Leslie Langtry's Blog: A Giveaway! - Posts Tagged "on-reading-books"

Okay, so I finally got my stuff together and set up an author profile on my GR page. I've decided (mainly because I've just found out I can) to have a blog here that's just about me reading! Exciting, right?

I do enough posts elsewhere about writing - this will be fun to just talk about reading.

I've been a passionate reader since I was 5. Okay, so my reading was a bit limited to that comedy classic, THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK, but I was hooked. As I got older, I devoured Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Douglas Adams, among others.

In 7th grade, I discovered the classics and actually got in trouble in Study Hall for reading UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. To be fair, the teacher thought I was 'fake' reading it. He was convinced I had something tawdry like Judy Blume's FOREVER or something by Kathleen Woodiwiss hiding inside, like the other girls were doing. Nope. I didn't even know about those books.

Even now, I read for an hour and a half every night before bed. My husband tries to come in and talk to me during that time and is roundly ignored. My reading time is GOLDEN.

So here I will blog about reading only. I hope you like it and don't decide to throw rocks at me.

1) Because I’m LAZY: books are heavy and I have little T-Rex arms; books require dusting - and I hate housework; books are hard to read in bed when I’m laying on my side - see T-Rex arms explanation; books have too many pages in paper - I read a lot of very thick books; I don’t want to have to get up and go into the next room to get the next book to read - hello! Lazy!

2) Because I’m IMPATIENT: when I finish a book at 2am on Sunday morning and want IMMEDIATELY to start the next one – I don’t have to wait until the store opens, only to find I have to order it. I need my sequels!!!

3) Because I’m IMPUSIVE: I buy books like nobody’s business – more than I ever did in paperback and look up every single recommendation and often buy because of that. Yes, this means I'm bad with money, but food electricity are highly overrated when it comes to books.

4) Because I’m OLD: I have that middle aged presbyopia thingy so making the font bigger is AWESOME and it means I don’t need large-print books, which are way heavier (see T-Rex arms above).

As a result of my ereader - I buy ten times the number of books I did when I bought paper books and discover 3-5 new authors a month - thus supporting more authors - thus making the world a better place (you're welcome!). AND I read more - a lot more. I read 2-3 books a week and I read for an hour and a half every night before bed. My husband knows this as, "Interrupt-Leslie-Only-If-You-Want-A-Divorce" Time.

Okay - that's my list of reasons. Please don't throw paperbacks or (gasp) hardbacks at me.

Leslie

I came late to the writing-a-novel party (which was sad because they have fun hats and lots of cake). Well, I've been writing since 2nd Grade, but it took til I was almost 40 to write and sell my first book.

Two books inspired me to get off my lazy butt and do this and I wanted to share the first one with you now (the next one in a few days), BECAUSE YOU SHOULD READ IT.

The Gun Seller

THE GUN SELLER, by Hugh Laurie. Yes, THAT Hugh Laurie. You probably know him better as HOUSE M.D., but I originally knew him from his BBC hit from the early '90's A BIT OF FRY AND LAURIE (I'm a ridiculous anglophile when it comes to Britcoms).

Anyway - I read this hilarious book about a guy who ends up on the run and in trouble with mercenaries, CIA baddies and so on, and I realized that I wanted to write like this (apologies for the long excerpt to Mr. Laurie - but I really, really want you, my minions, to read this book):

"Imagine that you have to break someone's arm.
Right or left, doesn't matter. The point is that you have to break it, because if you don't...well, that doesn't matter either. Let's just say bad things will happen if you don't.
Now, my question goes like this: do you break the arm quickly - snap, whoops, sorry, here let me help you with that improvised splint - or do you drag the whole business out for a good eight minutes, every now and then increasing the pressure in the tiniest of increments, until the pain becomes pink and green and hot and cold and altogether howlingly unbearable?
Well exactly. Of course. The right thing to do, the only thing to do, is to get it over as quickly as possible. Break the arm, ply the brandy, be a good citizen. There can be no other answer.
Unless.
Unless unless unless.
What iv you were to hate the person on the other end of the arm? I mean really, really hate them.
This was a thing I now had to consider.
I say now, meaning then, meaning the moment I am describing; the moment fractionally, oh so bloody fractionally, before my wrist reached the back of my neck and my left humerus broke into at least two, very possibly more, floppily joined-together pieces.
The arm we've been discussing, you see, is mine. It's not an abstract, philosopher's arm. the bone, the skin, the hairs, the small white scar on the point of the elbow, won from the corner of a storage heater at Gateshill Primary School - they all belong to me. And now is the moment when I must consider the possibility that the man standing behind me, gripping my wrist and driving it up my spine with an almost sexual degree of care, hates me. I mean, really, really hates me.
He is taking forever."

That is from the beginning of the book. And that is why I started writing.

Now go get this book and read it.

I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother

So, it's 2002. I'm a professional, working mom, with two kids in pre-school and a husband who travels for work a LOT. I have a master's degree and a great job. I serve on four boards of directors for area nonprofits. And I'm exhausted.

Took the kids on vacation, and after getting back, I came down with shingles. Yup, the one old people get. I was in my 30's. My doctor tells me I'm too stressed out and need to take a vacation. She's stunned when I say I just got back from one.

Enter Allison Pearson's debut book, I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. I read about this book coming out in Britain and manage to get a first edition, months before it arrives in the States.

It's brilliant. And I love it. And that's when I decide I can do this. I can write a book.

So, I find a part-time job still in my field, quit all the boards, enroll my oldest in kindergarten and start to write. The rest is history.

Here's why you should read this book:

MONDAY, 1:37 A.M. How did I get here? Can someone please tell me that? Not in this kitchen, I mean in this life. It is the morning of the school carol concert and I am hitting mince pies. No, let us be quite clear about this, I am distressing mince pies, an altogether more demanding and subtle process.

Discarding the Sainsbury luxury packaging, I winkle the pies out of their pleated foil cups, place them on a chopping board and bring down a rolling pin on their blameless floury faces. this is not as easy as it sounds, believe me. Hit the pies too hard and they drop a kind of fat-lady curtsy, skirts of pastry bulging out at the sides and the fruit starts to ooze. But with a firm downward motion - imagine enough pressure to crush a small beetle - you can start a crumbly little landslide, giving the pastry a pleasing homemade appearance. And homemade is what I'm after here. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the good mother is, baking for her children.

THE rest of the book goes on with her reading between the lines of the parent's note about the event and how you have to read between the lines to see that store-bought items aren't good enough - which is why Kate Reddy is up in the middle of the night doing this.

I could relate to that. In fact, for years, there was a board member for the arts agency I worked for who came in regularly and said to me, "Leslie, I don't know how you do it! You should write a book!"

Of course, my replay was always, "When would I find the time?"

So I made time.

Check out I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. It literally changed my life and led me to write books.

Enjoy!