What is reading?

For 2012 the National Year of Reading twitter reading group set up a blog - love2read2012 - to act as a point of reference and maintain the conversation. One of the pages on that blog discussed what is reading. In 2013 the team is continuing the twitter reading group (which began with the #readit2011 campaign), spreading globally and expanding on the idea of what reading is. The new blog is called ReadWatchPlay and was launched at the Imagine the Future Public Libraries NSW conference held just this past week at Shoal Bay. Below is a copy of the page on that blog which discusses what is reading within this context (it is a bit of a rewrite of the original love2read post). Enjoy. What do you think reading is? What does 'reading' mean for/to you?

We value all kinds of reading experiences which provide enjoyment, knowledge, understanding, and relaxation. Be it a book, a movie, a game, or a piece of music – reading reaches out to the world and hugs them close.

The concept of ‘reading’ encompasses a broad spectrum of activities – reading, watching, and playing.

Reading has made me who I am. To read is to learn and grow, to experience, to empathise, to understand, to marvel, to wonder, to laugh, and to cry. To live other lives in other places and times, to deepen a connection with place. Reading is immensely important to me. It shapes my personality and identity as do all experiences. I am a fuller, more rounded person because I read. I am able to imagine and empathise with others. I learn things that help me in my daily life and I experience joy, sorrow and relaxation when I read.

I’m reading when I check my email, I’m reading while I download songs, I’m reading when I sort my bills from the ones I must pay now to the ones that can wait a little longer. The act of reading is an everyday function. The act of taking time out to read the story behind the recipe, the description of the engine space, the context of the game, all are integral actions which inform and enhance my experience. Reading isn’t just about escaping into a world of fiction –  it’s also about providing context to our environment – both real and imagined and thus enriching our lives.

Reading can be

• fun, sad, traumatic, confusing, fast, slow, episodic, continual
• collaborative
• participatory
• exclusive
• inclusive

And all reading is reading – no matter the format.  We should not be textist about format, or length of work, or the context of the reading. Reading something for young children filled with pictures and sounds is just as valued as reading a university thesis. Reading a biography is just as valued as playing a game exploring the period of the Crusades. Reading an adventure story for young adults written by a well-renowned Australian author is just as valued as watching a BBC television series featuring the antics and explorations of a mystery-solving sleuth or a galaxy-travelling adventurer. Reading a book in a digital format on my computer, tablet, or phone, or indeed listening to one through my iPod, Mp3, car stereo, or home stereo, is just as valued as holding that paper-bound version in my hands and inhaling the sweet smell of print and glue. Watching the movie is just as valued as reading the book. Playing the game is just as valued as reading the graphic novel or comic on which it is based, and vice-versa.

Indeed reading is many things, …

• devouring a book cover to cover, and then starting at the beginning again
• poring through each recipe, and the stories in between
• exploring the repair manual so you can fix your car
• flicking through pages, just reading a few words
• watching the faces in the crowd as an author/storyteller engages the audience in their story
• discovering the story in the game so you understand the game
• reading in games to achieve objectives
• watching the episodic movie breaks between one game level and the next to experience the story
• information to get stuff done
• information for fun
• in any format, at any time
• facts and figures
• lifesaving or death defying
• therapeutic
• relaxing
• searching flickr images
• tweets
• blogs
• signs
• watching a movie
• watching a television series
• listening to music
• playing music
• listening to a story
• writing your own story

Reading is an experience – what has your experience been, what is your experience now?

Amy, Cathy, Ellen

Kingdom of the Wicked

I had my own little squee! moment this morning when I realised that I got to read Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked before the UK/Ireland release date of August 30 because Derek Landy is touring Australia from August 8th. Okay, the squee! moment was actually for stumbling across KOTW yesterday when I'd not even realised it was out yet ... oh, and reading it in one afternoon. (So nothing else got done, I'm sure my family as learned to cope with my particular reading binges by now.)

