The fact is that summer reading is changing. The things they pushed on us in school – A Separate Peace, Frankenstein, Call of the Wild, Count of Monte Cristo – at the stores we see these on reading lists less and less. There are a few out there, but so many teachers and schools are refocusing their effort on just getting kids to read good books. From sports biographies to Stephen King to contemporary Young Adult books – summer reading is changing! The kids get a choice of what to read a lot of times.

There is always a lingering feeling though – I HAVE to read it, so it must suck. How do we get rid of that? Well, the problem is that we can’t – educators and librarians and booksellers alike have all been fighting that for a long time – making the best suggestions and comments they are able and being encouraging by letting them know that a lot of these books are great books. But there will always be a begrudged feeling of having to read something and so not liking it. As a bookseller I hear all the time “Oh I had to read that for school; it was really good!” — but how do we get this across to the young readers who are initially so hesitant? The answer is that we have to be optimistic, and if we are optimistic, they may be too.

Another strategy is to offer to read the books with your kids. Sure, it might be tedious, but they have to read it and they could definitely use someone to discuss it with. Their understanding will be a lot better if they have another person to check in with and ask questions. Pick up a Cliff’s Notes guide just to have on hand for questions you’re not sure about. Most importantly, don’t act superior to them – let them know when you’re referencing the Cliff’s Notes. Don’t hide in the closet while you look up what Shakespeare meant in that confusing monologue in Macbeth. If they’re a quick reader, read with them. If not, set daily goals you will both try to achieve, even if you’re on vacation. Keeping on track yourself will keep them on track. If you don’t keep up with it, why would they?

Another thing to look at is the fact that Young adult literature is making a huge splash right now. Titles like The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, the Warriors series, and more are all driving kids to the book store shelves, and making them eager to pick up the next installation of their favorite series. By getting them started on reading early on, we can curb a lot of the problems that come from students who don’t ever read and think they don’t want to. For summer reading lists, the truth is that the teachers are doing their best to encourage students to read, even if it’s popular fiction like Stephen King and not Alexandre Dumas. As a student myself I hated a lot of the books I was forced to read, but at least I gave them a try (let’s not confuse that with finishing them). On the other hand, I have extremely fond memories of some required reading: Antigone, A Separate Peace, Animal Dreams, The Great Gatsby, Dracula and others were all books I loved. And I feel I am more knowledgeable because of all of that reading.

For the literary classics, it’s hard to get across to a 15 year old that they are reading this book so that at college they have a foundation to start from. That their American and World Literature classics will be a lot easier in the future if they read these classics now. That Keats will be a lot less confusing if they read Homer first. If you’re reading a book from the Literary Canon with your kid or teen, choose a future poem or work that references the one they are reading, and help them put it into perspective that millions of people have read and found something valuable in the book. Perhaps they don’t like it, but did they take something away from it? Was there something valuable that the author was saying? In a way, if you can make them appreciate the summer reading, they might not even have to like it.

And always remember: If you dread it, so will they. Keep a positive attitude about summer reading and reinforce its worth. Because it is worth it, and that’s what we, as adults looking in from the outside, have to remember.

First, though, let’s take a look at the psychology behind this problem. What is it that makes readers feel shameful for not finishing a book? Perhaps you spent good money on it and feel guilty for “wasting” the money. Or perhaps something inside you makes you feel like you aren’t an intellectual if you give up on a book – that maybe it’s not the book, it’s you. Or maybe you’ve been pressured into reading it by friends or family and can’t stand to go back to them and tell them you didn’t finish it. Perhaps you are just a perfectionist that can’t stand unfinished things in life. Whatever the reason, if you’re ever going to get around to reading and ENJOYING all those books on your “wanna read” list, then getting over the initial squeamishness of giving up on a book is a must.

