Reblog—Unusual Things I Know About Bookworms

I've always been a bookworm and can identify with many things on this list.  Take number one for example.  My husband always says that I'll read the copy on a cereal box or soup can label if there's nothing else around.  Are you a bookworm, too?  Does Jenny Hansen's list remind you of yourself?   

This reblog is from Jenny Hansen's blog, COWBELL: https://jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com

(For some unknown reason, the website doesn't publish as a link. To see more of Jenny's blogs, click on the title below.)

Unusual Things I Know About Bookworms

Posted on March 2, 2017by Jenny Hansen

It’s National Reading Month, which is my favorite time of year, since I am a bookworm. We’re a club with specific characteristics and one thing is certain: bookworms find other bookworms. They simply must, so they can find out about more cool books.

Bookworms have been devouring books for as long as they can remember – for story, for new worlds and new ideas. Their To Be Read piles are taller than a small child. Their favorite authors and characters become friends.

If you are a bookworm, there are things that I know about you that I don’t know about the other readers I meet:

1. I know you read odd things in odd places.If you are stuck somewhere without a book, you will begin reading any words available – shampoo bottles, food labels, billboard signs. Whatever. Books and magazines are preferred, but in a pinch, any words will smooth your soul.

2. You read by flashlight in bed at night when you were a child.When your person-in-charge confiscated it, you waited 5 minutes before pulling the back-up light from its crafty hidey-hole. If they were on to you and confiscated the back-up, you tilted the pages to try to read by the light from the hall.

3. When a book touches you, it is a safe bet that you will not only remember the details of that story, characters, etc…you will also remember where you were the first time you read it and what you were doing that day.

4. I am certain that if you named 10 best friends from the various periods of your life (and were being honest), at least half of them would be book characters or the authors who wrote them.

5. You have different books for different moods.These are your go-to books when you’re in the grip of overwhelming emotion. You keep reading through that stash of books until the feeling gets a little more manageable.

6. Piles of free books by your most cherished authors gives you that same zing of attraction that you felt the first time you saw your true love.

7. When you meet your favorite author(s), your tongue gets tied in knots and the idea of speaking to them gives you an extreme physical reaction. (I blush, nearly every time.)

8. You have rituals associated with your books.Whether it’s the way you clean them, sort them, store them or lend them, there is something particular you do with your books. And it makes you feel happy and peaceful when you look at your books after you’ve done it.

(For me, it’s the way I order them and which shelf or room they’re in. My husband knows: don’t be moving my books without telling me. It morphs me into the Devil Wife.)

9. On the touchy subject of lending…bookworms are quite particular about loaning their books.I know that when someone borrows a treasured book from you and doesn’t return it – or worse, passes it on to someone else without asking you first – your friendship with them changes.

You’re probably still their friend, but you’ll either “forget” to loan them books in the future or you buy a copy from the used bookstore as a back-up and loan them that. There is an A-List of book-borrowers in your life and you love to have coffee with these people.

10. When a book touches your spirit and transports you to a place you’ve never been, it’s not uncommon for you to read the last page, turn the book over and start at Page 1 because you can’t bear to say goodbye to the characters yet.

There are more things that I know about bookworms and their reading habits but I’d love to hear from all of you. What are your favorite books? Do you have book rituals? (If so, what are they?) Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!

~ Jenny

Photo credit: Hunter Emkay ~ WANA Commons

Have You Heard of the Big Read?

I first learned about The Big Read when my local Volusia County Library System did one last year. It’s a national program sponsored by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The idea is that everyone in the community reads the same book, and then they all enjoy multiple events about the book, the author, and the times. All events are free. Last year's book was To Kill a Mockingbird. This year the choice was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. To make it easy for people to get the book, the library had 1500 copies to give away.

The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is the story of Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of the American Dream. While he achieves great wealth, he is destroyed by his obsessive pursuit of Daisy, his first love, who is now married to the super-rich Tom Buchanan.  Gatsby’s story explores the decadence, excesses and arrogance of the super-rich during the 1920s, as seen through the eyes of his neighbor, midwesterner Nick Carraway.

I made it to three of the programs.  One was a book discussion led by local playwright Ann Magaha, who began with a power point that showed the autobiographical nature of the book. Did you know, for example, that Fitzgerald grew up in a middle-class townhouse, but he always felt his family was poor compared to great wealth at the other end of his street?

Another event was “Muse to Madness: The Life of Zelda Fitzgerald.”  It was one-woman show by writer Debra Conner, in which she played Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, first as a patient in a mental hospital looking back on her life and then as a young flapper in the twenties. Many people, including Hemingway, blamed Zelda for Fitzgerald’s drinking and decline, but this show presented a more sympathetic picture.  I'm intrigued and want to learn more about her.

And last for me was a Poetry Slam where poets read their own works or the poems of others. This one was supposed to be a contest among various presentations, but only one poet actually showed up.  Still, Melody Dimick went ahead with her presentation, first reading some poems by twenties poet Dorothy Parker, each ending with a funny, surprise couplet.(I'm checking out her poems next time I'm at the library.) Then Melody read her own “found poem.”  

