I was a librarian intern for a year for a facility located in a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood. One of the patrons was notoriously persnickety, demanding, not requesting, recommendations for reading material. I quaked in my shoes when one day I was alone at the reference desk and this woman approached. She demanded that I provide her with a good movie star biography, one that would not be “smutty.” As bad luck would have it, I reached for one that I felt would suit her perfectly, but she said gruffly, “I already read that.” After a few minutes of searching, I finally settled on one that I was confident would not be offensive. She accepted it somewhat begrudgingly. I never received any feedback from her, so I assumed that she was okay with the book–or maybe she never gave me feedback because I did my best to avoid her from then forward.

In library school at UCLA, I took a course, “Reading and Reading Interests,” that was famous for its entertainment value. The instructor, Betty Rosenberg, was known for her witty presentations. She taught us about genre fiction: westerns, romances, science fiction, and mysteries. By the end of the course, we had a good basic knowledge to help us answer the question, “Can you suggest a good book to read?” As my career in libraries progressed, I had little opportunity to recommend fiction reads. I mostly worked in low-income communities where fiction was not as high a priority as educational materials. But occasionally someone would ask for a recommendation, and I would find it an interesting challenge to come up with a suitable title.

Whenever I’m asked by a friend or relative to recommend a good novel, I feel a little nervous about it. I fear that they won’t like what I recommend, and I’ll feel guilty about wasting their time. But it also works the other way. Occasionally a friend has recommended a book that I’ve disliked. One example that stands out is The Bridges of Madison County. Someone passionately recommended the book to me, I read it quickly, I disliked it fervently. My negative reaction was not received well.

Of course our reading tastes are unique and we can’t always judge what even a close family member might enjoy. Still, I welcome recommendations but remain cautious. After all, just because a dear friend loved Fifty Shades of Grey, it doesn’t mean that I will. I think I’ll see the movie instead.

#1. Resist the temptation to buy a popular new book from Amazon because I just CAN’T WAIT to read it. Come on. How many times have I bought a book off Amazon for X amount, plus shipping, only to see it sitting on the new book shelf at the library just a few weeks later? Be patient. Save $$$.

#2. DON’T READ boring (or awful) books. I am now trying to make it a habit to quit reading a book if I’m not totally into it by page 50. Life is too short to waste time reading crap.

#3. Now that my eyes are older, I have an excuse to read large-print books. I will try to remember to check the large-print section of the new books at the library. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised to find one of those popular books I’m dying to read tucked away in the large-print section.

#4. I will always carry a book with me, even while sitting in the dentist’s chair waiting to be tortured. I never know when I’ll have to kill time in an airport or doctor’s office. It’s great to have a book handy to pass the time pleasantly reading.

#5. Continue to read during commercials. I started this habit earlier this year because commercials are increasingly longer. Sometimes I wonder if I’m watching a series of commercials with the occasional T.V. program interspersed throughout. I can read as many as ten pages during the marathon commercial breaks. If the book is really good, I will often forget what I’m watching on T.V. and continue reading.

Gift giving can be a challenge if you don’t know the recipient well enough to discern what she/he likes or doesn’t like. But a book can be an easy gift, so long as you know you’re buying it for a reader. Last year I purchased The Searchers, by Glenn Frankel, for a family member who is a huge fan of the movie and its setting, Monument Valley. For her husband, I purchased Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, Volume 1, by Mark Lewisohn. Like me, he is an avid Beatles’ fan and was delighted by the gift. A couple of years earlier, I gifted my mother with a couple of Chicken Soup for the Soul books because she prefers inspirational, uplifting stories. For another family member who enjoys travel, I bought a unique guidebook (How to Survive Your Vacation by Edward Lopatin) written and self-published by one of my globe-trotting friends.

Coffee table books can be beautiful and expensive, but make wonderful gifts. About ten years ago my husband gave me Vanity Fair’s Oscar Night, a pictorial history of the awards. I would never have splurged to buy that book for myself, and it gave me so much joy to receive it. I return to it every year when Oscar season comes around.

Non-fiction books are easiest to gift because you can select one that matches an interest of the recipient. Fiction is a bit trickier because it’s difficult to know specifically what authors or genres interest the intended recipient, so generally I stick with non-fiction gifts.

Of course, a book lover will always appreciate a bookstore gift card. Happy Shopping!

There is so much that I am thankful for this time of year: my spouse, my family, my friends, good health. However, because this blog is about books, I want to especially express my gratitude for the love of reading instilled in me by my parents.

