Funny ladies are well read

Two of my future best friends have inspired me to start the blog again!

First, the hilarious and adorable Mindy Kaling tells Entertainment Weekly about a book she pretends she’s read but never has, and what book she’d kill a bug with. Having spent a childhood phase carrying a Harriet the Spy-inspired notebook on me, this was my favourite part:

What was your favorite book as a child?
As a child, my favorite book was probably Harriet the Spy. You’ve seen pictures of me [as a child in the book]. I wasn’t child actor material at all — I wasn’t a conventionally cute child. I think if there’s one thing that I regret never having gotten a chance to do as a kid — and there’s literally only one — it would have been to audition for Harriet the Spy. That was such a great book because it was not about how cute she was. In fact, she wasn’t especially adorable or anything. She was such just an adventurous city kid and she had weird confidence even though she wasn’t that popular. She was a nosy little chubby kid who was special, and it was always one of my favorite books growing up.

Mindy’s book is released November 1 and my birthday is November 16. Just saying.
(via @outisthrough)

Meanwhile, Maria Bamford posted a fun video about a bunch of books she bought for $90.

That’s a good haul! Can someone please recommend a good used book store in Montreal?
(via The Hairpin)

So, the blog is officially back! I will be posting more regularly, if still sporadically.  All three of my readers will be pleased.

If you or someone you know would like to talk about books on the internet, please get in touch!

Ashley is well read.

Ashley manages digital marketing and strategy for a music management company or, in her words, is a “one-woman nerd department.” She has met Justin Bieber and you haven’t. Follow her.

What kind of a reader are you?
It depends, mostly on what I’m reading and how much time I have. If I’m reading something that’s well-written and I’m into the story I read like the book is oxygen for my lungs. My beauty sleep suffers, I miss my transit stop, I tune out all conversations. I could get through a book in a night or two if I’m really into it because I get into my own little world where nothing else exists, and I read fairly quickly.

If I’m reading something mindless, something I’m not that into, or something that’s a bit difficult to get through I can be very sporadic – read a few minutes before bed and pass out. A couple months ago I bought a book in the airport strictly because it was the thickest thing I could find for my long flight (bad call) and it took me almost twp months to get through it! Painful, I know, but I have a hard time not reading a book all the way through.

The worst was the time I had to read The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood because someone recommended it to me as their favourite book and gave it to me as a gift. They asked me about it every week, so I had to get through it. I hated it!

I also rarely re-read anymore. I did when I was younger because I think I just had so much more time on my hands and the selection seemed more limited. Post-high school I tend to get most books from the library because they’re just too hard to constantly lug across the country (I move a lot). So sometimes it’s hard for me to remember much about what I read because I go fairly quickly and only read it once. But then I know if a book sticks with me it must be really good.

Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down.
I just finished reading The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (note: outside of Canada the book is titled: Someone Knows My Name). Great storytelling, I couldn’t put it down and I got so wrapped up in the life of Aminata, the main character. It was a really sad and heartbreaking story in some ways, but powerful and uplifting in others. At the core it was about the characters and their experiences and relationships. I of course have never been involved in the slave trade, but I could still relate to Aminata and her pain, her struggles and determination. I love books where I get to know the characters and find a way to connect with them.

I also really enjoyed the book because even though it was fiction it was based on real events in history. It made me really think about the slave trade and how it shaped the world today, including my own personal world. It made me want to revisit my African history books. It’s awesome when one book can inspire you to read something else, or just make you really think about the world around you.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read about music?
I do work in music, but oddly I don’t read that many books on music. I tend to stick to magazine articles and blogs when it comes to music, because generally I like music for the music, not necessarily the story behind it. And I’m always looking for the next music or music trend that interests me, which is easier to find in a quick hit blog/magazine format. That said, I’m interested in reading more biographies from bands/musicians – so far none have stuck with me enough to write here. In fact, many of them tend to be pretty awful or anti-climactic. Recommends anyone?

Also, I read fiction more than non-fiction and there are not that many fiction books with music as a central theme that seem to stand out. The main character in High Fidelity runs a record shop and centres much of his life around it – does that count? Regardless, Nick Hornby’s books are fun reads.

A book about Little Red Riding Hood. And one box of cookies, please.

Carmen is well read.

Carmen Negrelli is a young lady from Newbury, Ohio. She primarily spends her time looking for adventure, waxing nostalgic over her past, and dreaming about her future. She is also the director Film POP, POP Montreal’s film festival. One of her favorite hobbies in school was disappointing English teachers by failing to “reach her potential” and she is trying to make it up to them, starting here, at Is Well Read.

Mrs. Stevens, Anupama, this one’s for you..

