Looking over my reading list this past year I saw stellar book after stellar book. Bam, bam, bam, nearly all excellent reads. And then I got to the past few weeks and realized that things lately have been merely fine—good but not great, decent but not deepening. And then I picked up Vivian Gornick's Unfinished … Continue reading On the Re-Reading Life and Vivian Gornick’s ‘Unfinished Business’
reading life
Read Books by Black Authors
I am foregoing a normal post this week because the events of the past two weeks mean that now is not the time for me to fill the air with anecdotes from my reading life. Last night I was talking with my partner about the limits of truly understanding what it means to live as … Continue reading Read Books by Black Authors
Notions, Early April Edition
Hello. How are you? Doing okay or not so much or a combination of all of the above? Man, I miss bookstores and libraries.Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Here are some fun things from the internet to entertain, delight, and/or tickle your brain: Doing some reading while social distancing? Check out Bookshop, an online book retailer that … Continue reading Notions, Early April Edition
Possessions, Witches, Parasites.
After work yesterday, I went to my local watering hole and ordered a beer. It took a while for my partner to arrive, saying as he sat down, "Sorry. Have you been waiting long?" "That's okay," I replied. "You gave me time to finish my book." And it was that deployment of the possessive "my" … Continue reading Possessions, Witches, Parasites.
Notions, January 2020 edition (Formerly “Bits and Bobs”)
I am in a hell of my own making. (A delightful hell! The best kind of hell!) I have too many books to read. I have books for work and I have books for fun, books that flirted with me from the library shelves (their come-hither covers obscuring their three-week checkout times!) and books gifted … Continue reading Notions, January 2020 edition (Formerly “Bits and Bobs”)
Introducing – The Wheelhouse Project
The Reading Glasses podcast introduced me to the idea of the four "doorways," those entry points that get us into a book. The doorways were created by Nancy Pearl as a more productive way for librarians and others to get readers to a new book they'd be more likely to enjoy. The doorways represent experiential … Continue reading Introducing – The Wheelhouse Project
2019 Reading List and Top 10
Each year since I started tracking books read, I've read more books than the year before. This year is no exception. However, I don't feel exactly braggy about this fact. On one hand, it implies that I perhaps failed in this year's goal to read better rather than more, to savor and remember and not … Continue reading 2019 Reading List and Top 10
Reading at Year’s End
Time can be a line, a river, a steady stream of sand, something that flows— inexorable, implacable. Time can be a circle or a gyre, a recurring series of events—years, holidays, seasons. Time may in actuality be none of these things, but we remain bound by our perception and experience of it. I have always … Continue reading Reading at Year’s End
Why and Why Now?
Listening to: Tea shop radio. Drinking: Gingery chai latte. I cannot really remember a time before I couldn't read, although I do remember sounding out my first word—"l-u-n-c-h"—on the first day of first grade. And so for as long as I can remember, I have been in love with books, with stories, with learning about … Continue reading Why and Why Now?