Do you know what a found poem is? I didn’t until I met Melody, who defines it as “words, phrases, lines, and passages from other sources combined into  . . . the form of a poem.” Her found poem was made up of sentences and phrases from The Great Gatsby.  It’s amazing how she put them together to make a coherent poem!

Some other events were arts and crafts for kids, a twenties party for teens, a Jeopardy game, and a jazz music program. They also showed of several films, including “The Great Gatsby” (two versions, one with Robert Redford and one with Leonardo DeCarprio), and Woody Allen’s, “Midnight in Paris,” a great film that I’ve seen twice.

Has your community ever tried a Big Read? Did you participate? It’s a fun way to learn about a classic, and it  involves everyone in reading!  

Young Pairs Team at Nationals (Part 2)

A few weeks ago I blogged about a young pairs team from Orlando—Georgia "Juju" Bush and Timmy Chapman—who were heading to the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships.  I’m delighted to say—and they’re even more delighted I’m sure—that they placed fifth in the nation at the Intermediate level.  Here they are waiting for their scores with their coach, Cheyne Coppage.  It was fun to have a team I knew at the competition, and I followed Facebook posts about their skating, plus the official posts with results.

Of course, since I love to watch skating, I also watched the senior level competitions. I was disappointed when last year’s National Champions, Florida skaters Tarah Kayne and Daniel O’Shea, were forced to withdraw after the short program.  Tarah had a bad fall on a throw jump, and when a trip to the hospital found symptoms of concussion, the doctor determined that she shouldn’t skate.  The title was won by another talented team, Haven Denney and Brandon Frasier, who were silver medalists in 2015.

Timmy, who went to Nationals last year, told me that one of the fun things about being at Nationals is meeting other skaters at all levels.  The picture on the left is Juju and Timmy with the 2017 National Ice Dancing Champions, brother and sister team Maia and Alex Shibutani. Below they are with the Novice National Champions, Erin Coleman and Derrick Griffin. Like Juju and Timmy, this young team trains in Florida. Juju and Timmy will move up to Novice for next year.  I’m sure they’ll do well.

Young Pairs Team Goes to National

Talking with Timmy and Juju

One of the joys of setting my middle grade books in the skating world is that I get to meet some fabulous kids.  Two of them are sixteen-year-old Timmy Chapman and fourteen-year-old Georgia (Juju) Bush, a young pairs team getting ready to compete as intermediates at the United States Figure Skating Championships next week.

Are they excited?  Definitely.  “Our goal was to get there.  It’s such an honor just to go,” said Timmy.  “Any medal would be amazing!”  Juju agreed with a nod and a laugh.  “It’s so exciting.”

Ready to skate.

They will skate to “It Had To Be You” for their short program and a “Grease” medley for their freestyle, or long program.  Their hardest element, they said, is doing a side-by-side double flip/double toe combination jump.

Their success is especially rewarding because they only started skating together in August.  Timmy had skated pairs before with a different partner, but pairs was new to Juju.  Fortunately, unlike my characters Jamie and Matt, Timmy and Juju liked each other right away and love skating together, as you can see by their smiles.

“I like working with someone,” said Juju. “It’s fun to work on unison in skating, and I work out more since we’re doing it together.”

“Juju’s fun to skate with,” added Timmy, “and she gets me to work harder, which is good.”  Timmy also likes all the people they meet and the chance to travel.

Both Timmy and Juju have been skating for a while and both also compete in singles.  Timmy’s first sport was swimming, but with his mom, B-J Shue-Chapman, a coach at the RDV Sportsplex Ice Den in Orlando, he couldn’t escape being around the ice.  When he was little, his mom would put him in ice shows as a “prop,” so she knew where he was.  Finally, at ten, he decided he wanted to skate in a show and began lessons.  To solo, he had to be able to do an axel—it took him only a year.  Skating has been a passion ever since.

Juju started skating at eight when her family lived in California, and she continued after they moved to Florida.  She entered her first competition when she was ten.  She loves being on the ice and it shows in her smiles.  “I always loved the jumping and spinning,” she said, “and now I like pairs more than singles.  I think there are more opportunities for us in pairs.”

Practicing the platter lift.

Timmy and Juju are coached by Cheyne Coppage, a two-time National Pairs Champion at the novice and intermediate levels.  His professional skating career includes Disney on Ice, Royal Caribbean, and Sea World, where he is a featured skater at Sea World’s Christmas Ice Shows.  Not only has he coached this new team to nationals, but he is a great role model as they both look to performing professionally in the future.

Timmy would like to do it all.  “I want to medal in competitions and then work in shows and coach.  “I want to be part of other skaters’ journey.”  Eventually, though, he’d like to study choreography in college and work with both skaters and dancers.

“I’d like to do the same skating things as Timmy,” said Juju, “except for the choreography.  I really like art and computers, and would love to design a game.”  She also enjoys sculpture and digital art and looks forward to studying both in college someday.

With so much talent and a willingness to work hard, I’m sure Timmy and Juju will find success both on and off the ice.  Good luck to both of them at Nationals—and beyond!!