Authors

I’m not much of a reader. Well, I like to read, I enjoy reading… I have an English degree… but I’m still not much of a reader. Maybe that just means that I’m not good at it.

I think my problem is that I’m a slow reader. I read and re-read things; I’m afraid I’m going to miss something. This is much more of an issue if I really respect the author. If I appreciate the writer’s style, their wording, their thought process, I’m afraid I’ll miss something. I’m the same way with music. If I’m listening to an artist, producer, or player I’m particularly impressed with, I’ll listen (and re-listen) very, very closely to make sure I don’t miss anything. And so when I’m reading — even when it’s just whoever — I generally take a long time to get through it.

But enough about the details of my own reading process. I wanted to start a general thread about reading, books, authors, magazines, columns, comic books, etc. Anything you enjoy reading. For a site with a lot of text, we don’t talk about reading much…

And speaking of the Bookmobile… I have fond memories of our local Bookmobile. I don’t know if we were genuinely excited about reading, if it was some infatuation with a specialty vehicle, or if we just wanted to get out of school for a while, but we loved seeing that book-toting bus pull into port (pun?).

And on a related note, the Simpson’s idea of a Book-Burning Mobile is hilarious on a couple levels. Obviously the thought of a van/bus that drives around collecting racy books to burn is funny, but the idea of a flaming, gas-powered vehicle full of old paper is really amusing.

So there you have it. A half-hearted effort to get some book talk started. Actually I just had a couple comments to post but no place to put them…

Okay, I’m not completely convinced that you all realize the importance of next month’s release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you haven’t read the book, I’d encourage you all to do so & then see the movie on December 9. Trust me, you’ll have *no problem* reading the book by then; it’s a children’s book, really. But don’t let that stop you. C.S. Lewis is the man in so many rights (but not as in, “me & my people have been beat down by The Man for too many years…”), and the Narnia series is no exception, regardless of who the audience *appears* to be. I say it that way b/c the work is very much a Christian allegory, so while it’s a series of children’s books, it’s also very interesting and moving from a religious perspective. But I’m sure you’ve heard about all of that…

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Sure, they tried to muscle us and prevent us from becoming a country, but there’s a lot of awesome stuff we’ve gotten from those fog-breathers in Britain. This is kinda gonna be a bizarre list, in that it’ll pretty much encompass everything, but I was thinking earlier about all the different things we love that come from, or originated in, merry old England. Please don’t be gay & say stuff like the English language & whatnot… I’m talking about things like fish & chips, The Beatles, etc. I will also accept examples of fun British words, like wanker.

So come on you wankers, give me a nice list of cool stuff things from the Brits.