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Oh enjoy! I have tickets for Sunday in April and I can't wait.

Love Denise Mina. Enjoy!

Oh, Roger, you rogue! You lead such a charmed life. How I wish I were you!

Sunday in the Park was great, especially the notoriously problematic second act. And, my, the things they can do with, er, color and light these days!

Off to MOMA and a surprise inspection of John and Fuse at Donnell. I'm disguised as Angus McKillick.

That should be KILLICK, no MC btw. Angus has the most beautiful collection of striped shirts I have ever seen.

MOMA is fortuitously providing a great companion to the Sunday in the Park revival with the show Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today. There's an online glimpse at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/colorchart/ but try and see the show if you can.

While books for adults similarly try to bring readers around to their point of view, the position is much more mano a mano, not directed from above.

With books for younger children, it may be different, but as a YA writer, I have to say that I'm not--consciously, at least--directing from above, but looking at the reader at eye level, so to speak.

Even middle grade is more complicated, if I think about it honestly. But my experience (and of course, I filter for things I enjoy reading) has been that YA really isn't about looking at or presenting viewpoints from all that different a place than adult fiction is.

(I put that badly. I didn't mean that YA doesn't have a different perspective than adult fiction, just that it's not a from-above perspective, in my experience.)

I'm 22. Most of the novels I read are young adult (and I'm writing a young adult novel of my own) but I do read adult novels from time to time. (The Life of Pi is one of my favorite books.) Most of the non-YA books I read are nonfiction, though: history, psychology and true crime. Do you have an objections, Roger, to someone who reads YA novels and adult nonfiction?

Let me say again that I am making no judgments about what people choose to read--children's books, romances, Faulkner, whatever floats your boat.

In my line of work I regularly--not frequently, but regularly--meet people who upon learning who I am or what I do, say "oh, I only read children's books." They say it as a point of pride, continuing with "because those are the best written." This is where I have a problem--not with what they are reading but that they are proud to read only children's books, that it indicates a keen delineation of taste that only the cogniscenti share. I don't get this from people who only read mysteries, say, or sci-fi or romance. They just like what they like. I understand that the general ignorance and sentimentality about children's books in the larger culture might make one defensive about having a taste for them, but let's not go overboard.

I have great respect for children's & YA literature. I derive great enjoyment from it. I read it pretty much exclusively until I came to college, but here is the thing: though they are good, they aren't everything. Good YA novels, like any other good literature, derive from their historical and literary tradition. If, for example, you read Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk without knowing anything about Taoism, some of the points are lost. (Same with the Earthsea books, actually.) If you read Octavian Nothing having studied British imperialism, the American Revolution, 18th century science & society, you will get a lot out of it and make a lot of connections that you will not have otherwise. If you read His Dark Materials, the whole thing is a lot more interesting with Genesis and Milton under your belt.

The point is, YA books are good--but a sophisticated reader is not satisfied with the last incarnation, with the end product, with what is, if we are being frank, generally easier to read and less substantial than its source material. (Yes, it is good, yes, it is substantial, but there is more.)A sophisticated reader--of any age--wants to know what things mean, where they came from, and how they fit together. If reading just YA is enough for someone--without any interest in why and how it exists--I think that's both lazy and rather dull.

I agree with Roger. My liberal arts education: let me show you it.

Heh. I actually do hear this sort of thing from romance and SF/fantasy readers as well. (And don't disagree, when put like that, that reading in any one genre is potentially limiting, though having a home/preferred genre is not.)

Roger, you say: "In my line of work I regularly--not frequently, but regularly--meet people who upon learning who I am or what I do, say "oh, I only read children's books." They say it as a point of pride, continuing with "because those are the best written." This is where I have a problem--not with what they are reading but that they are proud to read only children's books, that it indicates a keen delineation of taste that only the cogniscenti share."

My take on that would rather be that because children's literature is so patronized in the wider critical circles, we feel the need to make outrageous statements like this to wake people up to the fact that there is fabulous writing in children's literature. Not necessarily pride reading nothing else...just a shock statement. I've said it many times in just that way...and it's not even true in my case. (Yep, I'm a liar.)

To take this is another direction...I'm someone who reads both adult and chidlren's literature recreationally, but I do find often that my recreational response to chidlren's literature gets in the way of my professional response. On a daily basis I have to actively separate my appreciation of a children's book from my critical brain. At the same time I find that my public library colleagues who don't read children's literature recreationally also tend not to choose to review it professionally...just because they don't really like to read it. This then puts a whole new layer on how I read reviews of children's literature; if I suspect that most reviewers are actually "fans," I have to suspect their evaluation of the audience for the book, and look actively for evidence in the review that they considered a REAL child audience. The evidence isn't always there. I'm probably guilty of neglecting it myself.

People can read whatever they want, but the reflexive smugness of the person who says, "Oh, children's and YA books are so much better than adult books! That is all I read!" makes me somewhat ill. For one thing, it is a gross generalization. For another, why on earth would anyone be proud of limiting his or her reading?

It also makes me wonder if these people read *Weekly Reader* for their news coverage.

While I agree with some of your points, and am certainly anti-smugness in generally, I think you're overlooking something major with your condemnation here:

WHAT one choses to read and HOW one reads it are two VERY SEPARATE THINGS. I went on an ill-fated date lately with one of those "I believe everything the NY Times says about ART" people and although his recently read books were no doubt more "literary" than mine, I can guarantee you that he read No Country for Old Men with but a tiny fraction of the care, intelligence, analysis, acuity, and, yes, MATURITY with which I approach even fluffy books like Princess Mia.

I would not deem someone reads Flannery O'Connor blindly because "that's what's done" any more inherently "mature" than I would deem someone who exclusively reads YA lit and is proud of it. What matters is HOW a person engages with their reading, not what they chose to read. As long as their brain is on, any reader is mature in my book.

I don't get this from people who only read mysteries, say, or sci-fi or romance.

Clearly, you have not been around enough SciFi people...

Oh God, Cassandra Mortmain, must everything be so heavy? I like to read Flannery O'Connor because she's so creepy. And I'm sure if I were taking a class or reading an article on her, I would get additional insights that I would enjoy. But while your date might have been an obnoxious name dropper, I don't think it's any less pompous to brag about the WAY you read! For Pete's sake, life is busy and hard enough, aren't we talking about reading for fun? This reminds me of the time Deborah Brodie told me I could only go the Met if I studied the opera beforehand.