What kind of a reader are you?
I’ll start by saying I pretty much only read fiction. I read books like I watch TV, once I get started its nearly impossible for me to stop until there is some kind of resolution. I have a hard time controlling myself when watching television series because I will always cue up the next episode until the plot is resolved…or until I fall asleep. It’s the same with a book, It consumes my time until its finished (or, again, until I fall asleep).

I freakin’ love motherf***in’ books.

Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down.
Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. Man, I would really love to talk this one out with someone else who has read this (seriously, if you’ve read it get in touch, I want to know what you made of it).

I haven’t always been on the same page as Johnny, when I first read The Corrections I thought it was harsh. Too harsh, with characters too unlikable to be fully formed or relatable. Then I read How to Be Alone and all the essays really hit home for me. They are just essays about his life, his thoughts, his interests etc. They are self-aware and smart and funny and I just love them. They aren’t harsh, they are sharp but also warm. I re-read The Corrections after How to Be Alone and on a second reading found it also to be sharp rather than harsh.

I first encountered an excerpt of Freedom years ago in The New Yorker and have been waiting for it on the edge of my seat ever since.

Patty and Walter Berglund were the pioneers of old St. Paul-The Gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant garde of the whole foods generation.

That’s the first sentence from the inside of the book jacket and approximately the opening of The New Yorker excerpt and Jesus H. Christ what a sentence it is. If I told you I don’t know these people, that they aren’t my parents, that they aren’t a part of me or what I will become, I would be being desperately un-truthful. This sentence sort of encapsulates the essence of the book for me, There isn’t exactly judgement cast on the type of people Walter and Patty are, its just a portrait. Its the sad observation that being better than your parents were, buying organic, being a smug forward-thinking member of the liberal middle class, will not save you from the tragedies of being alive and the whims of your animal instincts. It seems to me that our contemporary understanding of how to be ‘Better’ doesn’t mean much to Franzen, its superficial and fleeting and trite and false. I don’t know, that’s how it read for me anyway, in part. There’s a lot more subtleties and complexities to it, but that’s why it’s a great book, and why I’d like to talk to someone about it.

I think of Franzen like Thackeray or Balzac. He captures the flaws and pitfalls of the contemporary upper-middle class and frames them in extremely compelling dramas. His writing is beautiful and intentional and his stories are exceptionally relevant and expertly crafted. He may be a bit of a crank but a mind-blowingly perceptive one who makes beautiful books.

I’d also like to give a shout out to Jean Stafford’s The Mountain Lion which I just read, that book is so atmospheric and bizarre. Its really epically good. It starts out like a sentimental book about siblings written in the ’40s. As the kids get older their characters develop and things become slightly off-kilter somehow and they get more and more skewed until all of a sudden it ends, brutally. It captures the confusion of growing up perfectly and is unabashedly direct about the dark realities and difficulties of personal development. It’s a very insightful and remarkable book, its rugged and true, but with strong elements of surrealism. Sort of in the vein of The Yellow Wallpaper but more subtle and slower to unfurl. I think it might be one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Has a book ever inspired you or affected how you interact with the world?
Yes, absolutely, all the time. Almost every book I have ever read affects how I interact with the world and the people in it.

I think that conversations and relationships serve to teach us about ourselves as much as bring us closer to another person. In a book the experience of forming relationships takes place entirely within one’s self, leaving one a lot of room for self-exploration and reflection. Books help me realize my character flaws and strengths and define my needs and desires. Going through imaginary experiences with imaginary people in books helps me learn to be better to the flesh and blood people I love.

When I read a book I think is particularly good or gorgeously written I get fever-pitch levels of inspiration, like my fingers start shaking and my brain and my chest sort of start hurting and I have to spend a half hour writing to release all that inspiration induced pressure. Then I read over what I’ve written, decide its nonsense, become disappointed in myself for not being James Joyce, kick myself for being undisciplined and self-involved, then pick up my book again to banish my anxiety and disappointment and build up inspiration again.

In general, interacting with other peoples’ pieces of art inspires me to create. I think this is because when you read a book or experience a different medium of art, you are experiencing someone else’s attempt to communicate and express themselves, if something inside you resonates with their expression it helps you define more clearly what you need to express and what medium you need to use. It goes back to the idea of reading being a sort of conversation, the cycle of consuming, reacting, and making art is a dialogue on a grand scale, that’s why books are important. That’s why art makes the world a better place. I know I’m sounding cheesy and grandiose and trite at the same time, but I really really really believe this to be true so please forgive me.

