My Library was Dukedom Large Enough (Quote of the Day)

"My library / Was dukedom large enough." - Shakespeare, The Tempest

Shelf Awareness launches "Enlightenment for the Book Trade"

Fellow book bloggers, I know you are all avid Shelf Awareness readers. Who isn't really? A daily newsletter full of bookish gems, industry news and book reviews? What more could we possibly ask for?

You guessed it: an edition of Shelf Awareness targeted for the general reading public. Check out the very first episode (today's!) and be sure to sign up for future mailings (sent twice a week). Edited by Bethanne Patrick, and book reviews edited by Marilyn Dahl, and even the occasional book review from yours truly -- I promise it won't disappoint.

Promoting Summer Reading With Movie Rewards

National Amusements, "a motion picture exhibition company," has announced its 13th summer of Bookworm Wednesdays, a program designed to promote summer reading for children by rewarding them (and their parents) with free movies every Wednesday at 10 throughout the summer. Children are required to present a book report on what they have been reading. If they are not at the reading/writing age, they are encouraged to draw a picture about a book that an adult has recently read to them.

Part of me loves this idea; after all, it is promoting summer reading (as well as writing about said reading), and demonstrating to kids that there is a reward for this reading. But another part of me (albeit a small part) balks a bit at rewarding reading with a movie. Not that I don't love movies, and recognize that kids love movies, but it seems like a fine line between encouraging reading as a habit and promoting the idea that once you get your reading done, you can move onto to the really fun things in life (like movies).

Maybe I'm being overly critical. And like I said, it's only a small part. And I should add that I do not have children and I naively insist on believing that the future little McHughs that run around my house will like to read more than anything else, so I've never faced the issue of encouraging children to read first-hand. I'd like to see what you all think.

So... what do you all think?

E-Reader Courtesies

So I'm sitting on an airplane yesterday, flying to Chicago (hello, Chicago!), and the man sitting next to me (and too close to me, if you want my opinion) pulls out an iPad and opens his Kindle reader. The angle at which he holds the device allows me to see that he is reading Matterhorn, a book I've had my eye on for some time.

Now, if this were a print book, I would not have hesitated to make a bit of small talk and ask about the book. But if this had been a print book, I would have recognized the book by its cover, not by looking over the man's shoulder (I guess I'm nosy like that). And I would have been able to see how far into the book he was - if only five pages, I wouldn't ask how it he liked the book, you know?

In the spirit of not being that obnoxious person that talks too much on an airplane and snoops into others' business, I let the matter go. But it left me thinking: what is acceptable in this (or similar) situations? Is it ok to admit that I can see your iPad screen perfectly clearly and am interested in what you are reading? Is it rude to peek in the first place?

Elsewhere on the Blogosphere: Reading Outside Ourselves

I haven't been doing much writing lately, but I have been keeping up with others' blogs. Steph at Bella's Bookshelves (a blogger I sometimes think is reading my mind and writing my thoughts in another blog) recently wrote an amazing, excellent, well-written, thoughtful, wonderful, very good post about reading outside our comfort zones, saying yes to books we don't think we'll like, and all that jazz: Reading Outside Ourselves.

"This is what I mean: if we can get past our assumptions, our fears, even our preferences, often we find ourselves with something more to talk about. We go from reading whatever everyone else is reading to cutting our own path, to telling people what awesome new things we’ve discovered... Now we understand our fellow readers with different tastes, interests, viewpoints."

I've posted in the past about books as a form of social currency in trying to argue why reading is important; Steph has developed the idea even further (and with better wording) in arguing not for reading but for reading outside our comfort zones. In light of the lack of inspiring content here, take a stroll through Steph's full post, and be sure to follow her too - everything she writes is excellent.

The New York Times Illustrates On-the-Ground Book Reviews

Check it out: A fully illustrated NYT article, in which Central Park readers give "on-the-ground" book reviews. Loving it.

The Books We Read Outdoors

Book Review: Into My Father's Wake by Eric Best

Into My Father's Wake records Eric Best's solo, 5,000 mile journey across the Pacific in a 47-foot ketch. Written years after the voyage was completed, Best reflects not only on his navigational abilities - or, at times, lack thereof - but the meaning of the undertaking, his standing with his family, and, perhaps most important in motivating him, his relationship with his father.

Best's memoir is at time hard to follow, alternating between recaps of his struggles with celestial navigation to recalling past conversations with an unidentified therapist, but as the pages progress, this bouncing between subjects becomes easier to follow, just as it becomes clear that this scattered recounting is actually an accurate representation of the journey itself. The back-and-forth also has the added benefit of preventing the memoir from ever becoming dull with detail or didactic in meaning-of-life-type reflections.

Overall, Into My Father's Wake is an engaging tale of a daring attempt to sail solo across the Pacific. Best has succeeded in capturing the details of his journey - from his trials with navigating by sextant to his woes attempting to make casserole during a violent storm - and placing those details within an overarching search for meaning. He reflects on his journey, his own attempts to understand his journey, and in doing so, comes to terms with his relationship with his overbearing and hard-to-please father.

While bordering on cliché, Into My Father's Wake succeeds in avoiding the over-trodden waters of father-son relationships with a healthy peppering of sailing lore. All in all, it's worth the read, especially if you have even a passing interest in sailing.