Think of it like this: If you went to a restaurant, paid good money for a meal, and then found you didn’t like it because it was too bland, or too spicy, or had too much cheese — would you finish it? Would you force yourself to eat every bite simply because you paid for it and the guilt overwhelmed you? I hope not! Learning to take a stand against your irrational emotions is the first step in this process. If you paid money for it and that is making you feel guilty – sell it online or donate it to a charity fundraiser, library, friend or better yet, swap it for something you want at a used book store or on websites like Paperbackswap.com or BookMooch. If your friends and family recommended it, don’t feel guilty about telling them you just didn’t like it. Articulate why and hopefully they will understand. Just remember that if you don’t tell them just why you didn’t like it – they might give you another similar book to read! And if you just can’t stand to leave things unfinished, or feel wrong about not finishing a book – ask yourself why? Think of all the other things you don’t commit to in the way you commit to books – TV shows, bad meals, songs on the radio, news articles that looked interesting at first which you then realized were 4 pages long and not that great… there’s a plethora of stuff that we give up on. Bad books should just be another thing on the list.

Now that you’ve committed yourself to at least being willing to give up on a book…Here are some key tips to help you figure out when to put it down and move on:

1. There is no perfect “50 pages” rule. Some books kick in after 50 pages. Some books you know after 10 pages. Each person’s rule will be different. Make a fun rule for yourself having to do with your age. If you’re 35, subtract that from 100 and have a 65 page limit. If a book’s writing style and content aren’t grabbing you after 75 to 100 pages, though, it’s time to give it up!
2. Start a book and worry it’s going to be boring? Check ratings on sites like GoodReads and Amazon to see what other people thought of it. Just looking at the starred rating can often be a help (even if you don’t read the reviews for fear of spoilers). If the book has a mere 2 or 3 stars and you’re not liking it as it is, well, chances are you’re not going to like it and it’s time to give up!
3. Read a book description online – is there something you’re really curious to know about that is mentioned in the book description, or does it seem like more of the same?
4. Have a book waiting in line. Don’t buy just one book at the book store (heck, at Used Book Superstores you can buy 10 for the price of one regular priced hardcover!) — that way you’re not trapped by having nothing else to read. Have something else to pick up the moment you put the other book down.
5. Is the book discussing anything you feel you have a connection to? Are the values of the author or characters something you can relate to, or is it like looking through  a telescope at a far away world? If you find yourself not caring about what is going on, don’t waste your time.
6. Have confidence in your opinion. Closing a book is not the end of the world, and one of the joys about print is that you can always go back to it. If you change your mind later, you can always go back.

Hopefully you will choose books you love, but if you make a mistake (and we all do) then brush it off and move on.

Here are some books we’ve started but never finished:

Angela (Nashua Bookseller) – The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Meredith (Salem Store Manager) – Sons of the Circus by John Irving and The Bible

Taylor (Nashua Bookseller) – Gerald’s Game by Stephen King

Tom (Saugus Store Manager) – Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Brittany (Nashua Store Manager) – Call of the Wild by Jack London and The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

Elisabeth (Burlington Bookseller) – A Distant Mirror by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

For: The grammar-nazi. Journalist Truss gives full rein to her inner stickler in lambasting common grammatical mistakes. Asserting that punctuation directs you how to read in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play, Truss argues wittily and with gusto for the merits of preserving the apostrophe, using commas correctly, and resurrecting the proper use of the lowly semicolon.

For: The male-non-reader. Or anyone who likes a practical joke. Funny pretty consistently, sentimental seldom but appealingly, artistically stunning quite often, it’s knocked “Peanuts” from the pedestal of comic strip popularity as the one comic everybody can (should!) love.







For: The college student. With essay collections such as Naked (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Sedaris kicked the door down for the “quirky memoir” genre and left it open for writers like Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls to mosey on through. Sometimes the originators of a certain trend in literature are surpassed by their own disciples—but, this is Sedaris we’re talking about. When it comes to fashioning the sardonic wisecrack, the humiliating circumstance, and the absurdist fantasy, there’s nobody better.







For: The Sci-Fi lover. And/Or lovers of fish. Arthur Dent, mild-mannered, out-to-lunch earth-ling, is plucked from his planet by his friend Ford Prefect just seconds before it was demolished to make way for a hyper-space bypass.







