A Picture of Emily

"A word is dead when it is said, some say.
I say it just begins to live that day." -- Emily Dickinson

As a big fan of Dickinson's poetry, I was excited to hear that they may have found a photograph of this famously reclusive poet. Emily's Picture

Until now, there has just been the one photo of her as a teen. This new photo shows her as a young twenty-something.

"They might not need me; but they might.
 I'll let my head be just in sight;
a smile as small as mine might be
precisely their necessity."

Too Many Books

I'm still here and I promise to post something soon. I've been busy with work (a good thing) and at night I've been busy reading. For some reason, a whole bunch of good books have come my way. I've been borrowing books on my Kindle from the library. I put my name on a waiting list for the more popular titles and invariably they all come in at the same time. Add to that the books I'm committed to reading for my two book clubs, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed -- but in a good way. I'll report back soon on what I've read. Please don't desert me in the interim.

Bedtime Books

Are you, like me, picky about what you read just before falling asleep at night? Some books just seem to work better to ease me into a relaxed, restful place. I don't always choose wisely, however, and then I pay for it by tossing and turning and lying wide-eyed, staring at the ceiling, checking the digital clock now and then to confirm that "yep" I'm not getting any sleep.

I can't read anything too dark or depressing right before dozing off. My very favorite bedtime books were the Harry Potter books. Although, when the final book was published, I read it day and night, because I just couldn't stop.

Some other good bedtime books:

• Jane Austen
• Jan Karon
• Some mysteries -- not too violent or scary
• Georgette Heyer - Regency Romances
• Terry Pratchett

What about you? Do you read certain types of books before bed? Do you have any favorites?

A Book by Its Cover

One thing I miss when I read a book on my Kindle is getting to see the book cover. I used to roam the aisles of the bookstore and library checking the book covers to see if any spoke to me. And many times they did. It has been so long since I bought or checked out a book for its cover, though, that I would be hard pressed to recall which covers evoked that response. I thought about that today when I discovered a website that lists its writer's choices for the 50 Coolest Book Covers. 50 Coolest Book Covers

Recent book covers that I'm drawn to for some reason include:

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

What about you? Do you ever buy books based on the cover? Do you have any favorite covers?



Feeling Guilty

I'm feeling guilty because I haven't posted in such a long time. I have a good excuse -- working 50+ hours. But that doesn't make me feel any better.

I have managed to squeeze in some non-work-related reading, though, in the brief spaces of time when I'm grabbing a bite to eat or just before I doze off at night. In fact, as often happens in life, now that I have so much work, I also have several good books to read. The last time I went to the library, I learned that I could get library books for my Kindle. So I went a little crazy and requested more than I could read. Just as with regular library books, you get three weeks to read the Kindle version, and then it disappears from your e-reader. Several of the books I requested were on a waiting list, so I thought I'd be safe. But then they all started coming in just days apart. Once they're on your shelf, you have three days to download them or they go back to the "stacks." So now, in addition to my book club read "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult, I also have downloaded "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness.

Because I was working such long hours, I had to let another digital title go back -  as well as a hardcover book I had ordered. I really want to read both of these books, but I guess it won't happen just now.

Famous Authors Were Children Once, Too

I came across this link to a flavorwire piece and thought some of you might be interested, too. It shows the childhood homes of 20 famous authors. My mind, of course, immediately begins to wonder what if any influence living in these homes had on the authors.

While you're there, check out the photographs of twin sisters in the forest. Stephen King anyone?

20 Homes of Famous Authors

Reading Lull

Lately, I can't seem to find a book that I really want to finish. I get a third to half-way through and think "meh" -- just not interested. I don't know if it's the weather, or me or what. My daughter recommended "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. So I read about half of it -- it's pretty video-game centric for my taste. I'll probably finish it eventually, but I decided to move on for now.  Next I tried "The Buddha in the Attic" by Julie Otsuka. This one's well written, but doesn't actually have really identifiable characters; it basically covers a whole immigrant population with hints about specific persons. It's hard to explain, so here's an example:

"They gave themselves new names we had not chosen for them and could barely pronounce. One called herself Doris. One called herself Peggy. Many called themselves George. Saburo was called Chinky by all the others because he looked just like a Chinaman. Toshitachi was called Harlem because his skin was so dark. Etsuko was given the name Esther by her teacher, Mr. Slater, on her first day of school. "It's his mother's name," she explained. To which we replied, "So is yours." Sumire called herself Violet. Shizuko was Sugar. Makoto was just Mac. Shigeharu Takagi joined the Baptist church at the age of nine and changed his name to Paul. Edison Kobayashi was born lazy but had a photographic memory and could tell you the name of every person he'd ever met..."

