Reading history

So my last post made me think about including a full reading disclosure, a reading CV if you will – not just just the highlights but as far back as I can remember. Ha, this makes me think about writers’ disclosures, where reporters state all their background and affiliations in order to expose their own biases or conflicts of interest. Here’s Malcolm Gladwell’s comprehensive disclosure as an example: http://www.gladwell.com/disclosure.html


So mine’s not a disclosure, but more of a detailed description of my reading life. Here goes. I can’t remember what the first book I ever read, but I do remember a healthy amount of Dr. Seuss, and some of the other expected kids books. One of my earliest that I can remember as a favourite is “Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles” by Terry Furchgott and Linda Dawson which I just googled and found a Facebook group for, with 69 members! Which is neat because I last googled it a few years ago and didn’t come across much. Clearly I’m not the only fan! Unfortunately the book is out of print and so costs almost $300 on Amazon. I echo some of the members of the group in requesting a reprint!

The rest of my reading history as a kid is pretty typical. We used to go to the library, seems like once a week? And we got this catalogue from Scholastic from which we ordered the rest of our books. I remember reading the Ramona books (which are clearly still popular given that they finally made a movie about them this summer) of course Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High (and SV Twins, that franchise extended…). Anastasia books by Lois Lowry, which again I just googled and found was a bit controversial, a more frequently challenged book. As an adult my memory of these books has just faded to the names so it’s interesting to do a search for them and remind myself what they were about. In this case I found out Lois Lowry has a blog! Which is neat for a 73 year old writer. She clearly still gets fan mail and is writing and lecturing, fantastic!

Okay this makes me just want to go and read Lowry’s blog, so I’ll continue my own reading diary in the next post. Here it is: http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updates/

Good readers: born and made

Good readers: born and made

To start asking the question about being well read even earlier, what makes a person not even just well read, but a reader? For me, being engrossed in a book is a relaxing activity rather than a chore. Whereas I try to make other recreational elements (like exercise) be a part of my life, even if I got to the point where I ran regularly, it is still something to fit into my day.

But I’ve heard also other people say that reading came to them at a point when they really got into a particular genre or hit a certain age. Certainly I’ve had moments where I got hooked on a certain author and just kept reading. My Stephen King phase in high school, for instance, led me to pore through almost his entire canon, until inexplicably I dropped him (Sorry Mr. King) and haven’t returned since, for discovery of other authors and kicks. So my SK knowledge runs back to 1995, and even then thanks to my sketchy recall is a bit fuzzy. Although I have since read his book On Writing which is one of the best writing books I’ve ever read.

How else are readers are made?

Are you well read?

That’s a question I keep asking myself. What does it mean to be "well read" in an era when the choices range from 140 character postings, 700 page Swedish thrillers, and increasing digitization of all the best literature ever written?

My life has always been wrapped up in reading: as a kid I loved going to the library (thanks Mom and Dad!), English was my favourite subject in high school, and indeed became my major in university (well, literary studies, which looks at works in translation alongside English). After graduating I worked in magazines and as a freelance writer, often doing book reviews which led to a lot of reading.

Now in addition to working as a writer and editor, I’m doing a PhD in English literature, which, not surprisingly, involves even more reading. Part of the program involves actually trying to read “comprehensively” in the fields you’ll be studying, a funny process that makes you think about what constitutes comprehensiveness. Believe me, after you've completed the process you've read enough that you do feel somewhat comprehensive.

But as you move on and continue to read new texts in a field that you thought you knew comprehensively, you start to think, what is comprehensive exactly? Are you comprehensive because you’ve read the major texts? What’s considered major? What’s considered a text? My dissertation focus is on nineteenth century Canadian magazines so I’ve thought a lot about the fact that these writings have had little audience beyond the months that they appeared given the inherent disposability of the format.

So do I feel well read? Sometimes. Mostly I don't. As a result I’ve decided to give this whole “well read” question a little more thought. I’m going to try and spend each month approaching this idea from a different angle. As I gear up for this project, I’m going to look at what’s out there in terms of people writing about reading, and share some sites and links to good reading sites. I’m also interested in suggestions, so please email me at sue@codeword.ca.

In September (back to school so a great reading time) I’ll start by sharing the books out there about reading itself. I’ve long had on my bookshelf a copy of Alberto Manguel’s A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader’s Reflections on a Year of Books (I’ll also reread his A History of Reading) and will look for other books on this subject to read and share with you.

For the rest of the year I’m going to look for other ways to explore being well read, either immersing myself in that activity or kind of writing, or talking to others who have or both. Here are some of the focus areas that I’ve thought about trying out each month:

• well read by era
• well read in the media (ie news savvy)
• well read in new media
• Reading books that talk about the big ideas that everyone’s talking about
• Catching up on classics I haven’t read
• well read in a professional field
• well read in sister genres such as film
• well read in bestsellers
• well read in a particular genre
• well read seasonally (ie reading the hot fall books or the summer reading list)
• connecting and sharing with a book club
• contributing to reading through writing

Do you have any other suggestions?