Every once in a while, I stumble upon an article that really grabs my eye and I feel the need to share it. This New York Times article, “The Second Shelf,” by Meg Wolitzer is incredibly thought-provoking.

Being an avid reader, I have often tried to step back and observe my reading habits. For instance, am I only reading the same type of book? Am I buying this book because it has a well-designed cover or because its content looks good? Do I challenge myself enough in my reading material? While asking myself questions like these, I’ve also thought about my favorite authors and whether they are male or female. I would have to say I’m definitely biased towards my sex. But I freely admit that and, of course, it would be stupid for me to deny to read works just because they were written by a man.

But, as this article notes, many male readers do just that when they relegate books for the simple fact that they were written by a woman. How is that possible?? Wolitzer points out that female writers’ publishers may be helping to perpetuate men’s stereotypes about “Women’s Fiction”: “A writer’s own publisher can be part of a process of effective segregation and vague if unintentional put-down. Look at some of the jackets of novels by women. Laundry hanging on a line. A little girl in a field of wildflowers. A pair of shoes on a beach. An empty swing on the porch of an old yellow house.”

It’s laughable how accurately that describes the covers of most books written “by women for women.” I have to say that it’s disheartening to read an article like this and see that unfortunately sexism is still alive and well. But how amazing would it be if, men and women, could get past these barriers and read a book not based on the gender of the author but on the quality of the book itself! That will be the day!

What are your thoughts? Do you have stereotypes when it comes to fiction (“Oh, that’s only for girls/guys”, etc.). I would love to hear from you!

“The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter In a Distracted Time” by David Ulin should be required reading. And I’m not just talking about in public schools; everyone of all ages should read this concise explanation of what the age of technology has done to our ability to get lost in a good book.

I don’t know about you, but I have definitely seen how the invasion of technology in my own life has effected my reading habits. I feel like now it’s harder than ever to just sit down and read. What I mean by that is turn off the TV, stop checking my phone, and simply relax with a good book. It seems to take more work for me to focus on one thing instead of trying to do a bajillion things at once (which usually results in me forgetting what it actually was I wanted to get done).

Ulin included a section from Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” that I found quite fascinating and might explain part of my problem. Here’s what Carr says about our Internet habits:

“Whenever we, as readers, come upon a link, we have to pause, for at least a split second, to allow our prefrontal cortex to evaluate whether or not we should click on it. The redirection of our mental resources, from reading words to making judgments, may be imperceptible to us– our brains are quick– but it’s been shown to impede comprehension and retention, particularly when it’s repeated frequently.”

Hmm.

On another note, Ulin is definitely a kindred spirit of mine in that, like me, he doesn’t seem able to give up the old-fashioned notion of reading real books (not on a Kindle or iPad but the kind you can hold in your hands and smell its musty scent– remember those?). In defense of owning books and building a personal library, Ulin says “this is one of the most powerful gifts a library has to offer, to represent not just our histories but also our imaginations, until past, present, and future begin to take shape in three dimensions, to occupy a space that, while outside us, stands in some significant fashion for who we are.”

Amen, brother!

If you’re interested in this subject but don’t have time to read the entire book right now, this is the article that “The Lost Art” was based on that Ulin just expanded into book form. I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think reading is a dying art?

I am a little late on the bandwagon for this one. “The Glass Castle,” a memoir by Jeannette Walls, was published back in 2005 and spent over three years on the New York Times bestseller list. Despite its success though, I never got around to reading it. I think there was a little part of me that was skeptical that this memoir would be any different than most I’ve read: sappy, “pity me” tales. I was very pleased that I was proven wrong though with “The Glass Castle.”

Jeannette Walls does a beautiful job of balancing her story with the cruel realities her family faced (starvation, homelessness and lack of proper care) as well as the happy moments she shared with her eccentric genius of a father and artistic free spirit mother. It reminded me a little of “I Capture the Castle,” a favorite of mine by Dodie Smith. (And it is pure coincidence that both titles use the word “castle” in them!).

After reading this book, you will find it hard to believe that Jeannette could transform into a well-adjusted, even happy, human being, but she apparently has. After I finished “The Glass Castle,” I was so curious as to how she turned out that I looked up an interview she did with Craig Ferguson. I just find her delightful so I will leave you with it!

Ever read a book that even once you finished the last page and put it back on the shelf you couldn’t get out of your head? “In the Woods” by Tana French is one of those books for me. Its wonderful writing and haunting plot are not easily forgotten and leave you wanting more (thankfully, I discovered it is part of the Dublin Murder Squad series so there ARE more!).

“In the Woods” is about Detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox who are given the hard task of discovering who killed and raped a twelve-year-old girl in the Dublin suburb of Knocknaree. What no one except Rob and Cassie knows though is that Rob grew up in Knocknaree and twenty years ago disappeared in the nearby woods with his two best friends. Hours later he was found clinging to a tree with blood in his shoes and no recollection of what happened or where his friends were. So begins a gripping story that you will find very hard, if not impossible, to put down.

I must warn you that this book does not shy away from graphic detail. Think of it as a less melodramatic version of “Law & Order.” Despite loving “In the Woods,” there were parts I found hard to read and it left me feeling very sad for the real life victims of such heinous crimes as rape and sexual abuse.

So, on a related note, I recently started my own campaign with an organization called the International Justice Mission to raise money for their work in developing countries bringing freedom to victims of slavery, sex trafficking and other types of violent oppression. If you would like to join me in this cause, please visit my campaign page at http://ijmfreedommaker.org/campaign/166. Any amount you can contribute will help IJM give a voice to the voiceless and hope to the hopeless!

All of those closest to me know that I am a big stickler when it comes to punctuation and grammar. As much as I love writing, I might enjoy editing even more. “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is the perfect light-hearted read for everyone out there like me who cringe when they see a sign for “Banana’s” or a missing comma.

The author, Lynne Truss, describes the plight of sticklers everywhere quite aptly in her introduction:

“Part of one’s despair, of course, is that the world cares nothing for the little shocks endured by the sensitive stickler. While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation. Whisper it in petrified little-boy tones: dead punctuation is invisible to everyone else- yet we see it all the time. No one understands us seventh-sense people. They regard us as freaks. When we point out illiterate mistakes we are often aggressively instructed to ‘get a life’ by people who, interestingly, display no evidence of having lives themselves.”

The beauty of this book is that Truss makes punctuation interesting for everyone. Hey, it wasn’t a New York Times bestseller for nothing! So even if you don’t gasp when you notice a missing apostrophe, you can appreciate this book for Truss’ great writing and spectacular wit.