Get Lost in Literature

Book Beginnings on Fridays  by  Rose City Reader  -  Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "The darkness bled into itself- no beginning, no end." Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gilig So I've only just started this book but I love that first line of the story sets up for a gothic tone. Now I have to find out if that tone can be maintained. Book Blogger Hop Q : Is there a book you've been meaning to read forever but haven’t gotten to yet? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer) A : Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory by Lenny Shulman . I sometimes add books that I plan on reading right away to my Currently-Reading shelf on GoodReads... and I think I put it on that shelf two years ago which isn't quite forever, but long enough considering I own it. Am I currently reading it? No, I am not. And I can't j...

If you can't tell by reading it, 'zeitgeist' is a word that has origins in Germany. It's the idea that ideas of a specific time are influenced by the mood, cultural, and social beliefs of that time. Zeitgeist is why and how artists and writers do what they do. Edgar Allan Poe for example, was notorious for writing stories where people were buried alive. A popular fear at the time? Being buried alive. He didn't invent this fear and put it in the peoples' minds. It was something he took from people and implanted into his short stories to make them both more engaging and more horrifying.  Now me? I'm afraid of spiders so being buried alive isn't half as bad as the idea that I'll wake up in bed some night with a spider crawling up my leg or over my face or in my ear... That's probably enough about me. More obvious examples of a zeitgeist include George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm . George Orwell who saw the start and end of both world wars, wro...

I don't know, I think using the word 'your' might be cheating a little, but I had trouble coming up with a word for Y. So today I want to discuss genres. If you are unfamiliar with the word 'genre' it's a way of grouping works of literature, movies, music, and art together by subject or type. I feel like my reading habits are eclectic. I try read from multiple genres a year, but I do tend to gravitate toward Speculative Fiction more often than not. Speculative fiction is a genre, but it's also an umbrella term to cover the sub-genres of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror . I'd say I read fantasy the most, science fiction second, and horror the least of the three. It's odd to think of fantasy, sci-fi and horror as sub-genres, because all three have sub-genres of their own that I don't intend to detail because that could go on for a long time. There's also Non-Fiction which, like Speculative Fiction , can cover many mini subjects like Hist...

Xenophobia is the fear of that which is foreign or strange, usually against people but can be a culture or a place. It might sound weird to include a phobia of foreigners to a A-Z theme that is all about bookish discussions, but believe it or not, it is a popular plot device.  Xenophobia is why Halflings ( The Lord of the Rings ) don't leave the Shire and don't like unexpected guests, making a character like Frodo a standout. The many races of Middle Earth held ill-will toward each other and they needed to overcome prejudices to fight for their freedoms. Xenophobia is why everyone in the Stillness ( The Fifth Season ) hates Orogenes, forcing protagonists Essun, Damaya, and Syenite into their 'me against the world' roles. The bigotry that surrounds them like a suffocating blanket is what makes them such complex, even if lonely, characters. They're strong-willed, they're angry, and they are on a mission. In Black Woods Blue Sky , recluse Arthur is universally dis...

  In my last post, we discussed books as a vacation from reality, so today I want to talk about what makes it so easy to step from one location to another: worldbuilding.  Worldbuilding is exactly what it sounds like: using literature to design an imaginary world. A good book should have the ability to take you somewhere, but a good author makes sure that's a place worth going. Worldbuilding is a more obvious concept when it comes to fantasy and science fiction, but it should be present across all genres. Worldbuilding is a setting: mountains, deserts, or vast oceans, skyscrapers or quaint villages. But it's more than that. Is it simply enough to say someone is in a room, or do you want to know what the room looks like that that someone is in? It's the old adage of " show, don't tell. " Worldbuilding is culture. How do the characters interact socially with others, with economy, with the government? Is there religion, is there art? The more culture a character ...

We've all been there. We've all had a bad day or a moment at work or after a family squabble where we've thought, "Gosh darn it, I need a vacation." And wouldn't it be nice to just get up and go whenever the mood suited you? Some people do. For many people, reading is a form of escapism. When you open that book and start reading those pages you can be transported somewhere new and exciting. Even if you don't have time to sit down and binge a whole book, for whatever time you are reading you get to escape your reality. When I was a kid, I spent an extraordinary amount of time at Redwall Abbey, Hogwarts, and in the frigid Yukon with Buck. But as I grew older, the places I visited became more varied. I've visited Middle Earth, Cape Horn, the Stillness, San Francisco, Daevabad, and Chernobyl. I've met Prince Harry, Leah Remini, Addie LaRue, Malala, famed vampire hunter Abraham Lincoln, and Bella Swan. It's easy to get lost in the pages of a good bo...