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Let’s Get Loud*

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January 13, 2019
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A few months ago, I wrote a review for the true crime novel Born to Lose (check it out here), but what I didn’t mention was that I read the entire novel out loud. All four hundred pages of it.

And I don’t mean I read it out loud to myself. I had an audience (of one)—my mother.

She was with me when I picked the book up from the library. Since she loves true crime even more than I do, and it was a book neither of us had previously heard of, I read the summary on the back of the book to her. It apparently was enough to pique her interest because when I opened the book to start reading it—silently, to myself, as one would do normally—she said, “You can read it out loud if you want.”

We read the first five chapters that day.

By the time you’ve read five chapters out loud, you’ve committed.

After that first day, we read about twenty pages per day (I was on a time table to finish it by my Battle of the Books tournament). Sometimes while my mom was cooking or crocheting; sometimes while we just sat in the living room together, doing nothing but reading and listening. The last book my mom and I had read out loud together was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while I was still in elementary school, but we enjoyed reading Born to Lose together so much, we did it again, a few months later. (That time with Killers of the Flower Moon, another true crime novel I highly recommend.)

The days of reading aloud seem to disappear as we get older, which makes sense—we become confident individual readers; we develop varied interests. It’s also a consequence of the reality of adult life. Our schedules are busier, harder to coordinate; we have more responsibilities. It’s harder to carve out time to read at all.

But if you can swing it, it’s worth making it happen. Reading a book out loud with another person is another way to share a story—every plot twist, every reveal, every reaction—that doesn’t involve a screen. It’s your monthly book club, in real time. It’s different than listening to a podcast and less polished than listening to an audiobook. (Laughing at butchered mispronunciations is half the fun.) It takes a solitary activity and turns it into an experience you share. It makes you the storyteller.

As the weather gets colder and we head into the dreary dead of winter, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a good book, but you don’t have to do it alone. Grab your roommate, your best friend, your partner, your parents or your kids, and dive right in.

*If this song is now stuck in your head, I’m not sorry.

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Your New Year’s Reading Resolution

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December 30, 2018
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I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. They’ve always felt like goals that set us up for failure rather than success. That run away from us and get way too ambitious. Admirable, but not practical.

But last year, I made one anyway, a New Year’s resolution to read a certain number of books by the end of 2018.

With one day left on the calendar, I’m not going to make it. By more than one book. More than a couple of books. I realized this over a month ago, that given how slowly I read and how busy the end of the year always is (no matter how much I try to get done ahead of time) that there was no way I was going to reach my goal.

I’ve talked before on this blog about how reading should be fun and absolutely NOT a chore, and I know—the idea of setting a goal to read x number of books in y amount of time sounds completely antithesis to that. I mean, doesn’t it take the joy out of reading to make it something you can fail at?

But here’s the thing about a reading goal: Even if you don’t read the number of books you set out to, you’ll still have read however many books you did read. My goal wasn’t there to stress me out, it was there to keep me reading. It encouraged me to pick up a book instead of turning on the TV or scrolling through social media. And with that goal in mind, I probably read more in the last year than I would have otherwise.

I’m not saying we should only set goals we know we can achieve or that we should avoid challenging ourselves just so we don’t fail, but too often, New Year’s resolutions can become twisted ways to be mean to ourselves, to pick apart all the things we don’t like and set about trying to fix them, all in one swoop.

This year, do yourself a kindness. Set a reading goal. You deserve something that will be good for you, no matter what the outcome.

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You Can Leave That Book Behind

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August 9, 2018
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Consider this the permission you’ve been waiting for: You can stop reading that book you hate.

Maybe you’ve been reading it the last few weeks—or months—but you’re having trouble finishing it because every time you pick it up it puts you to sleep after three paragraphs. Maybe the writing is too dense—or too simple. Maybe you find the main character obnoxious or the point of view is all wrong. Maybe it’s not a genre that interests you.

Maybe you just don’t like it.

At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters. The “why” is irrelevant. You don’t like it. Stop reading it.

And I get it. It can be hard enough admitting that we don’t like a book, let alone putting it down and walking away. Could be a leftover habit from high school, when we didn’t really get a say in what we read or whether we liked it, when we had to finish books. (Although, let’s be honest, anyone who says they never took advantage of SparkNotes or CliffsNotes is obviously lying.) Could be that we feel guilty for not liking it, for so clearly not enjoying someone’s work that we don’t even want to finish it. But we don’t seem to have the same problem turning off a movie or changing the channel to a different TV show.

