Reading the First and Ultimate Pleasure

We persevere, because reading still brings information, stimulation, and solace. It is the first and the ultimate pleasure. Willard Spiegelman.

What can I say, but Yes.

I have spent close on 60 years as a reader and I will read until I die. Reading is truly the first and ultimate pleasure of my life.

Who Invented Reading?

“Whoever invented reading is a very cool person.”
― Contreras Robert L.

Hear, hear. However the inventor of writing is even more cool. Without writing there can be no reading. Great writers are always great readers and in this sense all writings are derivative of past writings. All writers and readers are extra cool people.
DK

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James Altucher on Literature, Reading and Writing

"English literature is best learned by reading the books you are passionate about. Writing is best learned by having real experiences, writing every day, and reading the great writers who inspire you" James Altucher.

James Altucher is an inspirational writer and the quotation above is taken from his book, I Was Blind but Now I See. James is an advocate of self education as an alternative to an expensive university education for young people. This makes him a controversial figure but I agree with him that reading and writing with passion help to educate us in life's big lessons. Reading and writing is free and both activities help to form our minds.

Buzbee on Book LUST

For the last several days I've had the sudden and general urge to buy a new book. I've stopped off at a few bookstores around the city, and while I've looked at hundreds and hundreds of books in that time, I have not found the one book that will satisfy my urge. It's not as if I don't have anything to read; there's a tower of perfectly good unread books next to my bed, not to mention the shelves of books in the living room I've been meaning to reread. I find myself, maddeningly, hungry for the next one, as yet unknown. I no longer try to analyze this hunger; I capitulated long ago to the book lust that's afflicted me most of my life. I know enough about the course of the disease to know I'll discover something soon.”
― Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

I have to say that I have suffered from book lust from the time I first discovered libraries at the age of seven, and second hand bookshops when I was eleven. Over time I have added book sales, garage sales, charity book fairs, digital archives and of course Amazon for my Kindle requirements.

While it is a lust, I believe it is a harmless and very enjoyable one. And of course it is not all about lust, love comes into the equation as well.

Many of my happiest times have been with a book in my hand. I clearly remember going into a bookshop in Alnwick on a snowy winters day and drinking coffee and reading my purchases in front of a blazing open fire - Bliss.

Book Lust
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An Authors View on eBooks

“I am completely unflustered by whichever medium people choose to read my words. I'm just delighted they're reading them at all!”
― Sara Sheridan

Basically books are written in words and whether we read them on paper or electronically doesn't change the meaning that the author is trying to convey.

Most reading activity happens betwixt the book and the brain and depends on how we filter the words.

I am agnostic as to the media as I am to how my food is dished up - I don't eat the plate but the food.

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Life without a Kindle...

“Life without a Kindle is like life without a library nearby.”

― Franz S. McLaren, Home Lost

I love the Kindle software on my iPad and the fact that my library is always with me. As a book lover - both physical and eBooks it is great to have both kinds of libraries.

Reading is my top pleasure in life and the comfort of having an extensive digital library at my fingertips is reassuring.

My dear wife now knows that if she wants me to come shopping (to carry the bags at the end) she only has to offer to sit me in a coffee shop with my iPad and I will happily spend hours reading.

Books + Coffee = Peace of MInd.

Ciao

DK

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Charlie Brooker on eBooks

“Until recently, I was an ebook sceptic, see; one of those people who harrumphs about the “physical pleasure of turning actual pages” and how ebook will “never replace the real thing”. Then I was given a Kindle as a present. That shut me up. Stock complaints about the inherent pleasure of ye olde format are bandied about whenever some new upstart invention comes along. Each moan is nothing more than a little foetus of nostalgia jerking in your gut. First they said CDs were no match for vinyl. Then they said MP3s were no match for CDs. Now they say streaming music services are no match for MP3s. They’re only happy looking in the rear-view mirror.”

― Charlie Brooker

What are the pleasures of the eBook that will replace the nostalgia for the written and printed book? Some of my eBook pleasures are as follows:

Longer Reading Times - I can read in bed when my wife has put the lights out.

Portability - my eBooks are with me all the time. I would need a 10 ton truck to carry my physical library around with me.

Quick delivery - eBooks ordered from Amazon arrive almost instantaneously.

You don't lose your bookmarks.

You can change the font size and style - very important as you approach your silver tsunami years.

Feel free to add more in the comments section.

Have a great day.

