LitMinds Blog and Interviews

Sam Houston was one of the first bloggers to discover and join the LitMinds community.  We really liked his blog Book Chase and were mightly impressed at his appetite for books. Sam's read an amazing... 34... no wait... 37... count it 40 books so far in 2007.  Beat that!

We asked Sam to participate in this interview so we could learn more about his appetite for reading and constant pursuit of his next read. 

1) When did you start Book Chase and what inspired you to create a blog for the avid reader?
Book Chase is something that I started just this past January.  I had been reading various book blogs for over a year and found myself wanting to interact with the community of booklovers that is growing so quickly on the web.  I was so impressed with the blogs and the enthusiastic personalities behind them that I wanted to join the fun and get to know some of the people involved.  I noticed, too, that most book bloggers are women and I wanted to contribute something from a male point of view.  And it’s been great fun.  The blog is steadily picking up readers and I’m enjoying the increased feedback and comments that I’ve been getting lately.  Best of all, some of the same people who, unknown to themselves, inspired me to start a blog in the first place are now offering me encouragement and support to stick with it. 

2) You have read 37 books already in 2007.  How have you accomplished this feat?
I do seem to have gotten off to a quick start this year, and that’s probably because my blog has helped me to focus more on my reading than I have in a while.  The pace will slow down a bit when baseball season starts because I’m a passionate fan of the Houston Astros and always start the new season with high, if unreasonable, hopes for their success.  Also almost four years ago I was a co-founder of RAM Radio, a popular internet radio station that plays what we call “real country music,” something else that takes a lot of my time every day, but fortunately I’m a fairly fast reader.  I think what saves me is the fact that I don’t watch television anymore, even to the point that I prefer baseball games on radio to having to plant myself in the same chair for three hours to watch a game.  It’s amazing how much a person can get done by reclaiming those 20 or more hours a week that most of us spend watching television. 

3) Your blog states that Book Chase is "dedicated to everyone involved in the never ending search for the next book, the next reading experience, the next author."  How do you find books and decide what to read next?
My real problem is that it’s become so easy to find new books and authors that I want to explore that I can’t keep up anymore, and I end up with stacks of books that are patiently waiting for me to get back to them.  I read two monthly magazines, Fine Books & Collections and Bookmarks that never fail to point me in the direction of something new.  I also try to read, on the internet, the book sections of all the Sunday editions of the major newspapers in the U.S. and in the U.K.  And, of course, there are all the great books that I find out about by reading book blogs.  So what happens is that I always seem to be reading in and out of at least seven or eight books at a time.  I try to have both nonfiction and fiction books going at the same time so that I can pick up whatever best suits my mood and concentration level of the moment.  That keeps me from going stale on a book and I think that I actually read faster and finish more books this way than if I were to go back to reading one book at a time. 

4) In one of the LitMinds discussions, you mentioned how much you value keeping all of your books.  Can you estimate the number of books in your personal library and explain how you organize them?
I have almost 1200 books in my personal library right now, about 90% of which are hardcovers.  I’m fortunate that I have bookshelf space for about 850 of the books and that my wife doesn’t get too upset about the other 300 that are stashed in a couple of closets.  My shelves are arranged according to my interests.  For example, I have a section for Civil War History and fiction, one for classic novels that are antique volumes or exceptionally nice editions, another for country music history and biographies, and one for the Advance Reading Copies that I’ve accumulated.  When it comes to general fiction, I try to keep the books of my favorite authors together for easy reference.  For instance, the 72 Joyce Carol Oates volumes that I have are spread over a couple of shelves in the order in which she wrote them.  My problem is that Oates is so prolific that I’m fast approaching the day that I need to start a third shelf for her work.

5) What is the last book you read that really affected you? - or – If you could make a book recommendation to some specific person(s), what book would it be, to whom, and why?
Strangely enough, the last book that really touched and affected me is one from the Young Adult genre, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.  I read very little YA fiction but I saw this one mentioned on the web so many times that I could tell that it was special.  And it turned out to be just that.  How can anyone resist a book set in WWII Germany that is narrated by Death and whose main character is a 9-year-old little girl who loves books and identifies with them to such a degree that she risks her personal safety to have them?  From what I understand, the book was considered to be adult fiction in Australia where it was originally published and it was the U.S. publisher that decided to market it here as YA fiction.  Zusak’s style is intriguing, and the hints and outright disclosures that he lets drop about the ultimate fate of some of the main characters, serve to make the impact of their ultimate fates even greater than if he had presented them as surprises at the end of the book.  I’ve recommended The Book Thief to near a dozen people and I’ve not had a single one come back to me and tell me anything but how much they enjoyed the novel and how much it touched them. 

6) What do you like about the LitMinds community?
I love the idea that LitMinds really is a community.  Despite the obvious stereotype that readers prefer their own company, we all know that avid readers love to talk with people who share their passion for books.  How else to explain the existence of thousands of book clubs around the world?  LitMinds reminds me of a big clubhouse for readers, a place where we can relax and share our passion for books and for reading with a bunch of people who “get it.”  I’m hoping that LitMinds becomes the go-to-place for readers, publishers, booksellers and authors alike. 

Check out Sam's LitMinds profile here.