Complete, Book Addiction

Complete, Book Addiction

By Jacob Malewitz

(Photo Courtesy Stock.Xchng)

There is a book at the beginning and at the end. It could be the Bible, perhaps, or another tome on what it is to Be, just Be and nothing else. That is going down a spiritual track. The book addiction, however, has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with working your way up to the literary noir, or the fantasy fun, or even the science fiction wonderment. Feel the book addiction? I think you do; I always had it. This piece highlights the book addiction.

The book addiction is collecting …

And building a library of good books is, in my opinion, a big thing. You go from the literary noir of Paul Auster, John Updike, and Michael Chabon, to the odd machinations of Isaac Asimov and Dan Simmons (those sci-fi masterpiece). Or maybe you go down the roads of fantasy, where J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan, and many other popular writers of the field go.

But picking names is …

Just picking names. I mentioned a bunch of authors so far, but, truly, the only one I really love so far is Paul Auster, and even he can be bad. Picking out names is, however, part of the book addiction. You go for the big names and the small names, book addict, because that is the way to true reading light.

Reading light has …

Nothing to do with faith and plenty to do with time. I see the reading light as something to be explored by each of us; it has a power which cannot be understated. Opening a book, you smell the pages. Looking at the picture of the author, and you wonder. Reading light becomes something more than building a book library or hoping you can get a discounted copy of “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” or a Stephen King horror. It means adding up all the names together, putting each writer on his/her pedestal, but choosing, choosing which one shows you the true reading light.

Book buying is …

The true path to literary happiness. Maybe I am going too much into theory. Maybe you should just keep it simple, forgetting the light and just picking up that beaten copy of a John Steinbeck masterpiece, or the forgotten dime novel from the 1950s. They say things, these books, and they lead to addiction.

Article by Jacob Malewitz

Author, The Writer Who Smiles, Now Available from Booklocker

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3288.html

Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script

Book Addiction Part 1

Book Addiction Part 1

By Jacob Malewitz

There is a book at the beginning and at the end. It could be the Bible, perhaps, or another tome on what it is to Be, just Be and nothing else. That is going down a spiritual track. The book addiction, however, has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with working your way up to the literary noir, or the fantasy fun, or even the science fiction wonderment. Feel the book addiction? I think you do; I always had it. This piece highlights the book addiction.

The book addiction is collecting …

And building a library of good books is, in my opinion, a big thing. You go from the literary noir of Paul Auster, John Updike, and Michael Chabon, to the odd machinations of Isaac Asimov and Dan Simmons (those sci-fi masterpiece). Or maybe you go down the roads of fantasy, where J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan, and many other popular writers of the field go.

But picking names is …

Just picking names. I mentioned a bunch of authors so far, but, truly, the only one I really love so far is Paul Auster, and even he can be bad. Picking out names is, however, part of the book addiction. You go for the big names and the small names, book addict, because that is the way to true reading light.

Article by Jacob Malewitz

Author, The Writer Who Smiles, Now Available from Booklocker

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3288.html

Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script

How to Know When a Book is Good Part 1

How to Know When a Book is Good Part 1

By Jacob Malewitz

Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script

Reading is never a waste. In fact, reading can do much for your mind. Sitting on the couch, digging into your favorite romance can be like watching the sun set. Sitting up, your eyes tensed, and reading a horror novel can make all the hairs on your arm stand up. Or just reading the works of Ernest Hemingway can make you question the way the world works, and our role in it. That is the power of a book. But how do you know when a book is good?

Looking at the Clock

Even good books will make you look at the clock often. However, when you are looking at the clock and page number all the time, maybe this book isn’t up your alley. Maybe this history of medieval times is a bit tame for you. Or the literary novel of a divorce too boring. When you start and stop all the time, giving up on the book, it may be time to open a new one.

Understanding the Power of a Book

When a book is good, though, it can make the time go by faster as you turn the page. There is a certain power to a good book: it can have the beat of poetry, the conflicts of an old western, maybe even enough action to out do even Hollywood. When you start looking at all the pieces of a book, and your reaction to them, you come to understand the basic reason you like it—this book has power.

Complete Readers Read Session 1

Readers Read Session 1, Complete

by Jacob Malewitz

Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script

The power is in your hands, young reader, old scholar. You can sit in front of the TV all day and play video games, wasting away, or you can play the thinking game.

The power is in your hands, young reader, for you can pick up a classic, get bored to tears, pick up a genre novel, say “This ain’t so bad,” and just start reading. Readers read. It’s a fun, joyous experience. They sit in coffee shops and book storees because they like reading so much, so very much, nothing is better in the world. So what are you waiting for?

Oh, I know exactly what your waiting for. The right time to read. You don’t want to think about all this and that, why he should pick her instead of the other one, why she started a small detective agency, why this young fella named Frodo has to go up all the mountains to another place. Yes, movies and TV shows have their place in the world. No, they are not wastes. They can tell readers different kind of stories with moving images. But the power is in your hands, as it always has been. Fun. Isn’t it? To pick up a brand new book in a small bookstore that is selling it for a steal. Fun, isn’t it, to pick up an old copy of a Hemingway in a garage sale and wonder why it costs a quarter. Who knows, maybe none of this will happen.

When you read Stephen King and Clive Barker, finding the horror each writer provides, what do you see? I see Stephen King as a man on the edge—read The Shining and find out. I see Clive Barker as a stealthy little writer who pens these little, but big, horrors with such a power its hard to put them down. Don’t you see it too?