And I'm not the Elizabeth who posted at the beginning of this thread, I'm the one who posts fairly often here and is 47. Roger is staying at my apartment right now, and Come Back, Little Sheba was a sad play, but Epatha Merkerson was GREAT. Of course, although I was very moved by the loneliness of both the central characters, I'm sure I would have been more moved if I had watched the play with acuity and MATURITY.

I didn't mean to imply that my way is the only way to read- and, to be frank, I don't do it to be SERIOUS, I do it because that's how I enjoy reading. I engage closely because it's fun for me. I just meant to point out that there's more to the issue of reading than what you choose to read and plenty of immature things can be engaged with in a mature way.

And I can also guarantee you that most of my dates aren't treated to an exhaustive description of how I read- I only bring it up here for argument's sake :).

C'mon Roger: YA adult readers "need to grow up"? I read anything I can get my hands on - adult fiction, definitely adult fiction (i.e erotica) and YA and midgrade fiction. Not only because I'm a kids writer (Feral, Orca Book Publishers April 08, Keeper of the Light, Conciliar Press 06, Royal Monastic Conciliar Press, August 08). I like kids books just as much as adults books. The writing isn't overall better or worse - there are brilliant books in all those categories. I read what catches my interest and what moves me. But to suggest that I need to grow up because I read kids' books? No. You're off track there.

bev, i think that you, like many readers, missed roger's point and keep missing it. he has never said there was anything wrong with reading kids books, or with enjoying kids books. what he keeps saying is that it is kind of lame to read ONLY kids books. just like it would be lame to only go to operas and not see musicals, to dismiss rock because you think only classical is worth listening to. to refuse to visit the museum if it didn't have just the one kind of art that you think is worth looking at.

it's really starting to bother me that people can't follow this argument. read anything you want. but if all you read is kids books, i think you are pretty intellectually limited. just as i would if the only thing you read was military sf with oooh lasers and stuff.

Yes, Bev, I would be off track--not to mention self-delusional!--if I were suggesting that adults should not read kids' books. But I never suggested that, so I guess we're on the same page.

Anonymous 10;40 PM has it EXACTLY RIGHT! What a shame we've had to read through pages of gush about "how much YA fantasy etc means in my life". It would appear that no one actually read the initial post but seized the opportunity to declare their allegiance to a medium that was never challenged. If only she had made this intelligent statement FIRST!

I find time to keep up with both only because my library finally carries audiobooks. I can keep up with adult reading through listening on my commute.

Tee-hee. I spent Tuesday reading an adult recommendation of Roger's from last December-- The Exception by Christian Jungersen. 500 pages of bloat, if you ask me, which is why it took up only a day--I skimmed. But I can't stop myself from looking for tips, and maybe one of these days I'll get around to the books he mentions he's reading this weekend....

I forgot that damned Japanese mystery (Grotesque) at Elizabeth's. But the first fifty pages (about the cruelty of adolescence, ironically) were GREAT.

Like Zee, I get a lot of my adult books via audio. Just started Middlemarch . . .

"Let me say again that I am making no judgments about what people choose to read"

Um, except that you are making judgments. The "grow up" line? That was a judgment.

I do love you defending being smug about people's reading choices by pointing the finger at people being smug about their reading choices. Masterful.

I actually agreed with the first part of the post, about revealing the ending when it would be relevant to the adult purchasing or recommending the book. And you have a point with the wealth available to readers in books written for adults. But that last statement? Not good.

"Grow up"? Yeah, you're right, that's a judgment. But it's true (for me): I can't take seriously a grownup who doesn't read grownup books on the grounds that they aren't as good as children's books. Can you? People who "learned everything they needed to know in kindergarten" or who find "ineffable wisdom" in The Giving Tree--nope, wouldn't trust 'em with my kids.

I'll admit it always seem strange to me when people ONLY read books meant for children. The same way I'd think it odd if they ONLY ate "kid food" (fluffernutters?) or ONLY listened to "kid music" (Though I do love Dan Zanes!).

This is not to say that children's books aren't great, complex, well written, etc. Or that adult work is *better*. Only that the bulk of children's booksa are meant for... well, kids! The dramas of the YA world are different than the issues facing adults.

That these same readers might get something *else* from checking out some adult book.

(They might not, I guess. But from my own experience, though I LOVE to read middle grade, I learn more about myself as a person from, say, Chabon or Irving or whomever)

I wonder what some of the people commenting here would think of someone who only watched kiddie tv. Barney and Sesame Street. If they met a grown man who sat around at night, alone, drinking beer and watching the Teletubbies...

I mean, the writing on Sesame Street *is* far better than the inanity of reality tv.

As a writer too, I find that when I'm reading an adult book I'm looking for ways to bring the craft over into my writing for kids. To push my writing. When I read adult poetry, I'm thinking about sentence structure, internal rhyme, and how I might use them in picture books.

I guess it just seems a kind of arrested state, a weird barrier to me. It seems extremely limiting. A closed circle.

Just my 2 cents.

xoLaurel
http://laurelsnyder.com

Roger, but you know that I never actually want to grow up! I read a lot of "adult" books when I was really young, both classics and contemporary at the time (70s and 80s.) And then, I did decide that I really enjoyed reading Children's and YA lit more, more often, than reading "grown-up" books since, um, I don't find "grown-up issues" categorically or entirely appealing in novel or nonfiction forms. (Same way that I don't find shows like 30 Something or Sex and the City appealing... they are just whiny, and I'll tell you, whiny middle-aged men and women are much less savory than bratty children! Of course, I'm not saying good adult novels/nonfiction are all like those soap-operas! I do find popular adult fiction like The Kite Runner both well written and yet very heavy-handed in their attempts to encapsulate human experiences.)

Anyway... I don't know that we (those of us prefer reading good children's books for fun) "need to grow up," only that we need to admit: sure, we can be a bit arrested in our mental/emotional development. And at the same time, I can be proud of it. It's my life, after all, not someone else's. As I see it, as long as I am happy and not out destroying the world (which I am somewhat capable of doing, haha,) it's safe to keep me around, even as friends!

So it was YOU, Roxie, who took down Go-Krida!

And now, wreaking havoc in Second Life, mwahaha... But, seriously, I do enjoy certain non-children/YA authors and have little patience with MANY books published, supposedly for children and teens! (I still need to read Spook City, I know!)

I 'm so glad you mentioned Shari Lewis. I was just thinking about that very thing as I read your post.

