At last, a theme song for all of us who'd rather not be interrupted when reading a book!

"Don't You Eva Interrupt Me While I'm Readin' a Book" by prolific YouTuber Julian Smith...

On September 15, 2009 one of my (far too many) book groups embarked on a reading challenge entitled "Around the World in 80 Books."  Its object was to read 80 books from 80 different countries over the course of the subsequent 12 months.  Of the nearly seventy people who signed up to participate, six of us met the goal.  Sure, there's a sense of accomplishment, but far more importantly I've found that I've learned quite a lot over the past year, both about history and about my reading tastes in general.

The first thing I discovered was that when one is looking for books about a specific country or region, it's FAR easier to come up with non-fiction books than novels.  Most book sites don't allow you to search by a specific country.  (Ever try to find a novel about Qatar or Oman?  It ain't easy!)  At first, this intimidated me.  I've had an annual goal for as long as I can remember to read six non-fiction books a year, and most of the time I don't succeed.  I do a fine job of BUYING non-fiction books; there are many that look really interesting.  Somehow, though, they always seem to languish on my shelves longer than the novels I purchase.  I finally decided, though, that if I was going to participate in this challenge, I'd just have to bite the bullet and read some non-fiction (yikes!). 

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Say "preacher's wife" and see if a picture doesn't come immediately to mind. If your mind is anything like my mind, the picture will be of a woman with big hair and eyelashes clotted with mascara and a smile that can win her a toothpaste commercial audition. A hand (nails long, lacquered) gestures upward, while on her lap rests a gently used Bible (full of highlighted passages that are already committed to memory) and at her feet a cluster of fresh-scrubbed children. The words "Minister's wife" conjure a completely different image: see the postmenopausal woman wearing sensible shoes and a beige outfit putting the finishing touches to the potluck in the fellowship hall?

I can guarantee, either way you say it, what is not going to come into your mind is: me. My hair doesn't tease well, for one thing, and I have the musical tendencies of a barnacle. I still have trouble memorizing Scripture, and I'm usually late for church. Despite all this, I am somewhat of a curiosity to the parishioners of the church where my husband is the minister.

It's the things that church members find worthy of discussing about me that I find interesting. What I wear is a perennial favorite (note to self: never wear bib overalls to a church function, no matter how casual). Also what I eat. One week the gossip centered around what had been on my plate at the Fourth of July church picnic. "She's not a real vegetarian if she's got a great big hamburger on her plate."  You try defending yourself with the words "soy patty."

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First published in 1992, Daniel Pennac's The Right's of the Reader was retranslated into English and republished in 2008, with an introduction and illustrations by Quentin Blake. Passionate and funny, but never didactic, Pennac explores why we read, and most importantly, why we don't. His premise is summed up in his opening sentence... "You can't make someone read. Just as you can't make them fall in love or dream..."

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While stopped at a traffic light yesterday, I noticed a puttering station wagon next to me with a little old lady in a floppy gardening hat behind the wheel. I could just make out her profile as she peered out her windshield patiently waiting for the light to change.

My obstructed view was not due to her petite stature or an advanced stage of osteoporosis, mind you, but rather from the climbing stacks of old newspapers, rotting stuffed animals, cardboard boxes, blankets, and foils in differing states of decomposition; overall, a stockpile that threatened to bust out the windows and swallow her whole.

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Following on from my earlier post, "Overheard in a Bookstore", here's a link to some more gems; this time collected by Shelf Awareness, including:

"I definitely don't want nonfiction. I like autobiographies and history."

"This is the only bookstore I've ever been in that didn't have a popcorn machine."

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People say the strangest things! Here are a few real customer quotes overhead by British booksellers ....  

• A rather smart middle-aged female customer, accompanied by a sullen looking teenager who, having browsed for a while, bought a copy of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  Half an hour after leaving the shop, she reappeared at the counter waving the book and demanding her money back. When one of the shop's staff asked what was wrong, she replied:   "It's absolute rubbish - there's not even anything about Italy in it. My daughter is planning to go Euro-railing in the summer and there don't seem to be sections on any of the countries she wants to visit."
  
  
• A customer, on seeing a copy of Great Expectations:
  "Look, they bring books out on all the TV programmes now."
  
  
• "Can you tell me if Anne Frank wrote any other books?"
  
  
• "Do you have maps?  You know, actual maps. Mappy maps..."
  
  
• Customer: I'm quite a staunch feminist you know.
  Bookseller:  Er.....hello
  Customer (handing over a slip of paper): Could you tell me whether you're able to get hold of these 3 titles on feminism for me...
  Bookseller:  No problem, I can order all three of them and they should be here by tomorrow.
  Customer:  My goodness, aren't men so much quicker with technology than women!

With thanks to the folks at Independent Booksellers Week

I recently joined the ranks of suspense novelists and while I didn't give the word suspense much thought as I was writing, I've since given it quite a bit of brain time. I suppose seeing your book called "A Novel of Suspense" on the cover will do that.

While suspense is a literary category that can embrace many different types of stories, it is also one of the most natural of elements in the real world. The broad definition I've come to these days is that suspense is simply a recognition of the fact that we don't really, on a moment to moment basis, know what the hell's going to happen next. Of course our natural defenses, the same ones that limit what noises come into our ears or what sights come into our eyes, keep the lid on this what's-coming anxiety and allow us to function. But then there are the moments, the ones most often exploited by writers, in which we can't deny that we are in the dark about the future, that we don't know what's around the corner.

The "what-ifs" that kick off so much of our mystery/thriller/suspense fiction are often rooted in our anxieties about life itself. What if I woke up in a strange land? What if I opened my freezer and found a severed hand there? What if an airplane dropped out of the sky and wiped out my back yard? The beauty of finding these oddities between covers is that we have some assurance the author does know what's going to happen next and will lead us through the suspense to the safety of knowledge.

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Is it just me, or does there seem to be a wave of "intersecting lives" novels lately? I'm talking about novels which are structured around characters and place and which move forward episodically, rather than via a driving, suspenseful plot, a genre which is also sometimes called "a novel in stories." Two of the most decorated books of recent years fall into this category: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Other recent entries include A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert, Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon, and the forthcoming The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse.

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What do Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare have in common? They are considered to be two of the greatest writers in the history of world literature and, not only were they contemporaries, but they died on the same day - April 23rd, 1616, which is recognized in Catalonia, an autonomous region in NE Spain, as the Day of the Book.

In Catalonia, April 23rd is also the Day of the Rose because it is the day we celebrate the patron saint of Catalonia, Sant Jordi. The story goes that as the dying dragon's blood touched the earth, a red rose appeared which Sant Jordi then presented to his rescued princess. Sound a bit like St. George? You're right, because St. George is Sant Jordi in the Catalan language.

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