Competitive Reading
A number of people on the friends-list have posted their reading lists for the first half of the year.
I am jealous.
I am jealous of people who have time (or energy or discipline or whatever) to read massive amounts. I have, literally, dozens of books that I want to read. And yet, my own reading list creeps forward at its petty pace... Here we are so far:
Questions? Comments? Heaps of scorn? :-)
Mindy, off to her subway commute (and the chance to squeeze in a few more pages of reading...)
I am jealous.
I am jealous of people who have time (or energy or discipline or whatever) to read massive amounts. I have, literally, dozens of books that I want to read. And yet, my own reading list creeps forward at its petty pace... Here we are so far:
NAME & ADDRESS WITHHELD, by Jane Sigaloff
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, by Jon Krakauer
MARCH, by Geraldine Brooks
TALL, DARK & DEAD, by Tate Hallaway
THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, by Audrey Niffenegger
ME VS. ME, by Sarah Mlynowski
THE THIEF WITH NO SHADOW, by Emily Gee (read for blurbing purposes - not yet publicly available!)
IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN, by Sarah Dunant.
MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS, by Carole Matthews
FISHBOWL, by Sarah Mlynowski
THE LADY AND THE UNICORN, by Tracy Chevalier.
THE MATZO BALL HEIRESS, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro.
THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini.
PREP, by Curtis Sittenfeld.
WHAT MEN WANT, by Deborah Blumenthal.
THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC, by Jane Yolen.
WONDERBOY, by Fiona Gibson.
FREEDOMLAND, by Richard Price.
MEAN SEASON, by Heather Cochran.
THE LOST PAINTING, by Jonathan Harr.
HARDLY WORKING, Betsy Burke.
THE ART OF DECEPTION, by Ridley Pearson.
DO THEY WEAR HIGH HEELS IN HEAVEN, by Erica Orloff.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, by Joan Didion.
LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT, by Libby Malin.
ON THE VERGE, by Ariella Papa.
THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, by C.S. Lewis.
A LITTLE CHANGE OF FACE, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.
THE SEA, by John Banville.
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, by Jon Krakauer
MARCH, by Geraldine Brooks
TALL, DARK & DEAD, by Tate Hallaway
THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, by Audrey Niffenegger
ME VS. ME, by Sarah Mlynowski
THE THIEF WITH NO SHADOW, by Emily Gee (read for blurbing purposes - not yet publicly available!)
IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN, by Sarah Dunant.
MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS, by Carole Matthews
FISHBOWL, by Sarah Mlynowski
THE LADY AND THE UNICORN, by Tracy Chevalier.
THE MATZO BALL HEIRESS, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro.
THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini.
PREP, by Curtis Sittenfeld.
WHAT MEN WANT, by Deborah Blumenthal.
THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC, by Jane Yolen.
WONDERBOY, by Fiona Gibson.
FREEDOMLAND, by Richard Price.
MEAN SEASON, by Heather Cochran.
THE LOST PAINTING, by Jonathan Harr.
HARDLY WORKING, Betsy Burke.
THE ART OF DECEPTION, by Ridley Pearson.
DO THEY WEAR HIGH HEELS IN HEAVEN, by Erica Orloff.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, by Joan Didion.
LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT, by Libby Malin.
ON THE VERGE, by Ariella Papa.
THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, by C.S. Lewis.
A LITTLE CHANGE OF FACE, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.
THE SEA, by John Banville.
Questions? Comments? Heaps of scorn? :-)
Mindy, off to her subway commute (and the chance to squeeze in a few more pages of reading...)
I've only read more cause A. I'm a speed reader, B. I took a lighter course load than usual last semester in school, and C. I only work 32 hours a week in the summer so almost the entirity of Monday is spent reading. So I've had more time!
Your list looks like a good wide spectrum.
As for the spectrum - my list for the last couple of years has had an odd balance of total and complete chick-lit fluff (the cotton candy books, as I once called them) and deep and serious Literature, with some popular non-fiction tossed in for good measure.
I've just about given up, though, on reading Books That Are Good For Me... (::looking at bookshelves, seeing none at present, but thinking of most Russian literature...::)
Anyways, most of my peers think I am insane for reading for fun at all. They think we read too much for our classes. I just somehow make the time to read.
Yeah, I find it fascinating that there are people who are capable of reading but who don't. It's a crucial aspect of who I am, how I think, and how I spend my time.
This idea - that fun doesn't have to be brainless - is exactly why I love writing for Red Dress. I can have a character who knows Shakespeare inside and out and is still fun, relatively hip (except when the storyline requires her not to be :-) ) and happening...
I joked with my editor a couple of weeks ago, that my next Red Dress heroine is going to be a scholar of Kant and the Hegelian Dialectic. Matrice encouraged me to, um, look elsewhere for inspiration :-)
I've found the Red Dress books by Laura Caldwell, Laurie Gwen Shapiro, and Wendy Markham to be particularly good, with (relatively, as the genre goes!) realistic characters facing situations cleverly.
My editor is Mary-Theresa Hussey, who typically edits Luna Books, but who has "free reign" to bring individual titles to other lines. She's been a dream to work with - she's got great editorial ideas and guides me to them in a way that sets well with me.
What specifics were you looking for?