As 2012 turns to 2013, the Sunday News thanks readers who shared with us their reading habits and the books that have informed, entertained and influenced them.
Through the column "An Open Book" we learned that:
Nancy Drew beats out Jo March and Laura Ingalls, when it comes to girlhood literary heroines.
"The Lord of the Rings," "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," "Three Cups of Tea" and "Bossypants" are either the best or the worst reads, according to readers of contrasting tastes.
And while certain advantages are conceded to plastic (e-readers), most respondents are still attached to paper books.
In this final column, six reader-respondents — Kathy Connors and Rosemary Hillen, both of Lancaster; John Matthews, Conestoga; Jane Pattey, Millersville; Audrey Ritter, Reamstown; and Traci Krick Wynne, Denver — share the last word.
Favorite childhood books:
MATTHEWS: You won't find any classics on my childhood book list, unless you count those "Classics Illustrated" comic books. My childhood books that got thumbed until they fell apart (but are still on my shelf) are "Fun for Boys" (1943), "The Real Book of Space Travel" (1952, when artificial satellites were a far-off dream), "Nature Notebook," by Robert Candy (1953), and "Handbook for Boys" (1948, a precursor to the Boy Scout Handbook).
CONNORS: When I was in seventh grade, my father gave me a list of "the best books ever written." My first book was "Jane Eyre." "Madame Bovary" was not far behind.
Influential books:
RITTER: "The Power of Myth," by Joseph Campbell.
PATTEY: Albert Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life" impressed my teenage mind to the extent that I couldn't kill even a fly or a mosquito for a long time.
MATTHEWS: Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" told me that my way of thinking wasn't as screwed up as some friends told me it was.
WYNNE: One book that really made me think is the Stephen King book "Storm of the Century." It's a supernatural situation in a normal, small town setting that raises the question of how far will you sacrifice your faith, integrity and loyalty for personal gain versus personal loss in the fight of good and evil.
Books for gift-giving:
CONNORS: "The Master and Margarita," by Mikhail Bulgakov.
PATTEY: "Gift From the Sea," by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
WYNNE: Richard North Patterson's "Silent Witness," "A Time to Kill," by John Grisham, and the Tami Hoag two- book set with "Night Sins" and "Guilty as Sin."
HILLEN: I just bought a Nancy Drew book for a little girl. They've updated it, so she doesn't have to find a phone booth. She has a cellphone now.
Tried and failed to read:
CONNORS: "Don Quixote."
PATTEY: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
RITTER: Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace."
HILLEN: Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." I have found that I really didn't enjoy many of the Oprah books that she thought were so wonderful, but that is why they make chocolate and vanilla. It would be a dull world if we all liked the same things.
Authors of special interest:
RITTER: I would want to talk (not argue) with Jimmy Carter on Palestine and the Middle East. I have read many of his books; however, I don't always agree with him.
WYNNE: Alan Jacobson ("Inmate 1577," "Velocity," "The 7th Victim"). I met him in person and found him to be a very friendly, engaging person. I'd love to pick his brain on the information he's learned from the FBI, CIA and profiling specialists!
HILLEN: Jodi Picoult. Her books take a subject relevant to what is going on in the world today — abortion or whatever — and make a story about it.
PATTEY: Jodi Picoult leads my "will not read again and would love to scream at" list. She manipulates unmercifully.
CONNORS: James Joyce. I find his search for the nature of art to be especially engrossing, his method of exploring it inventive.
MATTHEWS: The articles, workshops, analyses, essays and discussion I have read on "Ulysses" amount to 10 times the actual words of James Joyce that I have read. I'd like to argue with Joyce to see if he could change my mind on whether a book can be considered great if it takes this much explanation.
Deserving of rediscovery:
PATTEY: Wallace Stegner.
MATTHEWS: Jonathan Swift made some clever observations about society that still fit our current society very well.
Best of best-seller writers:
PATTEY: Ian McEwan and Barbara Kingsolver.
RITTER: Bob Woodward.
Paper or plastic?:
WYNNE: After reading on my Kindle, I find I miss the feel of holding a paper book in my hands — physically turning the page and not being distracted with the opportunity of shopping in the "bookstore" every time I turn my Kindle on.
The clear advantage with the Kindle is the ability to carry hundreds of books in one slim book. ... The built in dictionary is a great feature, too. Also, I have been introduced to so many new and/or "indie" authors that I never would have discovered had it not been for the Kindle.
Michael Gallagher has a blog, fkbooksandtips.com, in which he introduces books that are free, or almost free ($1.99) that can be downloaded. Even if you don't have any idea who the author is, or question if you'll like the book, when it's free, how hard is it to download, read and say, "Hey, great book!" or just delete it if it's awful?
My reading world has opened up to so many new authors because of this.
MATTHEWS: I prefer paper, but I don't want to argue. I already lost the argument on computers, cellphones, and automatic transmissions. Whatever gets people to read, fine.
