Blog - Page 3 of 3 - Notes of Oak - Literary Resources for a Poetic Lifestyle

The 10 Best Reading Nooks to Enjoy Print Books

09/26/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

BECAUSE WE ASSOCIATE WHAT WE READ WITH WHERE WE READ IT

A tangible book is more poetic than a digital one because the inescapable clamor of technology lurks behind every e-book’s text. The experience of reading Virginia Woolf’s words on a page will always eclipse reading them on a screen due to the static simplicity of ink on paper. Digital content’s kineticism is a distraction, a white noise that drowns out poetry’s subtler frequencies. With devices, there is always recourse to another entertainment option, but with real books, there is simply the text and the view in front of you. Reading a real, real good book is a poetic experience in and of itself that can be accentuated by the purlieu, so here are the 10 best reading nooks to nestle in and enjoy your printed book.

Book Review

‘Ill Nature’ is Even More Vital in 2018

09/21/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

A BOOK REVIEW OF JOY WILLIAMS’S ILL NATURE ESSAY COLLECTION

I found Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals by Joy Williams tucked at the top of the nature section at the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, CA. The book’s titular pun and subtitle reeled me in, since I’m a reader specifically seeking texts that grapple with the ways humans individually affect nature in the 21st century. Indeed, one of the most successful aspects of this book of essays by Williams, who is more widely known as a short story writer, is that it identifies the reader as a primary culprit in nature’s malaise.

Discover Literature

8 Key Literary Elements in Every Written Masterpiece

09/20/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

WHAT GOOD READERS SHOULD LOOK FOR IN GREAT BOOKS

Good books transcend genre; their caliber doesn’t depend on their focus. Indeed, the very best books are often about nothing at all, other than planning a party (ahem, Mrs. Dalloway), and yet, they can transform the reader through their use of these eight key literary elements. Any written masterpiece should employ these techniques in abundance, synthesizing them to create a reading experience as rich as running your palm over a mossy boulder beside the ocean on an autumn afternoon as your love makes tea inside an amber-lit beach house.

Reader Lifestyle

9 Common Book Reader Types and 1 Rare Bookworm

09/18/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

STRIVE TO BE #10 ON THIS LIST OF READER PERSONALITY TYPES

Readers animate texts. They transform books from objects to energy through the leaps, connections, moods, associations, and more evoked by static print on the page. Every writer has a reader in mind when they compose, even if that reader is just herself or society’s indifference. While each reader is unique, most people can be categorized as one of the following 9 common book reader types, and a select few can be considered the rare bookworm at the end of this list.