This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Judith Light will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
What is the favorite book you remember as a child?
My favorite book was an old adventure story, Enchanted Vagabonds, belonging to my father. It was a memoir written by a couple who paddled from Southern California to Costa Rica in the 1930s when conditions in coastal Mexico were very primitive. They had more adventures than Rober Louis Stevenson could have dreamed up. Despite its long-outdated story at the time I read it, it resonated with me as a child and as a result I became a world traveler. I’ve visited over 100 countries and lived in Italy for ten years but never kayaked like they did.
Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
Cappuccino with her Italian tutor turns Nicole’s life upside down.
What are you reading right now?
My book club decided to read the American Classic, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It’s a wild story written at a time when young men were on the loose and seeking adventure after World War II. There seemed to be no repercussions for their actions – not a story that could be written today.
E-Reader or print? and why?
I prefer print books. There is something satisfying to hold a book in my hands, to look at the cover and back, assess the typeface, and to read the author’s bio or dedication with ease.
One book at a time or multiples?
I often read two books at once – one fiction and the other creative nonfiction.
Dog-ear or bookmark? (don't worry—Librarian Judith won't hold it against you—much)
Bookmark definitely – I have a collection from places I’ve traveled and visited local bookstores. I try to smooth out any dog ears I find.
Least favorite book you've read this year?
I had a hard time with Bright Objects by Ruby Todd. It was too long. I gave up halfway.
Favorite book you've read this year?
I have lots of favorites: one was Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux. It is a fictionalized biography of George Orwell’s time as a young man in colonial Burma which turned him into the author of such books as 1984 and Animal Farm.
When do you do most of your reading?
Usually in the evening.
Favorite place to read?
I have both a cozy armchair and a daybed in my office not far from my bookcase. Very tempting indeed.
Favorite genre?
I’m omnivorous – if it has good plot, setting, and characters, I’m in!
Do you loan your books?
Once in a blue moon to someone I can trust to return it.
How do you keep your books organized?
I have my old travel guides on one shelf including the 1904 Baedeker Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy, the 1912 Baedeker Handbook for Travellers in Palestine and Syria, the first English edition of the Michelin Green Guide to Italy published in 1959, and an 1868 Views in Jerusalem. The Italian history, novels, and memoirs are together. Art books are on the bottom shelves. Everything else is random which makes for a challenge when I want to find a book I just know is there but hiding. But sometimes I find something better.
Re-reader or not?
Seldom. Too many new books I want to read.
What would make you not finish a book?
I will stop if the characters don’t engage me.
Keep books or give them away?
I donate books to our local library for resale once in a while when I have to curate my bookcases because they are overflowing, and books are stacked on the floor. It’s painful though.
A nearby rock invited me to perch to wait for the men to return. Tiny wild pink cyclamen flowers poked between the grasses and fallen pine needles carpeting the ground. With petals facing backward like the tail of a comet, I always saw cyclamens as shooting stars. I picked one but it had been partially eaten by some hungry insect. I let the flower fall not wanting to make a wish on an imperfect star. A local poet, another expatriate American, had recently published his latest work in a slim chapbook. I’d bought a copy when he did a reading at the bookstore Primrose formerly owned. I’d taken time from packing my things to attend and still had the chapbook in my shoulder bag. Uncertain what to do while I waited for the men, I read to pass the time. The first page I turned to held the perfect poem to suit my mood.
We could have shared a glass today but now you’re gone.
I wonder what the day will bring with its gray and lowering clouds.
On the opposite page was a woodcut of a wild cyclamen, the flower I’d picked moments ago. The words raised bittersweet memories.
My husband and I reluctantly returned to the US after four years. But we pined for the land of pasta, vino, art, and sunny piazzas. Then the gods smiled and offered a chance to return to Rome with the UN World Food Program. Six more years or food and frolic in the Eternal City passed much too quickly. The indelible experiences living in Italy and working for the UN were the genesis of my memoir Coins in the Fountain.
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