Blog post #4: "Some Questions to Explore Reading Lives" (Chapter 3)

How does your current book travel around with you? What exact part of your backpack, pocket, purse, or whatever is involved?

I mostly read textbooks and articles now for school. I do read the Bible in the morning after breakfast. I have it as an app on my iPad. My iPad usually stays at home because I need quiet time to read the Bible.

What are the regular sections of your day? What little reading appointments might be possible in there?

Most of my day is spent doing assignments for three school courses and cooking or doing other chores. Since most of my assignments involve reading, I try not to read when I get a break. One possible reading space would be when I am eating.

What are some possible places for reading? How might different places go with different types of reading? Like what could you read on the bus, in bed, at the kitchen table, in school? What are the challenges about each of those places, and how do you deal with those challenges?

One possible place for reading would be home at the table where I can sit comfortably. I used to read on my bed, but I would fall asleep while reading. So, the bed is not a good place if you want to really ‘digest’ a book. I do not travel by bus but on the plane, I used to carry novels that were entertaining and did not require much critical thinking. On the plane, there were more distractions, so I found that entertaining novels were best. The last couple of times that I was on the plane, I found myself talking to total strangers mostly because that seems to be the only time that I could something like that. At school, I found it easy to read a book if I was taking notes from it because there were just too many distractions. I study better at home. My kitchen table has been substituting as a desk for some time now, so I do my reading and studying there. I do not usually read while eating although that might be a possible place to read the news on my iPad. It is easier to scroll on an iPad when eating than to read an actual book or newspaper.

Who knows what you’re reading right now? Who do you sometimes think about telling about your book? Who gives you recommendations? Whose reading do you wonder about?

I am reading the Bible now and I may have mentioned it in one of my classes but not to anyone specifically. For two of the last books that I read, I had talked about them with a guy who had seemed interested in that stuff. If I think someone might be interested in what I am reading, I will talk to them about it mostly because I like the feedback and discussion that go with it. For example, the book, ‘Limitless Mind’ had some interesting things like different ways to teach a simple Math problem or how it is better to focus on what you can do instead of what you cannot do. So, if I feel someone needs to hear about something like that, I might mention the book as well. Another book, ‘First Principles’ talked about the founding fathers and the US Constitution. I thought it was interesting that John Adams spent so much time thinking about what to include in the US Constitution; other countries just accepted what was passed down. Most Caribbean countries just accepted the English system of government.

I subscribe to the student version of the Wall Street Journal, and I get to pick a free online book every month so that is where I have gotten recent recommendations. I used to read books by Dean Koontz because a guy from work had mentioned them. His books were interesting. Prior to that I had read some books by David Gemmell. I think it was because I had seen one of his books at the bookstore and it was not expensive, but it had turned out to be really good.

I wonder about what my nephews are reading, Kids today do not read much. Recently, my mom said that she saw the older nephew reading one of the Harry Potter books and I had seen the younger one reading, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’. I wonder about what books they might find appealing.

What could you choose to read if you wanted to pick something that would go superfast, something that would give you no problem at all?

If I had to pick something to read that would go superfast, I would pick a book like, ‘New Kid’. I was surprised that I had finished reading it in a couple of hours, but it left so much ‘food for thought’. I liked the illustrations and how it told the story about a kid; people’s lives are always interesting. It really made me think about how people’s perspectives are influenced by their backgrounds and how we find ourselves judging even when we don’t realize it.