BTT: Encouragement

How can you encourage a non-reading child to read? What about a teen-ager? Would you require books to be read in the hopes that they would enjoy them once they got into them, or offer incentives, or just suggest interesting books? If you do offer incentives and suggestions and that doesn’t work, would you then require a certain amount of reading? At what point do you just accept that your child is a non-reader?

In the book Gifted Hands by brilliant surgeon Ben Carson, one of the things that turned his life around was his mother’s requirement that he and his brother read books and write book reports for her. That approach worked with him, but I have been afraid to try it. My children don’t need to “turn their lives around,” but they would gain so much from reading and I think they would enjoy it so much if they would just stop telling themselves, “I just don’t like to read.”

I don't have children so I have no first hand experience of encouraging them to read. I've always known that when I have children, I'll be reading to them from a very early age so that they have that early memory of books and reading connected to the warmth and love that I gave them.

I always remember my dad reading me bedtime stories and it's well-documented in my family that I'd come home from nursery school (at aged 3) and drag my big basket of books to the nearest parents, demanding that every one of those stories be read.

My parents are voracious readers. I've never seen them not be in the middle of reading something. Our house is filled to the brim with books! I imagine it's where my brothers and I got our love of reading. We look up to our parents when we're children and want to be like them. If we see them doing something like reading, we'll want to copy them.

Plus our Junior school organised book clubs - We'd take a catalogue home every couple of weeks, tell our parents which books we wanted, we brought the money in, and the school would send away for the books for individuals. It was exciting.

I think in order to introduce children and teenagers who don't read to something they'd sit down with is to find out their interests. There's always a book they'll have something in common with.

If they're a big fan of certain films that are based on books, that's always a good way to turn them to reading aswell. :)  

Weekly Geeks: Fun Facts About Stephen King

This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors.


1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

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I decided to do my Weekly Geeks fun facts on Stephen King as I'm currently reading The Stand (I've become paranoid whenever someone sneezes or coughs around me now) and I've been reading King's books since I was about 13 so he's one of my all-time favourites.

So here goes . . .


- Stephen Edwin King was born September 21st, 1947, in Portland, Maine. He also grew up and went to college in Maine which is why most of his stories are set there. He sticks to a place he knows the ins and outs of.


- King graduated from the University of Maine in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in English. He then went on, later in life, to teach Creative Writing there.


- King's first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974 and later made into a film. Originally he threw the uncompleted manuscript out after becoming discouraged with the idea. His wife, Tabitha, rescued it and encouraged him to finish it.


- To date, King has had a total of 48 novels published.


- In the late '70s/early '80s, King published a series of novels under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, as an experiment to see whether he could replicate his own success again. He did. And Bachman was later exposed as King's pseudonym. This led to a press release announcing the death of Bachman from 'cancer of the pseudonym'. In 2007, King published an old manuscript of Bachman's, Blaze, and announced that all proceeds would go the charity for 'cancer of the pseudonym', in memory of Richard.


- When King overcame his addiction to drink and drugs in 1987, he came across one of his books, Cujo, that he couldn't remember writing. He had to reread it to learn what it was about as he was so heavily under the influence at the time he wrote it, he'd completely forgotten it.


- King's sons, Joe Hill and Owen King, are also published authors.


- On June 19, 1999, King was struck by a minivan on the shoulder of Route 5 in Lovell, Maine. The driver had got distracted by his dog, and King landed in a depression 14 feet from the pavement. He suffered from a collapsed lung, multiple fractures on his right leg, scalp laceration, and a broken hip.


- It was during his time in hospital that King got the idea for Lisey's Story. His wife told him she'd go home and make his office nice and tidy for his return. He panicked and told her to stay out of there, realising that if he had died, he would have left his papers and drafts very unorganised and free for anyone to look at.


- King bought the minivan that hit him and, on the anniversary of the accident, hammered it to pieces with a baseball bat.


- King suffers from a currently incurable condition called macular degeneration which eventually leads to blindness.


- King has stated that his favourite book-to-film adaptations of his work are Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist.


- In 2002, King wrote a TV mini series called Rose Red. He even made a cameo appearance as a pizza boy.


- People travel from miles around to visit King's house in Bangor, Maine, whose gates are adorned with bats and spider webs.

 

Review: This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

Title: This Boy's Life

Author: Tobias Wolff

Year: 1989

Rating: 5/5

Review written for: Me

Summary: Tobias Wolff takes us through his teen years as 'Jack' while on the road with his mother, striving to find something better for themselves and a future not so bleak.



Review: I first became aware of Tobias Wolff's story as a young teen. I caught the 1993 film adaptation of this book, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro, and was amazed to discover that everything I watched was based on true events.

Wolff's memoir of his teen years is a wonderful tribute to a time that most affected his adult life. This Boy's Life begins with Wolff and his mother travelling across the country with dreams of making it rich by finding uranium. It is a glowing, idealistic dream which distracts them from the fact that they are running away from Mrs Wolff's abusive boyfriend (who soon tracks them down).

After a few years of settling from place to place, Mrs Wolff falls in love with a man named Dwight who insists they move in with him and make a happy family. Dwight's abusive and domineering demeanor soon starts to show though, and Wolff soon discovers that if he wants any happiness, he has to work for it himself.

This Boy's Life was such an interesting read. Young Wolff isn't a perfect teen. In fact, he's a troublemaker. For every school he attends, he always seems to find the bad crowd to hang around with. Even Dwight's strict sense of discipline isn't enough to whip him into shape completely. I always enjoy narrators who aren't perfect. Toby is far from perfect. He's the kind of neighbourhood kid you'd have to watch out for; The kind of kid who'd throw rocks through your windows or steal the fenders from your car.

