08 March 2012

Literary Blog Hop: How Do You Do That Reading Thing You Do?

Literary Blog Hop

I'm not positive, but this might be my first Literary Blog Hop of the year.  I miss this one, now that it only happens monthly instead of weekly.  The lovely bloggers at The Blue Bookcase sponsor it and ask of their participants a bookish question (or three) for us all to discuss: How do you find time to read, what's your reading style, and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?

Firstly, though I am a bookseller, I work long hours and none of those hours can be filled by reading a book.  I hate to burst anybody's romanticized bubble about bookselling, but it's true.  We do not read on the job.  It's still a pretty amazing job, despite that lack of being paid to read. Because I'm a bookseller, though, you might guess that I am a person who makes reading a priority in her life, and you'd be right.  I read every night in bed, some days at lunch, and on my days off I read for a few hours.  I also listen almost exclusively to audio books on my daily commute. If I'm waiting in a restaurant or a movie theatre for the rest of my party to arrive, I'm reading on my phone. Last week I had to serve jury duty and I sat in the selection room with my book, armed with earplugs against the onslaught of the television's blare. I used to watch a lot of television.  Now I just do a lot of reading.

Reading style: not sure how to answer that.  I read pretty widely for my job, but when I read for myself it's mostly literary fiction, some YA, some narrative non-fiction.  Occasionally some chick lit. I'm much less particular when it comes to my audio books than my regular books. I read mostly in my bed, but my husband, god bless him, built a house with an actual library in it and sometimes I read in there.

Society's priorities: now that's a serious question and perhaps hard to answer without sounding elitist. I love Amanda's answer on Dead White Guys and I could just say "ditto" to what she said. But for me, I think everybody should read more. Full stop. There are scientific studies that indicate that people who read (particularly fiction, but any regular reading will do) demonstrate more empathy in real life than people who don't read regularly. And I constantly oscillate back & forth between thinking that it's okay if people read crap as long as they're reading (Twilight, celebrity gossip magazines, etc) and thinking that reading crap doesn't count as *real* reading.

There's a line from the movie Shadowlands, the film about C. S. Lewis, that says "we read to know we're not alone" and I couldn't agree more with that.  Somehow I believe that anybody who says they don't enjoy reading just hasn't found the right book yet. I think reading is just as important and instrumental for knowing others (or "the other") as it is for knowing yourself.  I can't tell you the number of times I've read passages in books and exclaimed, "Yes! Exactly!" There's a euphoria in recognizing yourself in another person's words. And then the euphoria fades, and if you're self-aware enough, the inevitable questions follow: what does that say about me? Why do I feel/act/think that way? Is it a good thing? Or is that something I should work on?

So read more. Observe more. Books help you pay attention to your interior life and keep you aware of what's happening in the outside world. Books can educate or entertain and the best ones do both. Damnit, why doesn't everybody just sit down, shut up, and read?

17 comments:

  1. When did the switch happen from tv to books?

    Awwww, C.S. Lewis. He's just swell.

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  2. Haha! Yes! Why doesn't everybody just sit down, shut up, and read? And then they can talk about what they read because it would mean more book recs for me to add to the tbr. Share the addiction!

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  3. Aw, I loved this whole post. I worked in a bookstore in college and loved it -- but as you pointed out, it isn't all sitting around and reading.

    And I too think more reading needs to happen -- there is something magical about seeing yourself in a story, and having a ... mirror? foil? a what if scenario for learning or making a new choice. Does that make sense? (This is particularly on my mind as the book I just finished reminded me of myself at age 11, and it was moving to experience that again, both more dramatically and less dramatically.)

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  4. I love. I agree. I must write my own question responses!

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  5. So sad there's no time to read while being surrounded by books. I mean it makes sense (and would probably not be great for business if you had loads of free time to read) but still.

    I'm with you and can never decide if reading crap still counts as reading or not.

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  6. This was my first Literary Blog Hop this year as well. I love your answer, especially the last part. Reading is important, and I don't find it at all elitist to say so. I would imagine that access to books is better than access to other technologies. We learn to communicate and to better understand our language through observing it being used at its highest potential - in great Literature (and we can learn lots of other good stuff too). And the joy of recognizing yourself in a book is a great one.

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  7. When I saw the question about reading as a social priority I thought about life in the ten million plus Asian city in which I reside. We have some of the biggest swankiest malls in the world, the well off live behind ten foot walls with cut class in them, and guards with sawed off shot guns, have helpers just for their pets (called a dog or cat Yaya) but we have no public libraries. Millions of kids grow up never having their own books. Once my wife and I went to an outreach at a local orphans home. We gave each of the fifty kids a book our daughters had out grown. It was almost heartbreaking to see the children hug the books.

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  8. C.S. Lewis was very wise to say what he did. As I read these blog posts, I am starting to wonder if I could have answered my questions better. But I suppose each to his own, so to speak.

    Your answers were very thoughtful and insightful.

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  9. Well said!

    I do think some people will never be readers, not because they haven't found the right book, but just because they are not a reader kind of person. Because they can't sit still, because they don't have a great imagination, or whatever other reason.

    But I'm glad I'm a reader - I love reading better than reality shows. In a book you get the whole story, not just the most embarassing video clips.

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  10. Judith, that's an interesting point, and at another time I might agree with you, but I think not at this moment. I really do think that people who say they hate reading or hate books just haven't found the right one. It's as bizarre to me as if someone said, "I hate music." There are infinite kinds of books and music, and music and story are defining aspects of our humanity, and therefore there must be something out there for everybody.

    Melissa, technically it wasn't C. S. Lewis who said that line. One of his students, a drop-out, actually, told Lewis that his father used to tell him that about books. The line has stuck with me, and in the movie, the line resonated with the C. S. Lewis character.

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  11. Oh, I love this whole post! I agree about going back and forth between being okay with crap fiction (sorry) since it's still reading material, and utterly despising it.

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  12. I love absolutely everything about this post.

    I work in a bookstore & it never fails to amaze me how many people assume I spend all day reading. ...nope. Not even close.

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  13. Brilliant as usual. I am bummed though that working full time at a bookstore does not equate to reading full time at a bookstore. I've been debating giving up my career as a realtor to work in a bookstore - something like Book Soup in Hollywood. Dang, another fantasy bites the dust!

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  14. You can't even pick up a book every now and then in the store and just sneak a little bit of reading in here and there? I think the hardest part of your job must be resisting that temptation to hide somewhere and read.

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  15. I *wish* I could read books on the job. The most I can do is read the summaries on the dust jackets or the back of the page to figure out what section the book should go in.

    I do a lot of reading at work, but it's catalog copy for not-yet-published books so that I can decide which ones to buy for next season, or I'm reading industry emails like Shelf Awareness or Publisher's Weekly, or book reviews in general. But nope, no reading for pleasure.

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  16. Gee I wish I could say I 'used' to watch too much tv. I also make time to watch the box as this is my veg out time.

    I want to also echo that Librarians do not read on the job, and that no, we haven't read every book in the library! I have been asked that many times before.

    I also talked about reading creating empathy in my answer and so far (your answer is the second I've read) there seems to be a consensus. Or I'm willing to bet as I keep on reading there will be. And I also wish that everyone read too. For people who don't I aliken it to not having the reading flame lit for them. :)

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  17. I think it's ok to read crap if you know that it is crap. Does that make sense? I read the Twilight series and knew they weren't good or "good" books. But the women who read Twilight and think they were wonderful and those have been the only books they have read in the last years? That's just sad.

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Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)