All by Myself

In some ways, reading is an inherently anti-social activity. While parents and children may read together before the child can read on his or her own, most readers read in solitude. Perhaps there are other people in the room, but the experience of reading the words on the page happens between the reader and the book.

With the drastic increase in social media over the last few years, however, reading has become an increasingly social activity. Websites like Shelfari and Good Reads allow voracious readers to share reviews, chat with fellow fans and discuss all things literary. A recent article in the New York Times by Motoko Rich explored the idea of the private reader versus the public one.

As Rich suggests in her article, the explosion of social media has allowed readers from across the world come together. Book clubs are more popular than ever and book fan sites abound. But, at the same time, some readers feel intimately attached to a book. The story, the characters and their experience of reading it all “belong” to them in a way that makes the act of reading a private matter. 2010 Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead offers her own feelings: “As a kid, a book was a very private world. I didn’t like talking about books with other people very much because it almost felt like I didn’t want other people to be in that world with me.”

So where, exactly, does that leave readers?

The social aspect of reading has its benefits. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool used to sell books and fan-written reviews can help reclaim readers reclaim a sense of populism from the critics. And yet reading remains a personal endeavor. Literature can be so very subjective and different books will mean different things to different people. Just because readers have the means to discuss books in a public place doesn’t mean they necessarily want to.

I’m torn myself. On the one hand, I love dissecting plotlines (especially from books filled with rich depths), arguing playfully about the author’s intent and sharing my love of books with my friends. One of the reasons I majored in English in college was the opportunity to engage in such discussions. On the other hand, I can completely understand Ms. Stead’s feelings. So much of my own reading occurs in solitude and I love feeling as if I’m getting lost in the literary world, that the events are taking place for me alone.

As technology and media continue to evolve, it will be interesting to see how those changes affect the experience of reading. Maybe, one day, e-readers will allow us to upload real-time comments and impressions so that someone in Boston and someone in Hong Kong can chat and read at the same time.

Until then, though, I’m going to continue to closely guard my favorite books, characters and worlds. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just for me.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

Book News Round-Up

Happy February, bookworms! Time is flying by. The Super Bowl is this weekend, but since the Patriots (home team, represent!) are nowhere to be found in Miami, I'll be watching the final episode of the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Emma. While you laugh at me for being a Jane Austen-loving dork, enjoy this week's book news:

• This just in: technology is not a threat to reading. Or so says National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (god, what a mouthful) Katherine Paterson. In an opinion essay for the NY Daily News, Paterson writes that she thinks that reading won’t die simply because of new technological advances. She makes her argument by citing the historical and cultural importance of storytelling, saying that people will always want stories, even as society advances. I’m inclined to agree. How we read might change, but our desire for true stories – and not just 140 character bites – will outlast the fleeting fame of the latest gizmo or gadget.
• Now that the first annual book blogger convention is a reality, it just keeps getting better. The organizers behind the event have partnered with Book Expo America (also known as my idea of nirvana) to allow for more book bloggers to participate. And since BEA is like catnip for book bloggers, there will certainly be plenty to blog about.
• Speaking of book conventions, fairs and the like, the nonprofit organization in charge of the Boston Book Festival announced the 2nd Annual BBF date just this week: Saturday, October 16, 2010. Though chances are good that I’ll end up working at the event again, I’ll still keep my fingers crossed that I get to actually attend some of the panels this year. And it would be nice if it didn’t rain again. Books and rain do not go together.
• “This is obviously a misguided Flanimal Rights Group or an organized gang of 8 year olds.” That was Ricky Gervais’ reaction when he found out that thousands of copies of his new children’s pop-up book went missing from a warehouse. Considering Gervais was involved, many thought the news was initially a clever marketing joke, but it was, in fact, true. Someone out there either really loves or really hates Flanimals.
  
• Coincidence, or reclusive author conspiracy? Just after well-known recluse J.D. Salinger passed away, another hermit-like author and cartoonist, Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) broke his 20 year silence. Watterson responded to an email interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is reportedly his first interview since 1989. Though my overactive imagination would like to assign some greater meaning to the timing of both events, there’s a pretty good chance I have no idea what I’m talking about.
• Oscar nominations were announced this week and, once again, nominees included those stories and characters from previously written material. The newly expanded best picture race included four films based on books and novels, while the adapted screenplay category included Nick Hornby’s screenplay for An Education, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s adaptation of Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air and Geoffrey Fletcher’s take on Push by Sapphire, made for the silver screen as Precious. The Oscars will be announced in March.
• Ashamed of your Kindle or brand-new iPad? Long Live Books has a new cover that will let you hide your shame. What looks like a old-school hard cover book on the outside is actually a Kindle or iPad sleeve on the inside. Now you can maintain your secret love for technology while maintaining for old-fashioned book-loving street cred.
  

