Inside bookstores and libraries I find myself browsing certain genre sections more than others. During certain periods of time in the year, I read a string of books that have similar topics. For example, here is a string of books I’ve read recently in the order I read them:
The Vision (by Tom Brown, Jr.) --> Into the Wild (by Jon Krakauer) --> The Forest Lover (by Susan Vreeland) --> Touching Spirit Bear (by Ben Mikaelsen) --> Writing About Nature (by John Murray) --> The Golden Spruce (by John Vaillant)
In past years my strings have included these topics: young adult (Delacorte award winners), genetics, education, pregnancy/parenting, historical fiction, young adult with hispanic theme, Jane Austen’s works, and fantasy/science fiction.
But I’ve also been known to read several books simultaneously that are very different from one another. For some months of the year I usually have a different book that I can pick up and read in every room of our house. I imagine this is like a spider’s web and find myself purposely going into a particular room so I can read a few pages of a certain book.
An example of a spider web of books I’ve read in the past year included:
Tuck Everlasting (by Natalie Babbitt)
Harry Potter (Book 1, again) (by J.K. Rowling)
Getting the Words Right (by T.A. Rees Cheney)
poemcrazy (by Susan Wooldridge)
A Northern Light (by Jennifer Donnelly)
In-Depth Essayists for Our Time (C. Klaus, C. Anderson, & R. Faery)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 2 (by M.T. Anderson)
Do you have a particular web of books that you’re finding yourself wrapped around? Or do you prefer to creep down a string of related books?
I wonder how my approach to writing or how my mind generates ideas is influenced by reading books in a web or along a string. Perhaps tomorrow’s topic since my dear little one is stirring awake in her crib!
2 comments:
When I was little, I only ever read serially i.e. in strings. And I remember really savoring each book. I suppose the fact that I did not have a lot of books myself and had to rely on borrowed ones contributed to that pattern of reading and the manner in which I enjoyed the reading.
As a adult, I find myself reading almost exclusively in a web. Very occasionally, I will find a book so compelling that I simply have no desire for anything else. But that is rare.
I rather think that my habit for web reading probably began as a university student. Then, you really had to dip into a wide range of references in a very short space of time. But I also think that I tend to get restless more easily when it comes to reading. Have I read too much?
I notice, for instance, that as a young/younger reader, I often read for the story as well as for the literary quality of a book, often a novel.
These days, however, I read mainly non-fiction and I am far less interested in the literary quality.
Yes, it's been good to reflect on these things...thanks for your post :-)
Lucy your comments made me think back to my childhood and the series I read, too! I definitely had some favorite series and some favorite authors who wrote books with different characters but were all similar. I might have to get those books out again and look at them! Thanks!
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