Remember that depressing study a while back that said most of us in Tampa Bay would rather stay home and drink beer than venture out into the world at large?
Well, I have some good news. The reason we're all staying home is that we just can't stop reading! We're leaving home, just not bodily; we're being transported by our imaginations, via the pages of our favorite books!
Yeah, right. And those national rankings showing Florida's schools stuck in the basement are figments of our imagination, too.
But flights of fancy aside, I couldn't help feeling a sense of reassurance from this week's cover story. So many smart people reading so many books I'd either a) never heard of or b) always meant to read. And these are among our busiest citizens, including a congresswoman, a university president and Tampa's mayor.
And let's give some props to Ms. Iorio. Besides having the moxie to name as her favorite book of the year a history entitled Brutal Journey — thus inviting all kinds of rude jokes from her political opponents — she's also the only mayor I know of who's hosting a monthly TV talk show devoted to books. Called Mayor's Book Talk, it's on the City of Tampa's government access channel (CTTV, newly relocated to Channel 615 — now harder to find than ever!), and it includes interviews with local and visiting writers (Gary Mormino, James Swain); Inkwood Books' Carla Jimenez on local reading trends; and a discussion with fifth graders from Rampello Downtown Partnership School. A symbolic gesture, perhaps, but you have to like a politician who wants to be seen as a reader — as opposed to, say, oh I don't know, the current resident of the White House?
For many of our interview subjects (particularly the booksellers and the musicians), the worst part of this endeavor was the prospect of having to pick just one book. As you'll see, some picked two or three. Otherwise we put no conditions on their choices; the question was simply, "What was the best book you read this year?" and the respondents were free to name a title from any year — 2007, 1947, 700 A.D. — just so long as it was a book that made an impact on them in reading or rereading it this year. We extended the question to staff and contributors, too; you can find our choices in "Reading While Loafing."
I hope that this list will suggest myriad possibilities for your next book — or, given the season, your next gift. And please let us know if there's a book that made an impact on you this year. Share the titles with us by commenting on this story at tampa.creativeloafing.com, or send an e-mail to david.warner@creativeloafing.com.
Reading — it might just get you out of the house.
—David Warner
The Best Book I Read This Year – What kept Tampa Bay turning the pages in 2007.
This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2007.