Today has not been a great day for reading. I feel like that’s becoming a refrain around here!

This morning my friend Erin and I went biking for Ride the Drive, a twice-yearly event in Madison where many of the major streets get shut down to cars and opened for bikers. It was one of the things on my Day Zero project list, so blogged about it with photos more over there.

I got a bit of a sunburn, so since I got back I’ve been bumming around my apartment. I wish I could say I’ve been reading, but that’s not the case. I am easily sucked into watching tv shows, and with so many available on Netflix and other online sites, it seems like I can always find something to watch. Right now I have the first season of NUMB3RS queued up, but I also have Friday Night Lights and old episodes of Psych that Boyfriend and I are watching. And then summer tv will be starting soon… ahh!

I really should cut back on tv… try to just watch an hour a day or something like that, but it’s just so easy to get absorbed in, especially when I’m feeling a little sick and tired from being in New York last week. I want to get back to normal and get back to reading again.

Oh well, we’ll see what happens. I did finish Unfinished Business by Lee Kravitz earlier this afternoon, which I’ll be reviewing this week as part of a TLC Book Tour. I’m not sure what I’ll be picking up next — probably The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins or Election by Tom Perrotta, depending on my mood.

How is your Sunday going?

I check out and buy a lot of books that end up getting returned or languishing on my shelves unread for reasons that have nothing to do with the book. I wanted to find a way to highlight those books, so decided to start a new weekly-ish feature called “Off the Stacks.”

Each week in “Off the Stacks” I’ll highlight one recent nonfiction that I want to read but, because I can only read so many books, may not get to try. I’m hoping that by highlighting titles this way, I can encourage other people to give the book a try, and, if it’s great, consider nominating it later this year in the Indie Lit Awards.

I’m still working out the details, so expect the format to make some shifts in the next few months. Let me know what you think!

Title: Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man’s Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph
Author: Amy Ellis Nutt
Publisher: Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Topics Covered: Neuroscience, psychology, philosophy

What It’s About: After a severe stroke,  chiropractor Jon Sarkin was transformed from a “quiet, sensible man” into “an artist with a ferocious need to create.” In the book, journalist Amy Ellis Nutt explores the most recent research into neuroscience and explores questions of identity and loss — how do we really explain who we are?

Why I Want to Read It: I heard about this book after reading an interview the author did with NPR’s Fresh Air and reading an excerpt. I’m curious about the way Ellis Nutt connects philosophy and neuroscience to explore identity — I’ve always loved books that combine hard science and social sciences together. Ellis Nutt is also a 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, which gives me great confidence that the writing will be beautiful.

Who Else Might Like It: Fans of science nonfiction, readers curious about the brain, anyone who questions where their identity comes from

Reviews: New York Times (which isn’t very enthused) | NJ.com (which is more excited) |

PHOTO CREDIT: GINNEROBOT VIA FLICKR

Last Friday I attended the second-annual Book Blogger Convention at Javits, which was probably the highlight of my entire BEA experience. As a blogger, I can’t think of anything better than getting to spend the day talking blogging with a group of people that actually get why doing this is so important.

Because I’m a journalist, I took compulsive – but mildly unreadable – notes during the day that I’m going to attempt to summarize for everyone who wasn’t able to make it. This means that if I mis-wrote anything from the event, please let me know and I’ll make corrections.

This year, the day was divided into sessions and you could choose what you wanted to attend. I like this format, even though I really wanted to attend everything. Take a look at other BBC wrap-ups to catch the sessions I missed. Also, my pictures also turn out terrible, so I’m going to send you over to Write Meg! to check out her photos. She had a beautiful camera and got great shots in a difficult shooting environment.

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A couple months ago I started putting together monthly book lists to keep track of the books I wanted to try at read that month. It seems a little obsessive, but having the list is nice because it reminds me of any review commitments or just books I’m excited about for some reason.

My list for May was pretty ambitious, and, unfortunately, I didn’t have a great reading month. I blame distraction getting ready for BEA (irony?) as well as the end of the TV season. I love, love, love to watch TV sometimes. But anyway, here’s what I finished in May, with books from my original list in bold:

1. The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock
2. The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
3. Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckhoff
4. Scenes from an Impending Marriage by Adrian Tomine
5. The Convert by Deborah Baker
6. Train to Nowhere by Colleen Bradford Krantz
7. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

I missed reading a lot of books – no progress in War and Peace, plus just not getting to Storming the Tulips by Hannie J. Voyle, How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche (although I may skip this one after it got a couple of not-so-great reviews), and Marriage Confidential by Pamela Haag. I am glad to have spent more time in May reading what I want rather than being married to the list, but was bummed about the books I missed

Too many books, too little time, again! Is that a refrain every book lover sings each month?

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