’s the 21st century, my friends! There’s no real reason why my tiny library can’t get on the e-book wagon, you know?

And now they have. Our library is miniscule. There’s just not a lot of room for books and it has to be curated ruthlessly. But with e-books, oh… friends. The possibilities.

UNFORTUNATELY, my library’s e-book situation doesn’t currently work on the regular (non-Fire) Kindle.

THIS FILLS ME WITH RAGE.

(and heaping helping of gratitude that this, THIS is the biggest problem I have in my life at the moment)

This is because the e-book lending situation is an app. And derrrrrrrrrrrr the regular old-skool Kindle doesn’t “do” apps, WHICH IS THE REASON I HAVE ONE.

RAGE!

Ahem.

My phone, however, does do apps. My Magic Space Phone! So… I guess I could read things on my phone but ugh. Tiny and battery-eating! It’ll do in a pinch, I GUESS.

But the app is supported by Baker & Taylor, and I harbor quite a bit of resentment toward that place. Not the place itself so much as the fucking bitch boss I had who trained me poorly and did not support me AT ALL. I am still mad about that. Granted, the end of my tenure there was fully and totally my own fault, but I honestly feel like things would have gone better had I had a better manager, who was less of a bitch.

Annnnnnnnyway, I’m still futzing around with this Blio app thingus, so I don’t have an opinion of it just yet. I will soon, however. And I hope the catalog of books available will be deep and varied and not full of Danielle Fucking Steele.

I am thankful beyond belief when it comes to books. Reading is my most favorite thing to do in the world. If I could figure out a way to knit and read at the same time, I would almost never do anything else. Alas, I haven’t yet found a non-frustrating way to do this.

I read constantly. Everything I can get my hands on. Luckily for me, my eyesight is still pretty damn good, because if I lose that AND my hearing, I’m fucked. I am always reading.

My favorite book of all time is Gone With The Wind. I have read it well over 200 times since I got it for my 8th birthday. Aside from being an amazing epic story, the main character is incredible. Scarlett O’Hara is so tragic and flawed – I love her so much. I especially love that she doesn’t get a happy ending. She doesn’t really get an ending at all, which is both the perfect way for GWTW to end AND incredibly maddening for me, because I always like to know What Happens Next. The beauty of GWTW is that you get to imagine Scarlett, waking up alone in her giant Atlanta house, thinking “okay, now what the fuck do I do?” And I’m sure that with Scarlett being Scarlett, she eventually figures it out.

The sequel was straight-up terrible. Of course I’ve read it.

The other one, written from Rhett’s perspective, was so utterly putrid that I bought my copy on the remainder pile and it was SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Don’t be messing with the classics, people.

My next-favorite book is The Pillars of the Earth. If you haven’t read it, I don’t know what to tell you other than “go. Read it.”

After that, we’ve got Harry Potter, anything Jasper Fforde has written, various forms of Chick Lit… the list goes on. I’m always happy to recommend my favorite books. Indeed, I can be obnoxious about the ones I really really love.

I almost always have at least three books going at a time. Back when I worked at the bookstore, I was reading something like 9 books a week, but I just don’t have that kind of time anymore. I wish I did! Instead, I am busy trying to build another reader in Jillian. She is getting there.

Oprah’s latest book club pick just so happens to be my 2nd-favorite book of all time: The Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett. If you don’t know what my 1st-favorite book is, then you are missing some very key information about me. Put it this way – my child’s middle name is Scarlett.

I normally pay little attention to the whole Oprah “thing.” She doesn’t really do anything for me, and at times I feel her attempts to be “real” come off more fake than if she would just say something like “You know what? I have more money than God, and therefore I have no idea what a normal person’s life is like.” That would make me feel better.

But the book club, well, that’s a great idea. Here is a woman with a lot of influence, telling her Oprah Army what to read. And they do it. So it’s nice that she picked a book that I absolutely LOVE, meaning lots more people will read it, and maybe fall in love with it, too.

If you like TPoTE, then also check out the sequel: World Without End. It picks up 300 years later with the descendants of the characters in the first book. It’s not as good as the first one (what sequel ever is?), but it’s pretty well-done all the same.

I wish I could be more coherent about this, but it’s been a rather tough couple of days. More on that later, but for now, go out and read. TV is going to be all re-runs after this week anyway.