Live Local, Buy Local

I recently started reading The Small- Mart Revolution by Michael Shuman.  I started as a skeptical, but open minded reader, but by Chapter 3 I'd become a full fledged enthusiast/fan. 

For the most part, I am guilty of not taking local options into account when making my daily purchases. I eat at franchise chain restaurants, shop at malls and big box stores, online, and via mail order.  Let's face it, it's a matter of convenience.  Boot up the computer and in three or four days you can have the latest and greatest on your door step.

Buying local is not just a shopping priority. It's banking, healthcare, and entertainment.  You can get a mortgage through a local bank. You can find a local doctor and dentist. You can turn off the TV and get your entertainment via local lectures, sporting events, festivals, and fairs.

Mr. Shuman has assembled an easy to use checklist for implementing these ideas and incorporating them into your daily living. 

Still not convinced?  I urge you to read The Small Mart Revolution for more facts and figures like this one:

According to Shuman's book, studies have shown that spending $1 at a chain book store puts $13 back into circulation in the local economy, but spending that same $1 at a locally owned book store puts > $40 back into the local economy.  Want to reduce local unemployment? Make buying locally a priority.

You can get started by printing out The Small-Mart Revolution checklist today.

50 Books to Read Before You Die

You may recall a post about my goal to read 12 novels in 12 months that I made a few weeks ago.  I referenced a blog by Amanda Land and her post about 50 Books to Read Before You Die.

I've already marked The Road off my list and I'm currently reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The book was written in the 1950's and according to Stephen King, Lord of the Flies changed his life.  It's another one of those books that are assigned by high school English teachers, but somehow my high school English teacher didn't assign it to me.  If I recall correctly the book was on the reading list, but we weren't allowed to read it for credit in the college prep classes.

I'm currently reading Chapter 3 and the life change hasn't occurred for me yet, but since there's 190 pages to go I guess I still have some time.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This morning I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  It was a movie too, but one that I haven't seen.  After reading the book, I think I'll pass on the movie. 

The book is on many "great American novel" lists and I agree that it deserves a place on those lists, but it's a depressing tale.  Death, anarchy, apocalypse, cannablism...McCarthy covers it all. 

The narrative is excellently descriptive, though most (if not all) of the expected punctuation and quotation marks they teach you about in high school and college English classes are absent.  The book is not organized in the familar chapter structure either.  It's one long chapter from page 1 through page 289.  That was a distraction for the first few pages, but I got used to it.

I could go into more details, but I'm afraid I might spoil it for someone else.  It's the kind of book you need to experience for yourself.

Would the book have been a best seller without being an Oprah Book Club selection?  Would the movie have been made with her endorsement?  It's hard to predict, but of course it didn't hurt.

McCarthy is known for his reclusiveness and refuses most interviews.  Here's a rare interview he granted Oprah Winfrey.  After her endorsement that inevitably led The Road to a huge "best seller" status, I think he owed it to her.

I'm going to give McCarthy a break for a few months, but I'll be adding Blood Meridian to my long term list of "greatest novels" to read. 

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Like many people, I've got a stack of books that I've purchased because I saw them listed in a newspaper article, watched an interview of the writer on television, or read a blurb here and there somewhere on the Internet.  Lately it seems my stack of books is growing faster than my ability to read them and if you recall an article I wrote a couple of weeks ago titled How to Read 12 Novels a Year in Your Spare Time, I've tried to re-focus and re-commit to reading. 

The 2010 "Finished Stack"

This morning I finished reading the last 120 pages of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which is the first novel in my 12-in-12 attempt that started on August 1st.  There's a section of our local Sunday newspaper that lists the Top 5 New York Times Best Sellers for Hardcover Fiction and this book has been on it for several months.  I picked it up a couple months ago and put it in "the stack". 

The book is 451 pages, but don't let that keep you from reading it.  It might take an extra day or two to finish it, but it's worth it.

The Help reminds me a little bit of Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, another book that is set in Mississippi.  Whereas Mudbound is an in your face account with more agressive language, The Help is somehow softer.  Both books deal with civil rights issues from the perspectve of women living in Mississippi, with the time frames separated by three decades.

The Help is written in the voice of Aibeleen, Minnie, and Skeeter.  Aibeleen and Minnie work for two of Skeeter's best childhood friends.  After returning from college at Ole Miss, Skeeter begins to understand that she no longer identifies with her friends the way she once did and she comes to realize that it's because of the way they treat their maids.