But he's likeable. His narration is packed with his inner thoughts that insist he hates the way he is and doesn't understand why he does what he does. He wants to better himself and go to prep school and a good college, like his father and older brother before him.

It's his lack of interest in school and his penchant for troublemaking that's putting a stop to this. He also begins to notice some of Dwight rub off on him - an angry attitude quick to put anyone down who'll do better than him.

This Boy's Life captures an adolescence so perfectly. The dreams that we have about our future and how they are altered by circumstance. Wolff is now a successful, award-winning writer but was told that he'd never amount to anything. I love hearing success stories. Teenage tearaways are never given any encouragement. If the traditional school system fails them, teachers give up and never expect to hear from these pupils again. It was the same in my school - If you didn't get A's from day one, teachers didn't bother. When these pupils can completely change their lives with newfound confidence, it makes me smile to think of how hard they've worked for it.

This Boy's Life was an excellent read about life in the '50s/60s. Being a teenager while faced with life decisions and an abusive homelife is an interesting world to dive into. I found the relationship between Toby and Arthur Gayle an interesting one. The two initially meet by getting into a fight over Toby calling Gayle a 'sissy'. They soon become the best of friends though Wolff is quick to hide this friendship because of how 'different' Gayle is - effeminate, sarcastic, smart. Wolff even mentions that one afternoon they find themselves kissing but never speak of it again. Small instances like this are perfect details for the kinds of crazy things we do during our teens that we never really understand - We just want to experiment with everything while trying to discover who we are.

I'll be on the lookout for more books by Wolff. I read his short story, Bullet in the Brain, while in uni and loved it so I look forward to getting more and more into his writing as the year goes on. I'd recommend this in a heartbeat - especially if you like teen reading. This is like a YA book but real and full of the little details that fiction would miss.  

Review: Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon

Title: Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

Author: John Lydon

Year: 1995

Rating: 5/5

Review written for: Me

Summary: John Lydon, lead singer of Sex Pisols and Public Image Limited, traces his poverty-stricken, working-class beginnings to the height of his stardom as 'Johnny Rotten', frontman of one of Britain's most controversial and influential groups of all time.



Review: I'm going to attempt to write this review without any bias but, as a hardcore Sex Pistols and Pil fan, it might prove hard to remain objective through this one.

Rotten is divided up into 'segments', not chapters, chattering the passage of time in John Lydon's life. His narration is brutal and honest, completely true to himself, and he never stops to worry about whether he should be exposing certain bits and pieces about his past and career. He just wants the fabrications of the Pistols to come to an end and present an honest account.

While the book is carried by Lydon's narration, its pages are also interjected with passages from contributors including Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Billy Idol, childhood friends, family members, Warner executives, music journalists, and Sex Pistol roadies. As a result, at times there appears to be some conflicting accounts of the Pistols' time in the music industry. Lydon acknowledges this, and doesn't care.

The truth is that these extra contributors help convey the idea of what '70s Britain looked like and how the punk movement affected all people from every class. Many people are quick to point at the Ramones as the starters of punk. Lydon and his contributors barely mention them, citing the New York music scene at the time with having no relevance to what was going on in Britain.

The Pistols wanted to break through all the middle-class bullshit about what music should be and create a scene where artistic freedom ran lose and the 'rules' of what makes a good song was forgotten. Lydon has never been out to impress anyone; He just wanted to write and sing about life for the late teen-early twentysomethings who were given no ambition or motivation or free will (surpressed by teachers, parents, or 'the system' that tells us what the natural route in life is).

The punk movement of the '70s helped to bring together these feelings of confusion and longing to express themselves, whether the youngsters were from working-class areas, middle-class, or even upper-class, rebelling against mummy and daddy.

With every paragraph that Lydon describes his time in the Sex Pistols, we begin to understand more about the state of the world 'back then' and how they caused a massive affect on music, TV, politics, and life. All conservative rules about what was allowed to be heard, to be seen, to be shown, to be worn, was thrown out the window.

Lydon even touches on the court cases that followed the demise of the Sex Pistols between himself and his manager, Malcolm McLaren, that was fought for years to hand any royalties back to the members of the band rather than the negligent McLaren.

'Punk' has since become a real commercialised word. In fact, hearing that this new band or that new band is 'punk' will be the quickest way to turn me off. What's punk about them? What are they saying and how are they communicating the way the Sex Pistols did? Pffft.

Any Sex Pistols or Pil fan should have already gone out and bought this. That goes without saying.

However, any person who calls themself a music fan ought to read this too. The punk movement was something like nothing else. How many bands like the Sex Pistols come around and change the way we think about everything? Bands that really do influence the way we think about life and allow us to open our eyes and have some rational thought?

Lydon's honesty and openness about what he believes in - whether you think it's right or not - is brilliantly gripping and a real lesson about music, life, and self-expression.  

Update

Just when I begin to ingratiate myself back into the blogging community, something comes along and puts it to a halt.

Apologies for lack of posts here and lack of visits to your blogs too.

My family was dealt with a big blow this week. My beloved nana passed away early on Monday morning.

I'll miss her so much. She was completely full of life, spirit, and soul - everything a true Valleys girl should be. A brilliant sense of humour. And so unbelievably strong.

I think my brothers and I share the same childhood memory of my nana and her house. She loved fried food. In fact, her kitchen smelled of it. Whenever my parents dropped us off at Nana's house for the afternoon or morning, we'd all huddle together on her sofa to watch marathons of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Willow, or Pete's Dragon, while she cooked us some bacon butties.

She loved to collect things. Her home was adorned with millions of antiques or trinkets and knick-knacks that she'd recieve or send off for. And she was a big knitter. She'd knit and make toys for all her grandchildren. Little dolls or teddies. Anything she could find a design for.

She really was amazing.

I miss you already, Nana. xxx