The Approach

I think that the approach to anything in life is important and worth taking a few minutes to think about before commencing. The approach to a person, task, place, animal or object sets the tone for the entire exchange. It is worth consideration.

Sure, when you approach routine tasks there is little thinking involved. I do always say 'good morning' to my kettle when I turn it on in the morning for my first cup of tea. I always give my doggies a little pat and ask if they slept well. I get on my bike the same way every morning and walk up the same stairs to my office. The approach is not so important.

The approach to certain rituals in life is very important. Holy water blessing and the sign of the cross on the approach to the alter in the Catholic church or the removal of shoes in a Temple. A handshake with a stranger. The national anthem at the start of a baseball game. A glass of wine with friends before dinner. All of these set an atmosphere that hopefully continues throughout the experienc. When there is more than one person involved in the situation we don't often have as much control over the proceedings but we can set the tone by our approach. Am I going to enter the meeting room with a smile, a serious look, talking on my phone, or will I drop my papers to see who helps me or who sneers at me? It is mostly calculated and I think it is a good idea.

I have ritual approaches in my everyday life that are a little more involved than the ones I previously wrote of. I always fix myself a cup of tea, compose my thoughts and say a little, well - prayer - I guess you can call it, before I sit down to write. Before I put on a movie I make sure I have a hot water bottle at my back, a drink, a snack, my knitting and anything else I might need during the movie so I don't have to stop and start again. I approach a new knitting project by reading the pattern slowly from start to finish and picture it all in my mind, then I cast on. I'm not a total control freak. I can wait for things. I am happy to be interrupted. I don't mind leaving one thing to do something else. But I am certain that my theory on The Approach is correct. Take a minute, close your eyes, what do you want to achieve and in your experience what is the best way to start? Do that!

My approach to a book is as important to me as my approach to anything else. There are a couple of ways that books enter my house. I purchase them or I check them out from the public library. Occasionally, a friend will lend me a book as well. If I come home and find a parcel on the front door I bring it inside. I take off my helmet and riding clothes, get into something comfy, make sure the chores are done and dinner is on the stove, make myself a cup of tea, get my hot water bottle (yes, I am addicted to it) and then I open the package. (Sometimes it will be wool that I have ordered and the approach to the package is very similar.) I want to have at least a half an hour to look at my book if it is non-fiction. I look at the cover. I never ever read the inside cover or the back of the book - I do not want someone else's opinion of this book to influence me. I read the dedication - I get a little shiver when someone says they love their mother so much that they had to write a book to thank her - and I read the introduction. I scan thru the first pages and decide if I have time to start to read right then or if I need to wait for bedtime. Honestly, this is one of the nicest parts of my day if my evening begins with an approach to a new book.

If the book is a novel I have several courses of action. Mostly it goes in my to-read pile and, depending on my excitement about receiving it, the book goes on the top of the pile or in its appropriate place in line. When I approach a new novel to read I do the same things I do with a non-fiction but as soon as the dedication is read I usually dive right in with no further preamble.

If I bring books home from the library I take the same approach but because I usually have several books. I wait to look at them properly until I am sure I have time to give each the time they deserve.

Different types of books deserve different types of approaches. Fiction is quick. Non-fiction is a little slower but not much. Coffee table type books deserve a very languid approach. Knitting books - I wait till I am in bed and I always go to bed at least half an hour earlier than normal. Cooking books - I approach them with food - they make me hungry - and I have to put them down to fix something to eat - I don't like that.

The way I approach a book can determine whether I give the book any importance or not. If I am hasty I often don't get back to the book for quite a while. If I haven't made good preparations for my approach and I get a spark of interest which means I want to spend more time looking at it right then, I have to put it down and compose myself all over again - what a waste of time. If I don't give a cooking or pattern book enough time at the very beginning, I often am left with a hasty opinion that may take quite a while to change (although we all know the fun of re-discovering something we've had for ages and suddenly find we like it much better now).

The opposite may happen too. I may approach a book with respect and open mindedness and find that it lets me down badly. Oh, well. That's why we have book fairs, second hand book stores and friends (hey, just because I don't like something doesn't mean you won't adore it - I like that about people).

