At Tweetspeak, books matter. We host a book club, we review books, and we publish them at T.S. Poetry Press. We’re dedicated to literacy — for life. And we want to learn from each other about reading in the wild.
Do you want to be a wild reader? Are you reading wildly already? We’re using Donalyn Miller’s Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer’s Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits to explore what it means to be a wild reader — someone most likely to embrace literacy for life. Read through these 5 characteristics and see which ones fit your reading style and which you might incorporate this month.
5 Main Characteristics of Wild Readers
1.They dedicate time to read.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston came with enthusiastic recommendations from my Two Bossy Dames newsletter. The title comes from a stage direction in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and focuses on the friendship between Hermione and Pauline (here, Polly). Nevertheless, I resisted. For months. I knew the subject matter would be difficult. Then one afternoon when I had a free hour while volunteering at our local theater, I downloaded the sample on my phone. By the end of that night, I’d finished it. The next day I wrote 2,470 words, just to process.
I started to think about why we read what we read when we read it. When is the right time to read hard things? When do circumstances cause us to break from our norms, like Hermione’s mom in this story?
“Mum has problems with movies now. She can’t watch people get closure because it kills her. She barely even reads fiction anymore.”
When life takes a turn, so does our reading, sometimes. It happened to me after my mom passed away. It’s happening to a friend right now, whose husband is very sick and who, unlike this mum, can only handle stories with happy endings. Has it ever happened to you? What did you veer toward?
2. They self-select reading material.
Ever since I read L.L. Barkat’s first Reading in the Wild post and saw that she included children’s books, I’ve been making it a point to go to my local library once a week to check out these treasures. Last month Tweetspeak held its first children’s book club, and there will be a forthcoming post about children’s book buddying. This month, I read three books about animals by Jim Arnosky because they are the kinds of books my kids enjoyed. My favorite was Grandfather Buffalo.
3. They share books and reading with other readers.
It began with a book blurb. My friend and editor, Christine Granados, recently published a second short story collection called Fight Like A Man & Other Stories We Tell Our Children, which is endorsed by one of her heroes, Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street. That book has been on my short list for, oh, a good fifteen years.
I’ve never read anything like it. Cisneros is also a poet, and the novel has great economy of words. Essentially, it’s about a girl, Esperanza, becoming a writer. We come to know her as she describes her community through a series of semi-connected stories. How good is this book? It earned a nod from Gwendolyn Brooks: “Sandra Cisneros is one of the most brilliant of today’s young writers. Her work is sensitive, alert, nuanceful . . . rich with music and picture.”
After reading the book, I did something I’ve never done — I wrote out an entire chapter, “Four Skinny Trees,” which is essentially a prose poem about Esperanza that uses trees as a symbol: “Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach.”
4. They have reading plans.
My version of a reading plan means reading one thing, which leads me to read another thing and so on. This month it all started with Texas Monthly magazine and one of the best features I’ve ever read, Skip Hollandsworth’s The Day the Fire Came. Now, in the wake of Harvey, that story and the others in this paragraph feel out of place. Perhaps there will be stories about this storm and flood in the future.
“The Day the Fire Came” mentions Hank the Cowdog author John Erickson, who lost his house and office in that fire but kept his laptop, full of unpublished Hank stories. Hank was a staple in our home when my son was little, and it had been far too long since I’d read one of his adventures. So of course, I had to read The Case of the Blazing Sky, the Hank book quoted in the article. In it, Hank sings about one about one of our favorite subjects here at Tweetspeak: chickens. Hank’s hungry and tempted to raid the chicken house. But don’t worry — Sally May’s fowl will be just fine. (Here’s the song, Chickens, sung by Erickson.)
And then I was at the library and saw a novel I’ve heard of for most of my life, Elmer Kelton’s The Time It Never Rained about the 1950s Texas drought. Guess who wrote one of the blurbs on the back? John Erickson. He writes, “The Time It Never Rained is not just one of the best novels ever written by a Texan. It is one of the treasures of American literature of any age or time.” It’s straight-up tragedy, but it reads true. There’s a family member I now understand better after spending 400 pages with rancher Charlie Flagg.