How do you choose what books to read?
Well, my mom gifts me most of my books. The woman has impeccable taste in everything and is so effing smart it’s unreal, so I don’t at all mind letting her curate most of my collection. When I buy myself books it’s usually a new or hitherto unread title from an author whose other work I like.

It’s 2011! I made a list!

Thanks Chris da Costa for the adorable photo of your adorable dog.

My goal for 2010 was to read more Can lit. So here, in no particular order:

Books by Canadians that I read and loved in 2010

Lemon by Cordelia Strube
I loved this book so hard. I wish I could call Lemon on the phone to tell her I miss her and ask how things are going.

Holding Still for as Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall

The Show that Smells by Derek McCormack
“The top note—sugar. pink popcorn, pink cotton candy, pink bubble gum. the middle note sawdust—pink sawdust! the bottom? blood! the blood of little boys, the blood of little girls. a bead in every bottle.”

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

Overqualified, One Bloody Thing After Another & Lockpick Pornography by Joey Comeau
My lovely friend Janice bought me Lockpick as a birthday gift at Montreal’s Expozine. She didn’t realize she was talking about Joey in front of Joey until he offered to sign the book:

February by Lisa Moore

Etcetera and Otherwise by Sean Stanley
“I wined and cheesed and discussed things with people who knew less than I, but seemed more inclined to reveal it.”

Ronald Reagan, My Father by Brian Joseph Davis
Writing about this book before I’d even read it was the best move I made as a blogger in 2010, as Google searches for “Nancy Reagan” and “Nancy Reagan couch” brought me a ton of traffic. Am considering making Nancy Reagan on a couch a monthly feature.

How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti

Wrong Bar by Nathaniel G. Moore
This book almost gave me a seizure.

There are more, but these are the ones popping into my head, so they’re the ones that make the list (it’s all very scientific). I want to keep the patriotic reading alive in 2011, so please post your suggestions in the comments!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to nerd out in an Is Well Read interview in 2010. My Christmas wish list consisted almost entirely of your Must Reads.

As always, if you would like to talk about books on the internet: jaclyn.iswellread@gmail

Books for Christmas?!

This child would be horrified by my Christmas list. (source)

Andrew is well read.

Hey look, it’s Andrew Gordon! Today is Andrew’s birthday! Happy birthday Andrew! Andrew and I went to publishing school together and now we sometimes drink beers and watch TV together. Andrew works for an educational publisher, for now but probably not for always. Andrew looks a little sad in the photo above, but in real life he mostly smiles.

What kind of a reader are you?
I take a book almost everywhere I go. I like to be able to read—even if it’s just for a few minutes—whenever I have spare time out in the world. Since starting to work 9 to 5 I rarely sit down and read for an hour anymore, so I try to get my reading in other times, in small bursts. I never read two books at once. I always either finish my current book or give up on it and move on. Trying to read two or more at once just ends up confusing me and I start mixing up plots and characters, especially in short story collections. I usually have at least 2-3 books on my shelf waiting to be read, and I can barely remember a time when I didn’t have a book on the go.

Has a book ever influenced your life or the way you think about the world?
I think Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged changed the way I think about literature, if not the world. Not in a crazy “I believe in Ayn Rand’s wacky theories!” kind of way; reading Atlas Shrugged and enjoying it for its story and writing while simultaneously thinking Ayn Rand is a crackpot has made me into a defender of the idea that books’ entertainment/literary value can be separated from their authors’ wacky ideas. I always get mad when people discuss Ayn Rand and her books as though they’re the same thing. Yes, they contain and usually espouse her theories, but Atlas Shrugged was a weird blend of sci-fi, political thriller, action, and mystery that takes it far beyond being a manual for crazy philosophy. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited
about the 2011 movie.

Top Five Books

The lovely and literary Anna Fitzpatrick has started a new blog called Top Five Books. The gist: “Every week (or whenever I feel like it), I will be presenting a list of five books that fit into a certain theme or category – the only rule is that I must have read all the books on the list.” As a YA lover, I fully back her first post: “Top Five Books: to read when you’re a 13 year old girl.”

While I’m promoting book blogs, don’t forget to check out the seasonally appropriate Advent Book Blog, where book lovers recommend their favourite reads in the days leading up to December 25. They have recommendations from some awesome people, so if you like the Must Reads portion of my blog, you will most definitely want to check this out. Oh, and Anna contributed! You see how it all connects?!

R.M. is well read.

R.M. Doyon is a first time novelist of Upcountry, a story based on a true event. Before co-founding the public relations firm High Road Communications, he was a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen and United Press International and worked in senior roles for the Canadian government, writing speeches for two prime ministers and for other high officials. He’s also the author of Pirouette, a stage-play on the life and times of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and has co-written two screenplays (Shoulda, Coulda Woulda and The Last Carousel) with his wife Shelley Anthony.