I was bracing for a harsher, edgier ending - maybe even violent - but in the end Stockett took a higher road.

Read more about Kathryn Stockett on her website.

And if you have 4 minutes, here's a video interview Katie Couric did with Kathryn Stockett that provides a little more background on the book and the author.

How to Read 12 Novels a Year in Your Spare Time

According to a 2008 Time.com news article reporting on a survey by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) , reading in America is on the rise. The article explained that a NEA survey found a reversal of a 2002  trend stating that adults are were reading less literature.  From Time.com:

...nearly 47% of all adults in the U.S. read a work of fiction not required for work or school in 2008, with the number of Americans who read a book growing by 3.5 million...

This is an encouraging sign, because a 2004 article from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) website NEA.gov explained the results of a 2002 survey found adults reading less.

I've been taking my own unscientific, informal, seat-of-the-pants survey for the past several weeks.  My results turned out somewhat different than the NEA findings. The co-workers, family members, and friends I talked to almost unanimously agreed that they'd like to read more novel length works, but they find it hard to find the spare time to do so. After thinking about it for a while, I think I've found a solution.

Suppose you have goal of reading 12 novels in the next 12 months.  This is a modest goal for some, but a challenging goal for others.  I'm personally somewhere in the middle - sure it's possible but I'm unsure that I can make the personal commitment to make it happen. That's why I've developed a strategy that will virtually insure that I do it and it boils down to a simple goal:  Read 12 pages per day.

Sounds simple right?  Here's how it works:

Goal:  12 novels in the next 12 months
Average novel length:  350 pages
Total pages in 12 average length novels: 4,200
365 days divided by 4,200 pages = 12 pages per day

I hear you.  You're saying, "I don't have time to read 12 pages every day."  Sure you do. It's easy.

Do you watch the local news?  Well, if you skip the local news and spend the time reading a book you can find hidden time that you didn't know you had.

How about lunch?  If your lunch break is 60 minutes long, simply eat lunch for 24 minutes and read for 36. See I told you...you CAN do it.

And if you're looking a list of books to read, I've got that covered too. Well, actually Amanda does. Books of Amanda Land, a Florida book blog, provides reviews and summaries of popular books in a series of regular blog posts.  Amanda recently wrote an entry about 50 Books to Read Before You Die, the theme of a book mark she purchased from Barnes & Noble.  It's possible that you've read some of the books already (I've read 5), but I'm guessing you will find enough books that you haven't already read to keep you busy for the next 2 or 3 years.

I've already got The Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye on my nightstand.  How about you?

Guy Books, Gal Books, or Plain Old Books

I have made a concerted effort during the past couple of years to begin reading more novel length works.  I've always been an avid reader of magazines, newspaper articles, and more recently, internet blogs, but I've been trying to rekindle my interest in novels and it's working.

If I read a book that I enjoy, I'm not shy about sharing it with my friends.  I talk about it, reference it, and draw conclusions from it for weeks (or months according to my wife).  I'm nothing if not enthusiastic.  If I like it, you should like it too right?

Not that long ago, a social networking friend of mine commented that I should read a few more "guy" books.  Well, I have been reading guy books and also reading books written by women.  It seems that my friend assumed that I mostly read books written by women because I've mentioned The Joy Luck Club and The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan a few times on Facebook.  I also referenced Mudbound by Hilary Jordan recently.

I've also pretty recently read Carl Hiassen's Nature Girl and Randy Wayne White's Sanibel Flats, novels with a Florida theme, and Doug Worgul's Thin Blue Smoke about Kansas City Barbeque and much, much more. The first two I read for entertainment and the third because I like bbq. 

I don't consider any of these books to be "guy" books or "gal" books necessarily, but rather just books that happened to be written by a man or woman.  They are books about real life experiences and some of the details are fictionalized to convey a particular feeling about a time in history.  In short, they're just books that I happened to read.  And for a bonus, Carl Hiaasen makes me laugh.

Guys may be shy to admit it, but some of the books written by gals are actually pretty good. And gals, throw in a book written by a guy every once in a while in between the latest Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Tess Gerritsen, and whomever else.  The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks might be a good place to start. 

And to any of my friends who may be keeping track - I recently purchased it and will begin reading it soon.  It happens to be written by a man, but the title and main subject are about a woman. Funny yes?