TTT: Ten Bookish Wishes I'd Ask the Book Genie to Grant Me
If a genie popped out of lantern and agreed to grant me wishes related to reading and books here is what I would ask for...
1. As soon as a book is published, make sure an audiobook is also released at the same time, especially for YA novels. As you know, I love listening to books. It is surprising how many books have no audiobooks created for them.
2. For every new book I purchase for my library please make sure there will be at least five students who want to read it. I have so many new books which have never been checked out. It makes me sad.
3. And, dear genie, when those students bring back a book they like, please make sure they tell their friends about the book. Students tell me but I am not sure they tell others.
4. Please assist an author in creating the a new wildly popular series which creates a whole generation of readers. You know, like Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and dare I say, Twilight. No pressure, but it is time for something new that really excites readers.
5. Genie, I know this sounds impossible but please help me read faster. I think there are over 1000 books in my library which I really want to read and there just isn't enough time to read them all before I die since I usually spend most of my reading time reading newly published books each year. I want a way to digest all the older books fast.
6. Now for something really fun, please allow me to make a few magical trips into literature world. Let me go back and get into books so I can view beloved characters up close and personal. (See Jasper Fford's The Eyre Affair for a fun way to make this happen.) I think it would be really fun to be at the dance where Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy or the dinner party where Anne Eliott is reunited with Captain Wentworth, or how about a student in Anne Shirley's school, or a member of the quiddich team for Griffindor? Just for a day.
7. And please Genie, wipe out my memory of reading favorite books like the Harry Potter series, and To Kill a Mockingbird, so I can read them again for the first time! Wouldn't that be fun?
8. I know this sounds like a stupid and trite wish, but Genie would you please make sure that publishers do a few things to assist both readers and librarians: a. make sure they clearly mark what book it is in the series...on the book; and b. leave a blank space on the back of books for libraries to place their barcodes without obscuring the book information. I wish these two things all the time.
9. Find, for the world's sake, not mine, a few finished manuscripts from Shakespeare and Jane Austen. Tall order, I realize, but why not?
10. Genie, is there any chance I could go back in time and unsquander all those lost opportunities to read the classics as I was growing up? Thanks. That is really helpful to my future (present.)
11. and Genie, please let books be books a little longer before they are made into movies because, as you know, as soon as that happens people stop reading the book.