Thanks for your thoughtful answers Rick!

What kind of a reader are you?
I’m the type of reader who has to have a good book going at all times. If it’s non-fiction, I could have up to three books on the go at any time, since it’s easier to return to non-fiction after a month or so and pick up exactly where you’ve left off. Over the past couple of years, I have been primarily interested in finding a good novel that I can enjoy as a reader, and to learn from. I often have a pen by my side to mark up my books as I read, especially if I discover a particularly well-written phrase or passage. I admire great writing.

Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down.
That’s a great question and easy to answer. John Irving, he of  The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, and A Widow for One Year, released his 12th novel a year ago entitled Last Night in Twisted River. It was vintage Irving, and a book that was impossible to put down. Now, others may not share this view (including my wife) but I loved it. It was a delightful and comical yarn with rich characters, fantastic dialogue and a great story.

Can you remember the first book that made you love reading?
At the risk of aging myself considerably, it wasn’t just one book but a series of more than 50 novels: the Hardy Boy Mysteries. I think I was no more than eight years old when I started that series and I loved them. My parents were fierce believers in the public library system. They dragged me along on their visits to the library and, of course, I became hooked. And I’ve been hooked every since!

Has a book ever influenced the way you think about your life or the world?
Yes, I remember it quite vividly. It was a coverless, well-worn paperback by the great American story-teller James A. Michener called The Drifters. Michener was famous for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific and other historical (and geographically-based) books such as Chesapeake, Hawaii, Texas, to name just a few.

I was 19 at the time, and had decided against attending summer school that year to fly off to Europe and live on $5-a-day (yes, you could do that then!). I rode the train, back-packed and hitch-hiked my way through 14 countries, and it was a trip that changed my life. Michener’s book, about a group of itinerant young people travelling through Europe who finally ‘find’ themselves, was very moving and memorable.

After all these years, I remember thinking then that I had to get my life in order, and that book—combined with my European travels with bright, successful young people my own age—reinvigorated me. I had found a purpose in life, a definable goal. I returned to Canada, energized in the belief that I was destined for journalism and writing. It pushed me to work harder, to raise my grades sufficiently to enter two fine universities (the University of Western Ontario and Carleton University’s School of Journalism) and to become a writer.

Holly is well read.

It took some convincing to get Holly to do this because she was embarrassed that most of the books she reads are “chick lit.” But she reads more frequently than almost anyone else I know and the point of this blog is to find out what people are reading, not judge them for what they’re reading…so don’t judge! Holly is an early childhood educator from Toronto. 

What kind of a reader are you?
I’m a reader who likes to get lost in a book and escape to a different world. Whether it’s for five minutes of reading or two straight days, I love the feeling of escaping to a different reality and imagining what it’s like to be those characters.

Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down.
The last book I couldn’t put down was Saving Grace by Ciara Geraghty.  It tells the story of an Irish girl suffering from great loss, trying to move on with her life and find herself along the way.  It has a fresh-faced Bridget Jones feel to it, including some lovely romantic bits as well. I believe I read this one in less than a day!

Has a book ever influenced the way you live your life?
There is one book that has influenced my life and changed the way I think about the world, it is The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon.  My two great friends (one of them writes this blog!) bought it for me for my 18th birthday, and I will never forget the first time I opened the book.  I remember feeling amazed, and in awe of the raw beauty and talent this young man displayed in his short life.  I still get the same feeling every time I open it up!  Some pages are incredibly beautiful and depict wonderful beauty, whereas others are so dark leave you feeling angry and breathless.  The book is a collection of pages from over 17 journals Dan Eldon (the youngest Reuters photojournalist ever) had created before being stoned to death at age 22 in Somalia. What struck me most about Dan Eldon, was all that he had accomplished in his life, a free-wandering soul looking for adventure anywhere and everywhere, and helping out anyone he could along the way.  I remember reading his mission statement for SAFARI AS A WAY OF LIFE.  ”To explore the unknown and the familiar, distant and near, and to record in detail with the eyes of a child, any beauty, (of the flesh or otherwise) horror, irony, traces of utopia or Hell.  Select your team with care, but when in doubt, take on new crew and give them a chance.  But avoid at all costs fluctuations of sincerity with your best people.”

Dan Eldon and his journals remind me that anything is possible, and there is a world of possibilities out there for me to experience.  We all have the chance to influence others and make a difference, whether it be big or small!  This book is a perfect example of a man who experienced more in 22 years, than most people do in a lifetime. In one word, this book INSPIRES me.