Writers Who Kill is published by a group of talented writers (and me) who work together to present fresh content for you, our readers, every day. One way we do this is by having designated blog days. Shortly before August of 2023, I picked up the third and fourth Fridays of every month. The first Bibliophilic Friday blog was published the third Friday of August, and I have tried to keep the tradition going since then, except for November, 2023 and our December hiatus.
But I never took the time to explain what Bibliophilic Friday is. It’s probably time I did so. A bibliophile is a person who loves books, so my posts on Bibliophilic Friday are about books I love. And that is the only qualification for a book to be featured in my Bibliophilic Friday column. A Bibliophilic Friday post cannot, in all fairness, be considered a book review since it will invariably be positive. I have a couple of unwritten rules in my own mind for no particular reason that I’m sure I’ll break at some point, including one that the books I choose to write about must have been around for a while, preferably decades, but at a minimum, years.
I have been a reader ever since I can remember. I am the oldest of three girls, all of us readers. When we were in grade school in California (Navy brats) and participating in a summer reading program at a library in Chula Vista, California, the librarian becoming suspicious of the number of books we had listed. She questioned us, and to her surprise, we had read all the books on our lists. After that, we were some of her favorite (juvenile) patrons.
I have enjoyed mysteries as long as I have loved reading, cutting my teeth on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden and Encyclopedia Brown. I also like science fiction, fantasy, history, science, some classic works (including Polybius’s History of Rome, Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars, and Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars —English translations, not the original Greek or Latin thank you very much). Lest you think I’m too high brow, Barbara Cartland, Isabelle Holland, Phyllis Whitney, and Mary Stewart are my favorites for romances.
So, I thought I’d take this Bibliophilic Friday to give you fair warning that you’ll never quite know what I will be writing about on the third Friday of every month—except that it will be about a book I loved.
What are your favorite types of books? How long have you enjoyed reading?
I always loved stories, but I couldn't read until the summer before 4th grade. My post-WWII elementary school (housed in an old military airplane hangar) was so crowded each teacher had two large classes a day, and no time to devote to struggling students. My mother realized I couldn't read, but the school had no way of addressing her requests for extra help. Finally, the summer before 4th grade, an aunt, who was a teacher herself, sat me down several times a week to work on phonics, which the school did not teach. Lo and behold, by the time school started, I could read! And I haven't stopped since.
ReplyDeleteA majority of the books I now read are crime fiction. The remaining (say 40%) include other genres of fiction (dystopian and fantasy ranking high) and lots of nonfiction, ranging over a wide variety of topics.
ReplyDeleteCrime fiction - especially cozies and biographies
ReplyDeleteMostly crime fiction. My book club tends to go for “book club” books - Oprah, Reese Witherspoon picks, bestsellers - so that gives me some variety.
ReplyDeleteCrime fiction, including what we're reading in my crime writers book club (this month it's the new WK Krueger). The occasional thriller, usually Daniel Silva's, which are the best airplane reads. Women's fiction if it's set on Cape Cod (Hannah Roberts McKinnon), Nantucket (Elin Hilderbrand), or concerns home renovation (Mary Kay Andrews).
ReplyDeleteI love reading mysteries as well. I think I'd like other genres, but I don't have time to explore. I've read as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog, Nancy. I began reading at age two. My dad and I had a tradition. Every Sunday I would sit in his lap and he would read me the comics. All except Prince Valiant. He hated Prince Valiant and I loved his haircut and wanted to know what was going on. He helped me make sense of the letters on the page, and sound out the words until, voila, I could read. I think it was a plot, but he never confessed to it.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my parents and my brother were avid readers. No book was ever off limits and even if it was "too old for me" I was permitted to read it. End result, I read everything in my path, including some books that are STILL too old for me. Sartre's Age of Reason, anyone?