It’s been a busy week at BookGirl’s home, what with family in town, so luckily Star Girl comes to the rescue. Star Girl, is one of my bookish friends.

Star Girl Reports -
BookGirl and I met at a book club in the early 1990s. Although I now live about 600 miles from her, we are still maintaining our friendship via emails, long phone chats and snail mail.

I enjoy reading mostly international (non-US) fiction and essays. But, when I watch TV or movies, I tend toward science fiction and fantasy. My favorites are Star Trek (all), Star Wars (all), StarGate SG1 (can’t wait for the Atlantis spin-off to start). Now you know where I got my web name.

On a previous entry, BookGirl wrote about the lack of reading that is taking place in the United States, and she isn’t the only talking about it. Andrei Codrescu, author and NPR commentator, is lamenting this fact in a local newspaper column.

It must be discouraging to be a published author and know that every year, the readership is decreasing (to death and lack of reading) and that some younger people are not even opening books that one spends so much time writing and preparing for publication.

One book Crodescu mentions in the column is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Where hunting through personal libraries and burning books is the norm.

I suppose that Bradbury and other futuristic authors thought that the governments would control our lives to this extent and that we would lose freedoms, such as reading. However, I don’t think that any of the authors counted on inventions, such as portable computer games, DVD/VCR movies, the Internet, advanced mobile telephone functions, mpg players, and other marvels of the 21st Century to keep us distracted.

I also believe that they did not expect cultural influences. The best example is the anxiety that many families in the United States have about preparing their children for “life” by overbooking their days with a myriad of activities, most of them seeming to be about athletics.

It seems that children barely have time to sleep, do homework and eat as they are carted off from one activity to the next. These children don’t have any unscheduled time, therefore they really don’t have time to read and use their imaginations.

If you are a reader, don’t despair. Continue learning and reading. Studies are showing that people with active minds have fewer mental and health problems as they age. Most importantly, encourage your loved ones and families to read. Start small; a comic book or a magazine dealing with the person’s hobby or interest is a good start.

Little by Little, they will join our Side…

I am sure every bookworm can relate to the “just one more chapter” syndrome. This is present when the reader insists on staying up way past their bedtime to get in another chapter, and results in a zombie-like appearance/behavior the next day. On a positive note there is a definite sense of self-satisfaction of finishing the book or at least getting closer to the end.

This week I’ve been in one of those “I can make it through another chapter” kind of moods. And, each night I’ve gone to bed later and later, while each morning I groan more and make promises of going to bed early if only I can make it through the day. Today was the worst. I was sleepy, running late, and couldn’t decide what to wear. So I had the great idea of stopping off for a café mocha before going into the office.

I went to a nearby Starbucks to get a fix. I still don’t know what happened but as I was trying to get in my car, I ended up with most of the café mocha on my lap and on my BRAND new car! You know what’s worse? I was too sleepy to even come up with a good expletive. Where was my pocket-sized thesaurus when I needed it most?

Now I was going to be really late because of course I had to go home and change – did I mention I took me forever to figure out what to wear the first time? I picked up some towels at home and tried to clean up the sticky, sodden mess of the driver’s seat but I knew no amount of blotting would get that clean.

So my lunch hour, which is usually reserved for reading or getting together with friends, was spent at the car wash. Thirty dollars later they worked wonders and my seat is now clean again.

As I drove out of the parking lot I promised that I wouldn’t be driving with cups of coffee in my car ever again. That is until the next time I stay up late getting in that extra chapter and have to make a stop for some caffeine. Hmmm…. maybe I should check out the frequent car wash program instead.

I read quite a lot of mysteries, these often being my comfort books, but the one thing I am quite picky about is, that if it’s a series I’m reading then I have to start from the beginning. I want to see the character development, and I want to be “in” on everything that’s happened with the main sleuth.

Recently I discovered the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series by Deborah Crombie. Kincaid is a Scotland Yard Superintendent and Gemma James is a sergeant. The books are perhaps more cozy than other typical police procedurals but they are very readable and enjoyable.

So the other day I was at a book group and I was talking with one of the members about the first Duncan/Kincaid mystery when we were interrupted by another member wanting to know if that was the one where “such and such had happened”. I won’t say exactly what she said in case anyone is reading these books, but basically she gave away a major plot point from the eighth or ninth book in the series. I was only up to the fourth in the series.

Granted, what she revealed wasn’t a total surprise, as I sort of expected a development along those lines, but I didn’t want to know in which book it happens. I wanted to still be at least mildly surprised.

I’ve picked up the fifth book and somehow I’m struggling with it because I’m thinking I could very well skip all of this as I already know what’s going to happen. I was really enjoying these books and now I feel like there’s nothing left to expect. This is one of the reasons why I don’t read the book reviews on Amazon.com as inevitably someone always gives away the ending.

With this in mind, I can promise you that I will never give away an ending, major plot point or some super surprise, unless you email me and want to know. Otherwise I’ll only give you a brief summary of the book and tell you why I did/didn’t like it. I don’t want to ruin any surprise for you.