Passing It On

My novel cure for "The 161 Meme"

Uh-oh. I’ve been tagged with “The 161 Meme.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, think of a meme as a chain letter. Someone poses a question to five bloggers, who respond with a post or comment before tagging five more bloggers with the same question. And on and on. I was tagged by Terry Thornton at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi.

For this meme, I’m to check page 161 of the book I am currently reading, find the sixth sentence on the page and post it. For me, the book is “The Widow of the South” by Robert Hicks. It’s rare that I read fiction, but Hicks inspired me to read his novel after I heard him speak recently at the 2007 Conference of the Association of Personal Historians.

The sixth sentence on page 161 reads: “During the battle he must have been shot in the head, grazed probably, but you can lose a whole lot of blood that way.” Since my actual reading is only at page 71, this is more or less a preview of things to come. I’m really enjoying the book, by the way, and Hicks’ attention to detail tells the story of the Civil War in terms that magnify the true horror of having a war fought in your own backyard.

Now it’s time to do some tagging of my own. My five choices are:

1. Christie Vilsack, the former first lady of Iowa. Christie has an interest in personal history and has created the Vilsack Foundation that promotes literacy, storytelling and community building, among other things.

2. Carla Offenburger. Carla is the wife of my former colleague Chuck Offenburger, who was blogging for years before the term became fashionable. Carla is a regular contributor to the family web site, including her popular column, “What’s Carla Reading?”

3. Marc Hansen. Think of Marc, a columnist at The Des Moines Register, as a professional blogger. A long-time friend, Marc is a must-read in my house. I hope he will at least post a comment on what he’s reading these days.

4. Kathleen Bell. One of my favorite bloggers, Kathleen blogs from New Bedford, Mass., where she writes about everything from her days as a child in the Philippines to her exploits as a busy mother of six. Oh yes, she’s also pursuing her masters in journalism from Harvard Extension.

5. Braudia. This is a family two-fer. My son, Bret, and his bride, Claudia, are blogging from their new home in Durham, England. They haven’t been there long, but I hope one of them has found time to dig into a good book.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of thomas ford memorial library.

Reading isn't what it used to be

Is reading becoming a lost art?

That's a valid question for personal biographers who, after all, are creating works to be read. In my case, at least, it's amazing how my reading habits have changed over the years.

As a professional writer and journalist, I spend a lot of my time reading, but it's more or less "drive-by reading." I read, analyze, use and move on. I suspect most of us read this way in this Internet age. We skim through e-mails, blogs, etc., without taking the time to really absorb what our eyes are taking in.

As a kid, my reading outside of mandatory schoolwork was much more leisurely. Outside of the public library, our choices were minimal. I grew up reading newspapers and still start each day with a cup of coffee and the Des Moines Register. But none of my three adult children - all college graduates who were raised in a newspaper-rich environment - are regular newspaper readers.

My reading habits are forever intertwined with my life experiences. As a sports-crazy kid I pored over the boxscores in the Sporting News. As a wishing-to-be-suave college student I read the entire James Bond series by Ian Fleming, alternating with the more gritty works of Harold Robbins. I'm practically a charter subscriber to Rolling Stone and have at various times subscribed to the Village Voice, Playboy, Crawdaddy, Editor & Publisher and Utne.

I'm currently reading "Escaping the Delta" by Elijah Wald, an examination of blues music in America, but it will take me months to finish it. My excuse: There's just too much on my plate these days.

Truth is, though, that reading for fun is not the priority in my life that it used to be. And that's a curious place for a writer to find himself.

More about names. Did you know that the study of personal names has a name itself? It's onomastics and onomastician Roger Darlington has published a treatise on the cultural differences of naming people. It's worth a visit if you're curious about such things.

Flickr photo courtesy of  ido1.