All things considered, my favorite spot is probably out on the deck of our house. Now, granted, it is far from a prime (or even desirable) location in the winter. But spring, [...]]]>

Where is your most often used (favorite) reading spot? Do you have more than one? What makes your favorite spot just that?

All things considered, my favorite spot is probably out on the deck of our house. Now, granted, it is far from a prime (or even desirable) location in the winter. But spring, summer and fall it’s a great place to sit with the dogs, catch some rays and breezes, and read with my iPod for accompaniment. Moreover, being on the east side of the house it’s warm during the coolest part of the day and cooler during the hottest part.

Still, a guy can’t sit outside all the time even when it’s nice. So my alternate and probably most used spot, particularly given how fickle the weather can be, is one of the recliners in our front room, both of which have full spectrum reading lamps next to them. For decades, I read a lot in bed in the evening. The last number of years, though, I found myself “reading with my eyes closed” much too frequently.

Now if you really want my favorite spot, it would be in a beach lounger on the Kona Coast of Hawaii. But that’s bit far away for anything but rare use.

Title cut, Lighthouse, Sunny Days

I decided to respond to this meme in large part because I just finished Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl [...]]]>

Rebecca asks: With yesterday being Anzac Day, I thought I’d ask a theme question this week. Are you a reader of war books? And if so, do you have any favourites?

I decided to respond to this meme in large part because I just finished Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes and it allows me to cover these questions quite easily.

Reading the book indicates I do read about war. As for Matterhorn, many claim it to be one of the best novels of the Vietnam War to date. It is an outstanding work but only one war book is on my list of Desert Island Books — Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. As a result, it ranks as my favorite book on any war.

My reading this year also reflects my interest in the topic. One of my favorite books so far this year is Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones, a novel about an SS officer in World War II. Also arguably qualifying is another of this year’s favorite books, Brodeck by Philippe Claudel, a fictional tale arguably set in World War II that explores the effects of a war on a small village. Interestingly, both are translated from French. A third novel I’ve read this year dealing with war was Get Out of the Way by Daniel Dinges, about a young man who, counter-intuitively, enlists to try to avoid Vietnam.

Yet novels aren’t the only books I’ve read this year dealing with war directly or indirectly. Both Armenian Golgotha and The Long Way Home deal with World War I.

My interest in the subject is sparked by the fact my dad was a World War II veteran, I grew up during the Vietnam War and I’m a history buff. Still, I think the number of war-related books so far this year is somewhat of an aberration as I usually average eight or less a year.

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

I wish.

For a long time, I did keep virtually every book I bought unless it was one I really disliked. For a long period of [...]]]>

Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?

I wish.

For a long time, I did keep virtually every book I bought unless it was one I really disliked. For a long period of time, the largest number of boxes when I moved were those with books and LP records. Yet the realities of the quantities accumulated over decades and the space available for bookshelves in a home eventually brought my keeper habits to an end.

As I’ve indicated before, I implemented a new routine in the last couple years. Now once I’ve read a book, it is evaluated for whether it is “shelf-worthy,” i.e., whether I willing to commit my now limited shelf space to it. There’s certainly no strict guidelines. It is more intuition and gut reaction.

Any book that doesn’t make the cut goes in a box earmarked for the used book store and/or library. Each of those books has a chance for a reprieve as, before the box leaves the house, I peruse it to make sure all of them are “goners.” Yet even then, I still periodically weed through my shelves when space constraints dictate it — usually one shelf collapsing on another.

Joshua Ferris, “Books You Can Live Without“

I have a ton of reference works on my shelves that I dip into with varying frequency. Two, however, aren’t with the rest. There’s a well worn paperback [...]]]>

Do you keep reference books on your shelves at home? What’s your first port of call when you need information – the internet or a book?

I have a ton of reference works on my shelves that I dip into with varying frequency. Two, however, aren’t with the rest. There’s a well worn paperback American Heritage dictionary on the headboard of the bed and a hardcover Webster’s dictionary on the bookshelf where I usually sit and read at home. That’s because I tend to look up words far more frequently than check some other compendium of information.

As for general information, I tend to use the internet far more frequently now. I tend to keep a notepad near where I am reading and will jot down names, events or other items that I want to look up later. Goggle is just faster than digging through the reference books I have.

Steven Wright

That, in fact, is one of the things I somewhat look forward to with ebook readers — the ability to highlight a name or event and have immediate access to online information about it. Part of that stems from my increased reading of foreign literature, which often references places and events with which I am unfamiliar. At the same time, I fear that such instant access will lead me off on tangents and disrupt the flow of the book I am reading

Because I use the reserve list a lot, one of my minor irritations is those who keep books others are waiting [...]]]>

For the regular library patrons among us: do you have your own idea of what constitutes proper library etiquette? Is there anything you always try to do? Anything you hate when others do?

Because I use the reserve list a lot, one of my minor irritations is those who keep books others are waiting for past their due date. If I know other people are waiting for a book, it moves to the top of my reading stack and I try to return it when I’m done rather than wait for the due date. There’s no sense in a book sitting on someone’s end table if others are waiting for it.

But my major complaint is one that drives me nuts in a lot of other places. In the library context, it is a variation on those who talk loudly in the library. It’s those friggin’ cell phones, which I find a bane in most of public life.

First, if you refuse to turn it off, at least put it on vibrate. Second, if you insist on answering it, I don’t want to hear your conversation. I could give a rat’s ass about why you’re at the library, what you did or are doing over the weekend or other aspects of your life. Go outside with your damn phone! Finally, if you insist on being totally oblivious to everyone else in the library, if your cell phone requires you to use your “outside voice” so whomever you’re talking to can hear you, buy a new one.

As you can tell, this question hits a sore spot, one more about cell phone etiquette than library etiquette. Whenever I see someone walking through a store or sitting in a restaurant talking loudly on their cell phone, I want to rip it out of their hand and stomp on it. But if you really want to see my head explode, don’t piss me off with one of those things in one of my favorite places in the world.

Timothy S. Healy, “Libraries and Learning,” The Bookmark (Spring 1990)