Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘reading’

Shop Talk |

"what they need is a damn good reading"

by Anne Stameshkin

“Books were once subversive things, causing revolutions, and stimulating unimagined sexual awakenings…These days, opening a book – any book – is seen as nothing more than part of good citizenship, and something that might just help you on the path to prosperity to boot.” Alastair Harper gets satirical on the Guardian Books Blog, raising questions about indiscriminate reading and experiments like OUP’s Project X: There is a presumption that if the worst, most delinquent tearaways would just put down their machetes for a moment and sit down to read a good book, they would instantly see the merit in a […]


Shop Talk |

warning: reading leads to "vivid mental simulations of narrative situations"

by Anne Stameshkin

A Wash-U study using magnetic resonance imaging suggests that reading stories is anything but passive: Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.


Shop Talk |

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's…a book-loving PRESIDENT!!

by Anne Stameshkin

Michiko Kakutani is thrilled (and aren’t we all!) that our new president is a bonafide, enthusiastic reader. Here’s to an era of empathetic, intelligent governance; all hail the book-loving chief!! Much has been made of Mr. Obama’s eloquence — his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while contextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who […]


Shop Talk |

mind your manners

by Anne Stameshkin

Did you learn your manners from reading Victorian novels? I find this scientific study fascinating…but I’d argue that if novels like Pride and Prejudice teach us how to behave as a society, they also beg us to misbehave, or at least to deviate from a “normal” path (and thank god!). Excerpt from a Telegraph.co.uk article (thanks, Tori!): Researchers believe the novels act like “social glue”, providing instructions on how society should behave. In particular they believe that the novel reinforces beliefs that maintain the community and warn against destructive influences and character traits. The study suggests that good literature “could […]


Shop Talk |

how to read 462 books in 365 days

by Anne Stameshkin

How many books, on average, do you read a year? I thought I was a pretty voracious reader; in 2008 I finished 68 new books (this doesn’t include any books I re-read or manuscripts I read/edited for employers or friends). But, oh, I am outdone! Writer-reviewer Sarah Weinman (and a host of others who commented on her article) can read 462 books in one year; according to Weinman, the quality of her reading experience isn’t suffering, and she isn’t just skimming. Taking in this article, I was suddenly three feet tall in corduroy overalls, standing on tip-toes to ask my […]


Shop Talk |

can you read like a girl?

by Anne Stameshkin

On Preeta’s recommendation, here’s a great article from a mother who wishes she could still “read like a girl.” Do others (boys, too…this shouldn’t be so gendered) feel this way, that you can no longer really lose yourself in a book? I’d agree that it’s harder now, and that it depends on what you’re reading and the number of distractions in your life and whether or not you are officially enrolled in an MFA program at the time…but me, I can still read like a girl. What I can’t do, what I often long to do, is to write like […]


Shop Talk |

Newbery skirmish

by Anne Stameshkin

Earlier this fall, School Library Journal published an article called “Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?”, sparking a heated debate about criteria for what has long been recognized as the most prestigious prize in children’s literature. Are the latest Newbery medal-winning books really too “inaccessible” for kids? Should accessibility and popularity be issues in determining a winner? Are popularity and quality mutually exclusive? Does the Newbery tend to favor “good” books over “great” ones? What responsibility does the award have to young readers? What do you think?


Essays |

How It Feels to Get There: Reading Deborah Eisenberg's Twilight of the Superheroes with Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext

Quite early on in The Art of Subtext, Charles Baxter gives a tongue-in-cheek suggestion for a compelling story: “give the character exactly what s/he wants, and see what happens.” In Eisenberg’s stories, having what one wants is an unexpectedly fraught condition.




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