A bookworm journalist blogs on literature and life
If I could read everything, I would be … … learning about flying cars and space portals with Michio Kaku (The Physics of the Future). … working on my cultural enlightenment with Jen Lancaster (My Fair Lazy). … exploring an alternate history of the United States with Matt Ruff (The Mirage). … discovering uncharted territory [...]
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You may have noticed that things have been quiet around the blog this week. I’ve been in a wicked reading and writing slump, and instead of trying to force the posts I was planning for this week I decided to just let things slide for a bit.
I blame at least part of the slumpiness to the fact that between the holidays, work, and volunteering, I haven’t spent a full day at my house in 25 days. Twenty-five days! How does that even happen? It’s insane. Let’s just say I am sooo looking forward to spending tomorrow in my pajamas.
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If you haven’t read Gabe Habash’s piece about the ups and downs of setting reading goals — “Reading 55 Books in 2011: What I Learned” from Publisher’s Weekly — then you absolutely should. It’s not very long, but offers quite a bit of food for thought.
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I finally, finally, finally had a month of reading that feels more normal, more like me. I felt like I was really struggling with making time to read since I moved in August and it was starting to get me down a little bit.
But November was awesome. I finished 12 books — a number that’s practically unheard of unless it’s a Read-a-Thon month — and I thought thought all of them were pretty good.
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If this post goes up as scheduled on Wednesday morning, the boyfriend and I will be starting the second leg of our Thanksgiving road trip to Wisconsin. We left home on Tuesday night and won’t be back until Sunday. The blog is going to be pretty quiet while I’m gone, but I did want to share the books I decided to bring with me.
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I had a request on Twitter today to share some more recent pictures of my darling cat, Hannah. I got Hannah almost two years ago from the Humane Society. She was stray, abandoned along with a few other young cats.
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There are many cool things about my new job as a community newspaper editor, but one unexpectedly sweet perk is that I have my own office. Not a cubicle or other Office Space-like desk divider system, a real, honest-to-goodness office that I get all to myself. It’s actually pretty ridiculous.
I’ve been so busy for the last couple of months that I haven’t had much time to think about decorating the place. I’ve started bringing in a few things for my desk and bulletin board — tea mugs for storing pens and, you know, drinking tea; photographs, postcards and a favorite xkcd comic — but the walls are still pretty bare.
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Truman Capote’s 1966 nonfiction novel In Cold Blood is considered controversial for a number of reasons, among them the pretty disturbing descriptions of violence and questions about Capote’s accurateness in writing the book. Although not one of the most widely challenged books, In Cold Blood is one of the top nonfiction books on the ALA’s list of banned or challenged classics – it’s at 53, right behind The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
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I’m going ease back into blogging post-Labor Day with a little meme I’ve seen going around the last week or so. I think I most recently saw it with Melissa (The Betty and Book Chronicles), who says it originated with Pop Culture Nerd. Wherever it came from, this one was fun. Here’s my life as a book for 2011, so far.
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Has there been a breakout nonfiction book this year? You know, one of those titles that everyone is buzzing about, a nonfiction book that even literature lovers feel compelled to try because the word-of-mouth is just so good?
Last year we had The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. That book had a great story — 10 years of research to tell an almost entirely unknown tale of medical ethics and scientific research. And on top of that, it was a great read that everyone seemed to be talking about.
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