Reading

12 Ways to Increase Your Reading Pleasure

Lynette M Burrows

You are a reader. Whether you read stories or novels, on paper or on an electronic device, you get pleasure out of reading. But I’ll bet there’s at least one thing you can do to improve your experience. Consider these 12 ways to increase your reading pleasure and let me know if you try one. The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. Le Guin 1. Decide What to Read What do you want to achieve? Learn something? Be entertained? Be frightened silly? Be encouraged by a hero? Read what you like. Unless it’s a school assignment or a skill-learning attempt, don’t waste time reading what you don’t like. Also read books for your reading level or a bit higher. Don’t know what your reading level is? Go to the library (or an online store like Amazon, Kobo, or B&N for those of us self-quarantining), and look at the first pages of a book that interests you. Your reading level should be a bit uncomfortable (in order to stretch yourself) but not so difficult that you put the book […]

Bring in the New Year with Great First Lines

Lynette M Burrows

It’s the first Friday of the brand new year. Let’s bring in the New Year with great reads. For this First Lines Friday, I’m sharing recently released books. New books for a new year. Would you buy or read any of these? I’m standing at the water’s edge when the phone call comes, sand to my ankles, sinking deeper with each advance of the waves breaking on the beach. Branches by Adam Peter Johnson Fronson felt alive. The adrenaline had yet to subside. Anomaly One: Book One of the Singer of Days by Rick Krusky The figure of the man came from the impossible. The Quickening of Water: Book One of the Singer of Days by J. Andrew Evans Olivia drops down to one knee and waits in the shadows at the end of the street. Inside Outside by Sharlie M. Riverton Jessica13 dreamed of adventure outside the bunker. Origins: Bulletfoot Origins Book One by Marshal Rust They didn’t think Flynne’s brother had PTSD, but that sometimes the haptics glitched him. The Peripheral Book one of The Jackpot Trilogy by William Gibson She burst through the trees, cradling the creature in her arms. Jinxed by Amy McCulloch Sevastyan Amurov paced back and […]

Read Great Books, Watch Great Films

Lynette M Burrows

Read great books, watch great films. If the book has been made into a film, which do you do first? Do you read a book first or watch the movie? It’s an old question that pops up on the internet over and over. Does it matter? I believe it does, but my answer isn’t one or the other. Do both. Read first or watch first is purely an individual choice. My choice depends on the book or the movie. Read the Book We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind.. Anna Quindlen Reading a great book is an experience unlike any other. The author’s words fill your head with sounds and pictures and people. But it’s not just the author’s words that paint those things. Your experiences, your world, inform how you interpret the words. A book is usually a longer experience than a movie. You experience it in private, unless you are reading aloud to someone. Even then, it’s your life and your dreams coloring how you read the story. Which is why the movie disappoints you. I’m always frustrated when somebody makes a movie out of a […]