Are You a True Reader or a Book Nerd?

Not a day goes by when I don't read. I read the bible daily, and I am also usually reading a novel; articles online; student work; texts and email messages; recipes. I can't imagine a day without reading as an integral part. But none of these activities make me a "true reader" according to C.S. Lewis, beloved and renowned Christian author, professor, scholar, and novelist. Lewis highlights a few characteristics of a "true reader" in his book (compiled from letters and writings) The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes. 

C.S. Lewis has been described as "the best-read man of his generation, one who read everything and remembered everything he read" (Epmson, qtd in Lewis). Anyone who is reading John Milton's Paradise Lost at ten years old and Shakespeare at eleven is beyond erudite! So Lewis's ethos argument is strong--he has earned the right to qualify who earns the title of "true reader." See if you pass these four tests of a "true reader" C.S. Lewis uses to separate the serious from the inconsequential! 

 1) Loves to re-read books 

    Have you ever purposely re-read a book? I read so many books, some serious literary tomes, and some lighthearted romances, that I can forget I read a book. This has happened more times than I'd like to admit, and I usually reach a point where it seems so familiar that I realize I have read the book previously. At that point, I sometimes continue and finish the book, and other times set it aside.

    I'm a member of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America). Any good Janeite will tell you how many times they have read each of Austen's six books. I remember hearing a Janeite say at a conference, "Oh, I didn't realize that until my thirteenth reading of Persuasion." Some books beg to be re-read. Why re-read a book? It's not for the plot - we already know the plot. We re-read for the lyrical prose, for how the book makes us feel, and think, and see differently.

 2) Highly values reading as an activity 

    I read daily because I love to read. Now that I'm on Goodreads it's easier to keep track, but I generally read 4-6 books a month. Do you read because you love to read, or because there is nothing else to do? When I travel I always have my iPad, or Nook, plus a few actual books. I can remember when I was a pre-teen I would get together with my friend Connie and we would spend the afternoon sitting outside each engrossed in our own book. Yep, I'm a book nerd.

 3) Lists the reading of particular books as a life-changing experience 

    Books have changed my perspective, taken me to the past and the future, provided hours of enjoyment and suspense, and made me a more empathetic person. First, the Bible has changed my life and revealed spiritual truth. All other books pale in comparison to the impact of the Bible on my life. 

    Second, authors who have greatly impacted me include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Tracy Chevalier, Jojo Moyes, Philippa Gregory, Barbara Kingsolver, Olaudah Equiano, Noah Gordon, Langston Hughes, Sophocles, Homer, Ann Patchett, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Vikram Seth, Thrity Umrigar, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maeve Binchy, Rosalind Laker, Ann Tyler, .... and too many more to name.

 4) Continuously reflects on and recalls what one has read 

    (these four points are taken from The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis).

    Book groups are great. I'm not in a book group right now, but I love sitting around and talking about books. Book groups are one way to reflect on what we've read. I guess some of my literature classes are like book groups in the sense that we read and discuss literature. But there are other ways to reflect on books - writing reviews, journaling, and talking to friends. When a book simply blows me away I write a review -- it comes out of the life-changing experience of reading the book and I'm compelled to share my experience with other readers. I also blog about my favorite books!

    What do you think? Do you meet all four of these criteria and qualify as a True Reader, according to C.S. Lewis. Or, if you'd like another evaluation to determine if you're a Book Nerd, take this quiz: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/whats-your-book-nerd-score/

    What's the verdict? Are you a True Reader or  Book Nerd?

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Lewis, C.S. The Reading Life, The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes. Harper One, 2019.

A Long Petal of the Sea : Why I love historical fiction

 “One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende’s] long career.”—The New York Times Book Review

I'm a big fan of historical fiction. It's my favorite genre. A Long Petal of the Sea has all the elements I love in historical fiction: a good story, well told, set in a historical time and place, with both historical and fictional characters with whom I would love to sit down and have a cup of tea!

A Long Petal of the Sea covers the mid-1930s in Spain, to the 40s-90s in Chile (with brief stops in Spain, the U.S., and Venezuela). If you had asked me anything about the Spanish Civil War before I read this book, I would have a blank look on my face. Whether I ever learned about it (doubtful) or have just forgotten (possible) I could not have related any details whatsoever. Having lived through Allende's fictional retelling, I can now almost picture the war between the Catalonians and the Fascists - with Franco defeating the indefatigable Republican Spaniards. If I want the facts of the Spanish Civil War, I can read a book, or an essay (or Wikipedia!). I will learn about the two sides, the Republicans versus and Nationalists, with "communists" against "Christians" the rallying cry. But if I want to get a sense of history, and engage my senses, I read historical fiction. Through Allende's masterful writing I can smell the fires, feel the fear, cringe at the deprivation and cruelty, and see the destroyed city of Barcelona. 

The book is also a paean to Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat. Neruda transported over 2,000 Spanish refugees living in sub-human conditions in concentration camps in France, having fled at the end of the Spanish Civil War, in a ship called the Winnipeg to their new home in Chile. The title comes from Neruda's poetic description of the country of Chile.

For more on this fascinating moment in history, read this: 

https://socialistaction.org/2019/09/25/the-ss-winnipeg-pablo-neruda-and-a-long-petal-of-the-sea/

It strikes me that this book is particularly apt in our present day when fascism and nationalism are on the rise in many countries, and the lines that so starkly divide us get wider every day, becoming more like chasms than lines. 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, poet, and novelist).