The Book Blog - Learning Resources at St. Johns River State College

This week, we welcome a new contributor to the Book Blog. Victoria Morris is a friendly face at the Palatka Campus Library. Learn more about her thoughts on making reading right for you!

When I was asked to contribute to the Book Blog, my immediate reaction was a resounding "no." I thought, "I'm not a writer, so why should I write a post?" But the truth is, I didn’t have to be a writer to give it a go. And now, you’re getting the chance to read my very first blog post. I hope you too will embrace new opportunities with an open heart.

My relationship with reading was a lot like the card scene in Easy A. In the scene, Olive receives a musical card. At first, she hates the song and quickly shuts the card. But over time, she finds herself going back to it, and eventually, the song grows on her. Similarly, I’d pick up a book, but after reading a few pages, it would end up forgotten on a shelf. That all changed two years ago, and now reading has become one of my favorite hobbies.

For a long time, I struggled with reading for enjoyment because I kept choosing books that didn’t truly interest me. I didn’t realize this until I discovered a genre that genuinely caught my attention. If you’re trying to become a reader, that’s my first piece of advice: find what you love. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Even the most experienced readers have books they didn’t finish (DNF).

My second recommendation for new readers is to explore the various formats and tools available to you. Along with physical books, digital and audiobooks provide endless options for customization to suit your preferences. I used to criticize myself for being a slow reader because I struggled to visualize descriptions. But then I discovered a whole world of talented artists creating fan art, and it became an amazing resource. It took some time to accept that using tools to enhance my understanding wasn’t a cheat, and once I did, I started truly enjoying the stories.

Here are a few of Victoria's recommended titles:

The Guest List

Fourth Wing

Legends & Lattes

The Serpent and the Wings of Night

Recent Posts

A Short Book That Shattered Me: I Who Have Never Known Men

Every now and then, I stumble across a book that completely blindsides me—in the best, most haunting way. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman was exactly that kind of surprise.I was just looking for a short audiobook to keep me company while cleaning the house one weekend. That’s it. Something under eight hours, something I could half-focus on while folding laundry or doing dishes. The cover caught my eye first, then the title. I didn’t even bother reading the description before I hit play. A few minutes in, though, I was hooked—and not long after, I found myself sitting on the kitchen floor, back against a cabinet, completely floored by the story unfolding in my ears.Here’s the official description from Libby:Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.It sounds dystopian, and it is—but it’s also something more: sparse, poetic, philosophical, and deeply introspective. At just around six hours long (or 184 pages in print), it’s not a lengthy read. But trust me when I say: this book holds power. A quiet, aching kind of power that lingers long after you’ve finished the last sentence.There’s this misconception that short books can’t hit as hard as epics. But I Who Have Never Known Men proves otherwise. It’s a book that made me pause, reflect, and want to start it all over again the moment it ended.It made me think about womanhood—what it means to be a woman when you’ve been completely removed from societal expectations of gender, love, and relationships. It made me reflect on the importance of community, and also the quiet strength in being alone. It’s about survival and curiosity, about being brave enough to explore the unknown even when everything feels uncertain.It doesn’t offer every answer. In fact, it leaves you with quite a few questions. And honestly? I’m okay with that. Sometimes a book doesn’t need to tie everything up neatly to leave a lasting impact.So if you’re looking for something short but profound—something that will haunt you in the quiet moments and make you look at the world just a little differently—give I Who Have Never Known Men a chance. Just maybe don’t try to multitask while you’re reading it. You might end up sitting on your kitchen floor, heart cracked open, wondering how a book so small could hold so much. You can listen through SJR State Library's Libby!...

Jeff VanderMeer and Weird Science Fiction

This week, we welcome another great blog post from History Professor and Library Super User Matt Giddings! Jeff VanderMeer and Weird Science FictionOR“There’s a fungus among us, and it’s going to kill me.” Jeff VanderMeer is a science fiction writer who lives and works in Tallahassee, Florida, a setting that has inspired his most well-known work (The Southern Reach series). However, today, I’d like to discuss some of his less well-known works – the Ambergris series. These books are, well, weird. Really, all of VanderMeer’s writing is, but I’d argue that these books are perhaps the weirdest. The Ambergris series begins with a lengthy collection of short stories titled “City of Saints and Madmen” – the title refers to Ambergris, the city in which the majority of the stories are set and which is named for “the most secret and valued part of the whale.” Frankly, this set of stories defies easy description – one early edition of it had a short story on the inside of the dust jacket written in code (mercifully decoded and printed in the book in later editions). Ambergris is a moldy, dank, crumbling metropolis inhabited by humans who have, at some point in the past, driven the aboriginal inhabitants of the city underground. In this case, quite literally so, as these mysterious beings are called “Gray Caps” and seem to be fungus people. The Gray Caps lurk in the background throughout the stories, which mostly revolve around art criticism, madness, and an annual festival involving the reproductive habits of river squids. VanderMeer followed this collection up with a novel, “Shriek: An Afterword.” Randomly, I grabbed this off the shelf last week (or perhaps a gust of dank crypt air, laden with spores, wafted from a crepuscular corner of the library and impelled me to select this particular tome- who can say?) and took a trip back up the river Moth to Ambergris. “Shriek” is a much more straightforwardly presented text, in this case the memoir of a famous Ambergrisian art critic named Janice Shriek (a character readers of “City of Saints and Madmen” will have encountered). Janice writes about the strange and strained relationship she has with her brother Duncan, who has become fascinated with the Gray Caps and the alleged atrocities they have committed against the residents of Ambergris. What makes “Shriek” an interesting read to me is the text and the subtext. Janice recounts her brother's activities, sometimes quoting his diaries or letters but at other times recounting her suppositions about his life and works. Duncan, who is far from dead, annotates the work with his own commentary, providing a real view of his activities. Well, what he thinks is real. So, “Shriek” is a memoir by an unreliable narrator, with commentary by another unreliable narrator about subjects for which reliable narration may be impossible. Or, to put it bluntly, it’s exactly the kind of work VanderMeer would write. I’m a big fan of this whole series, and I like “Shriek” more than I thought I would. It’s connected to the central mystery of the series – those odd, unsettling, and potentially malevolent Gray Caps – which is the thing that I wished “City of Saints and Madmen” had spent more time explaining. There is a sequel, “Finch”, which is apparently a noir-ish murder mystery which I already have and will probably read next. Have you read any of VanderMeer’s work? Do you like fungus or weird stories or madness? Come find me at the book club (or on the St. Augustine or Palatka campuses) and share! ...

Reading the Harry Potter Series Through for the First Time!

Special thanks to this week's blog contributor, Kylie Stanley. Kylie is both a student and part-time employee at SJR State. It has been exciting to watch her Harry induced emotional journey! Growing up in the early 2010s, I always heard my peers talking about the Harry Potter series and movies. Everywhere I turned, it was “Harry Potter” this and “Harry Potter” that, but I had no interest in fantasy. I was a Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, historical fiction kind of girl—the furthest genres from fantasy. I didn’t try to open my mind to Harry Potter until I was 20. When I started the series on Christmas Day in 2024, I really only started it because I had received a Kindle, and the first Harry Potter book was one of the very few popular books included with my Prime membership, so I gave it a try. The first book’s reading level is around that of a fourth grader, but even as a 20-year-old, Rowling has a way of making you feel like you are at King’s Cross with Harry. I finished the first book in a couple of days, not realizing that I would end the series loving every book while also becoming obsessed with almost anything Harry Potter-related.As I moved on through the series, the phrase “the books grew with their audience” came to mind often. This statement, along with the fact that Voldemort doesn’t have a nose and Harry Potter slept under the stairs (all because of Jessie and Good Luck Charlie on Disney Channel), were the only things I knew about the Harry Potter series when I started. To say the books grew with their audience is extremely true. The series starts out with a couple of eleven-year-old witches and wizards beginning their school careers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first three books are more geared toward younger readers. The fourth through the seventh books are when the series begins to mature for older readers. During this time, readers start to encounter more violence, betrayal, and even death. Overall, I absolutely loved the series and would suggest it to anyone—even if they don’t like fantasy—to give it a try! Now, I’m off to watch the movies to see how they compare (even though we know the books are always better)....

My journey defeating my 1st ever months-long reading slump

Kelsey Rodgers has been an attendee of the Palatka campus Book Club since August 2022 and a regular guest-blogger on the Book Blog. She has also published several original poems and plans to pursue a degree in Creative Writing following her graduation from SJR State.Life has increasingly become more tedious since my 22nd birthday last November. I have been in the process of finishing my last semesters here at SJR State, applying to university, and questioning what my life will look like after leaving my home for the first time. The overwhelming transition from this new stage of life has led to a massive reading slump, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since starting to find a love of reading back in 2022. These past few months were also very influential on my mental health. The growing pains of adulthood seemed to highlight feelings of isolation and misunderstandings that usually float in the back of my mind. In my experience focusing on my education tends to help drown out these thoughts. However, this time focusing on my education path seemed to accelerate how often my anxieties flashed across my mind. So, words can’t express the relief of spring break offered. During this break, some days were more relaxing than others. The days I spent locked and resting in my room helped. Unfortunately, the days soon after were full of college emails, studying, and planning papers. Exhaustion followed not too long afterwards again. I decided to take a nap, which was disturbed by the book I stopped reading (and never finished) last year falling on the floor. I still don’t know why I felt the need to read it again, but I did. After one chapter, I couldn’t put it down.Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth is about a movie production whose plot is inspired by a fictional queer feminist book written by the main character, Merritt Emmons. Merritt’s book is based on two schoolgirls named Flo and Clara who were found dead after starting a private club called The Plain Bad Heroines Society in 1902. When reading, I was reminded of what it felt like to be understood. I found characters like Harper to have a similar complex relationship with her queerness and her parents like me. The character Merritt is a writer and talked about her writing slump after her successful 1st novel. She didn’t want to talk about her next idea her writing since “it wasn’t done yet.” Then shortly followed the quote that inspired me to write about my own reading slump: “If you’re determined to sail such ruinous waters you might as well boast about the voyage.” I finally felt the weight of my shoulders lift after hours of my nose within this book. Throughout my journey reading the novel, I’m reminded how important representation within literature is. Reading provides such a personal look into characters’ minds. These personal perspectives help readers feel a sense of connection in a way other mediums can not. I am still too early within the novel to make a full flushed out review. However, it is safe to say I’m enjoying the ride it is taking me on. I’m grateful to have such a great book to get me out of my first ever dreaded reading slump!...

Make Reading Right for You!

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