How did I know that piece of trivia? Because way back in the early 80's I went to the Globe Book Festival and Shari Lewis was a speaker whose session I attended (I grew up with her original show and adored her, Lambchop, Charlie Horse and Hushuppy).

I hope I remember this correctly, but I think she had just come out with a book called , "One Minute Bedtime Stories" and when she was taking questions from the audience, someone asked why her own husband didn't publish her book. She answered something to the effect that he didn't even publish his own sister's books, like "Scruples!"

Several years later I was thrilled to see her back on TV. I still cannot think of another ventriloquist with her skill. And I especially always loved the fact that Lampchop was a bit of a smartass. Barbjn

The Exception is a great book. I thought he nailed the librarian character.

LOVED The Exception. My favorite book of 2007. Just posted about it myself :)

Hey! James Lee Burke! I think he writes the absolute greatest prose in the world. The first few Dave Robicheaux books burned themselves into my brain. I turned my late father, a psychiatrist, on to the series, and we used to have a field day doing armchair psychoanalysis of all the deeply damaged Burke characters.

Enjoy.

Congratulations, Roger! I knew you were COOL, to be sure, but hadn't thought about hot. Way to go! Looking forward to a New Year with ReadingRoger.

Nice list, but I'd like to see Aidan Chambers represented here with either DANCE ON MY GRAVE or POSTCARDS FROM NO MAN'S LAND.

Jonathan

Nice list. Thank you! One more: Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson. Staying best friends gets tricky when he's in thrall to the school soccer star. A typically deft portrait of friendship, difference and compassion.
Mike

Seconding the Aidan Chambers: "Postcards..." and "Dance on my Grave" and also elements in "The Toll Bridge".

Also the fabulous "Brothers" by Ted van Lieshout, and "Centre of my World" by Andreas Steinhofel.

Not poor Betsy-Tacy but perhaps their friend Winona!

Yes, yes, but when will Fanfare be posted to the website.

Ooh, I can't wait for the interview! Lucky you! Yes, the audiobook versions of all three are wonderful. and the farther you go into HDM the deeper it gets, metaphysically. My 11-year old grandson, who has grown up with the audiobooks and now reads the books to himself is having a bit of a hard time with TAS. But The Golden Compass is very action-packed and easier to follow, and the movie will bring millions more to the books, hooray!!

Now, I am jealous! I have been toting The Golden Compass around and leaving it at bedside for the last month but... all this "work reading" for Notables interferes and prevents me from re-reading the whole book, which many of my students are doing right now. So, I steal a couple of minutes here and a little stretch of time there to re-read just parts of the book and revel in how each sentence is so well constructed and how each character is so alive and layered and how much imagining takes place from page to page. *sigh*

My editor for my upcoming book, Paraworld Zero, suggested I read The Golden Compass because she felt it was similar to my book. I ended up reading the whole trilogy. Very interesting books. I liked the first one the best, while the others went down tangents I wasn't as excited about. The movie looks very promising.

If somebody paid me $300,000 smackers to leg-wrestle Bill Donohue, I would totally do it.

My kid goes to a Lutheran school (long story), and we've already gotten a concerned email from her teacher warning all first-grade parents about this movie. She sent us to this link -- http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp.

Also, we've had letters to the editor printed in the newspaper saying that Pullman's out to whack us with the athiest stick.

So it's been pretty interesting around these parts.

Can't wait to see that interview, though!

Yes, the Snopes comment has been controversial, because the urban-legend site is generally seen as siding with the Forces for Good, and, with their affirmative verification of the claim that "The 2007 film The Golden Compass is based on a series of books with anti-religious themes," they're being accused of carrying water for the religious right. But I think you have to twist yourself into all kind of knots not to acknowledge the validity of the claim.

I'm not even trying to go against the claim that it's an anti-religious book/movie. I mean, you kill God (and technically they didn't MEAN to ... who knew God would disintegrate!) and the religious right paints "Condemned to Hell!" across your front door.

Too bad they didn't read it first. Though I understand Donohue actually read it and grudgingly admits that the book is well-written. But he still says it's evilocity at work.

Isn't the backlighting what usually makes reading electronic books fatiguing? Maybe they're finally on to something that will support hours of continued focus, like the wonderful page.

So they say, but I have always felt like I was looking at something dead when reading passive-light screens (or whatever they're called). And I do enjoy being able to read in the dark.

Try a GP2X. It's a Korean gaming device with a Linux operating system. Does almost everything - music, movies, games and books.
I've read a ton of e-books on mine and love it! (Reading War & P. right now.)

I posted about it a while back:
http://riddleburger.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/what-im-reading-on-now/

Actually, the Kindle, the Sony Reader and the iLiad don't have screens at all. They use a new technology called e-ink or electronic paper, which is supposed to be very close to the resolution and experience of reading paper and thus not cause eyestrain like the screens of most digital devices. And just like you can't backlight paper, you can't backlight electronic paper either. Although it's not exactly like paper, you can think of it like paper with dots made from charged particles rather than ink. If you're interested, there's an explanation of how it works at:

http://www.eink.com/technology/howitworks.html

(Yes, I am a geek who likes to read about these things)

I do agree that the Kindle is ugly and it looks like a kluge. I'd rather lose the keyboard and have a larger display area. Of the e-book readers available today, my favorite is the iLiad., Unfortunately, it's 2 - 3 times as expensive as the others.

Call me a romantic, but can anything really beat a piece of paper with ink on it? I mean, really, if you're going to cut down a tree, at least do it for a good purpose, like making a book. Though, I wouldn't mind having some of my text books on something like that. You know, those things I don't read very often anyhow.

I can see a lot of advantages to something like this.

- I often carry around more than one book if I'm going to be gone for any length of time. This would be more convenient.

- As you say, Stella, it would be a big advantage for textbooks. There's been a lot of concern over children lugging around heavy backpacks and causing back strain; this would alleviate that problem.

- I could load it with books that are previous or related volumes to the one I'm reading, so that I can refer to them if I want to.

- I've become accustomed to having search at my fingertips, and sometimes when I'm reading a book I wish I had the capability to search it when I want to look back to find something I've read earlier. Also, when I'm reviewing a book, I frequently want to look back to find a particular passage. Yes, I can usually skim through and find what I'm looking for, but an e-book reader with search capability would be useful.

- It would save a lot of trees (and it uses very little power).