For: Anyone, but especially children. Grade-school irreverence abounds in this compendium of (extremely brief) fractured fairy tales, which might well be subtitled “All Things Gross and Giddy.” With a relentless application of the sarcasm that tickled readers of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs , Scieszka and Smith skewer a host of juvenile favorites.







For: The Democrat. The Onion has quickly become the world’s most popular humor publication, misinforming half a million readers a week with one-of-a-kind social satire both in print (on newsstands nationwide) and online from its remote office in Madison, Wisconsin.







For: The Republican. With biting wit and amusing personal anecdotes, Harry Stein’s I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican chronicles the everyday travails and triumphs of the plucky conservatives marooned in the liberal bastions that loathe them, from Manhattan to Hollywood, to all the noxious places in between.







For: The Nature Lover. Or hater. Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.







For: The chick. It doesn’t take Lancaster long to live up to her lengthy subtitle (“Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-Ass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office”): in just one chapter, she gloats over cheating a homeless man, is rude to a waitress and passes judgment on all of her co-workers (including her “whore” best friend). She’s almost gleeful about lacking “the internal firewall that keeps us from saying almost everything we think,” but she doesn’t come off as straightforward, just malicious.







Book descriptions taken from Booklist or Publishers Weekly.

Throne of Fire goes more into Egyptian myth and further explores Ra, Anubis, the Duat and the connection between the Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods. One of the biggest perks of Riordan’s books is that he connects young readers (or any reader, really!) to the stories of ancient civilizations. He’s able to fictionalize characters and yet still keep definite mythology mixed in, without being a “rip off” of myth. His stories are unique, as are the quirky voices he chooses for his heroes, boys and girls about the age of the intended reader, saving the world and discovering an alternate reality to school and summer vacation. (Something JK Rowling did – gave readers a hope or thought of there being “something else” and “something magical” out there that they didn’t know about.)

One of the things I find intriguing is that Riordan uses the Greek names for the Egyptian gods. I wonder if there is some kind of significance to this, but think it is still too early in the story to tell.

The Kane Chronicles are easy to read, funny at parts, and mythological-y interesting. I would recommend this book to any kids who say they want something like Harry Potter, are interested in Mythology, or just like interesting fantasy about kids their age. I’d also recommend it to adult lovers of YA, or fans of Riordan in general. A very good, entertaining read.

Meredith (Salem, NH) is reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. She says: A brand new children’s book that mixes fiction and old sepia, almost “sideshow” photographs. It’s kind of what you get when you combine Edward Gorey, The Series of Unfortunate Events, an abandoned island, and an abandoned orphanage.

This is a Juvenile title, and quite ride!

Travis (Danvers, MA) is reading The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw. He says: This
book is a biography of life on a small island in Maine. While not action packed, this book gives a good insight into the isolated island life of a year round resident who makes her livelihood on the open water. A good book for those who like to read travel writing or non-fiction bios.

Frank (Burlington, MA) is reading A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut. He says: I just started and finished it yesterday. I enjoyed it; it should be required reading for a required class I want to start in school called “common sense”.

Tom (Saugus, MA) is reading Life by Keith Richards. He Says: This cat has ten lives and in ‘LIFE’, Rolling Stones rock icon Keith Richards autobiography,Keith tells the tales in his own unique voice. Much is already known and much is revealed in a richly detailed often hilarious story that covers childhood, family, sixties, wine, women, and of course songs.

Enjoyable and easy to read,Keith has a storytellers eye for the follies of the heart,soul,and all things earthly. Recommended for all,this is a great book from one of a kind.

Brittany (Nashua, NH) is reading I’m A Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson. She says: I’ve been a fan of Bryson since the side-splitting A Walk in the Woods. This is a collection of magazine columns he wrote while living in Hanover, NH after moving to America from Britain. His take on President’s Day, filing taxes, junk food, and gardening had me laughing out loud yet again!

Joe (District Manager) is reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. He says: I started to watch the HBO series and got hooked. I usually don’t read these types of books, but this story just grabbed my attention and now I am hooked.

Enjoy some of these great vintage covers!

Hmmm

…. I don’t think this title would fly in today’s world.

Old cover and new cover.

