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Between the Lines - And Still No Time for Reading...
By Lee Ann Alexander
May 2, 2005

Tax time, summer sports gearing up, end of the semester wrap-up, fiscal year ending at work, vacation planning, organizing the summer youth trip, and on and on the list goes on. With April drawing to a close and summer hot on its heels, it’s safe to say you probably still have lots of activities contending for your precious reading time. Given that and your overwhelming response to last month’s column (thank you!), this month’s column is largely an addendum to the “no time to read” crisis. In sharing your stories, you provided some really great ideas for maintaining a literate lifestyle that I think are worth sharing with everyone.

A Librarian’s Loan of Advice
Last month I appeased my guilty conscience with the realization that I am still reading; the media has just shifted more toward blogs and online texts.  Others also identified, and some echoed that change in their reading habits. I didn’t think to apply that shift to the youngest of readers, but a reader pointed it out. As a librarian, our reader reminds us that kids are reading online, and they’re reading a lot. With all the alarming reports out there that kids don’t read, her reminder brings relief.

Even with the shift to the Internet, I’m glad to know there are still young people getting “hooked” on books. Our librarian reported, “With my students at school I have been somewhat successful in establishing a reading program and hooked some kids on books for pleasure.” Even though our current reading habits may not reflect it, there is an intangible enjoyment to spending time with a book.

I interviewed a journalist for a marketing class in 1999. One of my primary questions was if periodicals being available online would eliminate the need for hard copies. In my mind, how could a magazine keep selling copies if full text articles are available free online? This journalist assured me that readers would always want the feel of paper between their fingers. At the time I thought his prediction might be biased and optimistic, but I have thought about his answer many times since then and I believe more and more in the endurance of the traditional hard copy. Just check out the traffic in your local bookstore on a Friday night if you don’t believe me. Or try curling up in bed on a rainy night with your desktop. It’s just not the same. So I have optimism for the survival of traditional hard copy books.

No Shopping Like Book Shopping
Maybe it’s our optimistic side that keeps us returning to those crowded bookstores on Friday nights. One reader points out that book collecting can be as much fun as book reading: “I may not have time to read, but that doesn’t keep me from stocking my library anyway! I consider it an investment for the future that never seems to come.”

Other Options
One very popular medium I have thus far neglected in this column is the audio book. Also contending with the Internet for traditional hard-copy consumers, these delightfully portable cassettes, CDs, and even mp3s give all you multi-taskers a stab at the latest greatest bestsellers.  One reader reports that about two-thirds of his prose reading was actually prose “listening.” He is fortunate to live in an area with an excellent library system and has free access to audio books. (Don’t everyone hit the libraries at once.) But do take advantage of this convenient method of maintaining your literary pursuits.

Stepping on the Scales
Our listener also keeps a monthly and yearly reading tally. Talk about a motivation factor! If I saw what I’d read in the last year on paper, I’d probably die of conviction. But our reader reminds us of the bright side that it’s a lot of fun later to look back and remember when and where you were for each book. Grab a journal, start a spreadsheet, and let’s track what we read. Maybe the blank page for May will motivate us to scan the new release aisle or pick up a favorite classic.

I hope these recommendations and comments from readers help you think about reading and formulate your own ideas for making your life more literate.

Other Book News
I feel like it’s the calm before the storm.  Two years later (yes, it really has been that long), I think we’re starting to finally put the DaVinci mania to rest. And if you’re not into murder mysteries, diet books, or inside scoops on the Peterson trial (Blood Brother, A Deadly Game, etc.), then there’s not really that one blockbuster must-have out there to send you racing away to the bookstore.  But I feel it coming.  Not that I’m so discerning in the world of books, but I really think the world is ready for another book obsession.

Interestingly, a recent LA Times article made me question whether the market can support “the little guy.” Sure there is a place for the Robin Cooks and Mary Higgins Clarks, and so on, but when is the last time you walked out of your local bookstore with a newly released work of fiction by someone you’d never heard of? LA Times Staff Writer Scott Martelle hypothesizes that readers / book buyers go with the safe bet—popular authors and blockbuster books, leaving the unknown authors with little chance: “Publishing in recent years has undergone something of a socioeconomic divide — the rich get richer while the poor languish, spurred in part by readers' reluctance to spend $30 or more for a book they know little or nothing about.” ¹ I question if we’re creating a market where only a few exclusive authors can sell and thousands of good, undiscovered writers can’t break into the market and make their mark.

Martelle announces in his article, however, that a weblog cooperative has formed to combat this exclusivist book market. Twenty literary blogs are making a concerted effort to promote current, serious fiction by contemporary authors who are as of yet unknown. It’s a shot in the arm for the little guy, plus it’s just one more way we can work reading into our busy lives these days.

Lagniappe
April 17-23 was National Cowboy Poetry week.  I guess I can’t escape my roots, but I love this stuff. Maybe you have to have a rural or American West connection to get it, but I really think it appeals to a wide audience just in its celebration of a romanticized, larger-than-life character reminiscent of the medieval epic hero and yet comically simple. Try some cowboy poetry for fun and maybe you’ll discover something different to add a little spice to your life.

Classic Remembered
With Tax Day behind us, a familiar title kept coming to mind. Ever read John Dos Passos’ The Big Money? No, it has nothing to do with federal income taxes (though all this month’s financial hype did bring it to mind). The book is the conclusion of the U.S.A. trilogy published amid the Great Depression. Like so many excellent books of that period, it examines the roller coaster ride of American individualism, the disillusionment of the materialistic culture of the time, and the inevitable fallout. And you’ll appreciate that all of these spirals in the plot and character evolutions are mirrored in the author’s style.

For Fun
More book quotes—this time on the humorous side.

ninetyandnine.com

© 2005, Lee Ann Alexander

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Lee Ann Alexander is ninetyandnine.com’s book columnist. If you have suggestions on topics to explore, email her at Books@ninetyandnine.com.

Footnotes

¹Martelle, Scott. “United by a Love for Literature.” Los Angeles Times. April 9, 2005.