5. They show preferences.
I came back to poetry through The Writer’s Almanac. I’ve read its poem-a-day every day since 2000. In 2002 my husband bought me the anthology Good Poems, “as heard on The Writer’s Almanac.” This month I read the followup, Good Poems for Hard Times. Let’s just say my poetry preferences are closely aligned with those of Garrison Keillor and crew. In this collection, I particularly liked Rita Dove’s Dawn Revisited and Maxine Kumin’s Morning Swim.
August’s Pages
Finished
Adult
Fight Like A Man & Other Stories We Tell Our Children, Christine Granados (novella and short stories)
The Time It Never Rained, Elmer Kelton
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams (I love to read plays.)
Early Readers and Picture Books
King Crow, Jennifer Armstrong, illustrated by Eric Rohmann
Every Autumn Comes the Bear, Jim Arnosky
Grandfather Buffalo, Jim Arnosky
Watching Foxes, Jim Arnosky
A is for Azure, L.L.Barkat, illustrated by Donna Z. Falcone
I’m in Charge of Celebrations, Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Peter Parnall
The Fantastic Mr. Wani, Kanako Usui
Courage, Bernard Waber
Upper Elementary and Middle Grade
Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Blazing Sky, John Erikson
Bedtime for Frances, Russell Hoban, illustrated by Garth Williams
YA
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
Exit, Pursued by a Bear, E.K. Johnson
Sliced (1/4 to 1/2 Only: Got What I Needed and Moved On or Plan to Finish Someday)
Nope.
Abandoned (Not My Cup of Tea, It Bogged Down Quickly or Others Beckoned)
Nope.
Started (The Jury is Still Out. Will I Finish?)
Middlemarch, George Eliot (Still listening on Audible. Listened a lot on airplanes, aka Flying Machines.)
Your turn
1. Share anything about you and the 5 main wild reader characteristics. How do you display them, or wish you did, or plan to in the future?
2. Share your August pages. Finished, sliced, started, and abandoned are all fair game.
Photo by 白士 李. Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome, author of The Joy of Poetry.
Browse more Reading in the Wild
__________
“Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry is not a long book, but it took me longer to read than I expected, because I kept stopping to savor poems and passages, to make note of books mentioned, and to compare Willome’s journey into poetry to my own. The book is many things. An unpretentious, funny, and poignant memoir. A defense of poetry, a response to literature that has touched her life, and a manual on how to write poetry. It’s also the story of a daughter who loses her mother to cancer. The author links these things into a narrative much like that of a novel. I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”
—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro
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Glynn says
It’s been a busy month for writing and reading, but especially writing – the draft of novel #3 went to the publisher for review, and that was my life until mid-August, although I’m still proofing and making some edits. All I know at this point is that the publisher is doing the second read now. They read drafts twice – once as a “reader” and once for “story.” Yes, I’m biting fingernails, although it’s good to know that it’s made it through the first read. This was my orphan book in the series that turned into my favorite.
Books read in August:
Fiction:
The Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (I love Penny’s mystery novels)
Murder at the Lighthouse by Frances Evesham
The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Irrationalist by Andrew Pessin
Sons of My Father by Michael Simpson
The China Governess by Margery Allingham
Unwritten by Charles Martin
Poetry:
Poems of Praise by Jacqueline Mayfield
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From Dr. Murasaki’s Notebooks by John Latham
Non-fiction:
The Theology of C.S. Lewis by Kevin Livermore
Hashtag Faith by Chris Buscher
A is for Azure by L.L. Barkat and Donna Falcone
Patched Together by Brennan Manning
How Should I Think About Money? by R.C. Sproul
Learn to Learn by Zak Schmoll
Megan Willome says
Glynn, so happy for this update on book #3!
And I have some catching up to do on Louise Penny.
Bethany R. says
Congratulations on sending off that book, Glynn! Looking forward to seeing what happens next with it. 🙂
Sharon A Gibbs says
Glynn, Congratulations! So exciting.