Woowhee! I guess when this was published it was all about selling it with sex, because we saw a lot of vintage paperbacks similar to this one.

This is the cover that started our collection. Look at how much more discreet the current in-print cover is compared to the vintage cover!

Hmmm….Dubious believability with this one. Probably why it’s no longer in print…

And this one we just thought was really cool. Vintage covers can be really weird, but they can also be completely awesome!

“A Separate Peace” a story of two kids living at a New Hampshire prep school in the 1940s as WWII is culminating into something big. Gene and Phineas are sophomores when the story starts, and the draft age has just been lowered from 20 to 18. They are 16 going on 17 and when they graduate they know they will be drafted, but they are living in an insulated rural place, attending a lax summer session at Devon school. The story is light on action but heavy on the human heart.

Gene is a boy who is academically smart, and decent at sports but not amazing. Phineas, on the other hand, is not that smart, but is popular, great at sports, attractive, and kind. Gene’s academic talent is not enough to bring him to popularity – which is what he is craving, and so he begins to be jealous of his roommate and friend Phineas, and this jealousy culminates in a scene where Phineas dares Gene to jump with him out of a huge tree into a river on campus. While on the limb, Gene shifts his weight on the branch and Phineas falls out of the tree and shatters his leg. He will never be an athlete again.

Have you had that moment where you decide to do something so impulsively that it’s almost as though you don’t remember how it happened and how you came to the decision to do it after it’s over. Gene is not sure whether this is the case — whether or not he jiggled the branch intentionally, aggressively, with the purpose to make Phineas fall, or innocently to catch his own balance — but he is relatively sure that he did it to come out on top. And you would think, from that point, after his friend falls out of the tree and is rushed away to the hospital with a terribly messy break, that he would begin some kind of repentance. And yet…as a human…as a teenager…he only gets worse.

When he comes back to school from his short vacation home to the South, and starts the winter term, the nature-loving-space-case of the school Elwin (Leper) Lepellier decides to join the army. Leper is the last person any of them would ever expect to join the armed forces and go to war. Months pass, and one day in the midst of a huge gathering Gene gets a telegraph from Leper that he desperately needs help and is at the “Christmas Location” which means that he is home. Gene travels to Leper’s house via public transportation and finally walks miles all the way to his door when there are no more cars and busses he can take. And when he gets there, he finds that Leper has cracked. He’s not quite sane anymore. He’s not who he was. And he is bitter. And Gene is scared. And even though Leper called for Gene’s help…Gene yet AGAIN betrays his friend and won’t be the one person in the world that Leper can talk to. Gene doesn’t want to hear it, and he leaves on bad terms with Leper, and goes back to the school, and tells everyone that Leper is now crazy.

It’s true, I believe, that Gene lives a rather miserable life as a cynic and self-hater. But to me, self hatred is not redemption. Gene never does anything to redeem himself. And chances are he never will – what could he ever do? Phineas is dead (after a second break of the same leg fleeing from the truth). The truth is that Gene has to live with the results of his jealousy and black heart.

When I first read this, I think I wanted to be as naive as Phineas and pretend that Gene didn’t bounce Finny out of the tree, even though I knew he did. Now, as an adult, I see so much deeper into his character than I ever did, and I don’t like what I see, because it mirrors humanity far too closely.

Here are some great books to go in your themed basket (and chances are you can get them at our stores!):

Olivia by Ian Falconer will go just perfectly in your Pig-themed Easter basket!

For all ages except for 43, Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton will be the perfect addition to your whimsical Chicken themed basket (and won’t those Easter eggs be just perfect, too!?)

For the little girl in your life that loves to dress up – Try Fancy Nancy by Jane O’connor. Pair it with some dress up slippers, a fabulous tiara, and some tasty treats and you’re good to go!

And for the crafty girl or guy in your house – try a Klutz book. They explain how to do anything from juggling to magic tricks to making friendship bracelets and hair wraps. Klutz makes something for everyone! Pair it with some additional materials for crafting and you’ve got a winner of a basket!

