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: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Start Date: 06/18
End Date: 06/20
Comments: 0
Permalink: link
Print: 
It’s been a good while since i was sucked into a book from the first page. Bel Canto has been on the reading list for close to a year now and till Friday, I had never even bothered to read the back cover. I bought it because I overheard several co-workers discussing it.
I flew through the book, started it late Friday night and finished it Sunday morning. Even if I hadn’t had trouble sleeping, I would have purposefully lost sleep just to continue reading.
I have this habit of skipping ahead to the end of books. It happens about 95% of the time. I never know when the urge is going to hit, but when it does, it’s so strong that I simply can’t continue reading until I know how the story ends. With Bel Canto the desire came very late into the story; I was about 20 pages from the end before I felt the familiar itch. I was able to hold off for so long because Ann Patchett provided brief, simple sentences that foretold the ending. Some people don’t like that, but I appreceited it.
I’ve had a couple of people tell me they didn’t like that Patchett never identifies the country in which the story takes place. That’s one of things that I enjoyed about it. It let me get into the story without bringing in any preconceived notions of the country.
The ending felt a little rushed and I had to spend a couple of minutes trying to imagine how the events came to be, but they’re not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I just wish she’d fleshed it out a bit more, but that’s just me being selfish and wishing that the story could continue.
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