A different reading year

 

In Books and the Teenage Reader, my old professor G. Robert Carlsen wrote about "sub literature," explaining how access to it was critical in building good reading abilities in children. As I recall from his class at the University of Iowa many moons ago, Carlsen identified comic books and series books like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as reading materials that would allow the reader to move from being conscious of decoding the words and sentences to being so engaged in the story that decoding became subconscious. This theory guided my materials selection policy when I was a school librarian. I believed popular books were as important as those that could be considered high art - maybe more so.

While I have been a fairly good reader for a rather long time, I still love to read what one might call "sub-literature." Pop thrillers, detective stories, and science fiction/fantasy all allow me to enjoy the story without having to think too hard. I get lost in the plot and don't worry much about meaning, metaphors, or social messaging. I call it junk food reading.

Into the category of junk food reading, I will cautiously add, re-reading - even re-reading books that may not be considered sub literature. These books while not necessarily difficult to interpret, are familiar and obviously engaging enough to want to re-experience. I did a lot of re-reading over the last couple years - Michener, Woulk, Berger, Fleming, Steinbeck, etc. And I have quite a number of titles still on my "to-read" list that are old friends.

But this year I have so far read only authors who are brand new to me, despite the challenge that some of them present.So far I have read:

Metropolis by Wilson (nonfiction)
Deacon King Kong by McBride (fiction)
The Silence by DeLillio (novella)
The Preserve by Winter (science fiction)

and I am about half finished with Perry's memoir Population 485 (fantastic).

Each of these books has required me to slow down a little, think harder about the characters, remember details of the plot, add a few new words to my vocabulary. Plus, they have asked me to approach characters through a more empathetic lens - especially the down-and-out housing project denizens of Deacon King Kong and the Wisconsin rednecks of Population 485.

While I may make an exception or two (if Connelly or Child release new mysteries), I plan to keep reading new authors. Make myself think a little harder. Learn a little more. After all, did I not write "If one can read but is not changed by reading, why bother?"