The Difference Between Narrative, Story, & Plot
Stories allow us to understand each other in all our complexities and peculiarities and share our experiences with one another.
Why You Need an Online Book Club Community
Reading is not as private as some might think. Readers crave conversation and will go to great lengths to get it. I created Book Oblivion to combat intellectual isolation and read with like minds. We are a bit intense as far as online book clubs go – we are voracious readers. We focus on reading […]
The Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession
These are the last 10 books to wander into my world whether they were gifts from friends, recommendations, free Kindle downloads, or books I bought because that’s what I do… I buy a lot of books and do my best to surround myself with bookish friends. 10. The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical […]
The Book Oblivion Story
“A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.” ~Umberto Eco I care about your mind. I just […]
The Best Way to Read Haruki Murakami
“When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages–a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers.” Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the most popular and respected contemporary authors still writing. […]
How I Plan My Freshmen Composition Course
“Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.” ~E.L. Doctorow After teaching the same freshmen composition course 25 times over the past four years, I have found my sweet spot in the way I set up my […]
Why Books are the Best Travel Souvenir
I want to share a glimpse of the globe-trotting adventures with my oldest daugther today. I teach internationally with many amazing and bright young minds all over the world. I am always looking for ways to encourage a love of reading and learning. Find out why books can be the best travel souvenir you can possibly bring […]
Write Better Right Now With This One Change
Grammar is a subject we despise all growing up, and then as adults, we wish we had paid more attention to in school. We can’t change the past, but if you find yourself writing emails, texts, and other work without knowing when to use “whom”or where to place that pesky comma, then I urge you […]
Why You Should Avoid Reading Dr. Seuss to Your Infant
Keywords Dr. Seuss, Mem Fox, Reading Magic, Language Learning “Books are mute as far as sound is concerned. It follows that reading aloud is a combination of two distinct operations, of two ‘languages.’ It is something far more complex than speaking and reading taken separately by themselves.” Maria Montessori Elementary schools all across America will […]
Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami
“No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves.” ~Haruki Murakami, Birthday Girl Before diving into Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, I have students read this fun short story, “Birthday Girl,” by Haruki Murakami in my freshmen composition course. It’s a little […]
Where to Find Cheap or Free Audiobooks Online
Keywords Audiobooks, Free Audiobooks, Cheap Audiobooks, Audiophile “A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: […]
Reading With Your Ears – Audiobook Recommendations
Every time someone asks you to join a book club, you probably give the same canned response: I don’t have time to read. Actually you do, but it will look different from before. We are all working with the same 24 hours in a day, so it’s time to get creative. Let’s talk about the benefits of […]
Goal Setting for Book Lovers
I am a goal setter and find this helps me more than anything else to stay on track with reading. If you’ve ever trained for a marathon, then you know the importance of varying your routine while staying disciplined. And the most important thing is to make a little bit of progress everyday, so following […]
One Sentence Reviews of the Best Reads of 2014
Life is short. Read fast. The following books were the best ones I read all year from each of my reading categories. Professional Development Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff I teach through They Say, I Say, a writing text by the same author, and this book […]
New to Murakami? Start here ==>
“But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, […]