Literary Blog Hop: March 8-11

This week The Blue Bookcase asks:

How do you find time to read, what's your reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?

Wow.  What a lot of questions, but definitely ones that need to be asked and answered.

Question 1:

How do I find time to read?  Good question.  Because I commute to and from work, I have time to read.  While its not a lot of time to read, its time nonetheless.  I also make time before I go to bed and usually read for about an hour, depending on how I am feeling.  I also read while I watch sports in the evening hours or during the weekend; it helps pass the time while watching a sporting event.  Its probably not the most logical way to read books, but I did it about a month ago when I was reading 2 or 3 books within the space of a few days.

But I guess to fully answer the question, I just make time for my reading.  I read while I am waiting for a movie to start at the theatre or I read while I cook (it works if you are doing an audiobook at that time).  I just make time for it.

Question 2:

My reading style.  Well, that could take sometime to explain, but I play the Alphabet Game while I read.  I started doing this about 10 years ago and I found it useful in concentrating on books (I find it especially useful when reading long sections of a book), but sometimes find myself not playing due to lack of concentration or I just get so involved in the story that I forget playing.  I also read while listening to podcasts.  This means that I can read for several hours without much distraction, but it also means that I also miss the conversations going on around me, particularly when its family.

I also manage to juggle several different books at one time.  I know it sounds crazy, but somehow I am able to keep track of the various storylines that I am reading, but if I am away from a book for too long, the story becomes foreign to me.  Speaking of which...

Question 3:

I think that literature should rank higher in society's priorities.  Of course political matters that affect our daily lives should be the most important things in our lives and so should family, but I think that literature should play a more important lives than the latest sports scores or entertainment headlines.  Writers should be treated like rock stars!  But that is my opinion.

Hope everybody has a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what you have to say about what I have written.

Literary Blog Hop: January 7-10

This week The Blue Bookcase asks:

Do you like to supplement your reading with outside sources, like Sparknotes, academic articles, or other bloggers' reviews? Why or why not?

It really depends on what the material is that I am reading, but honestly I am really trying to not supplement my reading with outside sources due to the fact that (a) I just want to read a book for the enjoyment of reading rather than gaining more information and (b) I am not in university any more.

While I do enjoy reading extra things about a particular book, I find that it sometimes takes too much time out of my regular reading.  Oh, I will have Sparknotes up while I read a book, if I am at home, but for the most part I just want to read a book for enjoyment of learning something different and being exposed to different ideas, etc.

As for reviews, I do read them, but I have found that they have hindered my enjoyment of the book rather complementing it, at least what I have found with some books.  In fact, it sometimes has raises my expectations of a particular book.  For example, I had heard so much positive feedback to The Night Circus this past fall that when I finally got myself to reading it, I had much higher expectations through the reviews and buzz I had heard about the book and when I read it, I was disappointed in the book and thought it was mediocre at best and just didn't like it and basically made it out to be something more than I expected it to be.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that it really depends on the situation that I am in and it really depends on the book.

Literary Blog Hop: Dec 1-4

This week The Blue Bookcase asks:
What work of literature would you recommend to someone who doesn't like literature? 

It would really depend on the person you are recommending the piece of literature to, as each person is different and therefore their tastes are different.   But if I did have to suggest a piece of literature, I would recommend To Kill A Mockingbird, as the story is fairly straightforward, but also complex at the same time.  I would probably also suggest something like A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens because it is one of the more simpler books that Dickens wrote (not that I haven't read much by Dickens).  I may also suggest Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.  Yes, I realize that the story probably has a feminist bent to the book, but it still is an excellent read (I read it when I was 16 and it still is one of my favourite books).


I would also suggest This Side of Paradise, which I found to be a fairly easy read and also quite engrossing.  And despite its size,  I would suggest East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  While the book is over 600 pages, I found the book to be something that a non-literature fan would probably enjoy due to the awesomeness that is the book and the fact that I didn't really grasp The Grapes of Wrath, which I found to be somewhat non-readable and maybe a little too long.


Like I said earlier, it would really depend on the person you are recommending a piece of literature to, as not everybody may like it.

Literary Blog Hop: November 3-6

This month The Blue Bookcase asks:

To what extent do you analyze literature? Are you more analytical in your reading if you know you're going to review the book? Is analysis useful in helping you understand and appreciate literature, or does it detract from your readerly experience? 

I think I tend to over analyze literature and tends to detract from any sort of readerly experience.  I experienced this recently with The Night Circus.  Now I had issues with the format of the book to start with, but I did find that I was over analyzing it as I was reading the book, hoping to find something in it that I clearly wasn't and was making my reading experience with the book not a good one.  Its not that I don't enjoy reading, I do.  But I find that I tend to over analyze and therefore it affects how I end up viewing the book, unless of course I get the book done quickly and out of the way.  It seems that I can't just sit down and read a book and enjoy it and therefore get something out of it and therefore I am back in the vicious cycle that I didn't want to be in. 

When I don't over analyze a book, I seem to get the most of the book and can therefore make a better assessment of the book.  Its a vicious cycle, isn't it? 

Literary Blog Hop

This week The Blue Bookcase asks:
Tell about one author that you love and why his or her writing is unique. Please be specific.

This is a loaded question, as I could probably tell you why I love reading, but I don't know if I can put the specifics into the answer like some of the other responses that I have read.  But if I have to, I suppose I will give it the old college try.  Here I go...

One author that I love is Jane Austen.  I realize that is a cop-out due to the fact there are a lot of readers who like her and it may sound cheesy, but I really do like her.  One reason that I like her is that for a single woman of her era, she is insightful into human relationships and it seems that her insight is quite good.  She also does it with a humanity that a reader in the 21st century can understand, along with humor and grace that makes her books readable.