Maybe not. Maybe you have little respect for horror and want to delve into some science fiction land made by the mad Philip K. Dick, the wondrous fantasy books of Ray Bradbury, or the modern classics by Dan Simmons.

I still see you shaking your head. Is this all just an exercise? Is he wasting all our time? Read the classic biographies next. They are a step above. Readers read biographies of authors because they show something about our condition. Readers read of Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, maybe Hentry James, maybe John O’Hara, because they are big names. Yes, they are. And it’s fun to jump into the mind of a novelist. Always so much fun. It’s worth every penny.

Sure you can go to the movies and have a blast. I respect the power of a film too. I leave out much. If you want to go into the realm of what if, reading newspapers really won’t answer your desires. I suggest reading something with its own movable power. You need not love Stephen King to read horror—actually some of his books are bad. If you reading Clive Barker you may just end up ashamed for doing so. But you can do more. You can go for the literary works of someone like Virginia Woolf. The modern classics of Paul Auster.

I guess it’s all an opinion. I am drifting when I write. Something changes on the page as I see into this serious game. Every book has influenced me. Why not find a good book to set the mood?

Learn to Read a Different Way

Learn to Read a Different Way

by Jacob Malewitz

First off, let me just say this—I learned how to read by looking at comics, by having my father sit in his chair and tell me what Iron Man or Batman was doing, why The Joker was bad, why Tony Start drank, why Bruce Wayne lost his parents. I had to learn to read. My father couldn’t just dictate to me for the rest of my life. He didn’t go too fast or too slow—I just ran into problems when I wanted more and more. So I picked up the comics, began to look closer. I guess I didn’t learn completely how to read by picking up comics, school obviously helped. But they put that mindset in me that to read was something bigger than anything else, it had its own power.

I suppose without those super heroes and villains I still could’ve learned to read. It was just more enjoyable to think about why Iron Man was trapped in a submarine than why the dog barked at the boy (I am thinking of picture books there).

This is something to be discussed more. For without my reading, I may have never found the love of writing.

How did you learn to read? Drop me an email at jfmalewitz at gmail dot com.

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The Writer Who Smiles Part 4

The 4th installment of my essay, The Writer Who Smiles, part of the book of the same name.

Author, The Writer Who Smiles, Now Available from Booklocker

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3288.html

I discover it in other places. I have many writing friends who laugh at my jokes. I am a recovering addict who always plays around with the words of a 12 step group I am in. I did not have to be a Hunter Thompson character with a joint in one hand and ten beers on the floor. I worked through the being with many names, discovered it more in Julia Cameron’s “Artist’s Way,” and found sustenance in reading things which I once hated.

There are points in writing that we won’t smile. Instead of finding light or humor, we see the darkness within us. This is not a bad thing. We can write on the darkness, we can relay our feelings to others, we can be human—frail and living a life which can seem pointless. The darkness can be drugs; it can be the absence of a higher force.

We do not have to rush to the therapist or the pill to cure what ails us. Perhaps a friend, a new hobby, or a new love can help us find things. But, the writing should come first. On the page we evolve faster than anywhere else. The pill may take away our edge. The therapist might make us remember smiling, but we forget ability to find true joy.

The Reader Who Smiles Part 6, Finale

I will be posting the complete part of this essay now. Here is the last part. Let me know what you think.

On the other hand, the reader who smiles should read “Gatsby,” “The Sun Also Rises” and “To the Lighthouse” because the world of language is there. If we choose to be writers, we need qualifications. We can run up to the editor who knows none of the classics and impress him so much he offers us a check. Well, maybe we cannot go that far. We can read comic books, novels, histories, memoirs or whatever and we can find a reason to smile in them. The books are not a waste; the grin comes, shining to the sun, the novel or graphic novel flapping in the wind, and the writer can wait for just a moment. We are reading. And we hope it does not make us writer, whether we write or do not, because writing can bring about all those emotions and pains and doubts that we so long to avoid. If writing is about smiling and crying, reading is about the place in between because, as long as we read, our mind will be moving.

Why I Started A Reader’s Eye

Article by Jacob Malewitz

Author, The Writer Who Smiles, Now Available from Booklocker

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3288.html

Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script

“I am a fan of the story.”

I wrote that once, a long time ago, for a small website I had selling TV shows and films. I learned I wasn’t alone, that others liked some of the same stuff I did. It used to be I would read everything I could, rarely writing on it. Then I became a writer—not for material gain, but because I loved the idea of being an artist.

While working as an editor for a newspaper, I had to come up with some kind of slogan for my biweekly opinion column. The words had never quite come to mind before, but here they were—A Reader’s Eye.

As an arts and entertainment editor I worked on all kinds of artistic projects, covering local plays, music, and on a bigger scale movies and books (some by local authors). So I came to the conclusion the idea was sound, as many of us have a reader’s eye and just don’t know it.

I love books, comics, films, TV shows, the great directors, the great writers. I love all these things because they say with drama what cannot be said in life (sometimes). As I am now a freelance writer, it came to be that a blog was a good idea. Ya, I could publish whatever I wanted. I loved reading, not necessarily wriitng reviews of everything. But I went in anyways. Now, there is quite a readership on this blog (Brag, Brag, Brag).

I guess I’ll close with an old line: Reading is serious business.

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