Fellow writer and reader, mrissa, pointed out various reasons why she quit reading certain books.

And nephele wrote about what keeps readers and agents reading.

Both are very interesting, from the point of view as both a writer and a reader. As a writer, I take this kid of advice in, and then promptly place it in the cellar of my mind. Stashed there in case its needed for future use.

In general, I find the different reasons why people keep reading or quit reading certain books. In my own reading, I have a hard time pointing out specific things that would make me put a book down. I suppose the only reason I can think of is drudgery.

If a book begins at any point to feel like more work to get through than it's worth, then I put it down and move on to something else. It's just not worth my time anymore to plow through a book that feels like drudgery to read (both times I attempted Crime and Punishment felt this way). My time is too valuable these days, so now I don't bother.

Other than that, I just go to where my interests lay. I'm such a broad reader, though, that my interests are rather vast. I read scifi, fantasy, romance, historical, classics, comedy, modern literature, as well as nonfiction books ranging from memoirs to science histories to criticism to whatever. I don't general go for mysteries (not my cup of tea), but I have read them, and would not claim that as a reason to put it down.

Basically, if even a small thing, one character, one moment, one idea catches my interest, I will ignore many of the other things I don't like about a book and keep reading. It's amazing how small of a kernel of interest can keep me going on a book. I think it's mainly due to a driving need for me to know what's going to happen. I'm often too curious to quit a book. (I'm easily entertained.) Only when there is sense hopelessness over finding anything even vaguely interesting about a book will I put it down (and even then I may come back to it later, see Crime and Punishment).

What makes you keep reading a book? What makes you quit?

As soon as I heard that there was supposed to be a zombie pub crawl in my local area last night, I knew I had to be there. I was so excited at the prospect of seeing zombies out in the wild. It took a while to track them down, however, and in the end only two zombies were spotted. I had hoped to see more, but I suppose that if I had come dressed in zombie attire, there would have been more. Next time, I suppose. (I get shy about dressing up in costume alone. I would totally be down if a few friends were willing to get costumed with me. Hint. Hint.)

I was able to get evidence of the zombie sighting in the form of a photograph.





She seemed a little embarrassed about being asked for a photo op, but was gracious enough to pose with me. (Her sign reads: "Is it necrophilia if you're both dead?") Though, by the snarl on her face, there's always the slight chance that she might be thinking of eating my brains, or something. Though maybe not.

The zombie crawl was held as part of a book reading/signing event for Breathers: A Zombie Lament, which is about a Adam, who joins a group called Undead Anonomous to help him cope with the challenges of living life as the recently deceased. It's described as a romantic zombie comedy, which just sounds awesome from the get go. (I'll have to post a book review up here once I'm done reading it.)

The author S.G. Browne read from his book, answered some questions, and then signed books. Browne is an excellent reader, and I laughed out loud at some of the passages he read. He was also very easy to approach when signing the book, which is a good thing for me, because I always feel so awkward when I go to have a book signed. I don't know why. But he seemed a very easy going guy and was easy to chat with. I suggest going to his webpage to check out his book, if you are at all interested. It should prove a good read.

Then I wandered off with my girls (who were so wonderfully kind as to attend this with me *grin*) and we went back to Rosie McCann's to get some dinner, and then dance the night away. A great evening all around.

1. I had a hard time getting out of bed all this week. I'ms not staying up any later than usual, but I was quite tired. I'm of the opinion that I need to exercise more, and probably eat a little better, too. I was doing 10 minute morning exercises, but have not done so much this week, because of how late I was getting up. Maybe I will start walking every night after work now that there is more daylight in the evening. It sounds like a good plan to me.

2. I just started reading Breaking Dawn the last-ish novel in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Even though I recognize the many problems that run rampant through these novels(in writing style, themes, characterizations, plotting), I can't help but enjoy the melodrama of the series. To me it's kind of like falling in love with a soap opera. I get to run to my friends and go, "Oh, my god!" At which point we gush about the drama in this book. For me this is just good fun.

3. A friend had a their lj community practically ripped apart by a hacker. It's amazing to me that people go around doing that kind of shit. She posted a link to a list of things you can do to protect your account from hackers here on livejournal. Since I thought it was a good idea to know these things, I'm going to link to it, too.

4. Dollhouse, the new Joss Whedon TV show, is beginning to look a little more interesting as things slowly begin to fall into place (I've been watching it on hulu.com, because Friday nights are hard for me). I'm enjoying it so far, but I don't quite know where it's going and I don't know that I'm loving it yet. Buffy and Firefly I responded to instantly. I'm hoping Dollhouse sticks around long enough to develop though. I do want to see what happens, and I am interested in the characters enough to care.

