The Sounds and Sights of Reading
May 16, 2010

This past week I have been trying an experiment. I have been coming home from work and immediately* grabbing a book and heading out to the front porch where I ease my body into the comfortably upholstered chair that looks out on the mountains.

* In this case, “immediately” means after feeding the cats, changing into an oversized shirt, washing my face and teeth, and grabbing a book.

Even (my) dinner waits.

With one leg tucked beneath me and the other dangling free I alternate whatever I am reading with staring up at the ever-changing scenes the sun and clouds make as they move across the sky. It was just over a year ago that the terrible Jesusita fire broke out, five days after I had moved into my new home. The scars still exist on the lower hills not far from where I live. And despite the rains that brought life back to them, the fire-burned areas are still quite visible.

But my eyes don’t land there. At least not often. Instead I breathe deeply of the air, listen to the sound of birds, and let my eyes wander the depths of the mountain valleys between the peaks. I am discovering that taking this time—not pushing myself to exercise right then or to clean the bathroom or fret over what to have for dinner—is making a genuine difference to my life. I am feeling more at peace with  myself, and I have no doubt that this time of solitude, of communing with both silence and my book, is having a positive impact.

With life getting busier and more frantic, it seems that the need for quiet time is increasing (though it may easily go unrecognized) while the opportunity for it decreases. It’s not necessarily that others demand all of our time, I think, as much as we demand it of ourselves. We demand we use it whether for requirements such as meal preparation, housecleaning, laundry, or whether for things we choose because of habit (television, online time, movies or other provided entertainment).

I am finding that taking this time and making it inviolable has had a real impact on other parts of my life. Prior to this I don’t think I’ve “made pictures” with clouds since childhood, but I am doing it now. I am finding my reading to be of a different feel than when I read at other times and in other places. It has a sense of quietude that allows me to sink more deeply and thoroughly into almost any book than at any other time. I am away from work, away from any demands, away from others. I and my book are one with the silence. I have gone from experiment to certainty. Which is why, now, I am now going to post this in the “online parking garage” (until it is time for it to go live tonight) and go sit out on my porch with a book. It occurs to me that Monday morning couldn’t find a better start than this kind of Sunday afternoon.

Upcoming Book Festivals:
Unfortunately, there are no U.S. festivals in the next week. But . . . coming up is the world famous Hay Festival, which takes place from May 27-June 6 in Wales. Deserving of its reputation, this is the festival to attend if you can. Tickets, performances, and all other information can be purchased and/or found on its extensive website.

The Pub House:
Busted Flush Press is a relatively new press, having been founded in 2005. It proudly proclaims that it is the home of “fine thrillers and hard-boiled crime fiction.” It’s no amateur, however. Its founder, David Thompson, worked in one of the nation’s oldest and largest mystery bookstores for sixteen years before, in his words, that nothing “irritated me more than to discover a wonderful writer to handsell, then have the publisher drop the author since the sales weren't sufficiently large for their tastes. I started up BFP as a way to reissue some of the authors and books that were employee and customer favorites.” You’ll find plenty of those reissues here, but also original anthologies such as the forthcoming A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir and the just-released Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir. But also check out their other books such as Impolite Society, the story of  Emma Rhodes, a heroine “who never takes guff from anyone.” If you like your mysteries hard and fast, you’ll love these.

Win This Book!
This week’s giveaway book is Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen. Learn to cook with food and herbs that are reputed to be therapeutic in East Asia while you enjoy delicious meals. The book includes an overview of traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, and food therapy; details on 100 ingredients; and more than 150 recipes. Separated into soups, side dishes, main dishes, breakfasts and snacks/desserts, sauces/stocks/toppings, and “comfort in a cup.” To enter, all you need to do is send us an e-mail with “Win This Book” and the book’s title in the subject line and the title of the book in the body of the e-mail. We will collect names and draw one on Friday, May 21. (Winners are limited to one book a month.) We apologize to our international readers but postal costs prohibit our mailing books outside the United States.

Imaging Books & Reading:
Book art is one of the most jaw-dropping types of art I have ever seen. Taking a book and making it into a work of art by cutting and clipping and snipping is, when carefully and thoughtfully done, nothing short of spectacular. One of the masters of the craft is Brian Dettmer. And one of the most beautiful images in my opinion is this one. Holy cow, I think I own that dictionary. And for the first time I am tempted to try my own hand at this without giving a single thought to the necessary destruction that must take place.

Of Interest:
Walter Wick is a children’s book author and photographic illustrator “with an interest in puzzles, games, science, and solutions.” And they are gorgeous! What particularly struck me, though, are the three-dimensional miniature sets that are created by artists using his two-dimensional sketches. The sets are completed and then photographed for the book covers, and the tremendous work that goes into them can be seen here.

This Week . . .
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an organization dedicated to civil liberties in the digital world. As the online world develops and changes at a speed that far exceeds any prior cultural development, rights and freedoms struggle to keep up. People who have never had a public voice before can find one online. When the EFF was founded in 1990, not many people were part of the networked world. But it was there, fighting to keep freedoms alive. Lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists are working together in this donor-funded nonprofit that brings lawsuits to defend citizens against governmental and corporate invasion—and done so successfully—in the areas of free speech, innovation, intellectual property, international, privacy, and transparency issues. If you are worried about the increasing invasions taking place, consider joining the EFF today.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren