Saturday Summary: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

This book was given to me as a Christmas gift about two years ago. It’s a collection of short stories that deal with themes such as death, fate and the past. And while Stephen King is generally known for writing horror, he also writes in the vein of poetry, science fiction and fantasy, and this book was a good blend of all three. 

January Summary: The Shining and Writing Goals

I originally said that I’d be doing a Saturday Summary at the end of each month for a book but it took me a little longer than expected to finish The Shining by Stephen King. I did really enjoy it though.

Do You Ever Revisit Old Writing?

The other day I read an older piece of writing I had written a few years back.

Usually my response in these situations is to laugh and see how much I’ve improved since then. But I read it and felt somewhat satisfied with my writing.

Read-A-Thon: My Own Challenge

A little morning coffee or tea with your favourite book

I took a BBC quiz recently and was very disappointed by my results. I had only read 11 of the listed classics, just over the average of 6.

That’s when I realized I don’t read as much as I used to, or as often as I should. Stephen King says that if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or tools to write.

Books are how we writers learn the craft–they were our first teacher and mentor, showing us the ways to excite, thrill, terrify and capture our readers. It was through reading Nancy Drew mysteries that I learned about the magic of cliffhangers, through Anne of Green Gables that I learned about the power and beauty of descriptive language, and through Tolkien that I learned about the philosophy of words.

That’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to read as many classics as I can over the next few months and post my thoughts about them. I enjoy reading and have read a fair amount, but I haven’t read nearly enough classics in my opinion.

I’ve set a goal for about 15 and September as a deadline, as I think the summer months are the perfect time to kick back and enjoy some reading outdoors on a nice patio. I plan to start April 28th.

The only read-a-thon I’ve really tried is Canada Reads and that was a great experience in discovering new books that I might not have chosen to read.

Coincidentally, Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-thon happens today and on a day in October. People read books for 24 hours, post on their blogs about their experience and visit other people’s blogs.  Maybe I’ll try Dewey’s read-a-thon in October.

Do you read as often as you’d like? Do you participate in any read-a-thons?

http://24hourreadathon.com/

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/index.html

http://www.listchallenges.com/kaunismina-bbc-6-books-challenge