Six Months of Reading Only Local Authors

When Before the Blood went into editing last year, I decided to spend 2019 reading only books written and published by local authors.

Six months into the process, a very enjoyable process, I'm rediscovering the joy of discovering new books and enjoying them.

Publishing, like other industries, undergoes its own trends. By reading only locally produced, self-published books, I'm bypassing those, and its making a richer reading experience.

When I was a child and stayed inside the house due to asthma, I read. When I ran out of books of my own to read, I turned to the books of my mother's childhood, which sat on a shelf.

These books, although some where mass-produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, didn't have flashy covers or hyped-up back text.

They had a title, a name, and perhaps a frontispiece. The only way to discover these books was to read them. And I did, flipping through the pages, reading snippets as one samples appetizers, and finally heading to the first chapter to savor the entire book.

Liken it to the difference between seeing a blockbuster movie versus an independently produced film, where a discussion with the director and actors follow the viewing.

So although the books I'm reading now do have back cover copy, and some do come with enthusiastic promotion on social media, the carefully-crafted, targeted campaign is, thankfully, missing, and I'm able to relish each book for its own merit.

The covers give me an idea of the words between the pages before plunging into the poems or stories, but other than that, the rest is a quiet adventure of setting aside the hats that say "writer" and "editor" to burrow into someone else's world for awhile, a world I had zero hand in creating.

Do I enjoy each book equally? No, of course not. But each book is read for its own entertainment or informative or inspirational merits.

Not because it's famous. Or well-reviewed. Or because I know the author.

But because each reading is a delicious adventure. And, perhaps, because I know the author has, in most cases, overseen each step of the book production and wrote it because he/she had to tell that story, or write that poem, or deliver that message.

There's love and passion and hard work in the process. And a desire on the part of the author to share all of that with those who will pick up that book.

For a reader like me, it's pure delight.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."