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Skulduggery Pleasant series since my daughter introduce me to it some 3 years ago. I devoured the first few books and have ensured that as each new title comes along it is quickly added to our book shelves. (My daughter was more than pleased to discover this morning that she could now read the latest instalment.) Indeed Skulduggery Pleasant not only rates as one of my favourite Young Adult series, Derek Landy rates as one of my favourite writers. His blog, Derek Landy Blogs Under Duress, is quirky and engaging, there is no mistaking his wit and satire - the same wit and satire which permeates the Skulduggery series. A highlight to any day is reading his latest post and admiring his certain charm with words - as a lover of words myself I am most certainly lost.

Perhaps I should mention that my other favourite YA series include (in no particular order):

• Leviathan / Scott Westerfeld
• The Ranger's Apprentice / John Flanagan
• Brotherband / John Flanagan
• The Saga of Darren Shan (aka: Cirque du Freak) / Darren Shan
• The Demonata / Darren Shan
• The Saga of Larten Crepsley / Darren Shan
• Conspiracy 365 / Gabrielle Lord
• The Steampunk Chronicles / Kady Cross
• The Wardstone Chronicles (aka: The Spook's Apprentice (book 1); aka: The Last Apprentice in the US) / Joseph Delaney
• Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr

Mmmm, I detect a certain theme to my YA reading here....

How do conferences use social media?

One of my pet hates is when conference organisers set up social media sites - specifically Facebook and Twitter - for a conference and then don't follow through on the commitment during the conference. A library conference a few years ago did this, had 'Follow us on Facebook' and 'Follow us on Twitter' plastered all over the conference home page but when it came to the conference itself, absolute silence. As someone who couldn't attend that conference I was more than just a tad annoyed as I expected the conference organisers to take that commitment seriously and maintain the ongoing flow of communication. Not so.
Back in February this year I attended VALA in Melbourne and was struck by how well the social media, specifically the tweeting, was managed by conference organisers. Not only were organisers observed to be actively tweeting during sessions (from the conference identity) but responses to questions were prompt and agenda updates provided regularly. They showed how it could be done.
Just the other week I followed the ALIA Biennial 2012 conference from afar and was again impressed by the way conference organisers ensured that the conversations flourished on Twitter and Facebook throughout the conference. Not only was there direct engagement but they also made obvious use of scheduling tools like Hootsuite to manage programming details, share session papers, and so on.
This week I'm following another library conference and so far I've been quite disappointed by the lack of engagement from conference organisers on Twitter and Facebook. There appear to be a few photos going up on Facebook today (one lopsided) but next to no action on Twitter itself since yesterday and then only a handful of comments came through (indeed most of the tweeting seems to have occurred primarily pre-conference). The bulk of the tweeting is coming from participants at the conference and even that is reasonably sporadic, obviously the proportion of tweeters is significantly lower at this conference than at either VALA or ALIA2012. Which is a shame as I'd really like to know what's going on and if I can't discover that from the tweet stream than the whole thing becomes of little use to me and all I come away with is a sense of dissatisfaction and feeling that it could all be done so much better.
The moral of the story?  If you are going to promote social media streams at a conference then you must also accept the responsibility for ensuring that you maintain an ongoing outgoing and engaging dialogue with others via those streams.  If that means utilising a roster so that various staff can share the load, then do that.  If that means using other tools like Hootsuite to schedule tweets and/or posts than do that. Don't expect the social media stream to maintain itself, that's your job.

sigh, rant over...

Short stories

Recently I picked up two volumes of short stories - Blood, and other cravings (a collection of short Horror fiction) and Teeth, vampire tales (a collection of short Horror fiction themed around, obviously, vampires), both edited by Ellen Datlow. My selection of these two books was not because I like to read Horror (I would generally say that I don't) but because I was curious to know just how much Horror fiction we have within the library's collection (not a lot). Searching for some good Horror authors led me to these two volumes and me being me I decided to read them.
I am so glad I have.

What makes these two volumes stand out is the superb quality of the writing. Each story is so short and so precise and flirts around the theme so cleverly that to read them is a treat. Yes, they detail the macabre and scary but you are left so enthralled by the writing and the skill of presentation that the content lies secondary to the experience. These volumes feature the work of Margo Lanagan, Kaaron Warren, Elizabeth Bear, Melissa Marr, Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Tanith Lee, Cassandra Clare and Holly Black among so many others. These two books are shining examples of very clever storytelling and a worthy addition to the reading lists of anyone who is entranced by the rewarding experience of reading something that has been excellently written (and are willing to step outside the themes to have that experience).