So what is it about books?

For one thing, books require more of a time commitment than a two-hour movie or a 45-minute TV show, so there’s the mentality that if we don’t finish a book, all the time we already spent reading it was wasted. (The solution to this one, though, is actually a no-brainer. If you already feel like you’re wasting time, don’t waste any more.) And because books are more of a commitment, our reluctance to step away from them could be as easy to explain as the age-old adage: Nobody likes a quitter.

But here’s the thing—books shouldn’t be a commitment. Outside of reading for work or for school, reading shouldn’t be an accomplishment or a task or a chore. It sounds lame and cliché, but reading should be fun.

Should your opinion really change and you find yourself regretting the decision to move on from a book, you can always go back to it. But until then, leave books unfinished—guilt free—and read whatever the hell you want. Whatever genre, whatever style, whatever author you like, so long as it’s just that: something you like.

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Get Ready to Battle

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June 1, 2018
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Growing up with a librarian for a mom means attending 90 percent of the library programming for your age group (not that I’m complaining). Growing up with a best friend whose mom is also a librarian means spending a lot of time at those programs together.

So when that friend becomes a librarian herself and finds out the main city library is hosting one of your favorite programs from when you were kids but for adults, she signs you up without even asking.

Which is how, last summer, I came to participate in the first ever adult Battle of the Books in my area.

Not familiar with Battle of the Books? Take your basic bar trivia night and add a reading list.

Teams of 3-5 sign up to read a list of 6-10 books, then meet a few months later for the main event. The battle is usually three themed rounds—people, places, and events—during which you’re asked multiple questions about each of the books. The team with the most points at the end of all three rounds—and usually a bonus round—wins.

(Pro tip: No one is ever able to read the whole list and keep all of the books straight, so don’t even try. How you split up the books is up to you, but it’s a smart move to double up on readers for each of the titles.)

My team competed in another battle this spring, and we’re getting ready to sign up for a third in a couple of weeks. Between the two tournaments, I was responsible for reading five books I wouldn’t have otherwise read—two on my to-read list I had never gotten around to, and three I never would have picked up on my own. I’ve made three new friends (aside from my BFF, I didn’t know the other members of my team before we became teammates) and even taken home a third-place prize. (Humble brag.)

It’s not really about the points or the prizes, of course, so much as it’s about reading new books and—as corny as it sounds—having fun. It’s another way to interact with books that’s different from your average book club.

If you’re looking to challenge yourself to read more this summer—or you just can’t decide what to read—check out your local library and see what they have to offer.

After all, we may be done with grade school and book reports, but we’re never too old for summer reading.

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Books Were Made to Be Broken

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May 21, 2018
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When I was younger, I worried a lot about keeping my books in pristine condition. No bent spines, no wrinkled pages, no folded corners, and no torn dust jackets. I wanted my books to look nice, as if how nice they looked was a direct reflection of how well I took care of them, and in turn, how much I cared about them.

The first book I properly trashed as an adult was my hardcover copy of The Hunger Games. I bought it for myself on a weekend shopping trip a few weeks into my freshman year of college. It was a story I could read over and over again without losing interest, which is how I ended up carrying it in my backpack every day for the entire fall semester a year later. Because you know what couldn’t hold my interest? Anthropology. The Hunger Games was my cure for perpetual narcolepsy during the six hours I spent in two anthropology classes each week—in a class of thirty students in a lecture hall with seats for a hundred, there’s nowhere you can fall sleep where the professor won’t see you.

A semester spent at the bottom of my backpack wasn’t enough to ruin it, but it took the shine off. Scuffed the edges, dirtied the pages, ripped the jacket. And I was upset about it. This book I loved—that helped me survive the consequences of my misguided thinking that anthropology was the major for me—and I wrecked it.

I ended up carting that copy of The Hunger Games to and from school all four years of undergrad. And somewhere along the way, I stopped lamenting its sorry state. It wasn’t a wreck; it was a reminder. Not of a crappy semester when I took a couple of classes I hated, but of a semester when that book went everywhere with me. Because it saved me.

Use isn’t destruction. It’s a memory: The greasy sunblock stains in my copy of Persuasion a testament to the week I spent reading it at the beach; the chocolate smudge in my copy of The Fault in Our Stars evidence of the days I spent reading it on my lunch break. The broken binding in my favorite Eloisa James novel proof of the number of times my sister and I traded it back and forth to reread it.

