Sunday, July 12, 2009

Blog Book Tour: CDP

CDP asks:

[By the way, her blog is Aunt Dahlia, which makes it a PG Wodehouse reference. This just thrills me.]

I just got the book; I preordered it on Amazon a few months ago and it arrived on Thursday. It's in the trunk of my car, since I'm taking a class and am not allowing myself to read for pleasure until my research paper is finished. So perhaps my question is already answered in the book: What did you read when you were a child and when you were in your teens?

First of all, I commend your restraint. Not that my book is opium and Daniel Craig shirtless combined, but it's a reason to avoid writing a research paper and you're not acting on it and good for you. My restraint right now is that I'm not allowed to go on Amazon and check my standings. I just make Consort do it. This means I can be found once a day huddled outside the home office screeching at Consort, "IS IT OKAY?"

"Yes, it's fine."

"Fine, like the same as yesterday?"

"No, slightly better."

"How much better? One better? Two better?"

"Do you want me to tell you?"

"NO!"

"Then take my word for it, you're fine. You'd be happy."

(Silence)

"How happy would I be?"

Someone please start the beatification process for Consort.

Now, on to your question. Yes, I was a maniac about reading when I was a kid and a teenager. A reporter asked me once about reading and I said I read about six to ten books a week, which he was convinced was a lie and set an antagonistic tone for the rest of the interview. But books for children are shorter, there's nothing but free time on a set and I was reading that many books a week. And if you learn to read while walking, you'd be amazed at how much reading time you have. I'm proud to say the kid does the same thing; you can find her wandering through the house, going to the kitchen, getting a snack, eating the snack and going back to her room without ever raising her eyes from the book. Those are my genetics at work.

The last two years have been the lightest reading years of my life, because I like non-fiction and I like essays and I was justifiably concerned that anything I read would bleed over into my writing. The new David Sedaris book existed for a year before I read it. This lack of reading made me mean. Now I can borrow books from my most literary-minded friend Mary and not worry about unintentially plagarizing.

2 Comments:

Blogger Claire said...

I was a walking reader, too! Not so much now. I named my blog Aunt Dahlia after Bertie's aunt, as you guessed, because she is my favorite character in literature. I use the phrase "abysmal chump", one of her pet names for Bertie, all the time. I changed it to (parenthetical) when I realized that few peoplew were picking up on the reference and that they thought that my actual name is Dahlia. Thanks for answering my question!

8:52 AM  
Anonymous Kelly said...

I too am a walking reader. Also, a reader while eating dinner, while taking a bath, while waiting at a RR crossing, while waiting in line anwhere, and while taking a smoke break. I was like this as a kid, and some of it is genetic. My family all sat down to dinner together, and we all brought a book to the table. We would put the books down if someone asked a question or made a comment, but when the conversation lagged, we picked up our books again. That is the best way to do a family dinner. I continue to be unable to be without at least one or two books with me at all times. I have read about 25 books or so within the last 3-4 weeks. I also watch way too much reality tv, and wonder sometimes, why I am so sleepy. I think it might be the 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night.

12:21 PM  

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