I have fond memories of Robert Louis Stevens’ Treasure Island. It’s the first book I remember my father and I reading together while I was learning to read. Which is one reason this weekend’s November 13th STRANDED event has my attention. The event is being held in recognition of Robert Louis Stevens’ birthday, and in following the island theme, the Desert Island Supply Company is wondering “what songs could you not live without if stranded on an island”?
The event runs from 2p.m. until midnight, this Sunday, at the BottleTree. If you buy your tickets early, $20 gets you in the door (it’s $25 at the door) where you’ll hear musicians playing coves of their “desert island” songs. All proceeds got to DISCO, which is a creative writing program for students. Fostering future creative writers is a great way to honor Stevens, who has influenced so many writers since his time.
“Not everyone who owns a lot of books is a book collector. Granted. I wear pants most days, and own many pairs, yet don’t think of myself as a pants connoisseur. Book collectors are the same way. A book collection has a purpose beyond accumulating, beyond, even, reading. A book collection has a purpose. What should the focus be? That’s the beauty of it.”
I like people who group their books in some logical or at least interesting fashion. I REALLY like people who dive deep into a category or genre or author. Those are always great conversationalists. And indeed. That is the beauty of it.
There are 11 of Harper Lee’s letters set to be sold by November 8th. You can get the full details and keep up with the results over on the auction site. I was surprised how unique many of the letters are. There seems to be a personal tone to each of them. Most correspondence we see from author’s these days is a little more formal, a little more template-driven and even a little less polite.
These letters run from the 1960s-1990s. Harper Lee seems to be one of the most curious and sweetest of famous Southern authors. But then I know a lot of our senior ladies down South would probably fit this bill as well. They should all just put pen to paper.
Even if you never get the chance to bid on one of Lee’s letters, it’s worth a couple of clicks and some time to read through the text of each.
I’m reading fiction again. And it feels good. Last year my non-fiction TBR pile was massive. I was so behind on reading stuff for work and other topics, that I imposed a self-inflicted fiction fast for 12 months. It ended earlier this week. It was certainly worth it. I read 32 non-fiction books over the 12 months. All of which add up to make me better at my job and to be generally better informed. I mean, we read not only to escape, but to improve ourselves. Right?
But there’s nothing like burning through some mind candy. I started out with two. I am about 50 pages into Ninni Holmqvist’s The Unit. I’m going to give it to 150 pages, before deciding if it’s recommendable. And I finished reading Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Lies yesterday. It was so-so. But it was easy and fast. Just what I was looking for.
I don’t know if you’ve ever taken the time to think about the benefits of reading fiction, but they are there. It’s something I had never thought about until my fast and it’s something I am going to have to research some more.
