What are you reading?

Reading the Four Agreements , Emergency and Disaster Management, International Pharmacology and Environmental Ecology . Trying to get to a point I enjoy sitting with an actual book as I tend to read everything online , skim or glance and rarely just read to read. I never read fiction , if a book has no value as far as teaching or learning new information, I dont bother.
Goal for this year is to see if I can learn to read for enjoyment and not information or education. It seems like a waste of time to me but if I can find a way to use it as a way to relax or step back then maybe it has value. 🙂
Its a stiff order , and questionable if it will work, but going to try!
https://www.thefouragreements.com/

Ah, books and cats. They just seem to go together, don't they? Whether I am using my ereader, or a printed book, there are times I read aloud. To my cat. One hand petting her, the other hand holding the book. She snuggles up on my lap and we have "quality cat and lap time". After a while we are both sound asleep....
Ginger

I read the The Four Agreements years ago and found it to be such a powerful book. Also read other books by the same author.

@adr Yes, I have his other books, also. Thanks for the prompt. It's time to pull them off the shelf and reread, noting what I found important when reading them before.

There are two authors that have space on my shelves: Ivan Doig and Jean Auel. Over the years these two really spoke to me in their style, and I have complete sets of all they wrote. These days, when a monthly email comes along allowing me one free ebook, I tend to gravitate to a memoir or historical fiction.
Ginger

Hi everyone, I am a big fan of Louise Penny. Waiting with bated breath for A World of Curiosity, which will be out soon. This, if I'm not mistaken is her 18th book. Set in Three Pines, it has wonderful, unique characters that I never tire of, and there is always a murder mystery to solve. After meeting her after a book discussion at a bookstore, I feel in love with her books.

If I really want to get super relaxed I read Alexander McCall Smith's #1 Ladies Detective series. Usually holding a cup of red bush tea. So soothing. Cares just melt away.

I also read books that focus on our world and it's challenges. Everything from where our food comes from, the rain forest, global changes, and the like.

@callalloo

You sound like you have a great sense of humor so, in between the book reading, why don't you start the cat book..sounds so funny. I used to jot down closed captions that were so funny (in the context) that I saw on tv...I used captioning all the time. Just came across it today...should continue...they are so funny and no disrespect to the live captioners. I suspect many of the captions are ASR...automatic speech recognition....which would explain the bloopers.

Joyce Carol Oates can be difficult reading as her books can be so introspective and generally from a woman's perspective (but not always). I have read so many of her books and actually returned one recently after only a chapter of two....it got tedious. I'm also a fan of Margaret Atwood (Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale). And give me a good English mystery any day....Dame Agatha and P.D James for example.

Also used to have 2 books going at one time but now I prefer to finish one first.

Waiting for your book to be published lol
FL Mary...Sunshine state...has been raining for past 3 hours....wow

I am reading two books at the same time....one is fiction for entertainment and one is not but equally entertaining to me.

One of my favorite authors is Joyce Carol Oates and I basically read everything she has written. What I am reading now by her is the 20th anniversary edition of Blonde where she reimagines the inner poetic and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker as a child, a woman and a celebrity known as Marilyn Monroe. I love the behind the scenes of old Hollywood and the Blonde mystique surrounding Hollywood at that time. It depicts the manipulative and harsh realities of show business without naming too many names.

The other book is called Food Fix by Dr Mark Hyman and is equally fascinating. What we eat has tremendous implications not just for our health but for the planet, society and global economy. Dr Hyman explains how our food and agriculture policies and influenced by money and lobbies and shows the resulting spread of obesity, chronic disease, climate change, poverty, violence, social injustice etc. He doesn't pull any punches and I believe this book will change the way you think about and eat food....a real eye opener with pages of references.

The first book is because of the author and Marilyn Monroe's always fascinating history. The second book is because I am passionate about what we eat and am appalled at the lengths the Food, Tobacco and Big Pharma go to for greed with no thought to the devastation their policies cause.

And, by the way, although I do read digital books, I love the feel of a book in my hand that I can cart around anywhere.

Ah soapbox again

FL Mary

@wisfamily

I love to read and always have since I could hold a book up until this day. I mostly read fiction since college and have favorite authors. I do take exception to your point that implies fiction has no value as far as teaching or learning new information. That is not the case and what @sueinmn said about her father.....my father was of the same mind. I grew up around books.

There have been numerous scientific studies concluding that reading fiction has multiple benefits. Fiction activates the area of the mind relating to empathy. Essentially the brain reacts as if we are actually living the events and can help us in negotiating our social world and sometimes complex relationships.

Fiction is effective for releaving stress because you are temporarily disengaged from events around you causing that stress. This is why fiction readers tend to sleep better. Regular readers of fiction tend to have lower stress levels, higher self esteem and lower rates of depression than non readers.

Fiction opens up your mind and can help you to look at different perspectives of people and perhaps be more appreciative and understanding of others.

Fiction readers tend to have a larger and better vocabulary. I am the type to tends to look up an unfamiliar word. Both my children have amazing vocabularies and are masterful at writing.

You can learn anything by reading anything , even the back of a soup can label. Your book The Four Agreements does sound interesting but I had to smile when I saw the topics regarding mastering awareness and not making assumptions. An avid fiction reader can achieve all that.

While I do read non fiction from time to time my true joy is fiction.....I am currently reading a favorite author...Joyce Carol Oates...."The Falls". I have also put a hold on the latest Stephen King novel (there's an author and makes time fly by).

Do I learn something new everytime I pick up a fiction novel....you bet I do.

FL Mary