The fabulous ladies over at The Blue Bookcase are hosting The Literary Blog Hop once again. It's a great opportunity to get to know some of your fellow lovers of great literature and pick up a recommendation or two. If you have a moment, take a look around and leave a comment here and there to let everyone know what valuable service they are providing to all of us. And, if you're here from the Literary Blog Hop, please feel free to settle in and take a look around. If you're looking for highlights, try our reviews of Ulysses, The Ginger Man, and Sometimes a Great Notion (our all-time favorite).
After all that, I almost forgot to answer this week's question: How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and nonfiction?
My love of literature, like many of you, I owe to my parents and grandparents. As a young child, my grandmother would read I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, a Dr. Suess story very vaguely in the line of Homer's Odyssey, which I eventually came read myself. Between that first book and my first real taste of literature it's all a blur of Stephen King and Scott O'Dell (and even a little V.C. Andrews, I'm almost ashamed to admit). But Steinbeck's The Pearl at 12 was a real turning point, as I remember. I suddenly recognized real literary genius and the incredible connection between author and reader that can come out of it. After that, I basically put away the pop fiction (okay, I still read the occassional Clive Cussler) and became a devotee of literary fiction.
I re-read The Pearl on a lazy afternoon a couple of years ago and fell in love with it all over again.
V.C. Andrews! Man, that brings me back. Everyone in my 10th grade Honors English class was into Ms. Andrews. We called her works, collectively, "The Incest Books."
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in the hop! I've really enjoyed seeing the responses to this prompt.
Many of us, it seems, start by reading a lot of mindless reads. Something seems to nudge us toward something bigger....
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower! (I thought I was an old follower, but no.)
Here is my post for the Blog Hop.
Interesting how there seems to be a specific book, whether because of timing or the quality of writing--or a combination of the two--makes us realize that there is more out there than we'd previously known.
ReplyDeleteI see you're reading O'Brian's second book, "Post Captain." I have read the complete series several times, and it just gets better and better. Some of the most erudite historical fiction available. That series is in my top ten favorite sets of books, period! The politics, the science, the humanity, and the damn humor is nothing short of priceless. Can't wait to see what you think. Jane Austen is a superb set-up for reading the novels of Patrick O'Brian. Cheers! Chris
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