Whatever you are approaching - an assignment, your boss, middle age, retirement, the bench, a movie or, especially, a book, do it with forethought and consideration. Start something in the way you would like it to end. We seldom have control over the ending but we can establish the mood for the entire experience if we take two minutes to think things through. Approach a book as if it is going to bring you hours of pleasure and teach you something valuable. Approach it from the beginning as you would an admired teacher and you won't regret those two minutes of deliberation and reflection.

Traveling Tips for Readers

I have now been on holidays for 3 1/2 weeks and I still have not finished a book. There have been too many opportunities for cuddles, sesame street, cosmopolitans and late night chats with family and old friends. But I have been thinking about reading and what a person - well, a person without a one year old grandson that you only get to see once a year in person - needs to know about reading while on the road.

First of all - and you will all say 'of course, - a night time reader needs a portable reading light. Would you believe, and I'm telling you it is true because it happened to me, some people do not put bedside lamps next to the guest bed. What? So, a little lamp bought at Borders is a must. Oh, and make sure that it fits onto your ebook reader too!

Before you buy the local chocolate, the latest magazine that is one third the price of it is at home or go to the best bakery in the northern hemisphere hit the pharmacy and buy three (no less than three but more is better) pairs of reading glasses. You are going to want to read at any moment and I can promise you will not be able to find your glasses. You do not have a kitchen counter where you saw them last or another purse where they might be. They are on the pillow of the guest bed in the room without the bedside lamp and you forgot them. So be smart and have a couple of spare pairs in your bag. And if you are traveling with anyone your age or older - buy them a pair or two too - they will be borrowing yours because they will have misplaced their own as well.

OK. So far so good. If you didn't bring one with you, while you are at the pharmacy buying your extra reading glasses, buy a notebook and a pen. You will need these when you go to the bookshop. The bookshops will call to you and lure you several times while you are in another city, no matter what your resolve about not buying books. And each subsequent city will have new bookshops. All kinds of bookshops. Second hand bookshops. Craft bookshops. Museum bookshops. Cooking bookshops. And you will want to BUY! But, hey, think about your luggage for one minute. Do you really want to lug those four huge Cookbooks around with you for the next 4 weeks? I know you need the latest in the series you are reading but do you really want to carry it home with the 12 other books you found for a couple of dollars less than you would pay for them at www.bookdepository.com? If I find an excellent book that I am sure I cannot live without I write it down in my notebook and I dwell on it for a little while. I usually do want to read it but I am happy to wait till I get home and order it. And I save my back the pain of picking up my suitcase which has a big yellow tag on it that says "Extra Heavy" even without the extra books that I didn't buy.

I always travel with little vials of saline solution. This isn't just for readers but I highly recommend it for travelers. I have often got a hair or something in my eye and there is no one to find it for me. Thus, head on a towel on the bed and several flushes later I am in good reading order. (The old 'there's something in my eye' doesn't work anymore and if there really is something in your eye the cute guys isn't going to be able to find it and you will have red eyes and a runny nose by the time you get it out) - and a trip to the emergency room is going to cost you in a foreign country. Laying on the bed, waiting till you cry enough tears to flush out your eye is boring without a book to read and, well, you can't read with something in your eye, yada, yada.....

You need to take lower expectations for your reading time depending on where and with whom you travel. In my case its all family, more family and friends. I love it and as I said before I would much rather chat and giggle than go to bed early with a book. Not every night, but most, thus - less reading time. I'm just saying so you don't actually pack those 4 600 page non-fiction books you've been saving for your trip. Honestly, one will do - along with the 100 you have downloaded onto your reader or computer.

Last but not least expect new reading experiences. I was reading a book in a coffee shop when a young woman told me she was reading the same book. Her friend's mother gave it to her and it turns out I went to school with her friend's mother. I was looking at books at one of the best bookshops on the planet (Elliott Bay Book Company) and met a man who teaches literature and criticism at the University nearby and he gave me an invaluable list of good reads. These are not unusual or isolated experiences. They happen all the time when you travel with books and amongst book readers.

