Time // 8:30 a.m.
Place // Back at my desk… it’s too chilly to be out on the porch today.
Eating // Nothing yet. But I am hungry. I might break in the middle of this to grab some food, but we’re pretty low on anything delicious right now. I suspect I’ll be going to the grocery store this afternoon.
Drinking // Lemon-flavored black tea.
Reading // I had a great reading week to follow up last weekend’s Readathon. Since last Sunday I finished three books: Divergent by Veronica Roth, The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne and Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. The top quote above is by George Orwell from The World’s Strongest Librarian.
Today I need to finish Pain, Parties and Work by Elizabeth Winder so I can post a review for a TLC Book Tour tomorrow. It’s very interesting so far, so I’m excited to share more about it with all of you. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll read next, probably one of my library books (Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg or A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan — I decided I’m going to hold off on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs until the October Readathon).
Search: librarian
I managed to read 13 books in April. And only two of those were books I read during the Readathon. This is not typical reading behavior — I’m normally much slower — but I’ll take it.
Looking at the list, there’s a lot of fiction and YA fiction, which was a nice change of pace and probably why I was able to read so much. I didn’t really get to any of the review copies I had on my shelves, but given how out of sorts I was for most of this month that’s probably a good thing. Crabby Kim is not an especially good book reviewer.
Time // 11:30 a.m.
Place // My desk. Nothing exciting here.
Eating // Nothing at the moment. I’m trying to decide what to have for lunch after I finish the post.
Drinking // Egyptian mint green tea
Reading // It’s been a strange week, reading and otherwise. I haven’t really been able to settle into a book, so I’ve been dipping in and out of a few different ones — A Chance to Win by Jonathan Schuppe, Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon and You by Austin Grossman.
Tiny Beautiful Things, in particular, has been wonderful. I’ve been very, very out-of-sorts and depressed because of the weather here in Minnesota and all of the craziness happening in the world, but Strayed’s columns have been comforting.
March was really, really not my favorite month. The last month or so of winter always puts me in a huge funk, and this year it has felt like winter would never end. There was a week in the middle of the month that I really just hated almost everything.
Despite my generally bad attitude about the world throughout March, I managed to finish nine books — the most in a single month yet this year. And most of them were absolutely excellent. I can’t think of anything to complain about other than, like usual, I wish I could have read even more.
February is the shortest month of the year, but I still managed to finish as many books as I did in January. I call that a success! And for the most part, I really enjoyed the books that I read, getting in a good mix of review copies and my own books.
I’m hoping to read and blog more in March. For February, my goal was three posts per week. I’m upping that number to four, which I think will be doable since I’ve for a little backlog of reviews (mostly fiction) to keep things going here. I think March is also going to be fabulous reading month — I have some fun books to look forward to.
One Sentence Summary: In fourth grade, Alice Ozma and her father made a promise to read together every night for 100 nights; 3,218 nights later, The Streak finally ended.
One Sentence Review: Although The Reading Promise is, ostensibly, a memoir about books, it’s really more of of a series of essays about how a daughter and her father bonded over a shared love of reading.
I think what I love most about quirky nonfiction is that it teaches me about something or someone that I otherwise would never learn about. And more often than not, the people or subjects that become the center of a quirky nonfiction book are people who are pursuing a passion with such relish that I can’t help but cheer for them. I always find those books a lot of fun, and a nice break from nonfiction on more serious topics.
Katherine Rosman has a new column in the Wall Street Journal — her first is titled “The Dance of Marriage: Who Does What?” and discusses how couples balance the various tasks in a marriage.
The Atlantic figured out the identity of the man behind the @MayorEmanuel Twitter account, and did a profile of him. I loved this section that compares to Twitter to older forms of storytelling.
My Writings on the Interwebs
I recently finished a story for work about the redesign of the Perkins Brailler, a product that hadn’t been redesigned since 1951. I think this article turned out well.
I also did a freelance piece of Readers’ Advisor News about Book Blog Basics for Librarians. A big thanks to Sarah at Citizen Reader for helping me set up this story, and Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves for being interviewed.
One Sentence Summary: Laurie Hertzel joined the Duluth News Tribune in the mid-1970s as a clerk, then found herself sucked into the life and career of a journalist.
One Sentence Review: Hertzel’s memoir is a self-deprecating and charming coming-of-age story about life in the newsroom, but I’m just about the ideal reader for the story so might have a hard time assessing it objectively.
