I spent most of this week taking a break from my normal reading habits and indulging in some retro reading, the kinds of books I used to devour but have since almost entirely abandoned.
When I was in middle school and high school, I read almost exclusively mystery and epic fantasy. It stemmed from my elementary school reading habit of picking out the longest books I could find in the children’s and young adult sections of the library, regardless of the subject. We only went to the library every couple of weeks, and I read voraciously as a kid, so I had to pick out really, really long books to tide me over between visits.
Sunday Salon
Time // 3:20 p.m.
Place // At my desk in my home office/library/cat playroom.
Eating // Nothing yet. I’m getting ready to start cooking Easter dinner for the boyfriend and I — ham, baked potatoes, fresh green beans and breadsticks.
Drinking // Bigelow Tea’s Lemon Lift.
I’ve been on an amazing reading streak this month. Of the eight books I’ve finished so far, I’ve given five of them an initial rating of five stars on the big Google Docs spreadsheet I track my books on. Sometimes that number changes when I sit down to write my review, but I doubt these will change by much. They’re all pretty awesome.
Happy Sunday! I’m writing this post on my tablet, so I apologize for typos. I am not very good at typing on the on-screen keyboard yet, but I don’t feel lime turning on my computer yet today. I know, #firstworldproblems.
Anyway, I had a pretty slow reading week this week, mostly because work was crazy busy and I just couldn’t find the energy to read when I got home in the evening. I also didn’t get any reading or blogging done last weekend because I was home in the Twin Cities hanging out with my sister who was home on spring break. But late in the week, I finally managed to settle down a bit and finished both The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin and House of Stone by Anthony Shadid.
For some reason, I’ve always had this impression that all collections — essays, magazine writing, short stories, you name it — were all about the same. All of the entries would fall on a sort of bell curve — a few would be terrible and a few would be stellar, but most would fall somewhere between mediocre and pretty good. It didn’t matter what the theme of the collection was or who was in charge of putting it together, it was just a natural part of a collection and how different pieces appeal to different readers.
I’ve had two quite busy and stressful weeks at work, which has cut into the brain power I have for reading and blogging. I just haven’t been able to write any reviews lately, and I’ve been struggling to get into some of the nonfiction I’ve got on my plate right now.
I skipped my weekly morning writing session at a coffee shop yesterday morning — it was really, really cold, and I just wanted to spend the morning in my pajamas reading Raised Right by Alissa Harris — so I’m feeling a little behind starting up today. I actually was really lazy yesterday, so I have the bulk of my weekend project list to finish today… going grocery shopping, making chicken noodle soup, doing laundry, writing our BAND discussion for February, catching up on reviews, and completing my first day of week four of Couch to 5K. It’s going to be a busy day!
Happy Sunday everyone! I’m feeling rather random today, so I think I’m going to just go with it.
I’ve been addicted to the library lately. Every time I go in to the library to return or pick up one book, I end up leaving with three more. In the last couple weeks I’ve brought home The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway, Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction by Charles Baxter, My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster, Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku, Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye and Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Kahlil. I haven’t read any of them yet, but soon I hope.
Doing book stats is one of my favorite things. It’s always interesting to me to compare what I thought I read over the year to what I actually read. Often, I find out that my impressions of my reading are pretty different from the reality. But anyway, onward!
It is amazing what a full weekend at home can do for making life seem more manageable.
Earlier this week I felt totally overwhelmed by… everything. After more than three weeks of not having an entire day at home to myself, I was just feeling worn down. I wasn’t reading, I wasn’t writing, I just didn’t feel like me.
And then Saturday came, and all seemed to improve. Instead of spending yesterday at home in my pajamas like I originally planned, I forced myself out of the house to a local coffee shop to get some blogging done. I managed to write first drafts of six reviews, which gets me caught up with reviews from 2011 (joy!).