CatyJ

Staff reading challenge

This month saw the beginnings of a reading challenge for the staff at my library. Each of us suggested a title which went into a pot-luck draw. The aim of this challenge is to expose staff to different genres and to broaden their personal reading lists. I was one of the last to suggest a title as I had tremendous difficulty selecting just one title and was restricted to something less than 400 pages (there went my pick for Neil Gaiman's American Gods). In the end my suggestion was a toss up between Brent Weeks' The Way of the Shadows or Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant. In the end I went with Derek Landy's YA series as I wanted to expose staff to a brilliant YA series that was fun and incorporated so many elements of other genres - plus who can argue with a detective skeleton? Brent Weeks' series is equally brilliant and has the honour of re-inspiring my love of Fantasy fiction but I felt it was perhaps a step too far for some staff. And what did I end up with to read? I had originally drawn out Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro but as I've already read that story I swapped with a colleague for their pick which was Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. I was happy to take on this choice as I've heard only good things about John Scalzi from another Sci-Fi author, actor and geek Wil Wheaton.
Zoe's Tale fits within the larger Scalzi series, An Old Man's War and is the coming-of-age story of Zoe Boutin Perry. It is a beautiful story, cleverly crafted and touchingly descriptive. The characters are real and engaging and the setting is succinctly drawn with little fuss or fanfare. It just so happens that the action takes place on planets, space ships, and space stations and features aliens and other strange creatures. All this is secondary to the story itself. Zoe's Tale was a clever suggestion from the staff member who put it into the pot-luck draw. Yes, it's Science Fiction, but it shows, quite cleverly, that Science Fiction is not all (or just) about robots, aliens, space wars and intergalactic travel - it's not all Star Trek, Star Wars, I Robot or Bladerunner (to name those popular images we have of science fiction).
Zoe's Tale is a story about a young girl who faces some tough decisions and who emerges stronger from the process. She experiences first love, great adventure, loss of home and family and friends, and learns a lot about herself and what is important in the process. This story would appeal equally to readers of Jodi Picoult or Nora Roberts, to readers of John Flanagan or Melissa Marr, to readers of Emily Rodda or Nicole Alexander. It is a story with broad appeal and an excellent counter-point to anyone who says, "Oh I don't read Science Fiction". I challenge you to take up this story and not come away impressed and perhaps a little tempted to try another from this genre.

CatyJ

Information Online 2013

Well the call for proposals has gone out for ALIA Information Online 2013, a call with a difference.  The theme of this conference is "be different, do different".  With this in mind, organisers are asking not for papers but for proposals, for ideas for how sessions could be presented - be it a presentation, a panel, a workshop, a conversation.  Proposals should explore the themes of "think different, be different, do different" whilst also blending into one of the streams of Service Design, Emerging Technologies, Measuring Our Services, Digital Literacies, Publishing, Smart Cities & Sustainability, Our Staffing Profile, Client Focus, What Does It mean To Be A Transformational Organisation, and Mobile.  So there's lots of scope and lots of room for lots of ideas - I'm excited already!   Check out the Information Online website for more.

Philosophy for change

I came across this blog, Philosphy for Change, today (thanks @myleejoseph for highlighting it). It featured an article titled "Foucault and social media: I tweet, therefore I become". It's the 2nd part of a three-part series of articles. Part one explored how the open commons ideal of social media creates a 'virtual Panopticon' effect that impacts on the psychology of users. This second article looks at Foucault's concept of subjectivation - given that social media shapes so much of ourselves, why shouldn't we engage this process in a creative way? The third instalment will explore the 'call of the crowd'...
This second article closes with the following statement... "Social media can be a positive tool for creating and affirming the self. We can and do use social media as a tool in the 'art of life', the practice of constructing the self."
Food for thought.

Sometimes it can take a while for the penny to drop...

