[stylist] My reading list

Wed Aug 9 02:59:14 UTC 2017

I have been writing since I was about 9 or 10 years old. I have also been an
avid reader. I was reading the New York Times by the time I was 6, with a
dictionary next to me. According to my family, at 9 months old, I took my
cousin's Hooked on Phonics and would sit in the corner, trying to "read"! 

When I lost my vision at 29, I didn't write for a couple of years, while I
tried to adjust to life as a blind person. Now, I write constantly, even if
not in my favorite genre, romantic suspense. 

I love BAARD and am constantly on the hunt for new books and old favorites.
I don't get to read as many as I'd like, but I go through at least two a
week, which means I rarely sleep. LOL. 

I just finished The Guild Hunters, Volume 1 and 2 by Nalini Singh. Great
urban fantasy fiction. 

Camille 
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jacobson,
Shawn D via stylist
Sent: Tuesday, August 8, 2017 3:27 PM
To: Writers' Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Jacobson, Shawn D <Shawn.D.Jacobson at hud.gov>
Subject: Re: [stylist] My reading list

Bill

When I started writing, I tried reading some of the classics.  I read "A
Tale of Two Cities" (quite good), Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"
(couldn't get into it at all), and "War and Peace" (I found very uneaven,
better in the war scenes than in the peace scenes).

Anyway, reed on.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Outman
via stylist
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 3:15 PM
To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List' <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Bill Outman <woutman at earthlink.net>
Subject: [stylist] My reading list

I haven't been able to do as much on the writing front lately, but I have
been making some progress on reading lately.  

First, let me share the list of books I either have completed reading or are
in the process of reading since I got started using the BARD Mobile app on
my iPhone, and then I'll give some explanation afterward.  In my list, *
indicates I have finished reading the book for the first time.  

Digital NLS Books 

*"The Huntress" (biography of Alicia Patterson) 

*"The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know To Be Sexually
Literate" (1990 edition) 

*"Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps
and the Tenth Dimension", Michio Kaku 

*"Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking-Glass,"Lewis Carroll 

*"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(w. explanatory notes & original manuscript
material)", Mark Twain 

*"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain 

"Gone With The Wind", Margaret Mitchell 

"Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus", John Gray 

.         * indicates I have finished reading this book 

.         The first one on my list, The Huntress, was something I wasn't
interested in when I first got it, as it was something my local talking book
library helped me get just to practice getting a book and navigating the
app.  It turned out, however, to be of interest to me given my northern
Illinois roots, given the fact the subject of the biography, Alicia
Patterson, was part of the family that once owned the Chicago Tribune, so
the story filled in more history of the area I didn't fully know.  

The Kinsey book on sexuality has been essential reading for me, as there are
aspects of the issue of sexuality that I didn't learn in my youth, partially
as it wasn't properly taught to me in the schools for blind, in part due to
administration's belief I couldn't handle it and other improper attitude
issues that existed that I could go into more detail about later if anyone
is interested.  Had the issue been faced correctly in my teens, it would
have saved a lot of trouble concerning how I deal with relationships, and
I'd be in a better place in my life now, rather than being being in my early
50s and still feeling I've experienced some arrested development.  

Perhaps on a certain level there was also the assumption I already
understood the sexual issue adequately and was merely misbehaving purposely,
as my academics were very strong, so the physics book on hyperspace by
Michio Kaku is an example of something I can somewhat absorb, even though
many might not dare go near such a thing.  Some of the descriptions about
our ability, or more correctly, inability to perceive extra dimensions gave
me more insight into my feelings about first being born totally blind, then
having some vision due to operations on my eyes, and then facingtotal
blindness again due to disease of the eyes.  He quotes one perception
analogy about hyperspace that discusses blindness and perception and
understanding of color.  The analogy only holds if the blind person had
never had vision.  I can't fault him for not having full understanding of
this, as it wasn't really the point he was trying to get across.
Nonetheless the book was fascinating to me as such fields as physics and
astronomy have always interested me.  

The reading of the Lewis Carroll double volume grew out of the Kaku book, as
he cited some of the descriptions in it as apt for understanding the concept
of multiple universes.  The initial rabbit hole scene somewhat resembles
what it might be like to traverse an Einstein-Rosen wormhole bridge, if that
is in fact possible.  

I then began thinking about how I have been lacking in my reading of the
classics, especially fiction.  There have been a number of reasons for this.
They include the fact my life hasn't been anything of a fairy tale existence
facing disability from birth, despite growing up fairly middle class.  I
also felt pressure due to my Christian beliefs about the morality of
enjoying and partaking in certain types of culture, including literary
fiction.  

I first started with Huckleberry Finn, and made note of its treatment of our
history with religious and racial issues.  It is fascinating to get
something told in the local vernacular.  One aspect of relationships
described in Huck Finn was the case of the young lady taking the initiative
to get Huck to fetch her Bible; it was a ruse to establish another meeting.
Of course it was unusual in that time for a woman to be that forward.  

I then felt the need to read Tom Sawyer.  One of the most interesting things
was finding inspiration for prayer, taking after the model described when
the local church service was described.  We still have issues sometimes with
the command performance aspects of faith that were described.  It was also
interesting to look at how young romance was pursued at that time.  

I have just started Gone With The Wind, and am looking forward to a more
in-depth treatment of romance.  As you can tell I haven't had much practical
education on this, to my detriment.  

To that end, I also down loaded Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus in
order to get some more practical information for today on this matter.  

So there you have it, my summer reading list to date.  

Bill Outman 

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