Books just keep on comin'

Group reading projects take off,
at church, at home, at Valencia

It's a good thing I have a couple weeks off until the start of the fall semester -- I need time to catch up on all my reading!

* Our pastor at Grace Fellowship, Mike Adkins, challenged the congregation to spend a month getting closer to God by reading the "One Minute Bible: For Starters," over 30 days (Aug. 6 through Sept. 3). He plans to blog about the journey (click here), and I plan to participate in the discussion by commenting along the way.

Debbie will be joining me as we spend a little time each day detaching ourselves from the world and attaching ourselves to the Father.

* I threw out the idea about "The Big Read" (see entry below) to the librarians at Valencia's West campus, and it morphed into a full-blown community reading program. The school will purchase 1,000 copies of "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini, and many professors will be assigning the book to their students.

The object will be to read the book prior to the release of the movie Nov. 2. There will be campus discussion groups, special events, etc., and we're working on a private screening of the film for those who participate.

* My new nightstand companion is "Into The Wild," by Jon Krakauer. That movie opens Sept. 21, so I have to hustle. (It's only 203 pages, so it shouldn't be a problem!)

Time for some summer reading

'The Big Read' program inspires
a jump into several new books

The National Endowment for the Arts sponsors a program called “The Big Read,” which encourages community organizations to choose one book to promote. The object is to get as many people as possible to read, and talk about, that one selection.

Here is a list of the titles offered by “The Big Read:”

“Bless Me, Ultima,” by Rudolfo Anaya
“Fahrenheit 451,” by Ray Bradbury
“My Antonia,” by Willa Cather
“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“A Lesson Before Dying,” by Ernest Gaines
“The Maltese Falcon,” by Dashiell Hammett
“A Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway
“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Zora Neale Hurston
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
“The Call of the Wild,” by Jack London
“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” by Carson McCullers
“The Shawl,” by Cynthia Ozick
“The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck
“The Joy Luck Club,” by Amy Tan
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” by Leo Tolstoy
“The Age of Innocence,” by Edith Wharton

How many have you read? Sadly, I’ve read just “The Call of the Wild,” and that was last year, listening to an audiobook on my iPod.

I am working with the librarians at Valencia Community College to get the college involved in “The Big Read,” and I plan to assign the students in all of my classes this fall to read “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

Zora Neale Hurston lived for many years in Eatonville outside of Orlando, and there is an annual festival there celebrating her life and career. Seems like a good first choice. I’ll assign a different title every semester until I’ve read all 15!

Want to join in the fun? “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was available at my local Sam’s Club for $9.97, so if you see it, buy a copy and get in on the discussion.

And by all means, promote reading with your kids, your friends, your colleagues. If we don’t keep the tradition alive, Ray Bradbury’s world with no books – the scenario in “Fahrenheit 451” – could become a reality.

* * * * *

You might notice that the “What I’m Reading” section to the right has been updated. I just finished “The Tender Bar,” J.R. Moehringer’s excellent memoir about coming of age with the help of a ragtag cast of characters in a local pub. It was well written, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, often touching, and always entertaining. It was my “nightstander” for months, so at 4-5 pages before dozing off it took me a while to finish it, but a dedicated beach reader could knock it off in a weekend.

• “Made to Stick” is a book offered through a reading circle at Valencia, and we’ll have a campus-wide discussion of it July 19. I’ll have to get on the stick, pun intended.

• “The Assault on Reason” is my current drive-time audiobook selection. Will Patton – a coach in “Remember the Titans” and the bad guy in “No Way Out” – is the narrator.

Finally, on my 6,011-mile road trip in May, I listened to “Mary Mary” by James Patterson, “The Hard Way” by Lee Chill, “Shadow Man” by Cody McFadyen, “At Risk” by Patricia Cornwell, “The Interpretation of Murder” by Jed Rubenfeld, and “Winston Churchill: Man of the Century” by John Ramsden.

That works out to one book every 1,000 miles! I think I could be a cross-country truck driver as long as the iPod is working!

Give a listen to "This Just In"

Bob Schieffer's reading
brings memoir to life

If you watch TV news at all, you've probably seen Bob Schieffer more than you realize. He's been a fixture at CBS for so long, and in so many roles, that many of us take him for granted.

I just finished "reading" Schieffer's memoir, "This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV," and I have a new-found appreciation for the veteran journalist.

"Reading" is in quotes, because I really listened to the recorded book. Schieffer read his book to me, through the miracle of audio CDs and the iPod.

Can you get any more personal than that? Having an author read a book to you? Not since my days of storyhour at Miles Park Library have I had so much fun listening!

(Recently I've also had the pleasure of sitting down with Thomas Harris as he read "Hannibal Rising" to me. The book might not have been well received by critics and readers, but as a listener I was enthralled.)

Schieffer's book presents a glimpse into a reporter's notebooks, covering news from the Kennedy assassination to 9/11, with lots of funny stuff and insider information thrown in for good measure. I particularly enjoyed Schieffer's recollection of eating Argentinean steaks in Buenos Aires while covering the Falklands "war," and sharing the dinner table with Jimmy Carter in a double-wide barbeque trailer in Plains, Ga.

And the best part is it was all free! I got Schieffer’s audiobook from the public library, which remains the greatest invention in the history of civilization!