5. I received a nice note from the editor of Bear Creek Haiku, a lovely and tiny (literally and figuratively) literary journal that publishes haiku and other short poetry. On the back of the envelope containing the latest issue (I am a subscriber) he wrote that he did not have any new poetry from me, and welcomed anything new that I might have. I published one of my poems previously in his journal. It's nice to get a personal note from an editor like that. Nice to know that someone liked my poetry enough to solicit it. One of my projects this weekend is definitely going to be putting together a submission packet for him.

Philease Fogg makes a hasty and rash bet of 20,000 pounds that he can travel around the world in 80 days. He immediately sets off, dragging his newly hired servant Passpartout along for the journey. He meets with many adventures and possible delays that risk preventing him from reaching his destination in time, including Fix, a detective who has mistaken Fogg for a bank robber.

The film versions of this books often make this story more exotic and fantastical than it really is, turning Fogg into some sort of an inventor, who sets off in his journey in an air balloon. But Fogg uses regular means of travel in this books, ships, trains, and even on elephant, but there are no balloons. Verne did pen another adventure story, called Five Weeks in a Balloon, in which travels travel across Africa in a hot air balloon (this is on my list to read).

That being said, I enjoyed Around the World immensely. Because the book was orginally written as a serial, the chapters are each vignette in which Fogg and his companions meets an obstacle and then over comes it. Verne's characters are something like caricatures, but the have enough depth to be fully entertaining.

This is only the second book of Verne's that I have read, but he is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

This poetry lives in the adolescent, in that its focus remains for the most part superficial. Since this book of poetry is directed toward a young adult audience, this is not a bad thing.

Many of the poems center on body image, fashion, popularity, finding self, boys, and the like. They revel in the insecurities of the teenager. If I had read this when I was in high school, I would have been amazed, thinking, This is me. She knows. I would have believed.

Even the language itself remains very on the surface. The breaking of the lines often seems arbitrary, and the descriptions tend to be repetitive (the first things to be noticed are the shade of the eyes or the color of the hair).

There is no punctuation throughout the book, except the odd question mark. Sometimes it helped the poem, allowing the thoughts to run into one another, the way they actually do in our minds, undeliniated. Other times this was a hindrance, causing confusion in the lack.

Block brings in mythology and fairy tales to help bring these poems depth and life. And every once in a while, she breaks away into something sublime, and I find myself wanting to linger over a line. I reread it, savoring it on my tongue. And there are those few poems where I have to pause and be still for a minute after finishing, because I just need to be there for a moment before I go back to read the poem again.

This is what I read this past year:

77 books (according to my LibraryThing records, but I know I've read more than that as I have not been a perfect record keeper)

12 nonfiction
12 comics/graphic novels (does not include the manga I read, which I should really start to keep track of)
6 poetry
17 YA books
41 scifi/fantasy
7 horror
5 romance
17 mainstream/literary fiction
15 audio books (yes, I'm counting these even though I didn't technically "read" them)

I know it doesn't add up, but some of them overlap, and besides I'm not perfect. :)

( These are some of my favorites. )
( These are the ones I didn't really enjoy. )

I stole this idea from larinzia. Please let me know of three books that I just have to read in the new year (I'll already be stealing some of the suggestions from her poll). Not that I don't have enough books on my list to read of course, but what the hey. I always like to see what people liked and what I should be keeping up with.

Poll #1316236 Book Suggestions for 2009
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Book #1

How much did you like this book?

Book #2

How much did you like this book?

Book #3

How much did you like this book?

I didn't include "Hated it" or "just okay" in the poll, because I just don't believe that any of you would be that mean as to suggest a book you hated.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
How do you raise a child in a world that has no future? How in a world so bleak do you hold on to hope?



McCarthy's The Road answers these questions for me. This is a deceptively simple story. A father and a son walking a road in a post-apocalyptic world that is devastating and horrifying. It seems like not much is happening, and in a sense not much is. These are two people wandering a burnt and nearly empty world, just trying to survive. They are trying to reach the ocean, an entirely arbitrary goal, but a point, a destination, a direction in which to aim their wandering.



The prose is plain and poetic, and the redundancy of the dialog anchored me in the characters. I especially liked the repetition of the word "okay," which can have a multitude of contexts and meanings.