I would love to have an e-book reader with an i-ink display, but I haven't seen one yet that meets my expectations. I'm waiting until the technology is a little more mature.

love it or hate it, and i have mixed feelings, it's here and we need to deal with it, and it's probably going to be big


I think books will never go away but we need to deal with amazon and kindle and live with them like some kind of noisy neighbor

Does anyone know how much of each download payment gets back to the publisher? I'm wondering about royalties for this thing.

I thought they'd be nice for vacation in that it would solve my never-ending "which books to pack" issues, but a friend just pointed out that as an electronic device, you can't use it at the beginning and end of your flight! I'd still have bring at least one book for those times!

Can you really not back-light e-ink? Because I was thinking that an optional back-light would be nice. It would ease eye strain during normal use, but then you can use it in the dark.

As far as I know, you can't backlight it because it isn't a screen. You could use a regular book light, though. And there's no eye strain with e-ink because it's not a screen. The resolution is nearly the same as paper, and there's no need for screen refresh, which is what tires out the eye on a regular screen.

As for flights, I don't know about the Kindle, but I believe that the Sony Reader only uses power when "turning a page." So maybe you could load a page before takeoff, and then read veeerrrrrrrrry slooooooooowly, LOL.

Jeanne, I'm guessing that the royalty rate for authors depends on their contracts with their publishers, not with Amazon. I see that authors who self-publish with Kindle (which, if I'm reading correctly, allows anyone to do so for free with anything, possible leading to a nightmare Amazon has not foreseen) get 35%.

Kindle wouldn't solve the problem of carrying large numbers of books around for me, as going from one book to another while holding the same thing and looking at the same typeface doesn't feel like enough of a change. I'd feel like I'd just switched chapters. Amazon and other e-book publishers are assuming that only content makes a difference, not form, but I've never seen this to be true. I don't know about you all but I read a rack-size paperback differently from a trade-size paperback differently from a hardcover differently from an audiobook differently from an e-book. I love 'em all, and I love the variety, but form is definitely part of the experience.

I recently ordered two Sony Readers for my 3rd grade classroom. This was before I knew about the Amazon Kindle (which has WAY more children's lit. titles available than Sony's e-store) The nice thing about Sony's e-reader is that pdf files can be uploaded for free, so all public domain works are instantly in our library in a usable form (think Alice in Wonderland, etc.) I can also upload my own created materials (Alice in Wonderland discussion questions, etc.) and store them for future use.
Obviously this can all be accomplished with paper. My comment is I believe Sony, Amazon and others have a big opportunity in the children's chapterbook-reading set. I believe these will be a big motivator with my students! I am hoping the catalogue of children's e-literature will continue to grow.

Roger, I too "read a rack-size paperback differently from a trade-size paperback ..." Last week I started to reread The Once and Future King in a rack-size paperback, and it felt so wrong that I traded up (pun intended) to a trade-size paperback. It's really a book worthy of being read in a hardcover, so even now I'm a little dissatisfied. Reading about Wart on an e-book would be a travesty.

Although I and all my friends at college are computer savvy and spend hours on-line on our laptops, we all read books. And we all perfer real paper books, likely because of the nightmare known as NetLibrary. Not only that, but we all like the feel and smell of books, being able to turn pages, write on pages, and bookmark our favoriate passages. Alot of us go to used bookstores, and we love finding old books, books with pyschedelic covers from the 70's, books with notes made from previous owners, books with dated forwards about some 'new' devlopment. I love finding old folklore books the were printed before World War II. I once found a Norse mythology book in my university library that was about a hundred years old and everyone I showed it to thought it was the coolest thing ever and wanted to check it out after me. Really its the older adult crowd that loves e-books and e-readers; we Millinals are into retro: vinyl records, thrift shop clothes, farmers market and organic food, flea market objects, and dumpster diving decor (I kid you not, and I found some nice silverware and bowls by a trash can once, thank you very much)are all popular and getting more popular with my generation. We like technology, we like the internet, but old school is the way to go, if its old, if its got cracks, chipped paint, handworn spots, or yellowed paper that crackles when its turned, it is cool and the thing to show-off. Books are completely retro and completely cool and I don't think my generation will fully embrace e-books; I think it becasue the older generations was told 'technology will solve everything' and we hear 'the planet is in peril of _fill-in-the blank_ because of _fill-in-the-blank_ misused technology' news blasted in our ears.
Sorry, I started philosophizing.

I have a Sony Reader, and I love it. Before, I used to read text files on my PDA, but the backlight was just too tiring on my eyes. I adore the Reader's e-Ink technology and I like the sleek design.

But will I give up on paper books? No. Not yet. Eventhough I find the concept of a Reader good for the environment (I wince at the thought of the numerous books being pulped because they couldn't be sold), I know that right now it is not viable because the demand and supply isn't there. Yet. But I hope for a future where kids will bring their textbooks in their ebook readers and commuters will read their papers on them while getting to work...

I'm clearly in the Christmas shopping mode with a husband who loves the Sony Reader but mentioned Kindle because, and I'd love to be sure here, one can listen to music while reading.

Personally, I want the pages, the variety of heft and weight, and no music at all, but this method of reading is but one difference the two of us have.

I'd love some advice here.

You can also listen to music while reading on the Sony Reader as it gives you the ability to upload music. You just have to connect the device via a special USB cable to transfer the files.

I think with the Kindle, you have the option of downloading selected magazines and newspapers free - I'm not very sure - via wireless. But only if you have Sprint.

With the Sony REader, if you're out of the US, at least you have the option to get your own reading materials and transfer to the reader.

And the Reader is US$100 cheaper ... always a plus!

Betty, you can download mp3s onto Kindle via your computer and a usb connection, audiobooks and other documents too, depending on format. Of course, Don could just turn on the radio or stereo or iPod while reading, too. He's a bright boy ;-)

I'm loving Tina Brown's biography of Diana right now on my Palm TX.

Sony was stupid and short-sighted not to include search and highlight capabilities in their eReader. I wonder what moronic group they used to get their input.

You and Richard would have a delicious lunch in a beautiful spot were you to bop on down to Simon Pearce restaurant (and glassblowing and weaving shop) in Quechee, a hop and a skip from Lake Morey.

Thanks! I've just gotten back from a run around Lake Morey--about five miles. Halfway through I thought, hmmm, it's kind of hot; maybe I should turn around. Then I reflected on the fact that my math skills need some work.

If you find yourself in Montpelier, Morse Farm has something called a maple cremee-- soft-serve ice cream made with their own maple syrup.