Bethany R. says
I’m with you on Keillor’s selections. As my Poetry Break tweets show, I seem to frequently have a thumb in one of the Good Poems books. I haven’t read every single poem in all three, but I’ve read the majority of them. In fact, last month I bought Good Poems as a present for my brother. My copy of the one “for Hard Times,” is dog eared all over the place.
Good Poems, American Places might be my favorite. I think it’s got something to do with the reason you mentioned above, about what you can/can’t read when going through heavy situations. I’ll vascilate with reading “Hard Times” poetry. It’s a bit like that wonderful intuitive person that almost knows you too well—overall an enormous blessing to visit with, but sometimes you don’t want to talk about your troubles. You need a little air and to just read about ‘People Who Eat in Coffee Shops.” (Although, disclaimer: That book is deeply touching and made me tear up on several occassions. Sometimes all poetry must be avoided!) 😉
Megan Willome says
Bethany, I hear you, girl! I appreciate the rec on “Good Poems, American Places,” which I have not read.
When my life gets unmanageable, I crave mysteries. I like dipping into a world where questions are answered and ends are at least mostly resolved.
Bethany R. says
That’s a clever way to go, Megan—fictional mysteries.
P.S. I just pulled my copy of Good Poems for Hard Times out and opened it at my bookmark. Guess where it landed me? Rita Dove’s Dawn Revisited. 😉
Megan Willome says
Too cool. I love me some Rita Dove!
Maureen says
I am about to start a collection of Neil Gaiman essays titled ‘The view from the cheap seats”.
Many other books have had to be packed away and will be opened with delight post-move, though I always have a collection of poetry nearby.
Megan Willome says
Good luck with your move, Maureen. And please do tell me how you like the book of Gaiman’s essays. It looks fantastic! The only one I’ve read is “Make Good Art,” and it should be required reading for every writer.
Maureen says
Loving it so far (started today).
Katie says
Wow, you all astound me with all you read!
Here is a list of my summer reading:
Spiritual Misfit by Michelle DeRusha
Flunking Sainthood by Jana Riess
Rhythms of Rest by Shelly Miller
Roots & Sky by Christie Purifoy
Lost & Found by Kendra Fletcher
Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott
The Joy of Poetry by Megan Willome
The Complete Stories Flannery O’Connor
Audio Books listened to while on a trips:
Rumpole & the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer
Strong Poison: Lord Peter Whimsey & Harriet Lane Mystery
David & Goliath
Tipping Point both by Malcolm Gladwell
Drop Dead Healthy! by A. J. Jacobs
Megan Willome says
Katie, I’m flattered! Michelle and Shelly’s books are so good! And I’ve heard good things about Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries.
Katie says
Glad; yours was so helpful and inspiring and yes about M’s & S’s. Just finished watching a Lord Peter W. DVD – surprising ending!
L.L. Barkat says
I might need to get that Neil Gaiman essays book. 🙂
I think I sliced and abandoned quite a bit in August. Mostly education titles.
But one that has probably given me a new mission in life is Number Sense and Number Nonsense. Well, I’ve been on the math path for a few months anyway, but this book sealed it for me (lots of “this is how the brain processes math” stuff in it). I’m going to be writing more about math education as a result. I’m going to be on the lookout for great math stories in the library (let me know if you have recommendations).
I also fell in love with an interactive children’s book called Mix It Up! It’s about color sense, but it’s also got a little number play in it. Fun and smart.
Always love to see what you’re reading, Megan. And to hear how you go about your reading life. Which is really also a writing life.
Megan Willome says
Well, I do often write about the things I read that moved me. Now I’m just getting the chance to share some of that with other reading friends.
And I really look forward to your insights on Demi’s “One Grain of Rice,” the next Children’s Book Club post, since, as you know, it’s a mathematical folktale.
Rick Maxson says
This summer has been burdened with the task of moving from Arkansas to Texas. Our children are in Texas and working on children of their own. We want to be there for them. As I have sparsely chronicled, I have been working on renovating a four level thousand sf. deck. That has taken all my strength and time to prepare for sale. In previous lives, I have been a carpenter, but now, as the saying goes, the spirit is willing but the flesh is no longer in its thirties.
