More book thoughts

[oyceter]

Because I very rarely do not think about reading in some way, shape or form.

I don't know -- I've been reading for so long that I can't quite imagine the shape of my life without a book in hand (and a stack on the nightstand, and some under the bed, some on the dining table, some in the bathroom...). And it's so rare to find people who are like this, who understand that near-addiction, and even rarer still to find the people with that addiction who read genre. Or maybe, genre has a lot of the addicts? I'm not quite sure, since I've never quite talked this much book talk with people who don't read genre, because I read mainly genre. It's like this strange, hidden side of my life that very few people get an actual look into. They all know I read, of course. When I was a kid, I think the first thing everyone noticed about me was that I carried a book everywhere. You never know when you might need it, and every single time I left it at home or forgot was when I wanted one the most. Read through dinners, through playtime, through recess, through class (if I wasn't caught), sometimes even when walking places. One of my high school friends perfected the art of walking down the stairs while reading -- I haven't been able to do that really without halfway killing myself, which would be tragic because then I would never finish the book.

But there's a secret place in me full of book, full of all these different worlds, of Narnia and Six Duchies and Middle Earth and Fionavar, of worlds where people wear lace and wigs and dance the waltz. And sometimes, it's so strange to me that I'm not actually living in those worlds.

I sometimes wonder if I am boring people to death with my book posts, and then I figure, oh well. I love my LJ because it lets me gush and rant and be indifferent about my books, it makes that space in my life for them. I don't really talk about them to anyone, not to the boy (who is not really a reader), not to my family, and the friends I used to talk booktalk with are far away and not as accessible via IM =(. And there are just times after having read something that has somehow changed something in me in which I need to get it out somehow. It's like being fannish about shows no one watches. LJ relieves that pressure a bit, which is why my enthusiastic book posts are generally incoherent ramblings ;).

This was actually going to be on romance (again), because I am glomming my new genre. Actually, not really a new genre, since I started dabbling in it in seventh grade, but up till college, I was always ashamed of it until sophomore year I had a roommate who read them too. So I stole all of hers and got some more exposure and got to talk about some of them. Visiting her house was awesome -- giant bookshelves in the basement! That's where I discovered Laura Kinsale. Then there was LJ and an actual community of romance readers and lots and lots of recs.

I wonder if my romance reading preferences are even more heavily influenced by personality and past history than my other reading preferences. If a romance knocks me off my feet, everything has to work just so -- the author can't recover as well from a false step as someone writing fantasy might be able to. I think it's because so much depends on the characters in romance, and there's so much cliched tropes that piss me off as well. I think my thing for cold, reserved and secretly wounded heroines (the female version of the alpha bastard?) is from falling deeply for Eowyn in sixth grade. I used to like alphas, but more and more my tastes in RL and in books are starting to match up -- I like the jokers, the nice guys, the ones willing to take on and love and heal the above angsty heroine. Part of this is probably because I find the broodiness pretty boring in real life, so the intensity becomes less and less compelling unless I really identify with the character (Wesley!).

The thing for westerns I'm pretty sure comes from Little House on the Prairie, later translated to reading various books on the Oregon Trail, which sparked several fantasies around seventh grade, fed by that Sunfire title Amanda. The thing for turn-of-the-century is unexplained -- maybe from that sort of hazy time period of many children's books? I can never quite get straight when A Little Princess is, or E. Nesbitt's books, or Peter Pan, so it's a strange blend of the past and present in my mind. It could also be from Anne of Green Gables.

Hrm.

Comments

Not boring at all!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if I am boring people to death with my book posts, and then I figure, oh well. I love my LJ because it lets me gush and rant and be indifferent about my books, it makes that space in my life for them.

Please carry on.

Re: Not boring at all!

[oyceter]

Thanks. Glad I am not causing glazed eyes ;).

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I love your book posts.

I used to feel self-conscious about mine, because I knew most of the people reading from fanfiction, and assumed they were there for the TV posts and just suffered the book posts silently. But when I actually did a poll asking why people read, more of them were there for book talk than anything else.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

That is very true for me also; and I count finding your reviews one of the nicer things from last year.