Neither one of my parents had more than an eighth-grade education, yet my father was an avid reader. My mother was never a big fan of books, but she read to her children. I have clear memories of her sharing with me the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. In her slight Spanish accent, she pronounced Rapunzel “Rapunzela,” and a dog’s bark was always “wow-wow,” the Spanish-language version of “bow-wow.” She took her kids to the library; in his retirement, my father became a regular library user.

I didn’t learn to read in school. I was placed in the first grade at a Catholic school without attending kindergarten first, and I was behind my classmates who already knew how to read. I felt lost. My older sister and brother understood my predicament and decided to help. They took me to the beautiful downtown Pasadena Pubic Library every day after school and gave me reading lessons. Even though I was only five years old, I was frustrated that I was struggling to learn to read.

To this day, I can feel the sense of triumph that overcame me when I read a complete page and understood every word for the first time. What a thrill!

The love of reading has never left me. I treasure the ability to read, and I treasure books. Thank you, Daddy, Mom and my siblings.

Librarians are accustomed to hearing this comment: “You’re a librarian? What a great job! You get to read all day.”  Uh . . . no, we don’t “get to read all day.” The irony is that librarians are too busy working to have time to indulge what is, for many of us, a favorite pastime. If we’re reading anything at the public reference desk, it’s usually reviews of books, or a book that we’ve been assigned to evaluate. We don’t sit at our desks, coffee cup in hand, legs up on an ottoman, box of chocolates within easy reach, reading a romance  or a mystery, and getting paid for our lethargy. What a fantasy! Yes, I wish the job were that pleasant.

I often felt frustrated because I could never find the time to read my favorite authors or even the latest hot book (think: The Da Vinci Code, the Harry Potter series, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc.). But now that I have more free time to read, I maximize my reading potential by following these simple rules:

1. I am disciplined. I set a goal to read a certain number of pages a day. Otherwise, it’s easy to get distracted by life.

2. I don’t feel obligated to finish a book that is boring. I set it aside and move on to the next.

3. I read at every free moment possible. Have a long wait at the doctor’s office? Read a book. Have a long commute on the train? Read a book.

I even read during the commercials of my favorite TV shows, or when a show gets slow (for example, during those police chase scenes–my mind wanders otherwise),

What would I want with me if stranded alone on a desert island? A book, of course . . . oh,after food, survival tools, sunblock, etc. First things first.

Though I occasionally read non-fiction, a biography or some type of history book, my preference is for fiction. Non-fiction is more educational, but I often learn from fiction. Recently I read  Oliver Potzsch’s The Ludwig Conspiracy. It’s just a so-so action novel in The Da Vinci Code vein (a weak imitation), but Bavarian castle settings and the information about “Mad” King Ludwig are entertaining and opened my mind to some German history. Among other recent reads, The Mango Bride (Marivi Soliven) was especially interesting because of its glimpses into Filipino culture, recent history, and social class system. Amy Tan’s Valley of Amazement is an intricate look at the courtesan life in Shanghai of the late 1800s to the 1930s.

I don’t challenge myself intellectually by regularly reading tomes like War and Peace (which I’ve actually read). I choose a novel because of its story and characters.  But the educational tidbits that I pick up are side benefits of relaxing my mind and soaking in a good book. Responsible novelists will research their material so that whatever historical or background information provided in the story is accurate. Someday I might try to write a novel set in a particular historical era. If so, I’ll have to be prepared to do a lot of research.

Whew . . . I can’t believe I finished the whole thing and . . . it was a delicious read. I’m talking about Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which was awarded the Pulitizer Prize for Fiction. It’s not the kind of book that I typically read: the main characters are male; the two most interesting female characters have little “page time;” and it is densely descriptive. Too many descriptive passages in a novel are usually turnoffs for me, but Tartt’s writing is so beautiful that I felt immersed in the world she painted. It seems that she chose every word with care, like a brush stroke, and though the book is over 700 pages, not one word seems wasted.

I love a book that leaves me feeling lonely after I’ve finished reading it. I miss sharing time with the characters and the story. The characters in The Goldfinch are so intricately developed that even the dog has a personality!

If you haven’t read the book, briefly, it is about a boy, Theo Decker, who loses his mother in a terrorist bombing. This loss profoundly alters his life and sets him on a path of crime, drug abuse, and chronic guilt and loneliness. Doesn’t sound like fun? No, it doesn’t, but as told by a gifted writer, the story is captivating. I am in awe of her talent.