It’s been another very slow reading week for me, and not because of anything wrong with the book I was in the middle of, The United States of Arugula by David Kamp. I just ended up being unexpectedly busy, a week where I spent more time doing — playing soccer, getting drinks, eating out, protesting injustice, and watching movies — than reading. I didn’t finish a single book all week, and that made me feel out-of-sorts.
It also got me thinking about how to balance between the time I need to myself, absorbing stories and new ideas from books, and the time that I need to spend outside of what is, for the most part, a solitary activity. What’s the way to balance between being a reader and being a do-er? What is the point at which a solitary hobby turns into a way to enable a tendency towards solitude?
Since I did a couple of musings on reading posts already this week — asking about a perfect reading month and thinking about reading and remembering and forgetting — I think this post is going to be just a little bit random.
I haven’t done much reading this weekend because Boyfriend and I did a Lord of the Rings movie marathon. This was a big deal because I’ve been pretty adamant with him about how much I dislike those movies (don’t shun me!). The first time I watched them I thought they were too long and too confusing — I’ve never read the books, so I just got lost. But this time I actually focused, asked questions, and ended up enjoying them, even if we did stay up until 1:30 in the morning finishing the last one.
A Note: This post has nothing to do with books. It’s about the current political situation in Wisconsin, which is also important to me. But if you’re not interested in that, feel free to skip this post and go about your day.
Major happenings in Wisconsin this week have helped inspire me about politics again. A little background: Our Republican governor, Scott Walker, introduced a “Budget Repair Bill” designed to deal with Wisconsin’s upcoming budget shortfall of $136.7 million. (A shortfall he may have engineered himself). However, the bill went a lot further than just some fiscal issues.
Today I’m in Minnesota for the Twin Cities Book Festival. In order to not get too far behind with my book festival wrap-up posts, here’s the bookish news from the Wisconsin Book Festival, which I went to a few weeks ago.
Unlike years past, I actually got out and attended some events. I’m usually the kind of person that prefers to spend free time in sweat pants on my couch, so this was a big deal. I didn’t take many any pictures, so it’ll just be a wordy wrap-up.
Starting yesterday, literary folks in Wisconsin have gathered for the Wisconsin Book Festival, an annual event that celebrates books and writing and all of those fun things! I missed the festival the first year I was in Madison, but managed to go last year and wrote up about a few events.
I’m actually traveling for work today and quite busy this weekend with a birthday party, but I’m hoping to get to at least a few events. If you’re a reader in the Madison area, these are some of my recommendations for things that should be interesting. The full schedule is also available online.
This is the wrap up post for the first edition of BookClubSandwich, an online book club for foodies and wannabes. Andi (Estella’s Revenge) hosted the discussion on Michael Perry’s book Coop at her blog starting last Monday, and it looks like we had quite a few people participating which is awesome.
I, unfortunately, didn’t get to chat as much as I wanted to because of The Move and the fact that we didn’t get our internet hooked up until Sunday. It’s hard to blog without the web.
But, I loved Coop! And I loved all the things people had to say about the book. Here are some of the things I wish I’d been able to write/say, with some of my commentary sprinkled in (links go to reviews of Coop).
I’m so excited to get to announce the that Andi (Estella’s Revenge) and I are starting an online book club about food, BookClubSandwich.
We’re going to read all sorts of things — memoirs about food, nonfiction on seasonal food and food politics, fiction with a strong food element. There are a ton of food books out there, so I have no doubt we’ll be able to pick some interesting ones.