Today is my rdo, I'm at work though because I want to use today's rdo next month to take my son back to school and revel in a line-up of parent/teacher interviews at the same time. I am also as sick as the proverbial dog ( and I really must find where that saying comes from because surely the proverbial dog is to blame for a lot of ill health lately) - simply put, I have the flu. Oh, and I am sharing it with everyone (whilst also being very health conscious washing my hands often, coughing away from people, throwing the gazzilion tissues I've gone through straight in the bin, etc). :)
Anyway, back to theme of this post. Yep, you'd think by now I'd just know these things. Apparently not. Apparently I still need to have those belated ah-ha moments for myself. 
So, I've been using Google+ for a little while now, not actively just flicking to it most weekends, sending stuff to it on occasion (mostly photos from my phone), and generally just keeping an eye on it for interesting things popping up in my feeds. I like it, it's kind of cool the way you can create circles of contacts / friends / family / etc. However today I had my ah-ha moment and I have to admit I actually feel a bit silly about it now.
This morning I read my #blogjune post over at the love2read2012 blog (and yes, I think the little android is kinda cute) and for something entirely different I used the option at the bottom of the post and I Google+'d it. A short while later I went to my #blogjune post from yesterday over at the #ALIA2012 blog and also Google+'d it. 
My ah-ha moment? Well, how easy was that? Yep, that was it. Silly isn't it?
I re-tweet posts, I share posts on Facebook, I'll write blog posts about other blog posts, I'll email people with links to blog posts. But a simple little re-post to Google+ has simply slipped past my consciousness ... and now I see how truly simple it is. 
So that is my #discovery for today - even though I am already fully aware of Google+ and already think it's a great thing I have suddenly come to realise that there exists a quick, smart, and easy way for me to make better use of it and to benefit the traffic within my Google+ circles.
And yes, I still feel a little silly that something so simple and ordinary has been an ah-ha moment for me today. 

Fifty Shades of Grey

I finished reading Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James earlier this evening.

This book wasn't my usual choice for reading material but given the furor it's generated in some US towns/libraries I felt that I couldn't really comment on its appropriateness, or not, should the question be asked if I hadn't read the book. So I did.
Fifty Shades of Grey is the first installment of an erotic fiction trilogy. Book two is titled Fifty Shades Darker and book three is Fifty Shades Freed.
Yes, it's erotic fiction... it is quite descriptive about various, numerous sex acts. There's quite a bit of Sado-Masochism and a serious look at questions of dominance and submissiveness within a relationship. But the book isn't just about eroticism (or S&M). 
The Fifty Shades series explores the relationship between two diverse characters who feel compulsively drawn to each other -  yes, there's a sexual attraction but there's more to that going on in the undercurrents.
I can envision future phd students writing doctoral papers exploring the themes of this series - sexuality, depravity, control, stalking, dominance, submission, naivety, experience, power, pain, the list grows endless... it will be interesting to see how this one novel, this single series raises the profile of erotic fiction (and by association romantic fiction) across the globe. 
Personally, Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't tick the boxes for me. I see little intrinsic difference between this series and the erotic fiction which Mills & Boon puts out. So there's nothing really new there. I don't like the characters. I don't like how they're drawn. I find them weakly presented and annoying... I will however admit that the ability to describe, and describe well, is of merit. E. L. James can nail the task of describing the setting, the view, the decor, people's appearance. This honed skill serves her well to distract the reader from the weakness of her characters.
Will I withdraw this title from my library's collection? No. As mentioned, I've read some Mills & Boon titles which are far raunchier (I'm still recovering from the last Western I read which actually made me blush) and I see nothing offensive in the content. Anyone reading this book knows what they are reading as the words 'erotic fiction' are on the back cover.  I also consider that the number of reserves sitting on my library's copies as fair indication of public demand. I've checked out reviews on GoodReads and Amazon - both the book and the audio are hugely popular and admittedly to a varied audience and with mixed success. 
Fifty Shades of grey is having an impact on the adult reading public which "Harry Potter" had for kids a decade ago - people are reading and it's what they want to read. Then again, maybe it's more like Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" in the light of the supposed public outrage regarding its content...
Will I read the rest of the series? Maybe. I would like to see if Ana and Christian mature as characters, but I'm not fussed either way. This title will get an 'it was okay' rating from me on my GoodReads shelf but that's more because I simply don't like the first-person narrative and whilst the quality of description is really good, the characters don't excite me and the setting is passe. But then my 'reading doorway' is language which quite possibly explains everything...