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Meet the C-SPL April 2024 Reader of the Month, Tom Eckermann!
I love acting on stage. That’s my passion. With the responsibilities that bloom as life blossoms, priorities have altered slightly, and providing for family has become the ultimate pleasure. Fortunately, at work, I can access prior passions when writing a commercial or putting together a video for TH Media, where I work as the Multimedia Specialist.
I love reading that inspires creative visualization. In my experience, I have found poetry, prose, and plays to stay true to the mirror that great writing enables us to peer into as a society, while limiting lengthy persuasions of perception.
C-SPL April 2024 Reader of the Month Q & A:
Q. What book(s) are you currently reading?
A. The Bible, “Understanding Movies” (always), and “Japanese Death Poems.”
Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?
A. Last year: “Permanent Record.” Best book ever: “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.
Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?
A. My most productive reading comes when I’m on the couch, with feet up, in silence.
Q. What book are you most excited about reading next, and what about it is most exciting?
A. James Patterson’s “The #1 Lawyer.” Patterson has a unique gift of building suspense that keeps you going chapter after chapter.
Q. What format do you prefer and why (physical book, ebook, audiobook)?
A. I prefer a paper page, but time constraints can make audiobooks in the car an acceptable alternative.
Q. Have you discovered any new authors or genres?
A. In recent years any dad joke book has come in really handy in diffusing the banality of adulthood.
Q. Have you read any books recently that have changed the way you think about something?
A. “Design as Art” by Bruno Munari. This book lays out the foundation of design that applies to most visual art forms.
Q. What is something interesting you learned from a book?
A. In the book “Understanding Movies,” I learned that you can change the whole tone of a campfire story just by changing where you hold the flashlight on your face.
Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?
A. “Hamlet.” Shakespeare had a tremendous vocabulary and uses each word to perfection. It wasn’t until the third time I had read it, that it started to flow in its intended rhythm.
Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?
A. I will stop reading the moment a writer becomes more important than the story.
Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?
A. That’s a tough one. When I was younger, I had the attention span of a two-year-old. Still do. So loving reading was never anything I felt, unless it was anything on the Seven Wonders of the World in the nonfiction section at Carnegie-Stout. I can remember going there as early as fifth grade and beelining for that section. I’d read those over and over until my mom suggested some alternatives. As I expanded my reading interests, the reading still wasn’t ever easy for me, but I found that the growth and the insights I gained when completing a book was way more powerful than the act of reading on its own.
Q. What other library resource do you enjoy (DVDs, CDs, board games, baking pans, digital content, etc.)?
A. Aside from reading, the activities that are held at Carnegie-Stout are amazing in the Maker Space and in kids programs (for my son, I don’t think I’m allowed). I take my nine-year-old son when I feel it’s something he’d enjoy.
Check out Tom’s Favorite Books
Be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!
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