As bleak as this book is, it makes me believe in people. The way people can still love, can still hold on and be thankful for what little goodness they have, which is at the very least, who we have with us. And, for me, there is hope in that. Hope in that people can still be good, can still love and do right by each other. For me this book was deeply moving and touching, because at its heart, if you take away the dystopia, you have a father and a son, holding on to each other.


View all my reviews.

I went to go see a poetry reading at the Grace Cathedral last night, an incredible building and just about as fabulous as any of the cathedrals I saw in Spain or Mexico. Grace Cathedral also has a labyrinth for walking meditations, which I choose to do. I breathed deep and worked on staying present as I twisted my way to the center. I needed that, as it had been a very stressful day.

The setting was perfect for the reading, because the theme was the sacred and the profane. The poetry was great, each poet with a different voice and reading style. My mind started to drift during two of the five poets readings. But the other three kept me right there, present, and their work was so profound. I ended up buying three books of poetry, the works of Kay Ryan, Jane Mead, and Dan Bellm. I got two of them signed, too. I love finding new poets to love.

There are more Litquake going on this week in San Fran. Go here to check out what other events are going on. I'll be at the Steampunk event tomorrow night (Thursday), so if you think you are going to be around, let me know.

* * * *

I also posted a new video on youtube. Basically, it's just me describing my trip to Ireland. I thought I would post it here, just in case you were interested in knowing more about what went on during that trip. Watch and enjoy (or not).

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Dhalgren was probably the most literary science fiction I have ever read. I suppose I say that because it had little to do with plot, in the sense that there really wasn't one. But the characters and their interactions are very interesting. Also, I really enjoyed looking at the way people try to assemble--not meaning--but some shape of a life from a society that has collapsed.



Definitely a book that will challenge people's ideas on sexuality, as well as race, gender, and how to define art. Some of it was rather intense for me to read, so I would not recommend this book to anyone who is easily offended.


View all my reviews.

Reading sets me on fire. A good book, like Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gib or Mysteries of the Middle Ages, by Thomas Cahill, written in vivid textural language inspires me to dive into my imagination and rush to my pen.

It's not that I want to write like that author, but that good writing reminds me of the power of words. And so, as I am reading, my mind drifts. Sentences and paragraphs begin to play out in my head, and I have to reread that paragraph or page because my mind has taken its own tangent, is developing its own worlds.

Inevitably I won't be able to focus again until I obey my mind and write down the words that have come. Only once I have been cleared of the scene in my head can I return to the book I was reading and enjoy it again -- or at least until the fire it relit by some other beautiful turn of phrase.

What does reading do for you? What sets you on fire?

I haven't had a fun read in a while.

( What I am currently reading . . . )

( What do I consider a Fun Read? )

So are there any fun reads in my near future? Well, my priorty to-be-read stack is full of more non-fiction books, including several writing and creativity books, and two books on war (Great Military Disasters and How Wars are Won, both of which are more research than fun). I am holding out hope for The People of Sparks, by Jeanne Duprau, however. Sparks is the sequel to The City of Ember, which was a fantastically fun read.

In City of Ember, a colony of people live in an underground cave, with no idea that they live in a cave. They have never seen the sun, and don't even know what the sun is, let alone trees, sky, the moon, or any of the many things we are so used to. The people survive using a generator (which is breaking down and they don't know how to fix) and a stored supply of food and goods (which are running out). Two children have to try to figure the way out. Really creative and really well done. Duprau does an excellent job of making what seems normal to us strange to the people from the City of Ember.

The People of Sparks is the story of how the people of Ember must now try and survive in the world outside their cave. I'm greatly looking forward to it. I will definitely have to read Sparks next (as soon as I get one or two of the other books I'm working on read), and let the non-fictions wait for later. Because I could definitely use a fun read, and soon.

Wow, this turned into a lot longer post than I intended.

Another Tuesday has come and I don't have a self portrait to put up, mostly because it's kind of hard to get it going when I don't have easy access to a computer. Sigh, woe is me, blah, blah, blah. :)

Really things are okay, though, if nothing else, not having power has brought the family together. No zoning out with the TV at night, so in an attempt to entertain ourselves we play board and card games (except Monopoly, I refuse to submit to Monopoly). It's kind of fun actually. I still try to flip the light switch, however, even though I know that the lights won't come on. I'm such a dork.

Anyway, I have some thoughts on some books that I've been reading (I've been doing a lot more reading in the candle light, too), but I'll save that for later.

Have a fabulous day one and all.