Showing posts with label Reader Profiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reader Profiles. Show all posts

Reader Profile: Kimi Martin

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Kimi Martin





She blogs here:




Kimi on life:

I guess first I would have to say that I am a mom and my kids are my passion. I have been a stay at home mom for 24 years and have 7 children. My youngest is 4 so I am still knee-deep in mom responsibilities and have to work everything else in and around that. I love music and play the piano and violin and love to sing in the choir. One of my greatest experiences was singing in our stake choir for the Birmingham Alabama temple dedication! However, I find it difficult to keep up with the music other than just incidental playing around at home.

I find that music fills a place in my soul while the reading is as necessary as breathing. I love to read and always have. I learned to read when I was 4 years old and always had a book in my hands, or so it seemed. As a mom, I was always waiting for kids somewhere: preschool pickup line, music lessons, etc. so I have usually had a book to read while I am waiting. I am recovering from ankle surgery right now and have all the time I want to read, it's great!

I have a new passion in blogging and am learning web design, which is a lot of fun! I would like to start writing, other than for my blogs and have started a children's book, but am finding that it's difficult to put what is in my head as a nebulous idea down on paper.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet developed a passion for house-cleaning and cooking but there's always hope, or so my family believes:)

Kimi on reading:

My very favorite genre is historical fiction. I love learning about different places and times and fiction is a great way to do it. I love it when the author gets detailed about what life is like in the culture/time about which they are writing. One of my favorite authors right now is Anne Perry. She gives such details about the Victorian Era that I am always learning new things along with enjoying the mystery.

My least favorite genre is hard to say. I used to think that science fiction would be but then I read David Eddings books and Orson Scott Card. There are some action novels that get too detailed about fighting but if they have a good plot I still enjoy them. I will read just about any genre as long as it is well-written and not obscene.

Books that make me cry, hmmm, I think that a book that will make me cry is usually dealing with family difficulties and tragedies, although any sort of human triumph over difficulties will get to me. Books that make me laugh are usually about the silly things that go on in families, and I do love books of Calvin and Hobbes comics!

If I could pick a dream LDS fiction book it would have to be historically based. We own all the Work and the Glory and Children of the Promise books. I haven't seen anything about the exodus from the colonies in Mexico, maybe they are out there and I've just missed them. I think that would make a great story! I really enjoy Christmas books and think that books always make a good gift. Last year for my birthday I asked for, and received, 2 David McCullough books: John Adams and Truman. Yes, I love biographies about inspirational people. They don't necessarily have to be famous, but I do like to read about people triumphing over their trials.

Why Kimi reads:

For me, reading has always been a visceral need. I have to read and will read what ever is nearby if I don't have a book with me. I don't feel that way about most other things. I like to watch tv and movies sometimes with my family and will crochet while I watch but most of the time there isn't anything worth watching. I don't play sports because, even when I don't have a cast on my leg I am terrible at them but I do like to watch them sometimes! I enjoy doing a lot of things but when I have a bit of free time I usually think of reading first. I have always been drawn to the written word in a way that I am not to other things.The thing about a book is that you can pick it up and read for a few minutes here and there. It makes it easier to fit into a busy day where so many other things just can't. It works well for moms and all busy people so long as you can put it down when you need to. It took me a long time to develop the ability to do that! I read so many books right now that virtually all of them are from the library.

When I buy a book, I look for one that will appeal to several members of the family, all of whom are readers, and/or one that will be read over and over again. Because we live in Massachusetts, we don't have the option of checking LDS books out and don't have an LDS bookstore anywhere close. In fact I have no idea where the closest would be! All LDS books are ordered online or picked up when we are in Utah. For that reason, most of the books we buy are not LDS. Just thinking through our bookshelves, I would say that maybe 20 to 25% of our books are from an LDS publisher.

Reader Profile: Corinne

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Corinne

She blogs about books here

Corinne on life:

First and foremost, I see myself as a mom. I love being a mom for many reasons, but probably my two favorite things to do with my children is reading together and traveling together. I really like to explore museums and national parks and I love photography and blogging. I have two blogs, one is more personal where I document my travels and the chaos that is being a mom of three. My other blog is a "book blog," where I participate in reading challenges and review the books I read. Mostly I like feeling like I am living the fullest life that I can, squeezing out every drop of experience available to me.

Corinne on reading:

I like so many different kinds of books. When I get to choose, young adult books are my favorite - fantasy or modern, historical fiction or coming of age. I appreciate the romance that is typically in these books - it's not graphic but there is nearly always some kind of love interest for the protagonist. I like that usually these stories have someone coming into some kind of power, there is a self-fulfilling journey that makes the protagonist realize that they have something special to offer, a pretty powerful idea.

Books that make me laugh usually are character driven, where the absurdity of a character's behavior (or a narrator's rendition of events) strikes me as wonderfully absurd (Jeeves or Cold Comfort Farm or The Princess Bride all have characters and narrators that have made me laugh out loud) Books that make me cry have characters that I really care about and when tragedy strikes them, it hurts me and it's hard to remove their pain from my own. Generally, my favorite books are fiction because when I read non-fiction (memoirs, etc) I usually spend too much thought wondering which parts are real and which parts the author made up (call me quirky, it's okay). I like to know when a story is just a story.

My dream LDS fiction book would have tight and superb writing. It would have characters that are flawed and yet powerful and not based on anyone real. It would probably historical fiction of some kind and would be very well researched. On the other hand, I'd also love to read a fiction book about a stay-at-home-Mormon-Mom like me, it mostly depends on how the book is written. I tried some books that are written to mock or poke fun at Mormon culture and those tend to turn me off. I don't want to read a caricature, I want the deep stuff, the real stuff. I don't typically buy "gift" books, and I'm not particularly into Christmas books. I think they seem to have a level of cheesiness in them that turns me off - I don't want to read something that is designed to make me cry - I want to just care enough about the characters that I cry all on my own because of my connection to the story.


Why Corinne reads:

I think I read to be entertained. I read to spend time in a world beyond my own. I read to learn. I read so I can write about a book afterward. I read to have something to talk about with my friends. I have become more particular about the books I choose to purchase, since my shelf space is limited :) A book I buy I would be comfortable having my children read someday. I would expect it to have writing so well done that I'd want to pick it up and read parts of it again. I would buy it because I want to be able to underline my favorite parts and write in the margins.

I have never checked out an LDS book from the library because I don't think my library has any and frankly, I wouldn't even know what to look for. I would love to read and support works by LDS authors, but I am picky about what kinds of books I read. Shannon Hale, for example, writes exactly the kinds of books I enjoy. The plots are intriguing and the writing is fantastic. There are no LDS elements, but the stories have moral underpinnings that I appreciate. Orson Scott Card is another example of an LDS author I really enjoy - but I think I like Hale and Card because I just like the kinds of stories they tell, the fact that they are LDS is superfluous. I would have read them anyway, if that makes sense. I have tried buying "LDS fiction" books online before, but I was a bit disappointed in the quality of writing, it felt more like a clean romance novel to me and I like my stories to have more depth than JUST the romance.

In all, the fact that an author or a publisher is LDS doesn't matter to me as much as the quality of the writing. I want a good story with strong characters and lyrical, thoughtful writing. If you find one, please pass it my way :)

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