I don’t have anybody in my very small circle of friends that I can sit down with and chat about the most recent books I have read. Nina will listen, but only to a certain point as she has different tastes of books than me. My parents have a very short attention span with my books I read as they are more interested in Niko. And, Niko will listen as well, but he has no clue in what I am talking about unless it’s about Minecraft or Super Mario Bros. He has two Minecraft books, and when I read them to him in bed, I have no clue what is going on.
That is why, this year, I have started writing book reviews on www.thedadspeaks.com, Amazon, Goodreads, and on a Facebook group called Goodreads Society. I have been enjoying doing that and have had some real conversations online about them.
I like using Goodreads as it’s a very easy way for me track of the books I have read. I don’t have many friends on that platform. I only started reviewing and rating them this year and only did ratings starting in 2022. The first book I read and entered was Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. Since 2020, it says I have read 213 books.
When I finish a book, I take a few minutes to write my thoughts on it and let that sit for a day before I finally publish it. I always have the next book available to read in my Kindle library. I use my Wishlist on Amazon to save books I want to read later. One of the things I really like about Amazon is that I can download a free sample of a book without having to shell out money to start. I also am a Kindle Unlimited member, so I get free books on that platform.
After I published my first few reviews, I had stop and think about how I wanted to organize them. At first, I had a page with the complete book review but that go to busy looking on that particular page. I also kept a draft of that book review, and that was confusing me. Then, I changed that page to include the links to the review and published the reviews as blog posts. Finally, I went back to all my prior blogs and the review blogs and added tags to help sort them (Books, WGU, The Dad Speaks, The Mom Speaks, and NaNoWriMo).
Yes, I know my website is called The Dad Speaks, and I am still writing about my life as a dad. But don’t be surprised if I start writing about other things that I am interested in besides books. One thing I won’t write about is politics and religion.
I don’t remember as a baby, child, teenager, young adult, or even a mature/immature adult reading books constantly. I guess I had other things going on. I mean, I did read, but not for my enjoyment.
When I was 13 years old, I was a HUGE fan of The Beatles, and I had amassed quite a collection of Beatles books. Did I read any of them? Nope, I probably read one or two. I had to have them because they were about The Beatles. I ended up selling most of them many many many years later. Looking in a bookcase in our house, I own less than 20 books; most of which are Beatles related, and the rest are sports related. Nina, on the other hand, has books everywhere in our house and at one point, she had lots more. Even Niko has a bookcase in his room filled with books.
One book I remember being forced to read in high school was Snow Falling on Cedars and I dreaded every part of it. In another class in high school, we had to read a book and then the teacher would quiz us about it. The book I chose was, Seinlanguage, by Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah, a comedy book. And, if I remember correctly, my teacher asked me about his wrestling takes! That same teacher also made us memorize part of the To be, or not to be speech written by Shakespeare. I passed that one and to this day, I still remember the first few lines. Similar to the fact that I still know the first few lines of my Torah portion from my Bar Mitzvah in 1990(I will only preface to say it was about Leprosy from Leviticus).
Remember Cliffs Notes? I used those as substitutes for other readings in school. I didn’t even like reading the textbooks, but I still managed decent grades because I did all of my homework and any available extra credit.
When I got my undergraduate degree at UTSA, I still didn’t enjoy reading the textbooks, but again, I managed to pass the classes.
When I was getting my MBA online at Western Governors University in 2019 through 2021, I had the computer read the text out loud for me and I was able to pause it at my convenience and scribble down notes. This material, I enjoyed as I was older, and I wanted to learn the subjects.
Two years ago, I was talking to my dad about books, and he told me this story about himself, which is published in his unpublished memoirs:
As a teen, I visited the main library in Newark often and browsed through the shelves and catalogs. Real shelves on different levels. Scouring the shelves was an adventure all of its own. Later, trips to a bookstore became a highlight of my day, especially after a trip to see family in lower Manhattan. Brentano’s and other bookstores in the city on the way back to the Holland Tunnel were frequent stops for your mom and me.
My parents didn’t get beyond the eighth grade in school, but they were big readers. One might think that as working-class people my parents wouldn’t be able to afford to buy too many books. True, but they had a source.
Uncle Bill was our family’s book supplier. Uncle Bill worked as a porter for the NYC Subway system. He cleaned trains at the end of the day. He would throw trash out but keep the discarded books. I can visualize him lugging bags of books after work and stashing them in his apartment until the appropriate hand-off was arranged.
Once or twice a month either he would visit us, we would go to his apartment in the Bronx, or we might meet him at my grandmother’s apartment. A shopping bag or two would change hands, from Bill to my father.
These bags were filled with paperback books. My father would grab his mysteries, my mother would locate her favorites and I would get my fix with Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson or some unknown writer, it didn’t matter. In the days of black and white TV, with only a few channels, these books provided me entertainment without parallel.
