Karla's Kolumn: Getting back to the joy of reading

After writing a few weeks ago about my music interests and how diverse they were I began thinking about my interests in other mediums, such as TV and movies and, of course, books.

At first, I thought, well I’m pretty much mystery books all the time but at a closer glance I realized I have quite a variety of interests in reading as well.

When it comes to fiction, yes, my first love is mysteries. I grew up on the Hardy Boys mysteries (no not Nancy Drew). I could read a book in about a day. I recently completed three books in the Detective Jen Garner series by Claire Sheldon and in the process I learned a lot of Britain English words. The one I finished over the weekend was “Secrets and Shadows” by A.L. Lynn which was a mystery/paranormal read and a good one at that.

In addition to mysteries I do like thrillers, suspense with a little bit of horror that comes from authors Dean Koontz and Stephen King. I have not read every book that either of these authors have ever written. It’s hit or miss, if I find something that interests me then I read it.

One of my favorite Stephen King books is “11/22/63.” It has time travel, intrigue mystery and answers the question if we could go back in time and change history, should we? I will leave it at that so as not to spoil anything.

I remember when King released “The Green Mile” in 1996. It sounded like an interesting tale, but wait, what, it was a series. I had never heard of such a thing, but it was a great marketing tool. Mind you this was in the day before Amazon so living in Lovell I had to plan trips to go and find the book when the latest one came out and sometimes I would venture to a store with books and they either had sold out or had not gotten it in yet. (Did I mention I am not the most patient person.)

The Green Mile was later turned into a movie and I feel was pretty close to the books (now it is in one novel or you can buy the entire set). I will watch a movie based on a book I have read but rarely, if ever, will I read a book after I have watched a movie because you pretty much know the plot and the ending. No real surprises.

There’s always surprises when you watch a movie after reading a book. You will usually hear people proclaim “that’s not how I envisioned that character to look” or “that’s now how they did that in the book” or “they left out a storyline.”

One movie that did the book justice, besides The Green Mile was “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris. The movie won seven Oscars including Best Adapted Screenplay. That Oscar means they stayed true to the original material.

So besides mystery, suspense, horror, I have also read some biographies including Terrell Davis’s “TD: Dreams in Motion,” two on Reba McEntire, “My Story” and “Not That Fancy,” Ricky Van Shelton’s “She Stays” and Jimmy Carter’s “Living Faith.”

One of the most recent biographies I read was “Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home” by Benjamin Hall. It is a unique and dramatic look at war correspondents and what they and their families go through.

The main portion of the story is Hall’s work in covering the war in Ukraine in 2022 when he was severely injured by a Russian strike. It chronicles his life to that point and how many people worked to extricate him out of a war to a hospital where he could receive the medical attention he desperately needed. That summary, of course, simplifies his story but it is worth the read.

I have also read general non-fiction. One series I have enjoyed is by reporter Lee Strobel “The Case for Christ,” “The Case for Faith,” and “The Case for Creation.”

In my library I also have books from authors I have interviewed and from family members (two cousins and my father-in-law) but to be honest I have not read them cover to cover as of yet.

The majority of the books are actual books, not digital. While I still enjoying reading an actual book I have taken a 180-degree turn and fell in love with reading books on my Kindle Reader more and more. For one, I can adjust the font to whatever size my eyes need at the time. The more tired they are, and to be honest, the older they get, the font size goes up.

Best of all, I can take several books with me at once and they do not take up much space.

I went for years without reading a lot, saying I was too busy and I missed it, but I have taken a renewed interest in reading over the past year and I am so glad I did.

So however you read, whatever you enjoy reading, make sure to take time to read.