I clicked on the links to see if any of the award-winning readers could be Angel, the little girl who won the summer reading contest when Roger was librarian at the Pulaski Branch in Chicago. Roger really had her number. Her name was Angel and she had long blonde hair, but Roger always referred to her as "The Bad Seed."

We're just snickering at Mr. Sutton using the word 'stoked.' Our book choices are impeccable - although quite a few of us have the claim to fame of being a Bad Seed... sadly, I'm not Angel, though.

Fo' shizzle Roger, you done good by me and the winners.

The prize value comes from everyone naming your blog as the the one they'd love to take to the prom in the blogger interviews at Seven Impossible Things. I figure today's post is the equivalent of putting a note in our blogger lockers.

The 'stoked' was just to make us giggle.

Stoked:
"a very strong emotion: atingle, excited, fired up, thrilled, worked up. Informal psyched. Slang turned-on." from Answers.com

Describes how I feel about reading, EXACTLY!

And this quote is apt:

"I just decided I'd hang at the back and hope a couple fell so I could nick a bronze. Then I saw them all go down. Maybe I'm not the most deserving guy, but I got the gold and I'm stoked about it."

Steve Bradbury, Australian speed skater, gold medal winner of the 1,000m short-track speed skating in the Winter Olympics,

And this from dear Emily D.:

"Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed;
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need..."

And a question: Do speed readers and skim readers count in marathons like this? I can EASILY haul home 20 books a week from the library...but I do skim and I do speed and of the hours I take no heed....when a competition's run....what's the use if it ain't FUN?!!!

DON'T expect poetry from me either for three minutes worth of fiddling...

Do you like food writing or travel writing?

They're not fat beach reads, but Poppy Z. Brite's mysteries set in the New Orleans restaurant world are fun reads.

(Liquor, Prime, and Soul Kitchen are her NOLA mystery books.)

The two trashiest books I've ever read in my life are also two of the most enjoyable: RIDERS and RIVALS by Jilly Cooper. They're gloriously 1980s English soap operas, with plenty of glitz, betrayal, and sex, and they're fabulous.

If you're a fan of the 1995 Pride & Prejudice mini-series and don't mind a romance, check out Shannon Hale's Austenland. It is the fluffy romp that the reviewers imply, but I thought that was a plus in this case.

2 breezy but worthwhile adult NF:
Cross X by Joe Miller about an inner city HS debate team and their heroic coach and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen about building schools in the remotest areas of Pakistan... And I don't really like NF and I don't really like adults...

I love the Jilly Cooper suggestion and will track her down. A similar-sounding beach read is Olivia Goldsmith's The Bestseller, of particularl interest to publishing people. And I've got Penny Vincenzi's Sheer Abandon waiting in my audible.com wish list.

My favorite New Orleans mystery is J. M. Redman's The Intersection of Law and Desire--funny and lesbodacious but with a deep dark streak.

A New Orleans book I haven't read? How can that be....have to find it.

Before I throw out other titles, I have to know: A Confederacy of Dunces. Loved it? Hated it? I've never found anyone (yet) who had a lukewarm reception to it.

Thank you so much for all of the fabulous lists on your site - the answer to an overly busy children's librarian's prayers, as summer reading descends on me at warp speed!

this is from Ginee Seo, who was having trouble posting (as, I think, am I):

Roger, I'm surprised Bruce didn't turn you on to Lee Child. I ripped through most of his backlist while I was on maternity leave (with the watch-obsessed, gender-predictable kid described in your previous entry). THE HARD WAY was great good fun--and his newest book, which recently received a rave from the NYT, is supposed to be his best yet.

And, Cheryl, your talk of soapy brit novels from the 80s has got my brain stuck on that immortal opening line from Shirley Conran's Lace: "Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

I'm trying to get a copy of Jane Gardham's OLD FILTH. Both George Nicholson and Regina Hayes passionately recommended it to me. And I've already given this to Roger, but one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a long time is Snobs by Julian Fellowes, the screenwriter for Gosford Park.

It's not summer for me unless I reread The Long Secret (already read it in early May) and Pride and Prejudice. It was hard to stave off the reading of P+P when I was laid up with food poisoning, but Mansfield Park and Persuasion did the trick.

Unlike Roger, I've always used summer vacation as the time I can read lengthier books (when I'm working, manuscripts are beckoning). I read two of my all-time favorites, Middlemarch and Bleak House, at Fire Island. This summer I'm going for Daniel Deronda. Roger, how about finishing up David Copperfield?

maybe it's time to go back and reread Josephine Tey?

Hmmm....sorry all, I'm out in left field or is it right field with adult nonfiction right now but can't resist recommending it as "steamy" enough...especially the pig stuff with DeSoto..not for the faint of heart exactly....
"1941" by Charles C Mann...ACTUALLY..it's pretty breezy reading for a history book.

I think of Dickens as winter reading, but Snobs is a great recommendation, and E, I'm sorry I forgot to bring your copy back.

As soon as I heard about Armistead Maupin's new Tales of the City installment, Michael Tolliver Lives, I put the first six volumes in my beach tote, so I'd be all caught up.

Though, with your Julie Brown reference, perhaps you're really looking for recommendations like Chris Klein, or Keanu Reeves...

I read what is perhaps my favorite children's novel, The Long Secret, while having my legs waxed last week. It was wonderfully distracting, and I appreciated the irony--I was supposed to be scoffing at the shallow lifestyle of Beth Ellen's mother (who takes "Beth" to a day of beauty at Elizabeth Arden's) while I was in fact undergoing a beauty treatment only a masochist could love.

And if you haven't read the Long Secret in a while, it's a great book to read or reread during the summer. And something I noticed this time is that I can't think of a more truthful scene of childhood anger in any children's book than Beth Ellen's "tantrum" near the end of the story.

Agreed, Roger. Couldn't live without 'em now.

Audiobooks, my Little Pink iPod, and noise-canceling headphones save my life on airplanes. I am one of those people who cannot read while flying (it's like trying to read in a moving car for me). Paris last year was Half-Blood Prince, Seattle this year was Golden Compass. I expect to do Amber Spyglass on the family trip to Las Vegas in June.

Yes, Roger, we are going to Vegas. I am going to see the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show. And I am turning 60.

audiobook at the dentist, huh? i've had twelve root canals and i don't think i could focus on anything but what the dentist was doing.

Elizabeth, so there with you and the Long Secret. And Roger, make them give you codeine in the large economy size. I've had root canals and labor and all in all, I think I prefer labor. You deserve big treats. Pain is no fun.

