Subscribe via RSS feedThe 5 Ws of Reading
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I love the internet. You find something here, then hop there, and off you go. That's how I found this questionnaire and with it a whole slew of new to me blogs. I saw one of Ariadne's posts in the fedi, clicked through to her site and read her version of the topic. From there I jumped to Thomas Rigby's post, and from there to the original: The Wry Writer. This is also the version of the questionnaire I'm using here.
WHO — Name an author you would love to have a 'One to One' with.
I wouldn't want a one to one with any author, that thought alone terrifies me. I wouldn't know what to say, or how to engage in conversation. LOL I guess it could be cool to meet Jane Austen, but I doubt she would find my company any pleasant. I'd bore her to death. Or, at least that's my fear.
There is one person though, now that I think of it, that I would love to sit with. One whose work I have not even read yet. I found out about her only very recently, and only read a biography about her so far. That person is Hedwig Dohm, a long forgotten German feminist, pacifist, and writer of essays, plays, and novels. I would still be terrified and not know what to say though.
WHAT — What genre do you most gravitate to?
Spontaneously I'd say Science Fiction. Space opera style. I like space and space ships and adventure. But I haven't really read that much of that genre. There hasn't been a lot of that that has appealed to me. But it's the one genre that I always keep an eye out for.
WHERE — Where do you prefer to read?
In bed. It's my comfy place. I am typing this while sitting crosslegged on my bed, with my laptop propped on a little stand.
However, I can read pretty much anywhere: the bus, the park, on a chair, a bench, the beach. Just not in the car. I get dizzy extremly quickly.
WHEN — What time of day do you prefer to read?
I have no preference. I read when I have the time and the head for it.
WHY — Why is your favourite book your favourite book?
First off: I do not have one single favourite book. I have a number of them. And the main thing they have in common is that they hit me right in the heart. They all made me cry, sobbing style. Had I known beforehand that they would do that, I wouldn't have read them. I never read a book or watch a film if I know they will make me cry, or generally touch me emotionally in a heavy way. Am I weird? Who cares. My favourite books are my favourite books because they touched me in deep and emotional ways.
BONUS — How do you go about selecting what you will read next?
I do not select the book, the book selects me. An example: Back in the early 2000's when the Lord of the Rings films came out, everybody was reading the book. I wanted to read it too, but somehow I couldn't get myself to do it. But then, in 2019, I knew I was ready. I heard about an online class by Becca Tarnas, where participants would read the book in chunks and then come together for a lecture and exchange. I knew this was it, I wanted to do it. And I did, and it was such a great experience. It was deep and profound and in a way spiritual I cannot even begin to describe. Becca has published her lectures in a book, "Journey to the Imaginal Realm", that I can very much recommend.
- Elena.
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