March 14, 2008
Why reading?
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There comes a point in every habitual reader’s life when they start to dream about writing a novel. I am currently right there, living the hallucination. My wishful thinking is certainly fuelled by a lot of dissatisfaction with my job, and despair about my career path. However, there are probably worse things that I could waste my time on.
Leo Babauta at Write to Done recently posted How to Use Reading to Become a Better Writer. It is an interesting article and gave me a chance to congratulate myself - “Of course I can be a writer - I may have only written 3000 words in my “great novel”, but I read tonnes of books!”
Anyway, I particularly like his tenth point:
Expand beyond your normal genres. If you normally read one or two genres, break out beyond it. If you only read sci-fi and fantasy, read more mainstream literature, read romance or thrillers, read “chick lit” (a term I hate, but oh well). There’s a lot you can learn from writers beyond your normal scope.
That makes me feel at home. It sort of sums up what DrCris Reads is meant to be all about.
If you are a hopeful writer, take a look at the post.
March 9, 2008
Why reading?
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Sure, reading is fun. It is a great time-waster on holidays and when you are waiting for a plane. But is it really that important? Definitely. Here a five ways that reading can keep you sane:
1. Just finish something!
Ever feel like life is getting on top of you, and you never seem to get anything done? I am currently a stay at home Mum, and this is one of those jobs where tasks are only noticed if they aren’t done. Laundry, cleaning, cooking, discipline and cuddling are things that are never complete! But a book can be finished. Cover closed, placed back on the shelf. Sigh. Amazing.
What’s more, the feeling of achievement can be “hacked”. If my week is hectic, I can choose a novella, and be guaranteed that I can get through it at some stage. If I have a moderate amount of time, then I can choose a weightier novel and get that extra sense of achievement when it is complete. Don’t under-estimate this one. Reading may be the only thing to keep you from going postal.
2. Meet some grown ups
Ever had one of those weeks where all you seem to do is talk to preeschoolers?
“Mummy, Whatchoo doin’?”
“Mummy, I like ice cream”
“Mummy, I wish I was born a fairy so I could fly everywhere”
Time reading a book is a tonic. There are grown ups between those covers. Maybe their lives are exciting, or dull, but they have complex emotional and intellectual responses!
I have met some interesting people this year; a Nazi Fugitive and a dead body (Different Seasons ), a trapeze artist (Ascension) and a failing fisherman (The Old Man and the Sea), to name a few.
3. Turn off the idiot-box
Television is designed to get you coming back, and daytime TV is the worst. The shows may never end, and are littered with cliffhangers. Lifestyle TV is all about making you feel superior. Whatever the form of manipulation, it is there, and most of us can sense it. I hate being manipulated. It feels sort of like a fast-food-hangover for the brain. Let yourself relax into a story, and the manipulation seeps away.
4. Tune out
Whatever the soundtrack to your life, there are times when you prefer not to listen to it. When I am trying to get my (Hoot! Hoot!) nightowl son to sleep, I have to let him mumble and grumble quite a bit. It is hard to listen to and easy to convince myself that he is just going to get worked up. Reading distracts me at those times when I need to turn his volume down. It doesn’t make me supermum, but it helps me to mute the volume when I need to. Sometimes it needs to be a very good book, though. Don’t try this with textbooks. Complete failure.
5. How to have an adult conversation
Nobody seems to be as interested as you like in the 17 things you tried to get your daughter to try to do a wee on the potty. I can edit to only include the funny things, but my day ends up pretty short, and I run out of conversation about half an hour after my husband, L, walks through the door. And heaven forbid I should try to talk to someone who doesn’t have kids. What do you do when your work is uninteresting to others and you have no other interests? Read a non-fiction book. Even some fiction books work. Social commentary books are particularly good, like The Big Picture or interesting biographies, such as The Man who only loved Numbers.
6. Explore a new world
Sometimes the world you live in gets too much. Same old, same old. Escape to a place you have never been to before, or that you miss. A book is almost the parents-of-preschoolers minibreak. In the last twelve months, I have traveled to Ireland (The Gathering), the moon (Earthlight), a small french town (Chocolat) and communist China (Waiting).
7. Get some answers
Look, it’s not fascinating, but there are times where you really feel like you don’t know what you are doing. Having a couple of good books on hand reassures you that you are not mad, and not being unreasonable. At the moment, my panic bibles are Baby Love and Kid Wrangling.
8. Justify your anger
Sometimes, life is just hard. I feel myself grumbling about the same things over and over again. It makes me pretty nasty when combined with poor sleep or a bad head cold. Reading a book which someone serious has written about how hard your life is can help. Reading The Mask of Motherhood and Baby Hunger helped me with this stuff recently.
9. Get recharged by beauty.
Some literature is just beautiful, and makes the world seem fresh. My recents have been The Pearl, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby and the more modern, but still beautiful Different Seasons.
10. Laugh out loud
My gorgeous kids do give me a chance to laugh, sometimes at them, sometimes at myself. Like the funny unexpected things they do, novels can make you laugh despite yourself, and you brain just works a little better.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Wrong About Japan surprised me with laughter.
How do books save your sanity?
March 9, 2008
Why reading?
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Prof C Meloni (Prof of ESL at Washington University) describes the tactic of using novels or literature to give English as a Second Language students reading practice, rather than relying on academic texts.
I found it fascinating that literature is thought to teach communication skills more effectively than other texts.
1. Literature teaches you communication tactics
“Through literature, sooner or later, the student encounters nearly every kind of communicative technique speakers use or think of using. Literature displays a broader range of such communication strategies than any other single ESL teaching component. (Sage, 1) “
How amazing that reading for pleasure, which is essentially a simple hobby, can allow you to express yourself better. And remember, communication is just an elaborate form of manipulation - a way of getting others to do what you want, or at least understand what you want.
2. Literature supplies communication ammunition
“It is a well-known fact that there is a strong correlation between the amount of reading individuals do and the size of their vocabulary. … Because of their need to create images in the reader’s mind, authors of works of fiction generally use a much greater variety of words than writers of nonfiction.”
Communication is facilitated by having more words at your disposal. If you have to talk about the cricket all summer, you will be much more interesting to people if you can use different words to do it. And wit relies almost entirely on vocabulary (comedians may disagree), so maybe you will be funnier. At least you can give yourself the opportunity.
1. Sage, H. (1987). Incorporating Literature in ESL Literature. Language in Education: Theory and Practice series. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.