Friends Forever

I have a number of friends, all of whom are dear to me, but there are three in particular that I’ve known longer than the others and that I would consider my best friends. The four of us went to high school together – all-girls Catholic high school, no less. We survived the plaid skirts, the nuns and the no-boys. Even more impressively, we managed to stay friends throughout the craziness that accompanied the following years: college, first jobs, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, illness, disagreements, marriages and honest-to-god adulthood.

There’s something magical about the bond between female friends, one that has enticed writers for years. Everyone from Judy Blume (As Long as We’re Together, Summer Sisters) and Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club) to Ann Brashares (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Rebecca Wells (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) have explored the unexplained depths found in the friendships between women.

And so it is with J. Courtney Sullivan and her debut novel, Commencement. Sullivan’s story revolves around four very different friends: April, Bree, Celia and Sally. They meet as first-year students at Smith College, a long-standing bastion of women-only colleges. Initially brought together by the random assignment of rooms, these women quickly become each other’s lifeline during an emotional and ever-changing time in their lives. When they gather for Sally’s wedding four years after graduation, things shift and change in a way that affects all of them in ways they don’t yet know.

Commencement has received mostly positive reviews, which intrigued me enough to read the book. Sullivan’s book is not perfect – in some ways, it is very obviously a first novel and it seems to be striving for some height that it just doesn’t reach. That said, however, I loved Sullivan’s characters and the way she drew me into the story.

April, Bree, Celia and Sally were so vivid and real – I could easily imagine them as people I’ve met and known. They are each given the chance to narrate their own histories, to tell their stories and reflect on the others. The plot does seem a bit slow at times, but when you stop rushing towards story and take the time to savor the people who are taking this journey, you are, as a reader, rewarded.

It was easy to relate to these women, perhaps because I’m not much older than they are. I saw a bit of myself in each of them and oftentimes, I found myself reflecting on my own post-collegiate years. As I read about their mistakes and triumphs, I recalled my own; when I looked back to see the winding and twisted path their lives had taken over the course of the novel, I saw my own proverbial yellow brick road and I saw myself, stumbling around until I finally got to where I thought I was supposed to be.

J. Courtney Sullivan’s Commencement is a well-written and finely detailed exploration into the strange, complicated and fulfilling world of four friends, brought together by chance, but united by choice.

[Photo Credit: Random House Library]

Tales from a Bookshop

The most curious things happen in bookstores. Just this evening, I went to my local branch of a bookstore chain to spend a gift card that had been burning a hole in my pocket since Christmas - and really, the fact that it took me five weeks to use it does say something about my sense of restraint - but I digress.

I was waiting at the information desk for help when I happened to overhear another customer's conversation with the bookstore employee. She - the customer - wanted to know the author of Olive Kitteridge and while the employee stumbled a bit (she thought "Olive Kitteridge" was the name of the author, not the book), it was on the tip of my tongue to shout out "Elizabeth Strout!"

But I didn't. Though I can't reliably speak to the employee's intelligence, I had faith that she would eventually figure it out. And I've worked in bookstores before, so I know that it can be stressful during the busy times. But I guess you can take the girl out of the bookstore, but you can't take the bookstore out of the girl.

Book News Round-Up

Welcome to another weekend and another book news round-up, bookworms. There's an arctic cold front here in Boston, so I'm snuggled up warm inside.

• We all know about movie trailers, the 1 to 2 minute sneak peeks we get during television commercials or before the main attraction. But what about book trailers? With YouTube giving any fan a place to display their creativity, book trailers are becoming more and more prevalent. But Salon magazine thinks book trailers are silly - books, by nature, leave the visual part to the imagination and trailers take some of that away. Still, with more and more cross-over between media, I think book trailers are here to stay, even if they are silly.
• And while we're speaking of the digital effect on publishing, research suggests that avid readers want both e-books and print material. Many readers use their Kindles or e-readers to supplement their print book habits. While this research is still new, it may be proof that publishing is not, in fact, dead.
• Amazon.com is now accepting submissions for its Breakthrough Novel contest. Amazon is partnering with Penguin Group USA and Create Space to host the contest for the third year. This year, the award will go to one book for general fiction and one book for young adult fiction. The winners receive a publishing contract with Penguin and a cash prize. More details can be found on Amazon's website.
• Over at Omnivoracious, Heidi looks back at the 2000's as the YA decade. According to her, no other genre grew as rapidly and expanded as quickly as the YA genre during the last ten years. She offers her opinions about the YA authors who made the biggest impact and led to the rise of many others.
• The National Book Critics Circle announced their nominees for their book awards, given out to books published in 2009. The NBCC's have six categories and four National Book Award finalists showed up on their list as well. One familiar name to LND readers is the nomination of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall. The NBCC's are one-third of the American book award trifecta and winners will be named in March.
  