My books hold a lot of value, but they aren’t valuables. They aren’t precious because they look pretty on a shelf and wearing them out doesn’t mean that I don’t love them.

It just means that I do.

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Movie Novelizations: A Rogue Obsession

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May 4, 2018
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A few weeks back, Jess covered the page-to-screen adaptations that don’t get enough credit—the ones that measure up to the source material and the ones that exceed it—but there’s another kind of adaptation that doesn’t receive much fanfare: movie novelizations.

I myself had never even read one until this winter, when I picked up my copy of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed, in honor of the movie’s one-year anniversary.

I’ve been a lifelong Star Wars fan, raised by parents who saw A New Hope in theaters half a dozen times, but I’d never dived into the wealth of Star Wars material that existed alongside the original three—then six, now eight—episodic films.

Until now.

Who’s to say why we become obsessed with the things we do? How to explain why certain things take hold of us and others don’t, why the attachment runs so deep? Maybe there is no explanation. Maybe it’s just a feeling. Maybe the wand chooses the wizard. Maybe you’re born with it; maybe it’s Maybelline.

Any way you slice it, my Rogue One obsession? Very real.

So I did what any sane (if you can be considered sane while more than mildly obsessed) person would do: I went looking for more content. Official Spotify playlists, fanart (gasp!), fanfiction (double gasp!), and last but not least, its novel companion.

Reading the book version of the movie was, in many ways, exactly what I expected. I knew the entire plot, after all, when I started reading: the characters, the worlds, the circumstances, the consequences. I also knew there would be differences—scenes described in greater detail than I saw on screen; new ones added to give the reader more background, more context.

But the best part—and what I didn’t see coming, although I should have, because too often it’s exactly what gets sacrificed first when adapting in the opposite direction—was the depth of the characterization, caring and empathetic portrayals of each of the characters that matched the movie but improved upon it. Strengthened it. Their pasts, their emotions, their interactions and relationships with each other all richer and more meaningful. And because of that, the stakes even higher.

Rogue One—maybe more than any other Star Wars movie; don’t hate me—is a true ensemble film, so maybe it was particularly well suited for novelization, for following the different points of view of characters I already loved and loved even more by the time I finished reading.

I can’t speak to all movie novelizations, obviously, having read just the one, but this one might have been enough to convince me to try others. The interest has to be there, of course; I don’t think I’ll ever feel inclined to read hundreds of pages of a story I only feel lukewarm about. But the next time the credits roll and you find yourself wanting more, my advice? Look to the shelves.

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Sometimes, the Movie Is Good, Too

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March 16, 2018
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It’s an age-old debate: is it better to read the book first or see the movie?

I’ll save the debating. Read the damn book first. Always.

Personally, I don’t adhere to this rule, even though I aspire to. This is because I’m both pregnant and raising a toddler, so I weigh it like this: do I have time to watch a 120-minute movie or read a 400-page book first? Well. We know how this one ends. That said, I do hold sacred the “Read Before Viewing” rule, so let’s just pretend I’ve always read everything first, deal?

Since I’ve shut down the debate on which to do first, let’s talk about the debatable: are books always better than their movie adaptations? Can movies improve upon sub-par books? Are there great books that truly become great movies?

In my opinion, books aren’t always better than their movie adaptations. Some movies definitely improve on some not-so-good books. And there are absolutely great books that become great movies.

Trying to pick my favorite book-to-movie adaptations of all time is overwhelming, so what I’ll do for you is give you 3 of my favorites (yes, there are a lot more awesome ones out there!). They’re books I’ve turned to over and over, and they’re movies I never get tired of watching. That’s pretty much my standout criteria.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Wild, 2014 starring Reese Witherspoon

I’m putting this one up first because it’s probably my most controversial. Even Natalie has blogged about how she felt the book was overrated. But for some reason, this story speaks to my soul. Strayed’s writing is poetic and honest, and I underlined and highlighted so much of it that it may as well be yellow through. Sometimes books just hit you because of your time and space in the world, and maybe that was it for me.

I’ve seen the movie maybe once every 2 months since it came out. I’m surprised by how often I revisit it. Reese Witherspoon is tough and vulnerable in her portrayal of Strayed, and director Jean-Marc Vallée’s vision is perfection. The wilderness is beautiful, the pain very real, and its universality touching.

Emma by Jane Austen and Clueless, 1995 starring Alicia Silverstone

I won’t get into it with you about my love of Jane Austen. Just know that when I studied abroad, I visited her hometown, the house she grew up in, and her gravesite, because it’s that serious. Austen isn’t for everyone, I get it, but I love her stories and I love Emma.