I've never been involved in the fan communities (or rasf) except for AtPo and coming to LJ and discovering the all of this, has been quite wonderful. A huge time sink (wish I had an extra 24/day sometimes,) but a very good one.

[oyceter]

Thanks. Right, I know the episode posts have a built in audience, but the book posts seem to generate a good deal of silence -- plus, there are a lot of them.

But then I think and I realize how much I enjoy everyone else's book posts and how rarely I can comment because half the time I haven't read the book.

[ann1962]

"And sometimes, it's so strange to me that I'm not actually living in those worlds."

This is the loss I feel after reading a book whose world I would like to inhabit. Like you, I was "that" person in my family with my nose in a book. I very much enjoy your book posts. I am impressed with the voracity of your reading and the depth and volume of your posts. Thank you. Please continue. :)

[oyceter]

Yes! I used to feel it much more deeply when I was a kid, probably because the real world didn't have quite as much to offer as it does now. But there's still that heartbreak that comes after re-emerging.

And thank you ^_^.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Absolutely very appreciated! Please do keep posting. Btw, the just finished To the Nines by Janet Evanovich (have you read her?) and am starting a reread of Fast Women. More on that eventually!

And I do want to stop back if can scrap a few brain cells and stolen moments together concurrently. Spent yesterday archiving and by evening I was pretty spent; today have to do a family visit; but, hopefully will be back online later.

(And I totally envy your weather... snow again tonight here!)

Evanovich are the only "mysteries" I read

[ann1962]

So very funny. Her characterizations of ethnic communities are precious, accurate without being stereotypical or even racist. Something few other writers can do. I have gotten several people hooked on her. Fun, fast and sexy. The debate: Ranger or Morelli, Morelli or Ranger. And who would portray them in a movie. Hmm??

Re: Evanovich are the only "mysteries" I read

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Gah! Evanovich's books are the only "mysteries" I read, too! And interestingly enough, it was fireborn, another fantasy fan, who hooked me on them. And, while it's a debate for Stephanie, I have had the hots for Ranger since he first appeared. Mrowr!

Also, I have made the mistake of reading these books in a public place. This is a mistake if you mind laughing out loud unstoppably for stretches of ten minutes at a time.

[oyceter]

I've never read Janet Evanovich... I usually am not that interested in mystery so never ventured in, with the exception of reading a good deal of Mary Higgins Clark one summer in middle school. That was the bit that made me think I wasn't interested in mystery. Any recommendations as to where to start for Evanovich?

Looking forward to hearing about Fast Women ^_^.

(I luxuriated in an open air mall today with my mom -- flowers everywhere, color everywhere. I am in love all over again with this state)

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Lucky you. *sigh* Her stuff is numerically titled so start with "One"

Janet Evanovich is an immensely popular author who began writing romances under the name of Steffie Hall in 1987. She began to write for the Loveswept line under her own name the following year, and soon attracted the attention of readers looking for humorous romances. In 1994, Janet made the switch from romance to the mainstream with One for the Money, the first in her Stephanie Plum series. http://www.likesbooks.com/quick20.html

There's as much romance as mystery in them for my taste...and even more just real laugh out loud funny. I really do (laugh out loud) and Ben has been known to come in my room to see if I'm OK. Really.

If you don't like 'em a lot, I'll be one very confuzzled aliera. *gr*

[oyceter]

Ooo, I just picked up the first two at the bookstore. Having a great deal of fun ^_^. I adore Stephanie Plum's voice.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I love your book posts, because I'm one of the strange people who feel the same way. I'm a book addict. Parents of people I wasn't friends with who were on my bus in grade school still smile when they meet me and say, "I remember you - you were the girl who had a new book every day on the bus. I'd always see you reading it." I always had a book; I still do. Book worlds have always filled me up, and later, I started to create my own. Sometimes they fill me up so much that I talk about them as if they were real ("Ryder likes to say..."), even knowing full well that they're my own fictional creations.

Book addicts are few and far between, but there's always an immediate kinship.

[oyceter]

Exactly ^_^. It's a membership into a very secret club. I used to hate recesses in America because the teacher would make me leave the classroom... so all I ended up doing was sit right outside the door outside and read.