My opinion - reading is a great thing to do at home or away from home, on a plane, in a coffee shop, in an hotel bed, in an hotel lobby - anywhere. There are preparations to make before and during a trip but never without a book in your bag. My first consideration when planning a trip is which book to take (sometimes I have saved a read for several months before) and the first thing packed is my book. I know some people who look forward to buying a book for their trip at the airport. What a great start. But whatever - take it, buy it, borrow it, beg it - books are an essential part of any holiday but travel wisely.

My E-book Reader v My Books

I love a book – the actual, physical book. I love to hold a book and run my finger down the cut pages. I love a book tossed casually on my bed and lots of books piled haphazardly on my desk. I love the feel of a book in my bag as I go off to town or to uni. I love the smell of a new book as well as a well read, well loved book. I love to look at books in my home and in a book shop.

I love my e-book reader. I love that I have over 100 books in my hand at once. I love the fact that just by plugging in my e-book reader I can download another 4 books without actually having to get on my bike, ride to the book shop, buy the book, and ride home again – what a waste of good reading time!

But before I can compare books and e-book readers, I think a definition of a Book is due. A book can take many different forms. It can be an 800 page hardback tome (OK, don’t worry, I’m not going to go on and on about the size of Fall of Giants again). It can also be a 40cm by 40cm so-called Coffee Table Book (What? You don’t read your Coffee Table books? I have stayed up till the wee hours of the morning entranced with a very large book about the making of maps many nights! You should try it). A book can be a normal paperback of any size, mostly easy to hold and carry around. A book can be very small filled with philosophy or poetry. It can even be a comic book sized, very soft covered graphic novel (of which I am just beginning to appreciate).

A book gives its reader clues about the story just by its physical presence. When the action starts heating up and you can see that there are 200 pages left to go, you know this is a build up to the intermission, so to speak. If there are only 25 pages left to go you know to ignore the ringing phone and the cries of hungry children and keep reading. An e-book gives you no such clues – you have to take this increase in tension just as it comes, on faith, and go with it. When a book starts to bog down or get a bit boring, you can see that that there is still the majority of the story to come and choose to give it the flick, or see that there are only a few pages left and persevere hoping that it comes good in the end. With an e-book reader – no such luck. You have to decide to continue by pure stubbornness or quit because it just feels right to quit! This sort of reading takes practice, but the learning can be quite thrilling.

You can slam a book closed when you get angry or frustrated with the plot or a character. You can push the off button really hard on an e-book reader but it’s not the same (obviously). You can lovingly place in a book mark that your friend just brought you back from her trip to Turkey (so jealous) and close your book with the sweet anticipation of starting again as soon as you get home from work. Or you can push the off button. You can bend the page to mark your place, stick a post-it note on a page that you want to read to someone, write in the margins and photocopy your favourite bits of a book. E-book reader – you can push the off button. You can lend a book. E-book reader – well you get the picture.

But, and this is a big but, as I said before, with my e-book reader I can carry 100 books with me in my small handbag. I can decide I don’t want to read the book I am reading and, with a flick of a button, be reading another book within a few seconds. I can go on a holiday and have more room for shoes and clothes so I don’t have to wear the same pants for three weeks and wear my heals out for a walk on the beach because I had to make room to bring the latest Alice Munroe in my suitcase (or Steven King which would mean leaving the shampoo at home as well – not such a great idea).

If someone sees you reading a book they generally leave you alone. E-book readers, at the moment, invite conversation. Now, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. When you are sitting on a bench in the park, right in the middle of Pip’s adventures, a passerby stopping to ask about your e-book reader is not always a welcome thing. But a handsome, inquisitive, ring-less stranger interrupting your coffee and Mr Darcy could be the start of something wonderful. OK, that’s a little silly but hey, stranger things have happened. And until everyone has one, an e-book reader is still a novelty and having one makes you a little more popular!

Both of these ‘holders of pages of wonders’ have a place in my reading world. I still love books. Why do I have to stop loving the physical book just because I also read novels on my e-book reader? There is not one reason that I can think of. Why do I have to hide my e-book reader when I’m with my snobby, intellectual and highly judgemental bookish friends (really I do love them)? I won’t. And if the media stories are true concerning the sales of e-books, then everyone will have one soon. I’ll just be able to say something like ‘oh, yes, I bought my first e-book reader in 2010 – I was one of the first!” Then I can be an e-book snob, as well.