Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Friday, March 9, 2012

The Literary Book Block Hop for March 2012




Please consider joining us for Irish Short Story Week Year Two, March 12 to March 31.   All you need do is post on one short story by an Irish author and send me a comment or and e mail and I will include it in the master post at the end of the challenge.  




I am always glad to see the Literary Book Blog Hop-sometimes I admit I feel out of place in a world of YA books, vampire romances and ARC reviews.   It is good to meet other people with interests beyond these.


When I started my blog nearly two and a half years ago, I planned to focus on books about people who lead at least partially reading centered lives.   This is still a core focus of my blog but in reality I post on a variety of topics including Japanese literature, post colonial Asia fiction, classics, and lately I have been very into short stories  My  blog is the home of Irish Short Story Week II (set for March 2012).   I like to discover new to me authors and I am open to joint projects and events.



I will be glad to follow back all who follow me.   If you visit leave a comment so I can return the visit.


This week we are asked to answer three questions.



How do you find time to read, what's your reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities? 



I will try to answer all three of these questions.


How do I find time to read?   OK easy answer for me.   I have not worked in years.  Like most books bloggers based in the Philippines, our household work is done by helpers.  My wife manages our three daughters and has her own business so I am often home alone but for the help.    For years my only duty was to feed our beloved cat, Mr C. at 400am when he demanded his breakfast, now he has passed on.   I normally swim for an hour or two every morning and sometimes I go out with my wife to social functions or just to get out but my time is my own.   Some days I read 8 to 12 hours, some only a couple of hours.   I know I am fortunate in this and I am so glad I have my love of reading to make my free time so rewarding.   I have a lot of news feeds I follow, some e mail contacts and a lot of blogs I follow and I sometimes watch TV but reading and also working on my blog, which is tied in with that, is much of the focus of my day.   If I want to read 16 hours in a day, there is nothing to prevent me.


What is my reading style?


Not sure quite what this is getting at but I tend and like to read fast.  I much prefer to read on my IPAD.   I am almost always reading from five to ten works at once.   Normally I have one to three works I am focusing more on but I try to read some from every book in process every day.   I also now read a lot of short stories.    


Where do I think reading should rank in societies priorities.?


When I saw the question about reading as a social priority I thought about life in the ten million plus Asian city in which I reside.   We have some of the biggest swankiest malls in the world, the well off live behind ten foot walls with cut class in them, and guards with sawed off shot guns, have helpers just for their pets (called a dog or cat Yaya) but we have no public libraries.   Millions of kids grow up never having their own books.  Once my wife and I went to an outreach at a local orphans home.  We gave each of the fifty kids a book our daughters had out grown.  It was almost heartbreaking to see the children hug the books. 


I would like to invite all everyone to join in for Irish Short Story Week Year Two which will start on March 12 and end on March 31, yes it is a long week.


Mel u



11 comments:

bibliophiliac said...

Mel, how wonderful that you are able to lead such a reading-centered life. Irish short stories week is tempting-I might just join you!

LBC said...

What an interesting post. How sad to not have public libraries, but how wonderful to have so much time to be with books.

Rise said...

The lack of public libraries in the country is really frustrating. I will vote for the politician who will address and legislate about this.

Melissa Wiebe said...

Must be nice to have the option to read 16 hours each day, if you wished to.

I think one has to appreciate what they have by seeing what others don't have, libraries included and its awesome that you live in such a place that values books as rare as they may be.

@parridhlantern said...

Now that explains how you maintain such a high standard on your wonderful blog. I'm envious of your time to read, mine is squeezed in between work, family, which now has a young puppy added to its mix & my ability to remain awake. Obviously the flipside to this is access to material, which I'm guessing the Ipad has made a lot easier. Great insight into The Reading Life of a favourite Blogger, thanks.

Mel u said...

bibliophiliac-I really hope r you will join us for Irish Short Story week

LBC-thanks very much for your comment and visit

Rise-I hope I live to see public libraries but...

Melissa-thanks very much for your insights

Red said...

That's great that you were able to donate books at the local orphanage. Hopefully you started those kids on a long road of reading love!

Christine Chioma said...

Wow that's fascinating about the Philippines. It says a lot about people's values! I can't imagine not owning a book. I had a ton just as a baby. That's amazing what you did at the local orphanage.

Sorry the reading style question also tripped others up!

As the Crowe Flies and Reads said...

Holy cow, you're certainly lucky to have that much free time to read each day. I used to wonder how you were able to review so much, but now I understand.

Robyn Ryle said...

Let me just concur with everyone's envy of the amount of time you have to read. That rocks.

scribeswindow said...

I know I've said this before on your blog, but I still can't believe there are no libraries. You remind me a little of my husband's aunt who lives in India. She too has many hours of leisure that she fills reading and following other pursuits and she also has servants there that allow her to do this. I'm going to leave now. Just a little bit envious......