I am a staunch advocate of reading literacy and nothing makes me happier than settling down with an good book and a few hours of uninterrupted reading.
Recently, a writer friend of mine was challenged on Facebook to do a “Reading Snowball.” The idea was to promote literacy by sharing one book a day for seven days, no exceptions, no reviews, just covers.
So far, so good.
The second part of the challenge was to challenge someone else to join, every day and like a pyramid, spread the call for literacy.
Ahem, this sounds like one of those tiresome chain mails.
With growing mortification, I watched my friend’s daily Facebook page as she steadily challenged each member of our writerly group. I felt the cold chill of a snowball heading my way. Before she could take aim, I sent her a quick note begging her not to. Good friend that she is, she obliged.
Unfortunately, I forgot about my other writerly friends. A dreaded snowball hit me on the blind side.
Now I’m a good sport and I do want to want to promote literacy. I decided to accept the first part of the challenge and tune out the rest.
Literacy is good. Selective illiteracy is convenient.
As I was compiling my seven book list, something occurred to me. I have read so many books, it was a random draw to say which I loved the best. The books that I remember, often had significance beyond their content. Many times the context or consequence of reading the book was more important.
Therefore, in the name of promoting literacy, I am going to share some of my favorite books. I won’t bore you with the details. I don’t do book reviews. Rather, I’ll say a little about why it appealed to me.
Maybe it’ll give insight on places visited in this blog. Maybe it’ll reveal a bit more about me. Maybe it’ll pique your interest to read the book … and snowball a reading storm.
Stay tuned for my next post on Day 1: Reading Snowball.
Toronto, Canada. 2019
The Sandy Chronicles 
Book snowballing is fun. I did this challenge a while ago, but I also hate nominating others. They never obey. 🙂 Here are my seven all together:
https://manjameximovie3.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/books-x7/
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You are really good to be able to read in two languages. I am uni-lingual and even though I was forced to learn a second language in school, I was never literate enough to read whole books. I’m afraid I’m not very good at languages – the all sound like Greek to me 🙂
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We can not all do it all. 🙂 Thanks, Sandy. It’s something that comes natural to me. Actually, I can read books in a few languages more (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian – very similar all, though).
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Look for my upcoming book: A Tale Told by an Idiot (I may have to modify the title). 😉
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I read the Steven King book and was would not recommend it. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg was much better. Another good one is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. So you wanna be a writer Sandy?
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For me it was a toss up between Bird by Bird and On Writing. I didn’t care for Writing Down the Bones myself. In the end, I think it probably boils down to timing and when one reads a book. King was one of my first reads on the craft, Goldberg came much later.
Aren’t we all writers Mike? It’s a difference of what, where and for whom we publish.
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We are all merely players, no wait. We are all king birds with bones, no that’s not it. No I don’t think we are all writers Sandy, I mean yes, yes we are all writers. What?
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Mike, in the immortal words of Canadian hosers Bob & Doug McKenzie, “Eh?”
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