Weekly Geeks: In the Beginning

For this Weekly Geek installment, I'm asking you to think back to the moment when you realized "I am a reader!" The moment you felt that desire to read everything! The moment you knew you were different than most of those around you and that this reading thing was for real.

- Tell us what book you were reading when that moment occurred.

I've had the realization that I was a "reader" a few times in  my life - I mean, when I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school for Italian Literature, and devote my entire life to literature, I think that was a pretty good moment. But the pivotal moment in my life, when I started reading avidly, happened much earlier. You could argue it was in elementary schoool, but that's a little difficult to define. In high school, in the middle of my World Literature Junior English class, when we read Night by Elie Wiesel, I knew that something was starting to fall into place. He was the first person who, after reading the book, I was inspired to see him in person (I even took my English teacher), and I've continued to be somewhat preoccupied with the specific challenges of Holocaust Literature to this day.  However, during my Senior Year, I started really reading things that weren't just assigned. The first book in this series was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. 

- Review the book. (You can even re-read it if you'd like and actually have time.)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an entertaining, honest and insightful coming-of-age novel about a teen boy, Charlie, who is neither the complete outcast nor the most popular boy in school.  He lives a relatively typical high school lifestyle, but he also has a friend who recently committed suicide, adding to his struggles.  He survives his first year through the help of his two friends, Samantha and Patrick, and manages to make it through the year.  

I honestly don't remember too much else about the book, but I remember that I loved it and that it really made me want to read more and more.

- If you can't pin it down to one book, what other books define this moment in your life?

There was a whole string of books that I read during this time period, but I can't recall the names of most of them. I remember House of the Spirits, The Fuck-Up, A Regular Guy, Confederacy of Dunces, and Night (which I read again and again).  

- What is it about those books that caused you to feel this way?

The thing that I loved about the books was that I started to feel a connection to reading - the characters, their stories, and the effect that they could have on people. I think that it was here that I started to understand why reading is so important to history - even though none of the books I was reading were the books that would change History, they were the kinds of books that were important to personal histories.  

Weekly Geeks: Authors We Love

This week's Weekly Geek is all about authors: 

Tell your readers what is it about "an" author that you are most passionate about, that have you coming back for more from them, following their every blog post – literally blackmailing people to read their books? 

Who are some of your all time favourite authors? 

And what is it about them that makes you keep going back for more?

Diana Gabaldon is a writer who has never let me down. Outlander was one of the books that got me excited about reading sagas - I've always been a reader but until I was in college I shied away from those books that were super long. I don't even mind waiting the two or three years between installments in the series, because since the books never disappoint I am always really excited to read them again.  Ken Follett is another epic writer, and Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are two of my all-time favorite books; I have given Pillars of the Earth as a gift many times, to men and women with the same level of enthusiasm.  I could read Pillars time and again, and it's always a book that I love to return to when I'm in a lull. I've recently discovered Frank Delaney, who is a remarkable storyteller. His characters feel alive, like I could reach out and hug them. When I finish his books, I immediately want to open them again, because they are just beautifully crafted and I'm not done with the characters.

Of course, I'm a grad student, which means that I read for a living (or whatever you want to call it), and my relationship with some authors is a bit different. I'm always intrigued by Italo Svevo, one of the quintessential Modernists in Italy, and I think that I could read La coscienza di Zeno (Zeno's Conscience) again and again - I have, in fact, read it many times for different classes and exams, and I always find something new and interesting to do with it. I always walk away with something from these neurotic, self-conscious protagonists. Working on my minor, I really and truly read James Joyce for the first time - I'd read him before but without understanding or appreciating much. He does things with literature that are so special and different, there aren't even words to describe what he did for literature; Ulysses really is at the top of the list of all-time books for a reason. 