DK

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Fuelling my eBook Obsession

I have finally turned the corner and have become an eBook fanatic. I only have one book that I am reading in paper form. This transition has taken many years but I have now stopped buying physical books. Sure I miss having additions for my physical library but I now have a portable library on my iPad that is where I am at anytime. The Kindle App on the iPad is excellent and I just love having instant delivery from Amazon though I do miss the Smiley boxes from Amazon.

I have just pre-purchased the first volume of Robert Frost's Letters as an eBook, delivery due tomorrow.

Long Live the eBook!

DK

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Reading: the Joys of Familiarity and Surprise

There are two wonderful joys in reading. The first is the joy of familiarity and the second the joy of surprise.

The Joy of Familiarity

I love to reread certain books because they are like old friends. Pride and Prejudice is one such old friend. I have read this book a number of times but I still get a real buzz from reading the familiar. Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy are old friends.

The Joy of Surprise

Much as I like reading old favorites, I also like getting surprised in my reading. I was recently given a recommendation to read a book by Jasper Fforde called the Eyre Affair. This book really took me by surprise with its quirky approach and dystopian vision. The idea of entering into a book and interacting with the characters and its final form was not something that I had thought of before. There is a surprise at every turn. I am now onto my third Fforde book.

Drop me a comment on your familiar books or surprise reads.
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I am with Jane Austen on this one

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

― Jane Austen

Being one of those trivial personages who enjoys novels, I have to agree with Janes sentiments. A good novel brings much pleasure to the reader who engages. Non fiction is informative, but the novel illuminates human nature.

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A Fun Suggestion to use when Throwing books out

I hate discarding books, it is like breaking up with an old friend. Still the inevitable has to be done if you are space constrained, and all book lovers reach a constraint some time. To slave the help try this trick I found in one of my ambles through an online course. Make a poem consisting of the first or last sentences of the books you are throwing away. By doing this you retain some of their DNA and have a record of past friends. I know it sounds strange, but it is fun. Give it a try next time you have to downsize your book collection.

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Technology as an Aid to Literary Research

I have a keen interest in the works of Virginia Woolf. Woolf was a prolific writer. I have found that technology in the form of within text seraches and collation opens many veins of information and avenues for new research.

Whenever I add to my blog on Woolf, titled Virginia Woolf - Radical Writer, I am careful to use tags that I can later collate. The latest avenue I am exploring is looking at Woolf's mood in different months over her writing lifetime.

I have got the raw data for this from my reading over the years and the use of a month and year tag for relevant diary and letter entries. It is then just a matter of extracting the relevant entries and analysing the content.
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Books about Books

It is surprising that today we see so many books being written about other books. While from time to time these secondary source books are important they do not as a matter of course add anything to readers and students.

I was trained to work with primary sources and to put in the effort to understand them. I would rather struggle with a primary source written by the author than get my information second hand as it were.

Many books are hard to read and take due attention to detail. Expend your energy at the source not at the pool of surmise and opinion.

So read the book, not the book about the book. I was lucky to have got my undergraduate degree at an institution that truly wanted us to do this. For many students, I realise, this is not always possible, because at many universities, Prof X and Dr Y want you to reference their own erudite works.

I had a most informative seminar when I was a postgrad student where the primary author, the source, was present and kindly punctured the egos of several academics who had been pontificating about what he, the author, really meant in his works. Very entertaining as well, it is not often that you get to witness such literary evisceration.

Go on, read the source, you know that is the right, even if the hardest, thing to do.

Taster - 18 Business Leaders who are or were Avid Readers

This is just a taster for a wonderful article that can be accessed here.

"Some of the world’s greatest leaders are also among the world’s most avid readers, and we’re certain that it’s no coincidence. Whether you’re reading business books or history novels, reading offers great opportunities for learning and perspective that can build a foundation for greatness. We’re inspired by these 18 business leaders who have a deep love of books, and we’re sure that their passion for literature and reading has a lot to do with their success in business."

In the article there is good information under every name.

1. Oprah

2. Steve Jobs

3. William Randolph Hearst

4. Phil Knight

5. Martin Scorsese

6. Sidney Harman

7. J.P. Morgan

8. Michael Moritz

9. David Leach

10. Michael Milken

11. Shelly Lazarus

12. Jay Walker

13. Dee Hock

14. David Rubenstein

15. Karl Lagerfeld

16. Bill Gates

17. George Lucas

18. George Peabody

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Styron on the Reading Experience

As Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron put it: “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”

I have had the exhausted feeling after reading a number of books. I enjoy the vicarious living and experiences that good books give.