When I was in the classroom one of the joys of summer vacation was having some unhurried time to read. Not lesson plans, emails, state standards, or the rest of the minutia of school. The feeling of setting my chair near the shore and settling in, the lazy luxury of soft sand sifting between my toes, the smell of coconut lotion, and the feeling of warm air buffeting my skin – this was always the backdrop to a book. Anita Shreve, Sue Monk Kidd, Pat Conroy, Wally Lamb – these were my beach-mates.
I loved the way the afternoon would slip by. I’d look up and the families toting beach carts full of buckets and shovels and snacks would be packing up their sun-burned tots and making their exodus, the life guards gathering their paraphernalia, making plans for evening. Where had the day gone?! I’d been lost, totally lost, in “Fortunes Rocks”, “This Much I Know is True” , “The Secret Life of Bees”– other worlds, other lives that somehow resonated with my own.
Over the years many things have changed – since I left the classroom I no longer have the gift of two months of uninterrupted summer. The bliss of the beach has been reduced to a week on the Rhode Island shore. But, perhaps because this, being involved in the year-round business of Empowering Writers, I am acutely aware of the importance of my reading (and writing) time. Because the time I can devote to it in a leisurely way is limited, each moment becomes more valuable. And I am often forced to “double-task” – to read, on one level, for pleasure, and to read, on another level, to hone my craft as a writer.
I have to admit, sometimes the story is SO engaging, that I just swallow it whole and I give it up and just READ, knowing that when I’m finished I’ll go back and scour it again with an eye for the ways the author moved me and how, in terms of craft, language, style, and voice, she/he accomplished it. Other times my author’s eyes intrude, push my pleasure aside, and compel me to pick up a pen and underline a turn of phrase, a beautifully constructed sentence. Most recently it’s been Colum McCann’s “Let the Great World Spin” – beautiful, unusual verbs that arrest me mid-sentence, another section of simultaneous, heart-wrenching action spit out in ping-pong fashion, jolting me from one character to the other, the course of their lives bizarrely juxtaposed.
This hyper-awareness of the power of words and of author’s craft has become a way of life for me. While I miss the pure indulgence of an unhurried beach-read, the practice of “reading with author’s eyes” has enriched and deepened my reading experience and informed and empowered my own writing.
So, as teachers of writing, I throw out a challenge – this summer, when you pack your folding chair, lotion, sunglasses, and novel, and head to the beach, be sure to take along one more thing – your “Author’s Eyes”. Strive to make each reading experience an opportunity to improve your understanding of the craft, skills, and techniques that authors use to move and inspire us. Then in the fall, pass it along to your students!
Weigh in – what have been your favorite “summer reads” – and why?
