#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.

On Facebook the last couple of weeks, some of my friends have been challenged by some of their friends to list ten books that have “stayed with them in some way.” The instruction is that one should not dwell on the question but list the first books that come to mind. Not one of my friends challenged me, but if one had, my list was ready. Here it is, in no particular order:

REBECCA by Daphne DuMaurier Why: Great mystery with evil first wife. Also, the mousy heroine reminded me of me before I shed my doormat traits.
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by Somerset Maugham Why: The perils of obsessive love. It makes fools of all.
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte Why: Feisty heroine. Good role model for women.
CARAMELO by Sandra Cisneros Why: I recognized my Mexican-American family all over this book. Made me smile.
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott Why: Coming of age is never easy.
BURRO GENIUS by Victor Villasenor Why: How to make the most of your innate gifts.
LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkein Why: What a world!!!
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME by Richard Matheson Why: Made me think of the after life as never before
OUTLANDER: Why: Just WOW!!!
SHERLOCK HOLMES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Why: Where I first fell in love with the detective mystery genre.

I love a mystery. That’s a good thing because there are so many terrific ones to enjoy. I’m not just talking about fiction; there are plenty of true crime books so creepy that they can cause a reader to lose sleep (I have). That supports the old proverb “Truth is stranger than fiction.” But, I’d rather read a mystery novel than a true crime story because I won’t already know the ending . . . at least not usually. More recently I’ve come to realize that as a veteran mystery reader, it’s often not a challenge to determine the identity of the culprit, even before the detective or mystery solver has figured it out. Nevertheless, I continue to read mysteries for sheer pleasure.

One of my favorite mystery writers is Nevada Barr. Her stories are set in national parks throughout the US (the parks are hotbeds of murder whenever Anna Pigeon, the protagonist, is around). Elizabeth George is another favorite. She writes complicated characters who often have disturbing inclinations. More recently, I’ve started exploring the books of S.J. Bolton, having read Now You See Me, and now I’m hooked. Her protagonist, Lacy Flint, is a troubled woman with a difficult past. I love the brooding types. For me, they are much more interesting than the mentally healthier characters like Qwill in the Cat Who mysteries. I like my mysteries dark.