So now I'm done with classes and I'm working on my dissertation. It's a difficult thing, deciding on who - or what - you want to work for the next few years (and to what you might possibly dedicate a significant part of your life's research). And I don't take that decision lightly, so I'm writing on Primo Levi and Italo Calvino. They were my first favorite Italian authors, and after four years of intense studying, I came back to the same two writers. Italo Calvino's Cavaliere inesistente (Nonexistent Knight) was the first book that I read in Italian, during my first Italian literature class in Italy - it was a major accomplishment for me, reading the short, fantastical story of a suit of armor that doesn't have a knight inside.  Calvino's narrator is almost always aware of his or her own role in the story being told, and he plays with the reader in unexpected ways. Primo Levi's "Canto of Ulysses," one of the chapters in Se questo è un uomo (Survival in Auscwitz) is beautifully written, and really highlights the power of books and language, especially for Levi.  I've read the works of these authors more than any others. I must admit, it's not just because I'm writing about them - they're just brilliant, poignant, beautiful and heartbreaking; not all of these things at once, but all of these things at different times and for different reasons. 

I'm afraid my answer might have been a bit too long. But, hey, that's what I do.

Weekly Geeks: Romancing the Tome

In honor of Valentine's Day, Weekly Geeks offered all sorts of prompts regarding romantic literature (not romance novels, necessarily, but novels that have some romance in them).  So, I decided to think about my favorite literary couple.

Of course, Reader and Reader are an interesting couple in Calvino's If on Winter's Night A Traveler, even though their relationship is not my favorite. And I was listening to an episode of To The Best Of Our Knowledge a while back and they were discussing the potentially negative impact of the Bella-Edward relationship in Twilight, showing young girls that it's okay and actually desirable to have a boyfriend who sneaks into your room and watches you sleep, who is overly protective and warns you not to get into any trouble (and won't let you be friends with someone just because they are eternally enemies - ugh). So, while I think that their relationship makes for good reading, their relationship seems a little co-dependent to be my favorite.

I really like Scarlett and Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, because they're such a classic couple; and Henry and Clare in The Time Traveler's Wife, because their story is so heartbreaking but they really, truly love each other. 

But, my FAVORITE literary couple is, by far, Claire and Jamie Fraser of the Outlander series.  They are both individuals; they are independent, and they love each other completely and honestly. Their love is just beautifully written by Diana Gabaldon, and they are absolutely believable as a couple (and as individuals).  I don't think I could've continued reading all of the books if it weren't for Jamie and Claire. They both get time to develop as characters, and then they have time to develop as a couple as well. 

Weekly Geeks: Winter Reading

For this week's Weekly Geeks, share with us the books which call out to you during the cold, wintry months. Are there genres which appeal to you most? Why do you think you are drawn to these types of books during winter? Do you have some book recommendations for other readers who are looking for some escape from the blustery weather? Give us some of your favorites and tell us why you recommend them.

As "extra credit" why not share some photos of what the weather looks like outside your home...or where you curl up to read when 'the weather outside is frightening.'

As a rule, I always end up reading more during the winter months, something that made perfect sense when my winters looked like this:

 

(that's my husband last winter - on a very balmy day in the teens)

Now we live in California and our winters are not so wintery - when it rains, it pours, but for the most part it's sunny and in the 60's, so it's quite pleasant and I'm not stuck inside by virtue of the weather. However, I also have a dissertation proposal to write, and I'm researching from home most days, so I've been doing a lot of reading, both academic and for pleasure. Because reading for fun when I'm supposed to be reading for school still keeps me on the same track, which is good.  

Thinking back on what I've read over the years during winters, I noticed that I tend to read series (mostly intended for YA or children) of books: a few years ago I spent a week reading all the Harry Potter books, and I just read the entire Percy Jackson series in a week as well. 

I tend to go for books that are either very light, or else I am attracted to mysteries.  I'm currently reading the Stieg Larsson books (I read Girl With a Dragon Tattoo in two days), and I read the Tana French books earlier this winter - though I preferred The Likeness to In The Woods.

Part of the reason that I read YA series in winter, and I read them so quickly, is that I usually have a very limited amount of time to read for pleasure before the semester gets back into full swing. However, since I'm not taking classes for the first time in my life, so I've been reading a lot more - and these tend to be the books that have been out for a while and I've been meaning to read, or the books that I received for Christmas.