These are the books I have managed to read or am currently reading (I never read one book at a time. I read them in cycles depending how I feel):
1. Ten Windows by Jane Hirshfield
2. Can Poetry Matter by Dana Gioia
3. Where Now by Laura Kasischke
4. The Half Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtromer (trans. Robert Bly)
5. The World of Made and Unmade by Jane Mead
6. The Black Heralds by César Vallejo (trans. Rebecca Sceiferle)
7. Why the World Doesn’t End by Michael Meade
8. No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi
Klein
Sharon A Gibbs says
Rick, Wishing you the best with your new endeavor.
I never read one book at a time, either. How did you like “Can Poetry Matter?” I love reading Dada Gioia. Jane’s book looks very interesting, too.
Rick Maxson says
Hi Sharon. We’ve run a couple of Dana Gioia’s poems in EDP. I love his poetry. We also ran a poem of Weldon Kees and a poem about Weldon Kees and his mysterious disappearance (his car was found abandoned on the Golden Gate bridge, or nearby, with the door open). So when I scanned through Gioia’s book I saw the chapter on Weldon Kees and was curious. Then I saw he devoted a chapter to Robinson Jeffers and another on Robert Bly (two of my favorite poets) I bought the book.
I have problems with contemporary formal poets that seem to get too cute for school. I don’t understand them and I have tried. Even some of my favorite poems belong to poets for whom the remainder of their work seems obscure and lack enough clues to be accessible. They are pedantic above all, so the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. So I loved his chapter on new formalism. I also liked the chapter on the long poem. There are very few long poems I like unless they are more storied.
Jane Mead’s poetry deals a lot with death and grief. This one I have not finished. I have to read and reread several pages at a time. This is the way I had to read “House of Poured-Out Water” to get the full impact. Beginning with “The Lord and the General Din of the World” I’ve read all her books.
Megan Willome says
I think Dana Gioia is one of the most important voices in poetry (and his poems are pretty darn good too!).
Welcome to Texas, my friend. I raise my cold Topo Chico to you and your happiness here.
Rick Maxson says
Thanks, Megan. My wife, Carol, was raised in Killeen. We will be moving to The Hill Country in Canyon Lake on an acre of land way up above the spillway. Carol is looking forward to going home. Our kids live in Austin so we will be close.
Sharon A Gibbs says
Megan,
Thank you for sharing your reading life with us.
Yes, many times reading is influenced by life circumstances. I recall picking up parenting books as a young mother, reading books about dog training with our first puppy, and studying bird books when I wanted to know more about our feathered friends. Who hasn’t turned to a relationship book in an attempt to better understand (or improve) a particularly hard relationship?
As I read everyone’s August’s Pages, I was amazed at the volumes of reading, despite busy schedules of full-time jobs, moving, renovating, writing a novel, or sending a daughter off to college. True book lovers live here!
Some days, I have to grab my reading time during the “in-between” moments, like you did while volunteering at the theater. Grazing on books, in the wild.
My August Pages
Non-fiction
Curious by Ian Leslie
Poetry
Casual, a little book of jeans poems & photos, edited by L.L. Barkat
We Might Never Die, Shawn Smucker
Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times, Matsuo Basho
Dream Work, Mary Oliver
Children’s Books
I’m in Charge of Celebrations, Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Peter Parnall (re-read)
The Other Way to Listen, Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Peter Parnall
A is for Azure, L.L.Barkat, illustrated by Donna Z. Falcone
Molly and Joe Want to Know, L.L. Barkat
One Grain of Rice by Demi
What Do You Do with a Problem? by Kobo Yamada
The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan
My Twelve Maine Christmas Days by Wendy Ulmer, illustrated by Sandy Crabtree
Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Started
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
Geography of Genius, Eric Weiner
Delicate Machinery Suspended, Anne M. Doe Overstreet
Megan Willome says
Sharon, I love the variety in your reading list. Wild is wonderful! I have not read that particular book by Patricia MacLachlan, but her middle-grade book, “Sarah, Plain and Tall” is a favorite.