Is It February Already?
Do you ever feel just kind of ....overwhelmed? Two weekends in a row I was at professional conferences, and then I felt like I hit a literal wall. Okay, I really mean a figurative wall. This weekend I finally got some much needed rest, and had some time to look over my recent acquisitions.
I might as well admit that I am incorrigible. I don't even want to change.
Two recent releases activated the *want* and *must have* areas of my brain:
Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser
Lesser is the founder and editor of The Threepenny Review, and has written eight books of nonfiction and one novel. Books about books, and, more specifically, books about the pleasures of reading (some of my favorites are books by Michael Dirda, Francine Prose, and Jane Smiley) offer, well, endless pleasure for me. So I can't wait to get to this one.
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Are you kidding me? I should have written this book! Except I'm not a writer for The New Yorker. But I did write this post: "Middlemarch My Love."
Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I've read it five times (at least). Love. So of course....I hope that Rebecca Mead's love for my favorite novel will somehow mirror/enrich my own.
How to Read a Novelist by John Freeman
I picked this up at the wonderful indie bookstore Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia. It is a collection of interviews with novelists, many of whom I love insanely and worshipfully, others whom I hope to adore:
Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, David Foster Wallace, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, Jennifer Egan.....
How did I not know about this book? How wonderful is it that I happened upon it in a bookshop (yay for bookstores!)?
There's more, but in an attempt to look less obsessive and more normal, I'll stop there. It's a kind of theme, anyway, books about books and reading and writing.
Do you have anything on your bookshelf you're especially excited about?
6 comments:
Traveling for work is exhausting so good for you for getting some rest. I feel like I'm in a constant state of catching up but oh well. Enjoy your books! I'm excited about my current book group read.
@Iliana-yes, always trying to catch up, never truly caught up....
This is really timely since I was just thinking last night that I want to read Middlemarch soon! I loved Silas Marner, which I understand is like one tenth the size of Middlemarch, but I just remember loving Eliot's writing style. This is the year!
I, too, want to read the Middlemarch book, and the book by Lesser makes me want to order it via my library asap.
A wonderful post and so nice to catch up with you!
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
@Andi-Yesss! Read it!
@Judith-the library....you have such restraint!
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