I started getting these books when I was around ten or eleven years old, and the handoff continued until I was close to thirty years old. The most appreciated books came during my year in Thailand. Regularly a shoe box, wrapped and taped tightly, would arrive with books.
My love for bookstores continues to this day.
But a few years ago, I started reading for my enjoyment. The majority of the books I have read are autobiographies and biographies. Throw in a few sports related books as well.
I did indulge all the James Patterson books about Alex Cross after I read his autobiography. I also read all the fiction books by Anthony Bourdain (I did read Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw and liked both), Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, and all the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Dave and Carl have new books coming out soon, and both are in my Amazon Wishlist.
I hardly ever go to the lengths of contacting an author to tell them how much I enjoyed their particular book. Come on, do you really think they would reply to me? Maybe an assistant would answer it with a generic reply like the following:
Hello (insert name),
Thank you for reading (insert book title). Unfortunately, since I am a very popular writer, I am unable to personally respond to everybody. But do know that my assistant throws all the complaints in the trash and transcribes all the positive feedback for me, which I listen to at 2x speed while I am in the bathroom plotting my next great New York Times bestseller.
Thanks again for reading my book and check out my website for more books. Also, please leave a review on Amazon for me.
Thanks,
(insert Author name)
But I have reached out to authors a few times.
I reached out to Brian David Bruns in 2015 when I read his non-fiction Cruise Confidential series. He replied back and provided me a copy of a new book he had written called The Gothic Shift. You know something, I don’t even remember if I read that one. Well, I guess I will add it to my Amazon Wishlist. One of the executives in one of his books, I do remember seeing his name on one of our cruises.
In 2019, I contacted Matt Wixon through Twitter. I knew of Matt as he used to be a sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News. His first fiction book was about high school football and I told him I read it in one weekend, and really enjoyed it. Our commonality was high school football, as I was a freelance sportswriter for www.thestatmanspeaks.com. Matt has written another fiction book and I liked it and could easily see him continuing that book into a series. He now works for a school district in communications. We swapped several more Twitter messages.
I contacted Jeff Pearlman last year as I read all of his sports biographies as I liked his style of writing. In my outreach, I told him a quick story about the San Antonio Gunslingers, as one of his books was about the USFL. No reply. Oh well. I guess he is busy interviewing people about the next great American athlete whose name can be anybody!
Four of the books I have read just in the past few weeks were by Adam Fletcher, and they were about his weird travel adventures in unusual places in the world. His style of writing captivated me, and I enjoyed his conversations with locals about a wide range of topics. I decided to reach out to him through his website, but I almost contacted another Adam Fletcher! Thank goodness I stopped when I saw the titles of the other books by the wrong Adam Fletcher. A few days later, I got this reply from the correct Adam Fletcher:
Just saw a second review from you roll in, this time for Don’t Come Back. Wonderful, thank you! Those reviews make a big difference. I also really appreciate the e-mail – this can be a lonely job and it’s nice to know there are people out there in the world enjoying the books I spend so long crafting. I checked out your blog and you have a nice, engaging writing style. I read the story about how you met your wife, and it was very touching. Good job.
Thanks again for the support and all the best.
We exchanged a couple more emails. The last one, I told him I would inform when this particular blog would be published as it’s been brewing for a few weeks. I keep adding more and more to it.
Wait, did he really say he enjoyed my blog and I have a nice, engaging writing style? He did!
Wow, and excellent and to hear that from a real published author, I take that and say thanks.
Wait again, I am also a real published author, but where I have sold a small number of books, he has sold a heck of a lot more.
Self-promotion time really quick. My eBooks are cheap, so please buy them and leave a review on Amazon for me.
The Statman Speaks – Published August 23, 2022
The Dad Gets Edumacated – Published January 26, 2022
The Dad Speaks: My First Year as a First-Time Dad – Published February 12, 2018
I do have an idea for a 4th eBook. I just need to jot some stuff down, and then I can start to write it.
A few weeks ago, I saw a post in the Goodreads Society Facebook page from David Wilson asking very nicely if anybody would read one of his books, and post a review on Goodreads, Amazon, and any other platform.
I know how hard it is to get people to leave reviews as I am also a published writer, so I replied, yes, I want to read your memoir of being a law enforcement office. He provided me his book free of charge, and I was very impressed with his style of writing and thoroughly enjoyed his memoir. I then, asked if he wanted to read of one of my books for free, and he obliged. Hopefully, he will enjoy The Statman Speaks.
Well, his review of The Statman Speaks was extremely positive, and I urge you to take a look on Amazon, and while you are reading it, buy my book!
I really need to stop editing this one because every time I come in, I add more and it’s already over 2000 words. I can always write a Part 3! Part 1 was published in 2021.