• Of course, the big news this week was the unveiling of Apple's iPad, a new, touch-screen computer that's something like a cross between an iPhone and a netbook. Among the iPad's applications is an e-reader, as Apple no doubt hopes to gain some ground against Amazon's Kindle. But with the iPad's prices starting around $500, it might be awhile before it makes a dent in Amazon's monopoly on the e-reader business.
• Lastly, a moment of silence for noted liberal historian Howard Zinn. A professor emeritus at my alma mater, Boston University, Zinn was best known for his book, The People's History of the United States, a history book that focused on the overlooked events and populations in this nation's past. In his lifetime, he wrote more than 20 books and was an outspoken supporter of liberal, progressive causes.
  

The Hermit

Reclusive author J.D. Salinger passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Before his self-imposed exile (partly because he did not like the fame that accompanied his literary success), Salinger was considered one of the most important post-World War II American authors. His collected works include with incredibly popular and influential novel, The Catcher in the Rye, for which he is still best known.

Salinger’s critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Nine Stories, helped shape later writers such as Philip Roth and John Updike and were noted for their sharp social observations and untraditional story structure and language.

Salinger was known as much for his mysteriousness and closely guarded privacy as he was for his books. He was notorious for avoiding interaction with the press and he didn’t publish again after the mid 1960’s. For more complete overview of Salinger’s life and work, check out the obituary from the New York Times.

And for those who care, below is a collection of some of my favorite Salinger quotes:

• “He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.”
• “I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”
• “I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”
• “It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”
• “If I were God, I certainly wouldn't want people to love me sentimentally. It's too unreliable.”

[Photo Credit: Wikipedia]

Well-Meaning and Clueless

On Sunday, PBS and Masterpiece Theater Classic premiered the most recent Jane Austen adaptation, this time of Austen’s fourth published novel, Emma. This represents the fourth time Emma has been made into a television mini-series or movie – fifth if you count Clueless as a legitimate adaptation.

Emma is, by Austen’s own admittance, not always the favorite. Before writing the novel, Austen wrote: “I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like.” Unlike other Austen heroines (such as Lizzie Bennett, Anne Elliot and the Dashwood sisters), Emma has no financial concerns – she doesn’t need to marry well to ensure security; rather, she is wealthy in her own right and thus her cares seems more trivial and silly than the others’.

The reader’s (or, in this case, viewer’s) sympathy doesn’t extend as far because we have less reasons to root for her. That Emma is also spoiled and somewhat vain doesn’t help her cause. And while she is certainly well-meaning, she lacks the foresight and awareness of how her actions affect those around her. Still, while Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility may have more outspoken fans, Emma is considered by some to be Austen’s masterpiece, due to the depth and detail in her characterizations and commentaries on the social world of Highbury.

This new television mini-series adaptation is the latest in a series of “reboots” by the BBC and PBS. In 2007 (2008 in the United States), the BBC and Masterpiece Theater/PBS debuted new versions of Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey (leaving out Emma, and, of course, Pride & Prejudice, the producers no doubt thinking that 13 various television series and films was enough). As to why Emma was re-adapted now and not then, I can only guess.

As, perhaps, a sign of the times, Masterpiece PBS and several prominent Austen bloggers (including Austenprose and Jane Austen's World) hosted a Twitter party during the East Coast viewing of the mini-series. Fans could tweet their reactions while Masterpiece and the Janeite bloggers provided behind-the-scenes info and Austen and Emma trivia. Austenprose also offered an Austen-inspired quiz, with winners receiving the Jane Austen action figure (which, alas, I did not win and I still do not have, despite my not-so-subtle hints at Christmas time).

The mini-series will continue this Sunday (January 31st) and will conclude on Sunday, February 7th.

[Photo Credit: PBS.org]