Try any baking book for a great do-together Easter basket! Fill it with small packages of ingredients and tools for baking. Cookie cutters, cake mix, mini rolling pins – this is a basket the whole family can enjoy!

Trains are a huge hit with any boy. Pair some great Thomas the Tank books with some toy Traincars and maybe even a train whistle. Your little boy will love this basket!

So make it fun and educational this year. Include a book in your Easter baskets!

My box is unloaded off the truck early in the morning. I can hear the birds chirping, which is pleasant. Then it’s no time at all before the box I’m in is opened and someone pulls me out. It feels good to be back in human hands! Then I’m on a cart with other books… and I’m wheeled up to a computer. Next thing I know they’re scanning my barcode – I feel a bit violated! I hear a bit of clicking and typing and then I’ve got a sticker on my back. It’s one of those good stickers…I can tell it’s going to come off without hurting. Phew.

Then I’m on my way to the shelves…Let’s see… Patchett…Pate…Paton…Patterson! Here I am. And look…all of my brothers and sisters…6^th Target, Honeymoon, Lakehouse! They’re all here! I’m shelved and my brothers and sisters and I have a good chat about where the plot will go next. A day goes by and I settle into the shelf. I hope an owner comes for me soon. Another day goes by. It’s Saturday and it’s busy… Very busy. I see a lady in red that I think would be a good owner, but she doesn’t come my way. A man reaches for me! Ah but he’s going for Cry the Beloved Country…Two people come up together “Yes ma’am it looks like it’s right here”… I’m pulled off the shelf! This woman’s got a basket of books… Looks like someone who would take care of me. Oh! I go into the basket and the other books there are chatting and excited…We’ve got a new owner!

At the checkout I learn I’m only $1.99! I was on the brink of being offended, but a lot of the other books are the same price so I figure that’s just part of how this store helps books find new owners. We’re all snuggled into a bag together, and then the woman takes us out to the car – and well, you know the rest!

The story develops slowly. It delves into the back stories of the three central characters: Ada, Inman, and Ruby. Ada is the daughter of a preacher who moved from the Southern city of Charleston, VA, to Cold Mountain. Her nature is reclusive, not trusting, and witty. Inman is a local, born and raised, and initially has nothing save his courtesy to recommend him, but quickly develops into a character of true depth with protagonist tendencies. Ruby is a local as well, only in a different way. She grew up on Cold Mountain, foraging for food when her drunk father left her for weeks at a time, learning all its nooks and crannies and the best spots for herbs. She’s quirky and intelligent despite her humble upbringing.

The whole of the plot revolves around the American Civil War. Inman joins up with the army. Ada’s father dies and the hard times imposed by the long, ongoing war, force her to become more self sufficient. Ruby joins with Ada to help teach her the ways of farming and living with only what can be made or traded for. But there is much more to this book than just its plot. With so many books you get static and unmoving characters whose worldviews and worlds don’t change, but during the tumult of the Civil War, everything is in upheaval, and it makes a perfect setting for the dynamic characters of this book to develop into something much more than characters. They develop into something you’re invested in – something you care about…SomeONE you care about.

And then there is the writing. The writing is beautiful. It’s intelligent, and it’s perfectly paced and rhythmic and engaging. There’s just enough elitism. This is no fast-paced “overnight read” like so many of the bestsellers of our time. This is an author who cares about his writing, and cares about the words he chooses and the implications on every level of thought. The book isn’t just written, it’s crafted. And that only adds to its appeal.

In the end though, you have to take something away from a book. You have to say – was it the writing? was it the characters? was it the message? What was it about this book that made me REALLY like it. What brought it above “good” and made it “great”. For every person it’s different, but for me it’s this:

“You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell, Inman said, for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is go on or not.”

I flagged those words when I read them. I knew they were important. Important to me, important to the story. I just didn’t realize how important.

Cold Mountain is nothing new by now. But whether you’ve seen the movie, or whether you’ve read the book before, I challenge you to re-read it with those words in mind. Do we go on, or do we not?

Brittany Jasper
Store Manager
Used Book Superstore
293 DW Highway Nashua NH 03060
Phone: (603)204-5550