I might have gone with the Gwyneth Paltrow adaptation on this one, but it just isn’t as amazing (or timeless!) as Clueless. Many write this one off as a chick flick, or dismiss it as another cheesy 90s movie, but come on. It’s amazing. This movie manages to take a story from the 1800s, update it, and make it relevant still some 20+ years later after its debut. The cast is funny and silly, but completely sincere. And Paul Rudd is stunningly handsome. I’ll end there.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, 2010 starring Daniel Radcliffe

What is there to say about Harry Potter that hasn’t been said? The storytelling is above all else; the writing is timeless; the world and its characters are rich and compelling. It’s engrossing. It’s unforgettable. I love it, okay? I’ll stop convincing you now.

Let’s just get this out of the way: the movies as a set are uneven and inconsistent. There are some changes that aren’t so great and others that had to be made for the sake of time and format. Accepting these things as reality allows for some of the missteps (ahem…Goblet of Fire…ahem). But Part 1 of Deathly Hallows? Gorgeous and haunting. The mood, the scenes, the acting: it’s perfect. I’ve re-watched that particular movie in the series over and over again. It’s that well done.

There you have it: three of my favorite book-to-movie adaptations! Next post, I’ll tell you about my picks for crappy books that became better movies.

What are your favorite book-to-movie adaptations? Do you go for classics like To Kill a Mockingbird? Or do you allow for a Clueless in your list?

 

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Exploring the World of Self-Help Books

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February 22, 2018
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Truth be told, even though I’m a librarian and read pretty widely, I haven’t really ever truly explored the world of self-help books. To me, they always seemed a little hokey, and also, who are these people that write these books? I mean, really. Lately, though, I’ve spent time gleaning tidbits from a few of the self-helpers, and though I haven’t become an evangelist of any one person or methodology, I’ve taken something away from each that makes the books worth mentioning.

My journey down this rabbit hole began when two friends invited me to join their self-care book club. As a mom, this concept meant something to me, so I decided to participate. Our first book was Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. I’m sure you’ve heard of Brown before. She’s given some pretty internet-famous TED talks, has written a slew of books, and has some sound advice to share. I dig her. What’s most interesting about this book is Brown’s ability to frame her advice so warmly and with acceptance. This book is for: people who struggle with perfectionism and people pleasing.

 

I may be betraying a bit too much of my own personal struggles with this next one, but hell, if I learned anything from Brown’s book it’s that being honest and vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness. In Food: The Good Girl’s Drug: How to Stop Using Food to Control Your Feelings, Sunny Sea Gold talks openly about the complexities of food issues that range on a scale from an unhealthy relationship with food to a full-blown eating disorder. Gold focuses mainly on binge eating disorder which has received a lot less media attention than either anorexia or bulimia and yet affects millions. This book is for: anyone who believes they’re using food to cope or who has body image issues. Bonus points for tangible suggestions for change and for posing thoughtful questions meant to encourage journaling and reflection.

 

Natalie gave me this one, and I’m so glad she did! It’s The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don’t Have with People You Don’t Like Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do by Sarah Knight. I’m sure you’re familiar with Marie Kondo’s tidying up book, and Knight’s take is a parody of that one. We’re talking mental clutter in this book instead of physical clutter, and Knight’s love of the word “fuck” is pretty perfect (and pretty Grammatical-Art-aligned). This book is for: anyone who has no fucks left to give and wants to laugh out loud while reading about how to be okay with giving zero fucks.

 

The books I’m exploring next: Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristen Neff, The Food Therapist: Break Bad Habits, Eat with Intention, and Indulge Without Worry by Shira Lenchewski, and You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero. Ever read any good self-help books? Do tell!

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Life’s Too Short to Read a Bad Book and Other Advice for Reading with Kids

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February 13, 2018
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It’s no secret that at Grammatical Art, we’re huge book lovers. Look no further than our “I Heart Books” totes, tees, and prints for evidence. Our book-obsessed leader Natalie has blogged about her massive reading list from 2017 (read her posts here, here, and here for some awesome recommendations), and she has lofty goals for 2018.

As a former (and still passionate) children’s librarian, I’m an advocate for putting books in the hands of kids. The thing is, not just any old book will do, and that’s a misunderstanding that a lot of people have about little kids and reading. I’m not implying that the only acceptable literature for children has a gold seal on it; award-winners are great, but not necessarily for everyone. So I’ve put together some guiding principles for choosing books for the children in your lives.

