tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post2731460995090939938..comments2023-12-09T00:33:24.572-08:00Comments on Novel Matters: The Age at Which We Read, cont.Bonnie Grovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11377519561074174038noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-76834421974764482002009-02-04T14:25:00.000-08:002009-02-04T14:25:00.000-08:00Liz, thank you for such a nice comment. While the ...Liz, thank you for such a nice comment. While the genres in which we write are very different, I love the way you use words. I feel sometimes like I'm the one playing Chopsticks while the rest of you are playing Chopin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-32205962108263787902009-02-04T13:25:00.000-08:002009-02-04T13:25:00.000-08:00Sharon,You have such a way with words. I aspire to...Sharon,<BR/>You have such a way with words. I aspire to do half as well. I pray that the story I'm working on now will touch hearts the way your writing does. I loved your last reading at Hilmar Writers' Group.<BR/>LizAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-47180457075417863832009-01-31T10:38:00.000-08:002009-01-31T10:38:00.000-08:00Excellent observations, Steve. I love your take on...Excellent observations, Steve. I love your take on how literary works (yes, you can use the L word here) affect us differently than popular fiction, protein vs. carbohydrates. You can't have an exclusive diet of either to have a healthy body, and I think the same holds true with fiction, so I enjoy a combination of both. But oh how I love the time spent in a literary novel. Love how the experience lingers. With a carb-type novel I close the last page and head to the bookcase to see what's next. But with a literary novel, I close the last page and hold the book close, not ready to let it go, like good chocolate melting on my tongue. I'm not eager to replace that "taste" with anything else for a while.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I too have re-read books that have impacted me as emotionally the second or third time around as they did the first. But I hold to my case, the element of surprise can never be replicated when you walk familiar ground.<BR/><BR/>And I love your word verifications!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-1414523420116483922009-01-31T09:41:00.000-08:002009-01-31T09:41:00.000-08:00Let me explain a bit further - "literary" works pu...Let me explain a bit further - "literary" works pull at deeper elements of humanity and so come at our personal emotions through the back door. As we read a book like this it causes questions to arise that look more at who we are in the universe, in the realm of humanity; the aftertaste having a hint of emotional lingering. A literary work still has an emotional impact, but it comes later in the process and in a deeper place. It is the protein of our diet, where popular fiction is more like the sugar rush of carbohydrates... that's why I read Star Wars, I need another cube of sugar.<BR/><BR/>Wprd verification - orsergu: Orson Well's favourite spaghetti sauceSteve Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02332880875202358601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-63225320306788315312009-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:002009-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:00I read in chunks. In college there were people rea...I read in chunks. In college there were people reading Watership Down and LOTR, and I opted for Paretti and eventually into the Star Wars Universe. Over the years I attemped The Hobbit 5 or 6 times but could only go so far. I haven't analyzed what that point waas, but I finally got past it a few years ago and then I was off, reading the Hobbit and the Trilogy in a week or two. When I get into a book I tend to put evrything else on minimal mode and spend evry extra minute "borrowed" on the book until it is done.<BR/><BR/>As to what Sharon sais about the first time being a charm, There are some books that hit me on an emotional level, and they will do that again and again. In paretti's second book there is a scene where the female character gives up and surrenders to Jesus with angels all around her. It is as powerful each time I read it. A passage like that will make it into a sermon, too.<BR/><BR/>Is that because it is literary or emotional? I think one big aspect of more "literary" works (can I use the "L" word on here???) is they tug at deep emotions, broader thems of human kind and don't just stay in the personal emotion.<BR/><BR/>There has only been one book that "creeped" me out, and it only did it the first time I read it. It was by Kathy Tyers, a Christian author writing in the Star Wars universe, The Truce at Bakura.<BR/><BR/>Word verification - ungspro: A speech pathologist who has no tongue...Steve Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02332880875202358601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-7000774527182045752009-01-30T23:28:00.000-08:002009-01-30T23:28:00.000-08:00I might be weird, but over the years I have re-rea...I might be weird, but over the years I have re-read The Fellowship of the Ring in autumn, just to revisit the story and the characters all over again. I often didn't make it past the point where the fellowship began their quest, and I agree with you ladies, I never experienced the story again quite the same way as the first time.Debbie Fuller Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09174333267329587740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-43660048294614458882009-01-30T23:11:00.000-08:002009-01-30T23:11:00.000-08:00Brenna, you bring up a good point about how the be...Brenna, you bring up a good point about how the best novels draw us into the life of the protagonist. I love feeling myself get inside a character -- those I read about and those I write about.<BR/><BR/>I agree that the real magic of a journey through a book can only be experienced once. Once you've traversed the pages, you might enjoy revisiting them, might even see more than you saw the first time, but the wonder is still replaced with the familiar.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-9398104669895627272009-01-30T22:21:00.000-08:002009-01-30T22:21:00.000-08:00I remember when I first read C. Bronte's Jane Eyre...I remember when I first read C. Bronte's <I>Jane Eyre</I>, for a Victorian lit class in college. I could relate to Jane on so many levels. I was absorbed by that novel. There were times when I really felt that I <I>was</I> Jane. That unspoken passion that she had. I don't know how many times I've re-read that book since then. It doesn't read the same, though. There was an innocence to it the first time. After that, it's just been a wonderfully, well-written classic.<BR/><BR/>"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself." (Chapter 27) <BR/><BR/>I suppose I was a bit too serious in college! :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01277539761373030285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-83827710920120753132009-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:002009-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00I can see that this blog is going to add exponenti...I can see that this blog is going to add exponentially to my already leaning pile of books to read. Ah well. Add The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and duck.Kathleen Popahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03682046279211463305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-63544645180924620232009-01-30T06:48:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:48:00.000-08:00I would like to add that I only recently read this...I would like to add that I only recently read this novel, but if I had read it in college (wow-years ago!) I don't believe I would have been in a place of openness to 'hear' this.Debbie Fuller Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09174333267329587740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-16996805750967199682009-01-30T06:43:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:43:00.000-08:00It's interesting what we glean from novels that th...It's interesting what we glean from novels that the author possibly never intended, even truth about the nature of God. Madeleine L'Engle wrote, "There is nothing so secular that it cannot be made sacred..." and this happened for me when I read "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." I don't know the author's religious beliefs, but in reading about John Singer, I realized that we sometimes project our assumptions about the nature of God onto Him, based on our own perceptions and not necessarily truth. Everyone who came to John Singer projected what they needed him to be onto him, without ever really knowing him. Instead of discovering the true nature of God, we sometimes make Him into our image or into what we need Him to be. In this way, I feel that God used the story (regardless of the author's intention) to reveal something I needed to see.Debbie Fuller Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09174333267329587740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6360410252358941163.post-28722339912908191422009-01-30T06:19:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:19:00.000-08:00What a lovely thought, dear Sharon, to not "live i...What a lovely thought, dear Sharon, to not "live in that place of hopelessness any more." Having read your books, I can say that you have been able through your writing to help others escape from their personal places of hopelessness. <BR/><BR/>What a worthy goal for us all....Latayne C Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06133535124591010838noreply@blogger.com