The technique is interesting, but as a reader who craves well-developed characters, it just doesn't satisfy me. One reason I love authors as diverse as Jane Austen, Tony Hillerman, and Terry Pratchett is because they create three-dimensional characters. Anyone who has read "Pride and Prejudice" quickly learns just what to expect from Elizabeth's silly mother and younger sisters. Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee are so well drawn that after I finish the book I miss them as if they were friends who have moved away. Then there are the wacky Pratchett characters - Sam Vimes, City Watch Commander; Lord Vetinari; and, of course, Granny Weatherwax. What's not to love?

What to do? Reread a favorite? That's something I seldom do. Keep trying to find something I can really crawl into and disappear for awhile? I like that idea but I'm feeling gun-shy. Ah well -- I guess I'll just go clean the house and think about it some more.

Kindle Konfusion

I wrote in a previous post about Kindle fails -- book samples I download but find I don't like. But sometimes I'm not sure whether I will like a book or not after I've read the sample. Consequently, I build up a multi-page list of book samples that I might or might not decide to purchase. Yesterday, I decided to purge my Kindle of some of those titles. I'm not sure what inspired me -- maybe the fact that I've been having trouble finding a book that really draws me in.

After looking through all nine(!) pages of samples, books, and various other downloads, I came up with a list of samples I have downloaded and either never read or hadn't decided to buy immediately. I find that, often, if I don't buy the book right after reading the sample, when I go back and look at the title I don't recall what the book was about. Solution: I went through my list title by title, looking up each one online and, if I was somewhat interested, I downloaded the Publishers Weekly write-up about the book.

Once I had refreshed my memory about each book, I then color coded them (I know, I'm crazy). If I knew I would never read them, I highlighted them in red. Those that I might consider reading got a yellow highlight, and those that I definitely want to read got green. This wasn't actually just busy work; I really needed to jog my memory about why I had at one time thought these books might interest me. Plus, the way my memory has been performing lately, I might even download the same sample again and not recognize that I've already read it. This way, before making that mistake, I can check it against my list (an ongoing project) and see if I've already sampled the book.

Final count:

I will definitely read five of the books.

I might read forty-one.

I definitely will not read seventeen.

Two that I will definitely read are: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, which sounds like a modern-day Jane Eyre. Gemma is orphaned when her father drowns and she has to leave her native Iceland to go live in Scotland with a kindly uncle and his family. The uncle, of course, also dies and she's sent to live in a strict private school. She ultimately winds up the au pair to an 8-year-old on the Orkney islands. Sounds like fun to me.

Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong In Print -- and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh. This one's pretty self-explanatory, but the sample was funny and I want to read more.

A Reader's Confession

I have a confession to make -- I can't seem to finish a non-fiction book. On occasion, I race to the end of a well-written memoir...probably because it tells a story, and I'm all about the story. I also like well-drawn characters, and in the right hands that's just what a memoir presents. But other non-fiction books just don't seem to hold my attention for some reason.

Right now, I'm trying to finish Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom by Rick Hanson. The subject interests me and the book is well-written. But each time I have a chance to do some reading, I reach for a novel instead. I will finish this book because I'm anxious to learn what it has to say, which is that breakthroughs in modern neuroscience coupled with the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, make it possible for people to shape their thoughts to achieve greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom

Two n-f books I did finish were: Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen and The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. Both of these books fascinated me from start to finish. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Some memoirs I really enjoyed were:

The Liars' Club by Mary Karr

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot by Craig Ferguson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

What about you? Do you read non-fiction and fiction? Do you prefer one over the other?

Not Enough Dog

Just to follow up on my previous post about I Thought You Were Dead.  After finishing the book, I would give it four stars. I liked it, but it got a bit whiney in the middle. But mostly, I would have liked to hear more from the dog. If you're a dog lover, I recommend it. But be sure to keep some tissues handy.

I Love "Talking" Dogs!