Here goes:

  • Make reading fun and loving. Try not to ever force a child to sit down and read, especially one under the age of five. Choose snuggly moments and good moods to introduce books rather than mid-tantrum (I’m exaggerating, but you get my point). If they resist you, try another book or try another time. It’s totally okay.
  • Follow the child’s lead. Are they currently mermaid obsessed? In an all-dinosaurs-all-the-time phase? Find books that relate to their interests, and they’ll be more inclined to enjoy them. The same is true of adults, right?
  • Try to flip through a book yourself first before you hand it to a kid (or read reviews of it online if it’s lengthy). This has absolutely nothing to do with censorship (another post for another time) and everything to do with making sure the reading level and material is on par with the child. The artwork might be too scary, the book too wordy, or the content way over the child’s head. You get to be the gatekeeper as the adult. After all, don’t we do this for ourselves when making book selections?
  • It’s perfectly acceptable to start a book and not finish it. It’s also perfectly acceptable for your child to be more interested in holding and playing with the book than reading it, or in the case of older children, flipping through to look at specific pictures or read only certain passages. For kids (especially little ones) the majority of their experiences are new. They’re getting to know what a book is and how it works. All of this is building literacy and it has nothing to do with reading a book cover to cover. Embrace the play!
  • Graphic novels, comic books, ebooks, and audiobooks all count as real books (yes! really!), and they absolutely enhance and develop literacy skills just as “traditional” books do. I can send you research if you’re curious, but I just want to say it once and for all. Adults: they all count. Now let’s move on.
  • Model reading for children. Kids want to be like the important grown-ups in their lives. They want to do things just like you (it’s true!). If they see you reading and enjoying books, they’re more inclined to want to read, too.
  • My cardinal rule for every person in the world: LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO READ A BAD BOOK. You, too, grown-ups! If a kid is disinterested in the book, who cares? Chances are they may come around later (hours, days, weeks, months, years, whenever!), but if they never do, who cares? There’s always another book. Let go of your completion attitude, and let the book go. Forcing children to read something (in a non-school setting, of course), that they hate is only going to make them hate reading and books. Let the book go. Life is just too short. Some books just aren’t that interesting, aren’t that well-written, aren’t that colorful, or aren’t right for some odd reason, and that’s perfectly okay.

We’d love to know what your favorite books were as children. Maybe they’re still your favorites today? How do you go about choosing books for the children in your life or for yourself? Are you guilty of having a completion attitude about books?

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An Ode to the Public Library

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September 15, 2017
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In my life before my son and Grammatical Art, I was a career public librarian. I’m probably not who you imagine a librarian to be since I got into libraries when I was 23 and not gray-haired. I was lucky to appreciate libraries, having grown up with a librarian mom, but it wasn’t something that it seemed like my peers gave much thought to beyond needing their college library for research.

I’m here to tell you that in my (pretty biased) opinion, public libraries are amazing. There is so much good there, and pretty much 99.9% of it is available to you for free. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you can read Wil Wheaton’s post about libraries here or Neil Gaiman’s lecture on their awesomeness.

Here are a few of the reasons public libraries are so great:

  • Free wifi.
  • Quiet working spaces (just throwing some shade at your fav coffee shop).
  • Free materials to borrow (you’re not still in 1984, so you know you can borrow TV and movies on DVD and blu-ray, right? Also video games, toys, and some even lend tools!).
  • Free e-books for your Kindle or favorite digital reading device. The best part is: no fines or fees! The book automatically disappears from your device when it’s due. You can even check out a Kindle if you don’t own one at most libraries.
  • Classes galore: yoga, computer programming, small business info, gardening, line dancing, movie nights, storytimes, sleepovers, gaming, foreign language, maker workshops, and on and on and on.
  • Meeting spaces for community gatherings, non-profits, workshops, you name it.
  • Free help! Librarians are paid to help you with everything and anything you need. They’re available in the building, by phone, even online through email and chat.
  • Books for days, y’all. Books for days.

These things are all phenomenal, of course, but they are really all pieces of a whole. The most wonderful thing about libraries is that they are community spaces free of politics, religion, and judgment. They provide access for all and to all. Your right to freedom of information is a founding principle of our country and one that libraries and librarians fiercely, devotedly, doggedly protect, even in the face of the PATRIOT Act and as privacy becomes more vague and elusive.

At Grammatical Art, we love our books and we love our libraries. Show your library pride with our awesome tees, totes, and prints!