On Monday April 23rd Roger wrote a little post about the audio of my book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, wondering how in the world that could work, considering the book is almost half pictures. I just want to say that I wrote a really long answer to his question and it can be found in the comments after the April 23rd post. I'm listed as "anonymous" because I don't post very often and couldn't figure out how to do it at first, but then afterwards I got my name in there. So, if anyone is interested as to why we tried to make an audio of Hugo, the answer is there...

I have the same operation scheduled for this afternoon. Maybe I'll try an audio book next time.I know they help on planes. Nix's Keys to the Kingdom seem especially distracting.

jod, I was thinking wisdom teeth, not root canal when I said worse than labor. Got the two of them confused. Root canal, not fun, but not big deal really

Well Mr. Selznick, now we know why. Because someone might need to listen to the book during a trip to the dentist.

Roger, I'm surprised at your audiobook choice - and I think I like you just a little bit more now. I hate the dentist, and I will try this audiobook thing next time.

Ok, I reread my old paperback copy of Is That You, Miss Blue? during a colonoscopy yesterday. I defy anyone to top that. And the book is already very funny, but with the drugs I was on it was HILARIOUS.

Hope your mouth is feeling better by now!

Mama Squirrel, veteran of two root canals (sans audio distractions)

Gotta go back today :-( But I think this is the painless part.

Oh Jesus, Roger, this is your evil twin speaking above. You don't believe this. You're the guy who goes on and on about "leave them alone." How to make reading a drag for everyone equally 101. How to take all the pleasure of reading out of reading. All you have to do to make something suck is turn it into a course. Now go run around the block a few times and come up with a better idea for a post.

Don't worry, Anon. It won't be on the test.

In many ways the YA lit course I teach to college undergrads is a course in reading. For those who haven't read much since they were kids, the course re-connects them with works that they can read and enjoy in a pretty natural way, while opening up room for discussion of the choices made by writers. Because YA lit is so often experimental in style, I find that the first thing students want to talk about is technique, while in other literature courses I have to insist. It also seems natural and appropriate to talk about the marketing of books and the social contexts in which they are "used" (especially the classroom). I have students do a lot of self-selected reading, so I can see that they are genuinely interested, as readers, in what other students have to say about their books. It's my favorite class to teach, and the only one in which students routinely borrow books to read--during the semester--that are not on the syllabus.

I agree with you and think the vast majority of high school students would be much appreciative. Although there will be a few who bemoan their poor high school educations. I met a woman during my college years who couldn't get over the fact that her high school teacher hadn't forced them to read Huck Finn. I said, "Go read it." Her point might have had something to do with SAT questions.I managed to enter college without taking the SAT, so I don't know for sure.

I would have loved more than anything to take a course in YA lit instead of Shakespeare. Yes, it's good to know him for culture and allusions' sake, but honestly, it's like my college statistics course, "When am I ever going to use this?"

Perhaps when I go on Jeopardy.

And as a sidenote, I've linked to last month's discussion on "the girl who dressed as a boy" in my blog, as part of a discussion on reclaiming the feminine. Just so you're aware, or something.

http://stellawalks.blog.com/1714904/

I wouldn't stick around long enough to find out, Roger. You will find me on my porch swing reading.

I have a better idea. Why don't we get you your own little show called Project Library. THEN will you be happy?

Naw, I hate book TV. I just think that while some of us are instinctive readers (that's shorthand, I know) there are a lot of people who are reading-averse because they've never been given the tools and permission to do it for fun. High school English class doesn't teach you to read for pleasure. And I don't know how successful such a class, however loose-hanging, would be, but I think it would be worth a try. I admit my initial fantasy specifically excluded YA, as I would want the students to feel like they were reading as adults, but maybe that's too doctrinaire of me.

Roger: I'd agree with you, but only if readers could be exempt from such a class. Jut the thought of being in such a class in high school gives me the shivers. Honestly. We did read quite a bit of Shakespeare in high school, though, and I went to a public school in rural CA.

BTW: ALL P.E. courses should focus on "lifelong activities" instead of team sports. Think of all the bullying you could allay if you didn't have that awful line up in which physically challenged children (I was one of them. I have no peripheral vision to speak of) were made fun of and picked last.

Well, if people would get rid of the classification YA and go back to childrens books and all other books, it would be fine with me so I am all for eliminating it from your class. But can you really TEACH anyone to do something for pleasure? You can teach someone to do something. But for pleasure? I think you just love reading and you want everyone else to too which is kind of sweet as long as you don't become like one of those people who want to teach everyone to love Jesus. Because then we will have to take you to the reference room and shoot you.

And Kelly, BTW, if you are expecting sympathy for your views on competitive sports, might I remind you that you are speaking to a critic whose job it is among other things, to make fun of and pick last.

Kelly, I never envisioned the class as anything other than elective. And pass-fail. The trick, I think, would be to get anyone other than readers to sign up for it.

As far as team sports go, why the hell do you think I became a book critic???

And as for reading Shakespeare. He was not meant to be read. He was meant to be performed and seen.

I like the idea of a class that takes students to a book store and shows them around (as someone who works in a bookstore, it's amazing how many people have no idea how to find anything in one and have honestly never bought a book before).

I also like the idea of letting students explore genre fiction. A lot of people have this idea that they hate ALL books in certain genres when in reality, they'd probably really enjoy some if they knew what to look for and were willing to give them a chance. Just because it's in the Sci Fi/Fantasy section or the Mystery section doesn't necessarily mean you'll hate it. Not all non-fiction is bad. It could be a good idea.

And high schoolers might enjoy it a lot more than another class requiring them to read "The Scarlet Letter".

What a great idea! A reading specialist once told me kids are often given only books at or above their reading level, making the act of reading hard work. Kids actually learn to read for pleasure when they are given things that are "too easy" for them.

But you know what? Few schools can afford reading specialists so parents and teachers don't hear things like that. Not to get all political, but email your congress person and tell them to fully fund all the unfunded mandates (ie, No Child Left Behind requirements). Schools can't climb out of the box when they don't have enough money for a ladder.

A hundred years ago when I was in high school we were lucky enough, at least in my opinion, to have "silent, sustained, reading" periods. During that time we were allowed, though some would say required, to read anything we wanted (within reason, naturally). It made a nice break from being force fed literature during five years of honor's english and fed my love of reading for pleasure.