I think I first fell in love with books that featured talking dogs years ago, when I read Harlan Ellison's classic novella that included A Boy and His Dog. The dog didn't actually talk, but he communicated with his human pal telepathically. It was a post-apocalyptic story that was made into a somewhat horrifying movie.

I remembered that book recently as I fell in love with another talking-dog book. In I Thought You Were Dead by Pete Nelson the dog actually talks. Stella, a german shepherd/labrador mix listens to her owner Paul's woes and offers some wonderfully amusing and wise advice.

A typical exchange:

Paul is explaining to Stella that his father has had a stroke. He says, "They don't know how bad it is. I was talking to a guy at the bar who said if they get to you in time, they can limit the damage."

"A guy at the bar said that?

"Yup."

"Always a good source for reliable medical information," she said. "I'm sorry for you." I love this dog!

Another dog I fell in love with is Chet from the Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn. Chet doesn't actually talk, but he narrates the stories. The first one, titled Dog On It, finds Chet and his owner Bernie investigating the disappearance of a teenaged girl who may or may not have been kidnapped. From Amazon:

"Chet might have flunked out of police school (“I’d been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn’t remember exactly, although blood was involved”)...And that's what I love about these dog books - the dogs may be special (talking, telepathic, novel-narrating) but they're still very much dogs. They eat, poop and love a good scratch. And they're ever so loyal.

(Thanks for the idea, Em.)

Questions, Questions?

Would you read a novel composed entirely of questions? "The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?" by Padgett Powell is just such a book  and a very intriguing book it is. Although the questions seem to appear in no significant order, reviewers who have read the entire novel (I am not one) say that it actually has themes and a pattern to the seeming chaos.

One section asks: "How is your health? If it might be fairly said that you have hopes and fears, would you say you have more hopes than fears, or more fears than hopes? Are all of your affairs in order? Would you have the slightest idea, if we somehow started over, how to reinvent the radio, or even the telephone?"

Then there is this question, which I confess I have actually pondered myself: "Why won't the aliens step forth to help us."

I haven't yet purchased this book because I think it might make me crazy, but it might not. I'm still asking myself: "Do you want to read this book?"

Two for One

I love to peruse lists of books that one group or another, or some writer or celebrity, thinks I should read. So today, I followed a link to an AARP list of 21 novels that Jacquelyn Mitchard thinks I should read.   21 Novels to Read

It was an interesting list. I had already read several of her suggestions, but she also had some rather interesting books I have never read that she considers must-reads. So I was able to add some titles to my list of books to consider reading. But the more fun part of this journey was the video they had posted on the web page of Peter Greenberg talking about hotels for book lovers. What a great concept!

Wish I was planning a trip soon to NYC, Maryland, or Oregon. These places sound like the perfect place to read the day away without feeling guilty about dirty dishes and undone chores.

Hotels for Book Lovers

Good story or good writing? Can't I have both?

I sometimes find it hard to remove my editor's hat when I'm reading for pleasure. But there have been times... Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code comes to mind. The writing was certainly less than stellar, in my opinion, but the story managed to grab me up and sweep me along all the way to the finish. Many readers turn up their noses at this book, and I can sympathize. But doggone it, that was a fun read.

On the other hand, I have sometimes run across authors who can write beautiful prose, but they can't really tell a story. It thrills me to discover an author who can do both, one who can use chill- or sigh-inspiring prose to tell a page-turning, awe-inspiring, or heartwarming story -- and sometimes all three of those in one.

I'm currently reading Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. I've read  a couple of her books before (The Magician's Assistant and The Patron Saint of Liars) and found her talented but not stunning. This book is different so far. I'm finding that I want to go back and read certain sentences or paragraphs and then mark them with a sticky note so I won't forget to bring them up at my next book club meeting when we discuss the book. Here's an example:

Hope is a horrible thing, you know. I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not. It's a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it.

What about you? Do you want story and sparkling prose or are you okay with just one or the other? What authors have you discovered that can provide both?

Does reading taste run in families?

My daughter was an avid reader from an early age. But pretty early on, she decided that fantasy was the only genre she wanted to read. I read some fantasy and enjoy it, but I also read mysteries, literary fiction, memoirs, science fiction, and anything else that grabs my attention.

