I'm trying to be better about writing at least a little blurb about each book I read. Trying being the operative word here. The blurb, if and when I do get around to writing it, will of course happen after the book has been finished. So, in the beginning, what may show up here is just the book's basic information, title, author, date I began reading it. But feel free to comment on the book even if I haven't yet written anything about it. I always like talking about books!
For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain, crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to this agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails…and when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever. --Curse for book thieves by Edmund Lester Pearson (1880-1937)
The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
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God’s Debris, Scott Adams
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I finally set up an RSS feed just in case anyone is interested in keeping up with what I'm reading through a news reader. RSS 2.0
Loved the book. Will probably find ways to bring it up in conversations and insist that people read it.
Liked it well enough. Would probably say that it's a good read, except for [fill in the blank].
Liked it well enough to finish the book but I wouldn't recommend that someone else read it.
So bad I couldn't finish the book. If someone mentioned the book title to me I'd probably shake my head and tell him not to waste his time or money.
Reading is Fundamental
So many books, so little time
Book: The Opposite of Fate, Amy Tan
Start Date: 05/28/06
End Date: 06/18/06
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There’s an essay in which Tan writes about people who’ve dismissed her work because it all seems to only deal with mother-daughter relationships. I have to admit that I’ve been one of those people and reading that essay made me feel a little guilty for boxing her in. After reading this collection of essays, I think I may give her books another chance. I’ve read a few collection of essays now in which authors expound on the joys and pains of being writers and I’m oddly fascinated by them all. This was no exception. I love the feeling that I’m getting an inside peek into the process, the knowledge that despite having published numerous books a blank screen or sheet of paper can still cause mild panic. I have never seriously considered being a published writer, but I have certainly faced that evil wordless demon and it’s comforting to know it doesn’t discriminate!
I enjoyed all of the essays, from the stories of working with producers and directors to adapt The Joy Luck Club for the screen, to the history of her family. What I specially liked, however, were the essays when she mentioned traveling with the band. The band that was made up entirely of writers. I would pay good money to see Tan belting out These Boots Are Made for Walking while she has a boot on Dave Barry’s chest and Steven King sings background vocals. That’s just surreal.
Book: Thank You for Smoking, Christopher Buckley
Start Date: 06/04/06
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I’ve read this before, but I recently picked it up again on a day when I forgot to put any reading material in the purse. I was headed out to lunch and annoyed at myself for forgeting my book when I remembered that a coworker had recently returned Thank You. I didn’t realize just how much of the story I’d forgotten and this is even after recently seeing the movie! Still extremely funny. I’m going to credit the writer for that and not my atrociously bad memory.
Book: Sex as a Second Language, Alisa Kwitney
Start Date: 05/21/06
End Date: 05/27/06
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Book: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, Ruth Reichl
Start Date: 05/07/06
End Date: 05/10/06
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I’m quite possibly the pickiest, most boring eater in the world. A conversation regarding where to eat when I’m involved might go a little something like this:
“How about Indian?” .... A chorus of Sures and Yeah, that works and I love Indian! will include a quiet “Uhm” to which someone who knows me will say, “That’s right. Patricia’s coming. Why don’t we go to [insert old stand by here]?”
And though I try to tell them that I don’t need to go or that I’ll find something to eat, the plans are changed and I’m left feeling a little guilty for imposing my pickiness on everyone.
So it’s a bit of mystery to me why I like Reichl’s books so much. Naturally a big focus is on the food and you’d think I’d want to skip or skim those sections but instead I’m drawn in. Probably because she so obviously loves food. It doesn’t hurt either that she manages to describe things in such a way that you almost feel like you’re tasting the dish yourself. There are moments when I actually catch myself thinking, “I could eat that. It sounds good.” If that isn’t the mark of a well written book then I don’t know what is.
Her third (I believe) book spans the years she spent at The New York Times and I found it all fascinating. At times I wish she’d focused a little more on what went on at the paper but that’s not what the book is about, obviously. All in all, I really enjoyed the book and I’m left wishing I had another of her books in the queue. It’s like ordering dessert and coffee after a good meal, you just don’t want the experience to end.
Book: Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
Start Date: 05/08/06
End Date: 05/21/06
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Book: The Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella
Start Date: 05/06/06
End Date: 05/07/06
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Book: Mortal Prey, John Sandford
Start Date: 04/17/06
End Date: 04/21/06
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Book: The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowel
Start Date: 04/23/06
End Date: 5/6/06
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Fun, funny and overall I really enjoyed it. And not just because she writes the words “my beloved Cowboys” though that did make me like her more. Us Cowboys fans have to stick together.
Book: A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews
Start Date: 04/09/06
End Date: 04/15/06
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Book: The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
Start Date: 03/18/06
End Date: 04/02/06
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