Back in August, I wrote a short post about reading what you enjoy. Click on the following link to quickly read it. Don't worry, I'll be here when you get back. ; ) 'Reading'.
I don't subscribe to elitism around reading. Ignore the haters. Don't give them the time of day. If someone hassles you on the bus, train or tram (or ferry, for my Brisbane correspondents! Hello!) for reading that Danielle Steel romance, or that James Patterson thriller, try the following.
- Mark your place in your book. They've already hassled you, so don't let them allow you to lose your page.
- Smile sweetly. This will disarm them.
- Reply along the lines of: 'Well, you know, at least I'm reading. So many people never read, don't you find? It's so sad, and terrible for literacy levels. I'm really enjoying escaping into this book. It's well-written and plotted. This is the [insert impressive-sounding number – no-one will mind if you fudge it] book I've read this year.'
- Then, if the mood takes you:
- 'What are you reading?'
- This will force them to defend their own reading. You can then choose to look down your nose at their choice of reading matter. But I hope you'll be encouraging of their reading. : ) And you might just make a friend.
Oh, and just for the record, Danielle Steel is the fourth best-selling writer of all time, having sold a lazy 800 million books. And James Patterson holds a 'Guinness World Record' for the most bestselling hardcover fiction titles by a single author; a total of 63. That's hardcover, by the way, not paperback. Surely this means that they are producing interesting, intriguing and well-written books?
Read what you want, I say. More power to you. And never, ever apologise for what you're reading.
I am revelling in reading one of my favourite authors at the moment, Dean Koontz. Not counting several textbooks, which I'm still working my way through, I've finished reading my novels for college for the year. So, I'm catching up on some of Dean's recent titles. Actually, I feel quite smug. In the same way that I did an assignment on Stephen King last semester, I'm doing an assignment on Dean for college. So I get to read an author I love, then speak and write about him. Better still, I then get to use some of his themes in my creative writing for a piece to submit as part of the project.
Oh, and my man Dean? He's the world's sixth most highly paid author. I'm sorry, but you don't get to the top without having at least some skill as a writer. Take that, haters!
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