I used to always hear friends talk about exchanging books with their mothers, and thought to myself, "That would be nice." But unless the book was written by Terry Pratchett (who I do love), Piers Anthony, or any other fantasy writer, my daughter never seemed interested in the books I suggested. That all changed, however, when I gave her my old Kindle. Since I already had a boat-load of books archived at Amazon, she discovered hours of free reading. She also discovered that Mom had read some pretty interesting books. It's so exciting now to be able to share books and talk about them once we've both read them. And I must say, the sharing goes both ways. I probably would never have read The Hunger Games if she hadn't read it first and encouraged me. Likewise, I'm pretty sure she would never have read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

So maybe reading taste isn't an inherited trait, but, as with shrimp and mushrooms, it's possible to develop a taste for different things as you age.

Beautiful Libraries

Flavorwire posted a list of the 25 Most Beautiful Public Libraries. (See link below.) I love finding lists such as this, although I don't always agree with the choices. In this case, they definitely found some beautiful libraries. Some of them are so white or stark that they make my eyes hurt. (Stuttgart, Germany and Lisses, France) Others, however, seem so inviting that I want to go sit there and read. (Stockholm) In some of them, I can't seem to see any books -- though it may just be the angle from which the photo was shot. The Norway and Bangkok libraries intrigue me, and I don't understand the Villanueva, Colombia picture.

Isn't it wonderful that the world values books and knowledge so much that they build these magnificent structures?

How about you? Which of these buildings appeals to you? Do you know a library that you would add to this list?

25 Most Beautiful Public Libraries

Lucky Day

I visited my local library yesterday -- a very small library in a very small town. In fact, the library is located in the elementary school, so it's only open between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. But I discovered a great feature that my little library offers -- a bookshelf labeled Lucky Day. I asked the librarian what that meant and she explained that these were popular new titles designated for this library alone; they had to stay right here in town. In other words, they couldn't be requested from other libraries via inter-library loan.

These books can't be renewed and they can't be put on hold. When they come back in they get put on the Lucky Day shelf for the next lucky person to check out.

I was so excited that I checked out more books than I should have. Inheritance alone is 850 pages! I should be reading that on my Kindle. Maybe if I don't work or sleep I can get through all three -- plus the other two books I checked out. Ha.

Here were my Lucky Day Books:

Bored or Scared?

My previous post posited a question about what I should read, Blink or "Unwind."  Thyrkas left a comment suggesting that, altough she hadn't read either, it sounded like a choice between being bored or scared. (Thanks, Teri) She said she'd choose bored. I, on the other, prefer scared. So, I chose "Unwind," and scared I was ... not Psycho-shower-scene scared, but more like that-is-too-creepy-to-think-about scared. It was a quick read, and certainly gave me lots of ideas to ponder. I'm still thinking about it days later.

I still plan to read "Blink," but, continuing on the scarey train, I think I"ll slip in The Haunting of Maddy Clare somewhere along the way.

No time to read!

This week brought a big work deadline and company -- not much time left for reading. I did finish Daughter of Smoke and Bone and would give it three or four stars. Looks like there will be more to come. I'm supposed to Blink read  for one book group and "Unwind" for another. I'm not sure about "Blink"; it does look intriguing. But I'm feeling more drawn to "Unwind" at the moment.

Any votes on which to read first?

Yikes! Talk about needing violence ratings

I started reading "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick deWitt, because I downloaded a sample for my Kindle and I really liked the author's writing style. But by the time I got to chapter 3, or thereabouts, the body count has escalated beyond my tolerance level. I recognize that it's probably supposed to be over the top so as to make a point, but still. It reminds me of a western version of Pulp Fiction, a movie I couldn't watch.

I'm sad that I had to stop reading, because I was really enjoying one of the characters. It's rather hard, though, to cover your eyes while reading, so for now -- down it goes. I may get the courage to revisit it later, but for the moment I've moved on to Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Fingers crossed.

Does it make you sad?

Two times recently, a friend has decided not to read or not to finish a book I really like -- “Nation” by Terry Pratchett. Does it make you sad when friends reject or don’t care for a book that you really like? Usually it doesn’t bother me. I recognize that everyone has different tastes, and I certainly don’t enjoy every book that my friends and family like. But on occasion, I feel a little sting when someone won’t even give a book a chance. I don’t hold it against them; I just wish they could have the same experience with the book that I had when I read it.

How do you feel when someone dislikes or won’t read a book that you love?

And the Little Free Library grows

As my son and his girlfriend headed to the gym in the Piedmont area of Oakland, they discovered a Little Free Library, just like the ones they read about on my blog recently. So they snapped a quick photo for me. I guess the goodness of free books is spreading. Hallelujah!

