Category: Reading

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Checked Out: Week 1

Yes, I checked these out.

Okay, so admittedly I’m a book addict. I can’t help it. About this time last year I decided I was going to stop frequenting the library, that the number of books we own that I hadn’t read had gotten so huge that I would instead focus on them.

Two weeks later I was back at the library checking out an armload of books and breathing a huge sigh of relief. I know there are worse things to be addicted to (a lot worse), but I think I know now how crack addicts feel when they’re going through withdrawal. It wasn’t even like the books here at the house aren’t adequate, either. It’s just that I *knew* there were so many more out there, and I had to get my hands on them.

So, this year I’m not even pretending to be a good boy and read just the books here. Sure, I will sprinkle them in here and there, but I’m not going through that whole thing again. In fact, I’ve decided to use some space here to tell you about the books I currently have out from the library each week (they honestly do change from week to week). Maybe you’ll even want to read some of them, and perhaps I won’t even end up reading all of them myself, but at least for right now they’re in the queue, and sitting snugly on the bookshelf in my corner of the living room.

Here’s what I’ve Checked Out this week:

1. Innocence, by Dean Koontz

So, one of my favorite authors writes a book and I immediately seek out libraries hoping to get my grubby hands on it. Sound familiar? Oh, and did I mention that it’s our book club‘s book of the month for January, too? It means even if it wasn’t something I wanted to enjoy myself, now I have to get it done too. Continue reading “Checked Out: Week 1”

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Why the Duck is an Ass

Too many people make the mistake of thinking that children’s books are all the same, that they preach a common theme and align themselves perfectly with what’s true and right, teaching kids the value of human nature and the beauty of our world. But our world is oftentimes not beautiful, and human nature is frequently negative and judgmental. So often we shield our children from these realities in favor of the cookie cutter “perfect world” we ourselves would desperately like to live in, hiding the rough spots as much as we can with spit and polish, not thinking about how shocking it will be to our kids when the truth comes out. And believe me, it will come out. Now, I’m not saying tell your kids everything about the cruel world and cruel people, but just having a heads up would suffice sometimes instead of a brick over the head. Some children’s books give that heads up while also teaching a lesson. Those are the kind I get for my kids.

IMG_0553Duck in the Truck is a children’s book written by Jez Alborough that I bought when I was in London. It appealed to me because of the cute picture of the duck driving a truck on the cover, but it proved itself to be a true compass for human nature as I sat in the huge comfy chair and read it over several times. Now, I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea of using cute, cuddly animals to sell something. Hell, Disney was founded on it and still thrives to this day because of a mouse, a bear, and a sheer cadre of other wildlife. But what I found in this book wasn’t a straight morality tale like Disney is so fond of, but a story plainly told and illustrated that makes its adult readers think and might just confuse or amuse the younger readers.

It’s a tale of a duck who drives a truck down a lane, plain and simple. However, this duck loses control of his vehicle and it becomes stuck in a pretty nasty muck. Look at the duck’s face in the page pictured. Does he look like one of those pleasant animals I talked about above? No. In fact, he’s pretty pissed off, in my opinion, and probably ticked off mostly at himself for driving so recklessly. With the angle of the vehicle in the muck, it’s really a surprise to me that he didn’t fall out and do some serious damage to himself, so he should actually be thanking his lucky stars instead of being angry at the vehicle. Luckily for him he has some random strangers come by to try and help him get unstuck from the muck. Continue reading “Why the Duck is an Ass”

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In the Background

zumreed-x2-hybrid-earphones-6Have you ever seen someone read while walking? Those people fascinate me. And I suppose I could do it too if I really focused, but it just seems like too much work with the possibility of disaster at the other end. It’s like listening to a book on CD while driving. Either I expend too much energy trying to concentrate on listening to the book that I can’t focus enough on the road, or I focus everything I have on the road and completely miss out on whatever was happening in that section of the book. So you would think reading while listening to music or reading with a lot of noise in the background would be a dealbreaker for me, huh? Not at all.

In fact, I can’t imagine reading without having some kind of music or noise going on behind it all. Most other readers I’ve talked to either can’t do the same thing, or they say if there’s music on in the background it has to be quiet in terms of both volume and content. For me it doesn’t really matter on the volume or content front. I can listen to classical music or Metallica, at low volume or at high, but what I can’t do is have complete silence when I read. Continue reading “In the Background”

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Reading Material

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Our Books, Ourselves.

I have been reading for so long I honestly haven’t thought about what it is about the things I routinely read that draws me in and makes me want to read it in the first place. People ask me all the time what I’ve read that was good, and I scan my brain to think about what that person might find interesting from the myriad of things I’ve read recently, but I hardly ever think about what it was that I myself found intriguing about the book that kept me reading it. So, when I read the daily prompt yesterday I stopped and thought about it. The prompt said, “How do you pick what blogs or books to read? What’s the one thing that will get you to pick up a book or click on a link every single time?” It made me really think, which is the common denominator with daily prompts that I actually participate in, so I decided to dig deep and figure it out.

#1 – There needs to be some connection to my own life, no matter how fragile. Continue reading “Reading Material”