I\u2019m trying to read more books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may think that because I\u2019m a writer I read lots of books\nand often, but if so, you are sorely wrong. I\u2019ve never been much of a reader.\nI\u2019m more of a TV-watching type gal. Still, over the years, I\u2019ve maintained a\nhealthy curiosity about books. Obviously not enough to make me become a voracious\nreader, but enough that I have four library cards, and check books out\nregularly, even if I don\u2019t always read them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, my appetite for books is partially due \u2013 in no\nsmall order \u2013 to all that TV-watching I\u2019ve done. TV introduced me to things like Oprah\u2019s Book\nClub, and this book show that used to come on PBS hosted by a lady named Pat\nMorrison. It was through her that I discovered Lemony Snickett and his \u201cA\nSeries of Unfortunate Event.\u201d Those shows made the books they showcased seem so\ninteresting and thought-provoking that I wanted to see if the same reaction\ncould be elicited from me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I must admit, when I was younger, the one place where reading\ntrumped the movies or TV was my imagination. You can\u2019t see anything quite like\nyou can see it with your mind\u2019s eye. Especially when it comes to fairytale and\nfantasy stuff \u2013 nothing is as good as my imagination. The pictures in my head are\nthe most elaborate\u2026well, at least they used to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was a kid, my imagination would kick into such high\ngear that it would overtake the words on the page. I remember one time I was\nlying in bed reading, marveling at how I was looking at words, but seeing this\nvivid picture in my head of a girl in the forest. I don\u2019t even remember what\nbook I was reading, but it was just shocking to me how my imagination and those\nwords on the page intermingled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As magical as that experience may have been, as a child\nraised on TV, spending weeks reading a book just couldn\u2019t take the place of a\ntwo hour movie, or a 30 minute sitcom, or as I got older, an all-day MTV Real World marathon. \nThe quickness, the immediacy of television, that instant gratification\nmade books no match. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once I got to college and was assigned more books to read \u2013\nboth fiction and nonfiction, textbooks and otherwise (most of which, I didn\u2019t\nread) \u2013 in a year than I\u2019d probably read in my entire life, not only did I find that my reading skills were\npretty poor, but I also felt left out. I couldn\u2019t fully participate in classroom\ndiscussions even if I wanted to. And\ntoo, a lot of the people I thought were smart and interesting read a lot of\nbooks. I went to one classmate\u2019s house and saw that she had a whole bookshelf\nof books that she said she\u2019d read. Like an entire bookshelf with several\nshelves full of books. That was mind-blowing to me. Then there were other times when people would\nmake references to books or authors that are pretty common amongst educated\npeople, and I\u2019d be clueless. This, by\nthe way, is one of the primary reasons I think people should go to college \u2013 so\nthat you can have conversations with people in many different circles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After college I didn\u2019t get a job right away, and found\nmyself in this sort of waste land of nothing to do and what\u2019s my next\nmove. It was during that time, when it\nwas no longer required of me, that I began reading books on my own. I even kept\na lot of my text books and read some of them. It was like after the fast pace\nof college, my mind couldn\u2019t take this new lull. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s also when I discovered that the experience I had as a\nchild where my imagination seemed to supersede the words on the page had gone. No\nmatter how hard I tried, I couldn\u2019t help but notice every word on the page so\nvividly, while struggling to see the\nscene in my mind\u2019s eye. I realized that\nnot reading had not only rendered me a mute during certain conversations, but\nit had also stifled my imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In any case, it didn\u2019t really matter much, because I was\nreading less and less fiction, and more and more non-fiction anyway. I usually use my creative imagination more\nwhen I\u2019m reading fiction and the author is describing something for which I\nhave no reference, or haven\u2019t seen on a regular basis. Most of the non-ficiton\nI read is written by or about people I admire, and I\u2019ve already seen enough\nabout them on TV to have stock images in my mind of whatever they are talking\nabout in their book. For example, when I\nwas reading Barbara Walter\u2019s autobiography Audition<\/em>,\nand she talked about being in a newsroom, my imagination didn\u2019t have to work\ntoo hard to conjure up an image of a newsroom because I\u2019ve seen so many on TV. That and I read non-fiction for other reasons:\nI\u2019m not so much interested in seeing what they have to say as I am knowing what\nthey have to say, if that makes any sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To be quite honest, I\u2019m not impressed with most fiction work\nanyway. The fiction that I\u2019ve liked best has been the short stories I read in\nhigh school, or some of the classic works. But I\u2019m usually super disappointed\nin contemporary fiction \u2013 from the themes that modern authors choose to write\nabout, to their writing style even \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t appeal to me. I think the latest work of fiction that I\nreally enjoyed was Waiting to Exhale<\/em>,\nthough it\u2019s several decades old, and I actually first read it a couple decades\nago. The most recent contemporary fiction I read was The Wedding Date<\/em> by Jasmine\nGuillory, which I thought was cute, and I mostly enjoyed, but it\u2019s a really\nlight read. I also read Behold the Dreamer<\/em>, which I thought was\ndepressing as hell, and did not like at all. Then there\u2019s Yaa Gyassi\u2019s Homecoming<\/em>, which got rave reviews, but I was disappointed by, particularly\nbecause I thought she failed to capture the essence of hopefulness and blessed\nassurance that I\u2019ve experienced permeating in Black American communities. Then there\u2019s An American Marriage<\/em>, which I thought was trying to do too much,\nnot to mention it was a sad read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suffice it to say, when it comes to fiction, I\u2019m a picky\nreader. The next one I\u2019m going to get my hands on will be the work by Bill\nClinton and James Patterson. There is also a novel by CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper that\nI\u2019d like to read. I have this idea for a political thriller screenplay, and\nhave recently gained interest in mystery novels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But perhaps the real problem is that some of these memoirs\nthat people are writing are so good, fiction, for me, has taken a back seat. I\nthink the fact that I know memoirs are true (or at least supposed to be true),\nmakes it more intriguing for me. Some of\nmy favorite non-fiction has been about or by women in the working world, like #GirlBoss<\/em> by Sophie Amoruso. I really\nliked Megyn Kelly\u2019s Settle for More<\/em>. And I was surprised at how much I liked Tyra\nBanks\u2019s book that she did with her mom\ncalled Perfect is Boring<\/em>. I just finished reading Elisabeth\nHasslebeck\u2019s book Point of View<\/em>,\nwhich turns out, I didn\u2019t enjoy half as much as I thought I would, which\nsurprised me because I really enjoyed Sarah Palin\u2019s Going Rogue<\/em>. I\u2019m also reading The\nMost Powerful Woman in the Room is You<\/em>, by Lydia Fenet, which I\u2019m actually\nquite liking and it\u2019s a very easy read. \nOn deck I have Michelle Obama\u2019s Becoming<\/em>.\nI actually began reading it, and I just love it so much \u2013 not only because of\nthe stories she tells and the way she tells them, but the writing is so\nscrumptious. This is one that I\u2019m going to actually buy and not just check out\nat the library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, I\u2019m trying to read two books a month. And look at\nthat, as I\u2019m writing this, I\u2019m four days away from a new month\u2026 and I\u2019m still\non the current month\u2019s books\u2026No wait, these books are actually from a couple\nmonths back (insert appropriate emoji here). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonder what I\u2019ll be reading next? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun Facts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n