In between Shakespeare, Hawthorne and Crane I was gleefully enjoying Stephen King and other great recreational/popular fiction reads. To this day telling me a book is great literature that I "have" to read is one of the fastest ways to ruin my fun.

m,

I was an elementary classroom teacher for many years. I never once heard a reading specialist suggest that children should read only books at or above their reading level. Children would never become confident readers. They need to experience success in reading. Otherwise, some kids just feel defeated and get discouraged.

Good teachers provide their students with books in a variety of genres at many different reading levels. Sometimes a struggling reader may surprise you when he/she finds a genre or an author that inspires him/her to want to read more.

Regarding the bard: A close friend of mine is an English Language Arts curriculum director in a school system in Massachusetts. She is discouraged that so many prospective high school English teachers she interviews have never had a college course in Shakespeare. How can they be expected to teach about Shakespeare if they've never read any of his works?

I, for one, can say that I had a fabulous English teacher my senior year in high school. She made Shakespeare come alive for me. Kids are inspired by capable educators who have a passion for the subjects they teach.

And besides teaching students that you don't HAVE to finish reading what you start, I'd add this: teach them that it's okay to read more than one thing at a time (well, not exactly at one time, but back and forth).

I remember the joy of discovering this option--I'd read one book in one place and another in a different corner. In fact, I still do this.

Well I'm all for taking highschool kids on field trips to bookstores. I think this is more common in the elementary schools: we used to have 100 field trips a year coming to The Children's Bookstore, mostly for storyhours or What-Is-A-Bookstore? presentations (yes, most kids had never been to a bookstore). A couple of Chicago schools in particular would raise money from foundations (Joyce Foundation and Fry Foundation) and the kids had a $4/child budget when they visited the store (we gave a 10% discount). Our staff-people would help the 30 kids in the class each pick a book that would then go into their classroom library (each child-selector's name would go into the inside front cover showing which child had "donated" the book to the class). Sometimes these grants even enabled the children to keep the books personally, instead of leaving them in the classroom. Chicago Public TV made a documentary called "Teach Me" about the school that was leading the way with these bookstore field trips in Chicago: Washington Irving School. The teachers were allowed by the principal to bring their classes to any bookstore on a list of 15 different stores (chain and independent).

One year the principal, Madeline Miraldi, raised and spent $9,000 in our store alone. Every class in the school visited us several times that year (1992), and so every child in the school ended up personally selecting books several times. We got to know the kids and the teachers; the kids became quite good at choosing books. When I visited the school late that year, I saw that they had lined their HALLWAYS with low bookcases to accomodate all the books the kids had chosen.

I do think that many of these kids felt empowered. I think it would work with highschoolers too.

Andy, Andy, Andy, all these years on the planet earth and this is your idea of human nature, that you can empower a child to read by suggesting to him that it's a good idea and taking him on field trips. If you want children to discover the joys of reading, finish every class with, okay, you can go home now and enjoy yourselves but stay away from the crack and for gods sakes keep your hands off the books.

Anon, Anon, Anon I see you read best when addled by crack.

Yes, the right to read more than one book at a time is a great addtion. My attention span is just too short to be satisfied with one thing to read.

Elaine, I'm responding to your comment about teaching Shakespeare over on that thread.

Moi, merde alors, mon petit, what an idea but I might consider taking it up if I was forced to take field trips again.

Besides, Andy, I really hope you don't think I was suggesting we take crack when we read. No, it was for the CHILDREN.

So you're suggesting that I sell crack as a sideline in my store? Hmm.

I've heard that it has a very high markup and is quite profitable....

You know me: all about the dollar.

I was searching through the course selections at my son's high school (frantic last-minute scheduling crisis) and came across this offering that I thought might warm your heart. Maybe the outside-of-class work involves visiting bookstores:

(158) Popular Lit for Reading Enrichment - (9/10 only) Level II

Year Course Meets two times per week

Credit Value 0.4

This pilot course is designed for students who are interested in exploring popular literature while improving their basic reading skills. Students will read a variety of literary types and practice the skills listed in the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. These skills will include reading independently and critically, improving vocabulary, and practicing analysis and interpretation of literature. Students taking this class will be expected to complete some work outside of class.

I don't think Roger is talking about TEACHING young folks HOW to read; I think he's talking about the possibility of creating a school setting in which young folks can be inspired, nurtured, and encouraged to explore and discover reading for themselves and by themselves and perhaps too with others. It sounds to me that such a project would HAVE to be diguised as a pass/fail class in order to keep the school administrators' and other teachers' and parents' and the rest of the status quo's "teachy" feelings fulfilled, however.

P.S. If my stuff is double-posting, it's becuase of this silly blogger software...ahh!!! It DOES NOT LIKE ME!!!!

And I think taking children on field trips to bookstores is a WONDERFUL IDEA!! Especially if each child is allowed an equal amount of money to spend on the trip on books of his/her choice. Goodness me! They might even see some books that would never be allowed in their school libraries!

It sounds to me that such a project would HAVE to be diguised as a pass/fail class in order to keep the school administrators' and other teachers' and parents' and the rest of the status quo's "teachy" feelings fulfilled, however.

And I think that's what this course description is doing, with the sop to Pennsylvania Academic Standards. And while it isn't Roger's ideal, it's a step toward acknowledging the importance of popular (ie: pleasure) reading.

I like it, Melissa, although I suspect it's an English class by another name, what the "skill-practicing" and "analysis and interpretation." I'd want it to be all about the enjoyment and usefulness. It's also designed for poor readers, whereas in my dream class we would bring the good and not-so-good together. (Maybe I'm still trying to get the bullies to like me ;-)

I think joy is unstructured and unscripted. I remember when the ALA was doing posters encouraing kids to read and getting well-known writers to contribute why they thought children should. Cynthia Rylant said that she didn't think children should be encouraged to read. They should be encouraged to play. To go outside every day and play and play hard to their hearts' content. That she never read any kids' books until she went to college. Up until then she read only comic books. Then she discovered reading. I admired her for saying it and the people making the posters for using it. If you gave a class on how to play what a dreary dismal failure it would be. How great it is to find joy in anything. Like Michaelangelo's Sistine chapel with man reaching fingertip to fingertip with god. Who are we to teach that. Everyone finds it alone.

This is exactly what good elementary school teachers do - teach reading strategies and help students expand their horizons.

This is what good elementary school teachers WANT to do. What Ms Rylant says is that she got to look explore her own horizons with the endless time of childhood first.

YA novels by their very classification imply that these are books you will grow out of. Vonnegut's books were something, if you were lucky, you would grow into.

Roger,

MotherReader has a fine tribute to Vonnegut at her blog, too.

