Q is for “Quitting”

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays), I’ll be sharing a short bookish memory with you.

“Almost everyone can remember losing his or her virginity, and most writers can remember the first book he/she put down thinking: I can do better than this. Hell, I am doing better than this! What could be more encouraging to the struggling writer than to realize his/her work is unquestionably better than that of someone who actually got paid for his/her stuff?” – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

On Writing by Stephen King is my favorite writing craft book ever. That’s a huge compliment because I’ve read a lot of craft books, and I think they’re naturally boring. Stephen King proves that he has writing talent in On Writing because he manages to take a tedious subject and turn it into something you actually want to read about.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

The quote at the start of this post refers to writers, but when I read it, I also thought about readers. Do you remember the first book you DNFed (did not finish)? I hated reading when I was a kid and probably DNFed 99% of the books that were forced upon me, but by the time I was a teenager, I was a rabid reader. I read every book I could get my hands on.

I rarely DNFed books as a teenager, but there is one DNF that stands out in my mind. When I was fifteen, English class forced me to read Black Boy by Richard Wright. Fifteen-year-old me could not make herself care about Wright's rambling infatuation with communism. I know Black Boy is an important American classic and blah, blah, blah, but I was bored. Truly, mind-numbingly, bored.

Black Boy - Richard Wright

Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

I have a memory of shoving Black Boy off the edge of my bed and having this conversation with myself:

There are millions of books in the world.

I won’t live long enough to read all of them.

I tried really hard to read this book, and I hate it.

If there are millions of books in the world, why am I wasting time reading one I hate?

To be a happy bookworm, sometimes I have to DNF. Forcing myself to read something I don’t like makes reading feel like a chore instead of a hobby. I need my hobbies to be fun, not stressful. Making the decision to DNF can be hard sometimes, but life’s too short to read boring books.

Do you remember the first book you DNFed?

P is for “Plague”

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays), I’ll be sharing a short bookish memory with you.

The first post-apocalyptic stories I remember reading were the Countdown books by Daniel Parker. The series was published in the late 90s, when I was a preteen. I loved the books back then, but if I reread them now, I’d probably find them idiotic. The series is about a plague that is let loose on New Year’s Day in the year 2000. The disease causes children and adults to melt into puddles of black goo. Teenagers inherit the Earth. Each book in the series is a different month of the year 2000.

Countdown: January – Daniel Parker

On New Year's Day, it happens: 

Over six billion people die within twenty-four hours. 

The stunned survivors are left to fend for themselves in a world where chaos reigns. A world with no rules, no order . . . and no adults. 

Because the only people left are teenagers.

Countdown captured my young imagination in the same way Lois Lowry’s The Giver did. The series made me desperate for more dystopian fiction. I think Countdown and The Giver get the blame for my current love of dystopias.

The worst part of the Countdown series was that some of the books were difficult to find. Online bookstores weren’t common in the 90s. I lived in a small town with a tiny library and no bookstores. My parents searched everywhere, but they were never able to find the entire series. My teachers, friends, and librarians had never heard of Countdown. I just had to make peace with not knowing the whole story.

During The Hunger Games dystopia craze, I started thinking about the Countdown books again. I Googled them. I learned that they got terrible reviews from critics when they came out. The Goodreads pages for the books are pretty dead and empty. The few reviews the books do have on Goodreads aren’t great. I guess this series didn’t have the same impact on other people as it did on me.

I also learned that I could buy used copies of the Countdown books I couldn’t find as a kid. I decided not to. Maybe some things are better as memories.

Have you ever heard of Countdown? Is there a book you loved as a kid but are reluctant to reread as an adult? 

O is for “Ones I Read Over and Over”

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays), I’ll be sharing a short bookish memory with you.

When I was a kid and young teen, I didn’t like new books. Actually, child-me didn't like books at all, but I often had them forced upon me. When I did read, I preferred to read the same story multiple times. I’d read a book to the end, flip it over, and start at the beginning again. My favorite novels were about nature, adventures, violent deaths, and people who didn’t fit into mainstream society.

Kids learn from repetition and are comforted by routine. That’s why they’re voracious rereaders. (And re-watchers, and re-askers of the same questions). Here are some of the books that young me read over and over:

Were you a rereader as a kid? Which books did you read over and over?

N is for “Number Generator”

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays), I’ll be sharing a short bookish memory with you.

When you have a shelf that’s overloaded with unread books, how do you decide what to read next? Some people are mood readers: They choose whichever book they’re in the mood to read. I’m not one of those people. Unless there’s something stressful going on in my life, I can read any book at any time.

That’s where the number generator comes in. I let a random number generator pick which book I read next. I go to this website and click the "Generate" button to pick a number. Then I count along my shelf of unread books and read whichever book the website picked. All my unread books are on one shelf, so that makes counting pretty easy.

Some of my unread books.

There are five reasons why this is the most awesome way to read:

1. I don’t have to make up my mind. If you own a lot of books, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choice. The number generator makes the choices for me, so I’m never stressed out.

2. TBR lists are boring. I used to make monthly To-Be-Read lists, but it’s boring to always know what’s going to happen next. Life needs spontaneity.

3. Surprises. Random number generators are random. The next book you read will always be a surprise.

4. Nobody knows if you cheat. If the generator chooses a 700-page behemoth that you don’t feel like tackling right now, you could always pick another number . . .

5. Mix of old and new books. The generator could choose a book you bought yesterday or one that’s been sitting around for a year. You never know. It could encourage you to read that sequel you’ve been putting off.

How do you choose what to read next?