Teaser Tuesday: An American Map

"I sense that when I am reading [aloud] or being read to, if it is done with skill, the energy shifts and flits between the reader and the read to, and evolves into something just short of reading each other's minds.  Do a group of people all listening to the same story -- a story that has taken them not to spirituality like a prayer might, but to the internal realm of imagination where all of us, through language, enter another world -- create a unity there, in that place, that we find in no other communal experience?"

-- From "Finding (My) America" in An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen. 

In this essay, Oomen describes her thoughts and experiences while on a mini-book tour to small public libraries in rural Michigan. It is my favorite essay in the collection because it is about books, reading, and the community between authors and readers. 


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

It is a short Mailbox Monday list this week, because only one book came into my house:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks



I was a little bored by March (my review is here), although Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for it, so I was reluctant to read this one.  But I've now read several reviews and I've been converted -- it sounds great.

It will count as one of my Bibliopholic Books.

A Mini-Smackdown: Modern Library v. Radcliffe

Finishing the books on the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century inspired me, in a round about way, to start Rose City Reader.  I was so jazzed by finishing the list that I started adopting other Must Read lists.  The Radcliffe Publishing Course's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century immediately caught my eye because it is the declared rival of the Modern Library list.

The Radcliffe list is nagging at me right now. I have only 14 or so books to finish before I have completed the list -- a tantalizingly achievable goal. Having recently finished Where Angels Fear to Tread (reviewed here), I am one step closer.

There is a tremendous amount of overlap between the two lists. If I had to chose which list really represented the "best" 100 novels of the 2th Century, I would pick the Modern Library list for a couple of reasons. First, I think the Radcliffe list leans in general to books that are more popular (Gone with the Wind, for example, which also won the Pulitzer, so I'm not knocking it, but still), while the Modern Library list includes books that are more literary. For example, the Modern Library list includes An American Tragedy, which I thought was heavy going, but it was a groundbreaking work so I agree that it should be on the list.

Second, but along the same lines, the Radcliffe list includes a number of children's books. They are good children's books, but I would have chosen only from books for adults.

Finally, while I understand that the Modern Library list is often criticized for not having "enough" books by women, I think the Radcliffe list overcompensates. I really don't think the list needs three books by Tony Morrison or even three by Virginia Wolf, especially at the expense of some of my favorites from the Modern Library list like A Dance to the Music of Time and The Alexandria Quartet.

I'm open to persuasion. Other thoughts?

If anyone is working on wither list, please let me know. I love to read blogs about these lists. And if you would like to be listed on either of my list posts, please leave a comment here or on my list posts with appropriate links and I will add them.

Pro-Choice

Becky at Page Turners recently let me answer several blog-related questions when I made it to the Winners Circle on her followers contest.

One of these questions was particularly interesting to me, because I wonder what makes people chose the books they read -- on a general level, but even more so, on a particular level. What makes you pick up the next book?

I never thought about how odd my own book-choosing system might seem, until I put it into words. Here is how I answered Becky's questions, "How do you chose your books?"

I am a compulsive "list" reader. Books make it onto my TBR shelf because they made it on to someone's list of books that should be read. So on a "macro" level, I chose books because they are on one of my lists.

On a "micro" level, I have an idiosyncratic method that makes me look like a nut: My TBR books are arranged alphabetically on the shelves. When I am ready for a new book, I choose one from the first shelf. The next time, I chose one from the next shelf, and so on through the shelves. My rule is that I can choose any book on the designated shelf, but I have to choose from that shelf. So if I am in the mood for a prize winner, I can chose a prize winner -- or a mystery, a book by a favorite author, a book I’ve been meaning to read but keep putting off. Whatever the mood is, I chose a book to fit that mood -- but only from the one shelf.

How would you answer? Please let me know in a comment, or leave a link to an answer you post on your own blog.

New Weekly Event -- Book Beginnings on Fridays

Becky at Page Turners has started a new weekly event she calls Book Beginnings on Fridays.  I am kind of tickled because she gave me credit for inspiring her with my "Opening Sentence of the Day" posts.

Here is her explanation:

This is a new meme that I have decided to start entitled Book Beginnings on Friday. I hope that you all join in.

At this stage I do not have a button for this meme, being someone that is very technologically challenged. If there is anyone out there that wants to participate in this meme and has the skills to make a button, I would really appreciate it :-)

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. 

Please visit Page Turners to participate. And maybe help her come up with a cool button. I started off her Mr. Linky list with the opening sentence from An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen.