Field-tested Books

Literanista July 29, 2008

I found out about the Field Tested book reading series at one of my fave blogs, core77.com, but forgot to post about it. I really hate when that happens!

Anyway, they had their reading yesterday here in NYC (did anyone here go?)

The concept behind the Field Tested Book is truly cool: “The “notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it.”
Read more here: Coudal.com

I’ve often found that not only are memories linked to sounds, smells, places, and the like but that I can often recall the whole ambiance where something in book made an impression on me and when I think about the book – I think about that moment in time and then recall the place, the lighting, the vibe, everything so that the memory and the book become entwined.

Does this happen to anyone else?

I like when this happens too and sometimes I even encourage it – like if for example, I know I will be in Georgia, I might bring a book along with me like Cane by Jean Toomer, Leaving Atlanta: A Novel by Tayari Jones, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, orThose Bones Are Not My Child: A Novel by Toni Cade Bambara.

Another element, I like that happens every so often is when not only place coincides but also time, like reading a book about the winter during December. Don’t you love that?