Lisa Jensen's Blog - Posts Tagged "reading"

Paper or Plastic?

It's like saying goodbye to an illicit lover. You knew going in that it couldn't last forever, knew you'd have exactly so much time together, and no more. You try to draw it out, postpone the inevitable, but sooner or later, you need that climax more than anything. And then it's all over.

Yeah, reading a great book is like that.

When I read, I want the full monty—to touch the paper, smell the ink, hear the rustle of pages, in all ways savor the strangeness and exotica of the world I'm holding in my hands. Logomania, they call it: a sensual obsession with books.

And it looks like I'm not alone. According to a popularly-shared recent study in the Washington Post, the new generation of millennials—particularly those in the 18-29 age range—prefer reading for pleasure on real, old-fashioned paper-and-ink books.

Who knew? They claim reading is a more immersive experience while holding a real book in their hands. They also say they're much less distracted by the urge to multitask—check their email or Twitter feed—than when they are reading something digitally.

Read more at http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/2015/...
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Published on March 13, 2015 19:10 Tags: books, reading

Bard Bingeing

Looks like I'm Shakespeare-bingeing this month. I just finished The Serpent of Venice Christopher Moore's fabulous follow-up to Fool (pardon me while I alliterate), which gleefully mashes up plots and characters from "King Lear", "Othello" and "The Merchant Of Venice."

And now I've segued into Kate Danley's Queen Mab: A Tale Entwined with William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, a fantasy woven in and out of "Romeo and Juliet". Danley had me at the first hint of turning Mercutio — one of the most lamented of all the Bard's untimely deaths — into the hero of her tale. So far, so good, a third of the way into the book, so stay tuned…

Btw, Danley has been writing for four years, maintains three ongoing, multi-volume fantasy series and several stand-alones, and is entirely self-published. The formatting in "Queen Mab" can be a bit wonky from page to page, and the print seems enormous, but the cover is gorgeous and her storytelling skills are highly accomplished.
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Published on March 26, 2015 16:03 Tags: christopher-moore, kate-danley, reading, shakespeare

4 Jacks and a Jamie

"You can't spit on board a ship and not hit eight fellows called 'Jack.'"

So says the pirate hero of my first swashbuckling novel Witch from the Sea My Jack chooses the name for anonymity in his dubious trade, as he explains to my heroine, runaway and accidental pirate-in-training Tory Lightfoot.

In swashbuckling fiction, on land as well as sea, characters named Jack seem to have all the fun. (Unless they're named James, like my other pirate hero, James Hook in Alias Hook.) I'm partial to my Jack, of course, but since it's summer reading season, here are some of my other favorite literary rakes and rogues named Jack, with one more Jamie thrown in. Enjoy!

http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/2015/...
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Published on August 20, 2015 12:02 Tags: alias-hook, books, reading, swashbucklers, the-witch-from-the-sea