Do we need violence ratings for books?

I just finished Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games series. While I really enjoyed the whole series, I've got to say the violence in the final book got to be a bit much for me. Lately, my tolerance level for violence in books, movies and TV shows has become really low. I quit watching Hawaii Five-0 several episodes ago after refusing to sit through a lengthy torture scene. Same thing with NCIS: Los Angeles. I just don't have the stomach for it anymore -- if I ever did.

But what about books? For me, books are actually more affecting than movies or TV. For some reason, scenes from a book or story can really stick with me. One particularly disturbing scene I read in an Ellery Queen magazine over 40 years ago can still haunt me. I wish I had never read it, and that's the problem. Once you've read something it's there in your mind, like it or not.

My book discussion group buddies are well aware of my squeamishness about graphic violence. But it's not always easy to determine just which books I'll be unable to face. Last year, one of our choices was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Initially, I loved Little Bee's voice and the story looked promising. But when we got to the beach scene in Africa, I just couldn't go there. I knew it was going to be really bad -- and my friends confirmed that it was. So I skipped the rest of the book. Another book that I found really disturbing, but that the whole world seemed to love, was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I only got part way into the book and realized I couldn't read it. My friend convinced me to skip a little ahead and try again. Unfortunately, that took me to the scene in the stadium -- those of you who have read it will probably recall the scene. Nope, not gonna finish that one.

When friends heard I was reading The Hunger Games, they were surprised. They thought it might be too violent for me. But I actually enjoyed the first two books. In the last book, the body count went up too much, not to mention the cruelty factor. Another book that should have disturbed me greatly but didn't was The Bone People by Keri Hulme, the 1985 Booker Prize winner. The story deals with child abuse, but the book is about so much more than that. I'm not sure, though, why I was able to read this book and not others. I think that the cruelty factor plays a big part.

What about you? Do you have a violence tolerance level? Would you like to have violence ratings on books, like we have for movies?

Are you a rereader?

We had a discussion recently on my favorite website, Readers Paradise, about rereading books. I'm not one to reread books very often. I will reread a book for my book club if I've read it too many months before the discussion is set to take place. Sometimes this dampens my enthusiasm for the book. Other times, I get more out of the second reading than I did from the first. I just reread The Hunger Games for this month's discussion. I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. But when I reread Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts, I was disappointed and wished I hadn't revisited that story. One book I have read several times, by choice, is Sarah Canary.

Some people, it seems, find great comfort in rereading books. It's almost like comfort food for them. In fact, some even have their favorites that they revisit every year. One woman mentioned that she had reread the Lord of the Rings series 19 times!

What about you - do you reread books? Do you have favorites that you revisit on a regular basis? How do you decide which books are worthy of a reread?

Free books

So, what to do with all those books you read and enjoyed but don't have room to keep? You could donate them to your local library or the Goodwill. You could haul a box down to your sister's house and leave them on her doorstep. You could even take them to your next book club meeting and share them with your fellow bookies. Or, you could install a Little Free Library in your front yard and share them with community -- not only a great way to pay it forward, but also a good way to meet your neighbors.

Book Lovers Heaven

If you’re like me, your family tries to steer you away from bookstores whenever possible. They know once you cross the threshold, you’ll be lost to them for at least an hour. I thought about that yesterday, when my sister mentioned a village in Wales that is literally filled with bookstores. So I researched it and learned that, indeed, the village of Hay-on-Wye, located on the Welsh side of the Welsh/English Border in the County of POWYS, Wales, has at least 30 bookstores. (Heaven!!) New books, old books, rare books, bear books. You name it; they’ve got it. This village is definitely going on my bucket list. 

                                                                  Hay-on-Wye

The courage of authors

Those of us who read (and review) books sometimes lose sight of the fact that a real person has spent time and emotion to put that story into words. And those of us who edit books can sometimes be even more oblivious, even insensitive, to the reality of an author’s efforts.

I thought about that this week when a fellow member of the EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association) posted a link to a letter John Steinbeck wrote upon completing “East of Eden,” one of my favorite novels. 

A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.

Well—then the book is done. It has no virtue any more. The writer wants to cry out—"Bring it back! Let me rewrite it or better—Let me burn it. Don't let it out in the unfriendly cold in that condition."