I realize that I didn't exactly go into detail and specifics as to why I love Jane Austen, but I tried my best.  Once again, I apologize.

Literary Blog Hop

This weeks question:  What books have you read that have been hyped as literary and, in your opinion, were not?

Personally I felt that A Visit from the Goon Squad was not literary and should have categorized as being a collection of short stories.  I realize that I might get some flack for this choice, but from my perspective, the book had no continuity and no flow to the book.  It seemed to me to be a bunch of stories that were loosely connected to each other. 

Literary Blog Hop

How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and nonfiction?


I found myself reading more literary fiction by the fact that the school I attended in Grade 7 didn't have much in the way of my favourite series, The Babysitters Club, available to sign out.  I had been reading the series for the better part of two or three years and when I started at my school that fall there wasn't much choice in the library to sign out at first.  There wasn't anything I was reading and then I signed out Jacob Have I Loved that September, I was able to change my reading habits drastically.  Also I was unable to find anything in my local library at the time because at that time asking for a loan was quite difficult, without having to ask the library staff to see if they could get a book for me.  As a result, I was forced read more difficult things.  And by the time I went to high school in Grade 8, the transition wasn't too hard and I was able to read more difficult things and was able to understand them.

Literary Blog Hop

What is one of your literary pet peeves? Is there something that writers do that really sets your teeth on edge?  Be specific, and give examples if you can.

One thing that really sets me off is if the writing is bad and predictable.  Nothing sets me off if the writing is bad and it seems as though there is no flow to the story.  It feels like the author is trying to hard to get a story across or that the author is either really too interested in the subject and clearly doesn't have a sense for what the reader may think.  There is nothing like reading a book, or a section in a book, that feels tedious and unejoyable.  Another thing I have a pet peeve with is when an author goes on and on and on, when the point has already made several pages ago.  It feels like the author is trying to get a point across too much and at times makes me feel like not reading them again, even if they are a good writer.  I want a book to envelope me and take me away to another place, not make me so distracted by how boring the book has gotten that I want to throttle the book and chuck it across the room.  If an author can make their point in 50 less pages, then they should, not try and make some of the information filler, which often becomes redundant at some point.

Literary Blog Hop

This week's question is:
What is your favorite poem and why?

I don't know why, but I like the poem Remember by Christina Rossetti.

I suppose it had something to do with the fact that it talks about moving on and not to be sad about one's passing.  While the poem is morbid in nature, it does have a rather positive spin on death.  Maybe it was due to the fact that I was getting out of William Butler Yeats phase and needed something a little more positive spin on things.  It was also just a poem that appealed to me in general.

Another poem I particularly like is Dylan Thomas' poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.  I honestly don't know why I like, but probably because its one of the first pieces of poetry that I read that wasn't a typical romantic poem.  It sort of goes against of how poetry should be and expresses how many people really feel about death and that we try to fight death as much as possible and deny its existence for ourselves.

Literary Blog Hop

This week's question is:

What makes a contemporary novel a classic? 
Discuss a book which you think fits the category of ‘modern classics’ and explain why. 

A very interesting question because it is very subjective question and is dependent on what readers view as being a modern classic. What one may think is a modern classic, another may think its not a modern classic. But what I think makes a contemporary novel a classic is that it is a work that has something of value to say that is able to draw attention to human problems and that condemn or applaud certain points of view. It also has effective language that is suitable to the message that the author is trying to convey and allows the reader to believe that what happened to the characters was inevitable and could not have been prevented. The story should also have a universal appeal; that is, the story should hold meaning or appeal to a wide variety of readers and have lasting interest to readers long beyond the initial appeal of the book.

One book that I think may qualify as a modern classic is Atonement by Ian McEwan. First of all, it draws attention to the issue of atonement and what is the nature of atonement. While the novel doesn't say how one should go about atoning for wrongly accusing somebody of something as serious as rape, it does look at how a person may carry around the guilt of accusing a person for such an act and how it can affect future behaviour. The language in the book allows one to engage with the book in the sense that you can feel the guilt that Briony feels for her actions towards Robbie Turner and how that then affects her future behaviour and you also get the sense that Briony's accusation would have happened and there would have been nothing to prevent it from happening.  McEwan's language is such that you feel the anguish that Briony feels for her accusation against Robbie, even though she knows the truth and refuses to acknowledge it.   I suppose that it doesn't hurt that the book takes place during war-time and the epic feel of Robbie's journey to the shores of Dunkirk make it a novel that will appeal to people in the future.

While I am trying to say what I think why the book could be considered to be a modern classic, it doesn't seem to want to get out and is basically just a pile of mush inside my head.  I hope I made at least some sense and that you know what I was aiming at.

Literary Blog Hop

This week's question is:
Is the such a thing as literary non-fiction? If so, how do you define it?
Yes there is such a thing as literary fiction.  While I don't read it a lot, I define it as a piece of prose in the non-fiction world.  Usually it takes the form of a what would be called the non-fiction novel, or a piece of travel writing.  It can also include biographies or memoirs or an essay.  It is generally thought to be a very broad and quite vague in the range of books that it includes.    To put it simply, it reports on actual people, places or events.  One thing it is not is poetry.  It is the latest memoir that has hit the bookseller list or the history book that looks at a particular person or a particular event or a particular person within the context of an event.

A good example of literary non-fiction would Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which he described as a non-fiction novel.  It has the elements of what people would consider to be a novel: prose and a good story to tell, but its based in reality and on true events.

But above all, the thing that separates it from most other non-fiction, is the quality of the writing.  It has a story that draws the reader in, much like a literary fiction book would have, and has a larger message to the book, rather than being a book simply of facts or a collection of literature.