I wondered about this very thing when I read Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist -- which I think would speak powerfully to some teens, and not necessarily those who are YA or library regulars, but which might well also skeeve them out by virtue of its being addressed to them by adults.

"YA novels by their very classification imply that these are books you will grow out of."

I'll have to disagree with Anonymous on this one. I think labels like "Juvenile" and "Middle Grade" and "YA" are meant more as lower boundaries than as close-ended classifications.

A "YA" label mostly tells us what the lowest age is for which the book will have any appeal and/or be understood and/or be appropriate. There is nothing that says older readers can't enjoy it, too.

As for "growing out" of them, I think you're talking to the wrong audience here.

I address this question in an essay that will be in the next Horn Book; the short version is that YA books, as a publishing category, are more closely aligned with children's books than adult because they are "for" an audience defined by its youth, and the institutional guidance of young people by adults is still very much in play in their publication.

Chuck Palahniuk is the new Kurt Vonnegut. IMHO.

As for categorizing, I completely agree. If you put a bunch of books on a table, mixing YA and Adult, teens will just take the ones they want. Labeling is something *we* do and it does deter.

Now if YA collections were filled with what teens really want instead of prelabelled things (the aforementioned Palahniuk, adult bios, anime and manga, including that rated 16+) they would actually serve our teens better, but adults would have heart attacks. So we know that teens age out of our YA collections in their early teens and go to adults, yet continue to have them. (Manga has done more to bring them back then anything I've seen.)

Well, I will say this again. I think that classifiying books as YA has more to say about how we view this age than the books. I think it's fair to make a distinction between children and adults but to make such a one between adults and young adults debases them and I think its cynical in the extreme to create a separate classification of books for them. It's this society's infantilization of this age.

Vonnegut on virtuality (appropriate perhaps to a post-mortem discussion): “‘Mr. Trout,’ I said from the unlighted interior of the car, ‘you have nothing to fear. I bring you tidings of great joy.’ He was slow to get his breath back, so he wasn’t much of a conversationalist at first. ‘Are—are you—from the—the Arts Festival?’ he said. His eyes rolled and rolled. ‘I am from the Everything Festival,’ I replied. ‘The what?’ he said….‘Mr. Trout,’ I said, ‘I am a novelist, and I created you for use in my books.’ ‘Pardon me?’ he said. ‘I’m your Creator,’ I said. ‘You’re in the middle of a book right now—close to the end of it actually.’ ‘Um,’ he said….‘I am approaching my fifti-eth birthday, Mr. Trout,’ I said. ‘I am cleansing and renewing myself for the very different sorts of years to come. Under similar spiritual conditions, Count Tolstoi freed his serfs. Thomas Jefferson freed his slaves. I am going to set at liberty all the literary characters who have served me so loyally during my writing career.’”—Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions (New York: Delacorte, 1973): 298, 299, 301.

"Who is speaking that way to teens today?"

Orson Scott Card.

George R. R. Martin.

Stephen King (still).

J.K. Rowling. (Even with her popularity I think she still counts as a cult writer for teens of the sort Vonnegut was for my group. The kids I was teaching in 4th when the first book came out are now high school seniors.)

Here's another --- Terry Pratchett.

I not only read one word at a time, I walk one step at a time and you don't even want to know how I put my pants on.

I think it'd be akin to learning to read as a child. So when you get a sentence that's more than four or five words long, you can be so focused on the words that you can't truly follow the story, sort of a case of not seeing forests for the trees.

forbid!

Heaven

I suppose if you can get the rate right it would be no different from watching a movie, in which you see only one frame at a time but your brain puts them together. I'm having trouble, uh, visualizing it, though. I wonder how I could find a site that offered a demonstration.

Unlike Anonymouse, I don't read a word at a time on the page. I scan, skip, notice words and paragraph formations that show up when I turn the page, and sort of loop down through a paragraph while I'm reading through it linearly. In my head it looks like a knitting diagram.

Whew! Somebody scans and skips like me; I thought I was the only one....although, alas, it never ends up looking like a knitting pattern for me...more like a huge, very jumbled messsy warehouse...in which I sometimes can't find what I read or even was looking for...probably it's best that I do have a private reading room...

I thought the phone thing would work very well as a poetry exercise though...

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I'd be willing to bet that the one. word. at. a. time. mode. scrolls even more slowly than a 300-baud modem. Back in the '80s, that's what CompuServe ran at. I could read faster than the messages scrolled across the screen of my 40-column, 7-line Radio Shack Model 100.

I can't wait to see what shape Susan's famous gingerbread cookies will take! Something clever (and delicious), I'm sure. :)

I always Read Roger, and occasionally, like today, a post so excites me that I have to write almost as much in reply.

Reviewing a book one loves is absolutely the most difficult thing. You need to find the right words for the transcendence of the story that changed your life, made you weep and smile, aroused your senses, and do it in a way that doesn't make your editor think you are addled.

Rarely, I get to sit down with a book I am not reading for review, or for teaching, or because my beloved recommended it to me. It is Just. Reading. I need to do that to remind me that voluptuous pleasure is why I review stuff.

I used to be able to listen to music while I read, or while I wrote. No longer, unless it is the most background of background music, perhaps Paul O'Dette on the lute. But you are the only person I know besides TheInfomancer who listens to Gavin Bryars.

Bruce Brooks is the only other person I knew who listened to Bryars, so now there are three.

I really can't write at all with music in the background, and can be at my most crotchety when someone in the office has some music going at her desk.

isn't this practice doing injustice to the music? treating it like backround noise in a movie?

The music doesn't know if I'm listening or not. It's not like I might hurt its feelings.

Canadian? HAHAHAHAHA. R., you are nothing if not transparent. But it was a great blog entry because it was such a great admittance of you. I love the music and reading part. It's very sweet. You go, not girl.

obviously the question wasn't whether you were hurting the music's little feelings - just that one could infer that you didn't value the music,

Myabe you could ask my stalker, above, how much I value music. Or you could ask my piano, which, unlike my cd player, does silently judge me every time I walk past it.

Roger - I do the SAME thing. Turn on the music, leave the house. Come home to a happy sound...What does your psychologist friend say about this?

Aw, everybody....go get a good book and a soft spot to sprawl...and take a listen to Anonymous 4's latest...although 'tis difficult to tell admist their many which could possibly be most superior...

DON'T know about Anonymous 4? Tcha, tcha, tcha...don't deprive yourself any longer....talk about sensory overload...