I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where I was when I started blogging, just a few days before my college graduation in May 2008, and where I am today — through college graduation, graduate school and my first jobs as a grown up. Because I’ve blogged through such a formative time in my life, I can’t really think back to a point when I was a reader but not a writer. During my four years of college, I can’t remember reading for pleasure or outside the classroom much, and I’ve been blogging what I read since I graduated. I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a kid, but it’s been so long since I was just a reader, I almost can’t imagine what that is like. Book blogging is so tied into my identity that thinking about what it means feels like an almost existential question.
Communities
Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I’m not at all horrified by the idea of writing in books, but I don’t do it that often anymore. About a year ago I started writing my thoughts on books in a notebook that I refer back to when writing reviews, which is easier than going back through a book to find my notes.
If I counted correctly, I’m currently subscribed to more than 200 book blogs, everything from personal blogs like this one to more industry and publishing specific blogs like NPR Books. I don’t get to read each of them every day, but I try to skim over posts during the week and comment if I can. Of those, there are quite a few that I make sure to read every post.
t’s the first Sunday of football season and I am, sadly, not watching any games today. Our cable isn’t hooked up at our new house yet (don’t even get me started on that…), so I’m spending my afternoon getting text updates from friends and obsessively checking my fantasy football scores online. It’s less than ideal.
Unfortunately, even with all my time without the Internet and cable this week, I haven’t gotten much reading done. There’s been a lot of cleaning and organizing and furniture-building, but not much reading.
The boyfriend and I are moving again next weekend… again. I thought when we found the house we’re renting now, we’d be able to stay for most of our time in small town Minnesota, but earlier this summer our landlord decided to sell the house. It hasn’t sold yet, but we decided we couldn’t stay in a place where we’d have no guarantees after our original lease was up. It’s been a stressful time, trying to decide if we should move and then where to go — the rental market in this area is terrible — but I’m glad it’ll be done with in a week.
Well hello, Blog (and blog friends and blog readers). It’s nice to see you again!
While I don’t want to make excuses for my unexplained two week hiatus or waste my first post apologizing for disappearing, I feel like I owe at least a small story to explain what happened.
I haven’t finished a single book this week because I’ve spent all of my free time watching the Olympics. I’ve started a few and read a few chapters here and there, but for the most part I haven’t spent any significant time with books. And really, I’m ok with. I think I needed the break.
Like most people online, I’ve been less than impressed with NBC’s Olympic coverage. I’m sick and tired of watching quarter- and semi-final heats for the same sports over and over again, but missing the finals or matches from less well-known sports during the prime time coverage. Even their coverage of the gymnastics finals was weird.
Even though July isn’t technically over until Tuesday, today feels like the right day to think back on my reading this month, which has been drastically different than normal.
So far I’ve read 10 books in July — eight fiction and only two nonfiction! I normally read about 60 percent nonfiction and 40 percent fiction, so this is pretty unusual. I’ve also unconsciously avoided all of the review copies on my shelves, focusing instead on books I own and books from the library. It’s felt a little bit like being on a reading vacation, if that makes any sense at all.
Just about a month ago I decided that I was going to go on a book buying hiatus for the summer. There were two small exceptions — if I visited a town with a bookstore, I could buy one book; if it was an independent bookstore, I could buy two books.
So far, I think I’ve been able to follow through with the spirit of the hiatus — not bringing more physical books into my house — if not exactly the law of my exceptions.
This post is coming to you live from my family’s cabin in northern Wisconsin. It’s my first weekend at the lake this summer, and I am loving it. We have spotty cell phone reception, at best, so I’m not even sure if this is going to post… I guess we’ll see!
Picking books for the lake is a pleasurable challenge. I don’t like to bring books that I’m going to feel obligated to review since, frankly, I sometimes read after drinking a margarita or two. And I don’t normally like difficult books, since I end up putting them down for a swim or a nap pretty frequently.
