Melissa Howard's Blog
Posted by Melissa Howard
Do you find that while you love books, you don’t read as many as you want? Do you lack motivation, time, or interest? Would you like to be able to say with perfect honesty, ‘I am a bookworm?’
1.) Just Do It. Reading is something you have to do. No one else can read a book for you. Read when you eat breakfast and lunch. Read in the bathroom. Read in the bathtub. Read when waiting for your children at the schoolyard. Take your kids to the playground and read while they play. Read on the bus. Read whenever you have nothing else to do.
2.) Always Carry a Book. This suggestion fits with the first suggestion. If you have a book with you and you find yourself waiting, you can pull it out and start reading it. If you don’t have the book with you, you aren’t going to read it.
3.) Keep a List. Use one of the fabulous on-line services such as Goodreads or LibraryThing to help you keep track of the books you have read and to create a list of books that interest you.
4.) Read Books You Like. While it is a noble aspiration to read classics, if they bore you, you will stop reading. Read books you like about things that interest you. If you like reading, you won’t stop. If you don’t like a book, stop and find a book you like to read. Don’t keep reading a book you don’t like.
5.) Go to the Library. Books at the library are a no risk proposition. If you aren’t paying for the book you are reading you aren’t emotionally invested in it. If you don’t like it, return it.
Posted by Melissa Howard
Do you ever wonder if there are people in this world who actually go by some of the names found in books? Loganberry Books has a page called Named for the Book. It is a fun page to browse and who knows maybe it will inspire you to give your child a literary name.
Among the more interesting names there is Arwen after the elvish princess in Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. Another woman is named Faline from a deer in Bambi. Another girl child bears the name Imajica from Clive Barker’s novel by the same title. There is another girl whose name is Trillian after a character in Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There is a boy named Pescato after the cat in Lloyd Alexander’s book The Town Cat and Other Tales One woman is from a family of four girls and their names are Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy. Her mother was a Louisa May Alcott fan. And my personal favorite Phronsie after the youngest of the Five Little Peppers from the series written by Margaret Sydney.
Posted by Melissa Howard
VoS or Voice of the Shuttle is a unique and very useful website for anyone interested in the humanities. Their page devoted to American Literature is worth exploring if you have even a slight interest in American Literature at a deeper level than simply reading a good story.
The American Literature page contains links to sites concerned with American Memory to those devoted to individual American Authors to sites that relate to American Literature Syllabi and Conferences.
So what does the allusion Voice of the Shuttle refer to? It is a reference to the myth of Tereus and Philomela and the page devoted to the allusion is a fun exploration in and of itself.
Posted by Melissa Howard
Have you ever read a classic and finished and thought that it seemed a bit out of sync with the style of novel or book you generally read? Chances are the reason it seems off is not only because it was written in a different time in history but also because the literary style of the time focused on a different aspect of writing than we are familiar with today. If you are interested in finding out the literary and cultural context of a book that you’ve recently read, take a look at Washington State University’s American Literary Movements page. Browsing through it you will discover that James Fenimore Cooper author of The Last of the Mohicans wrote in a style known as Sentimentalism, that Captivity Narratives were made popular by Cotton Mather and that Stephen Crane wrote in a style known as Naturalism.
Posted by Melissa Howard
Do you ever find yourself wanting to read a classic but for whatever reason you never seem to get around to buying it or borrowing it from the library? Perhaps downloading an e-text would be the solution for you. There are many places to find classic and out of copyright texts on the Internet. The following three are among the best.
Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg’s mission statement is “To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.” Started in 1971, Project Gutenberg is now the largest collection of free electronic books in the world.
Bartleby.com: Bartleby describes itself as “The preeminent Internet publisher of literature, reference, and verse providing students, researchers, and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information on the web, free of charge.”
The Online Books Page: The Online Books Page describes itself as a “website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all.”