Steinbeck letter

Thank goodness for brave souls such as Steinbeck, who, after laboring for months or years to tell a story, have the courage to put that story into the hands of an editor and eventually out to the public.

Sample Fail!

I discovered what might be my all-time favorite book, Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler, while surfing the Amazon website many years ago. I’d heard of the book and, curious, I used the “Look Inside” feature to read the first chapter. I immediately fell in love – with the language, the characters, the humor. Consider this snippet from page one:

In 1872, the residents of the asylum for the insane in Steilacoom, Washington, were thrown out of their beds by earthquakes resulting from volcanic activity in the Cascade Mountains. The event was so profound it cured three of the patients instantly. These cures were responsible for a brief and faddish detour in the care of the mentally ill known as shake treatments.

She had me at “shake treatments.”

These days, Kindle gives me a similar option to sneak a glimpse into a book before I decide to purchase it. But some books that sound intriguing or thrilling or thought provoking in the write-ups, fail to pull me in, and the sample languishes on my e-reader until I eventually delete it, usually after revisiting it once or twice because I’ve forgotten what it was about. Then I’m disappointed all over again.

I probably have dozens of dead samples on my Kindle: books that sounded good but didn’t grab me. Maybe they moved too slowly. Maybe they painted a violent picture much too graphically. Maybe I just didn't care about what was happening in the book. Whatever the reason, I decided they weren’t for me.

Some of the dead and dying samples currently on my Kindle:

• Sexually, I’m More of a Switzerland – great title, just didn’t pull me in
• When We Were Strangers – probably well written, but I wasn’t in the mood for the story line
• The Distant Hours – so many people love this book. I might, too, if I could just get into it.
• The Sisters Brothers – I actually plan to buy this one. It definitely grabbed me, but I had too many other books already queued up.
• Cool, Calm & Contentious – I thought I would love this, but I didn’t.

And now three that I did purchase after reading the samples:

• The Psychopath Test
• The Hunger Games
• The Three Weissmann’s of Westport

What about you? Do you read samples? What is it that makes you bite, and purchase the book? 

You’re reading what?

My name is Vicki, and I am a reading snob. (Recovering) I wasn’t always snobbish about what I read. As a young person, I eagerly devoured books that ranged from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan stories to the westerns of Louis L’Amour, from Victoria Holt’s gothic romances to Ayn Rand’s paeans to “objectivism,” and of course mysteries of all types. So what changed?

Well, my years as an English/American Lit major certainly introduced me to what academia considered “quality” fiction. But that didn’t really sway me, I don’t think. Because the truth is, I find many books considered classics downright boring. No, I think what happened was that over many years of reading a wide range of books and authors, I came to appreciate good writing. I learned to recognize formulaic plots and clichéd writing devices. The more poorly written novels just couldn’t hold my attention anymore.

I then fell into a trap, however, assuming that just because a writer wrote in a certain genre (romance) or a book cover carried a certain style of illustration (Fabio), it must be poorly written. How wrong I was.

Two things made me realize the error of my ways: First, I was discussing books with a woman I met at a party. I mentioned that I really liked Tony Hillerman’s books. He wrote mysteries set in the American Southwest and his main characters are Navajo Tribal Policemen, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, two of the most fully drawn characters I’ve ever encountered in any book. I want to have these guys over to my house for dinner.

Anyway, this woman responded, with a noticeable sniff: “I prefer Barbara Kingsolver’s writing. Hillerman writes at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.” I hadn’t read Kingsolver at the time, but felt somewhat slapped in the face by this comment. (I went on to read several of Kingsolver’s books, and she has become a favorite author of mine.)

The second wakeup call came from a website I frequent called Readers Paradise – a place for people who love to read and discuss books. Posters there read books of every type and category: fiction, non-fiction, romance, mystery, memoir, and more. And everyone is welcome. Several people kept mentioning that they liked reading Georgette Heyer. I researched Heyer, and learned that she is considered “the undisputed queen of Regency Romances.” I confess I didn’t know what that meant. But looking at the covers of her books, I was somewhat put off.

This just didn’t look like something I would read…so I didn’t. But I kept seeing her name mentioned with such fondness that I finally picked up one of her books, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have since read several others and plan to read more.

I never want to be that sniffy woman. I want to always stay open to new authors and new stories, because without that openness, I might miss out on something truly astounding.