Musings

When I was a kid, even into being a teenager, I was a book browser. When I went to the library I had a few “next in a series” books I looked for, but otherwise spent a lot of time just grabbing books that looked interesting off the shelves. I was also an avid used bookstore browser, going into my local Half Price Books to buy many of the $1 and $2 clearance books they had along their back wall. The only time I ever went into a store with a specific book in mind was a visit to say, Barnes & Noble, where it felt like an investment to get a new book for my shelves.

Although I live in a small town in rural Minnesota, we get quite a few lectures and cultural events thanks to our proximity to a small liberal arts college. Back in September, poet and author Jay Parini came to campus to discuss his experimentation with the “biographical novel” in a lecture called “The Imagination of Truth: How Fiction Shines a Light into the Dark Corners of History.” In preparation for his visit, I even read two of his books, but realized this weekend that I’d never actually written up any thoughts on the event or the book I read, The Last Station and The Passages of H.M.. So, here are some very, very belated thoughts.

This is my first time participating in Trish, Kailana, Lisa’s really fun monthly topic, Where in the World Are You Reading? Each month, one of these lovely ladies posts a monthly theme about our reading lives. The topic for November is “Reading Companions,” which seemed like the perfect opportunity to post some photos of my most popular family member, Hannah.

We’re still Internet-less at our new house, so this post is coming to you from my office, which is abandoned for Labor Day. I need to get ready for an online fantasy football draft tonight and catch up on a couple of projects, but also wanted to use the quiet to post a quick update. This picture, taken from my reading chair this morning, might give you a sense of where we’re at with getting organized in our new house. It’s not pretty (except for Hannah — she’s still adorable)…

This is a guest post from my good friend Erin, a science writer, cat lover, and triathlete who lives in Madison. Erin is the kind of person who never does anything half-heartedly or halfway. For example, over a visit on Thanksgiving, she and I managed to watch two seasons of Downtown Abbey in two days. As it turns out, her reading is sometimes similarly single-minded. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did!

My audiobook life took a giant step forward this April when I finally signed up for Audible, a digital service for buying and downloading audiobooks. For the moment, my membership to Audible is an experiment. I don’t listen to a ton of audiobooks, but I’ve always wondered if I would listen to more if had better and more convenient options.

I had a ridiculously, amazingly good month of reading in April — 14 books for a total of 4,794 pages read and 16.5 hours listened. That’s a ton of reading for me. A ton!

I don’t think the quality of the books was quite as high as March, but that would have been pretty hard to do, since half of the books I read in March received five-star reviews. On the whole, average for April was probably 3.5 or four stars each.

One of the perils of living in a town without a bookstore is that I have to constantly suppress my urge to buy more books. I’ve been holding the book-acquiring demons in check by checking out new books from the library almost constantly, but library books can only hold back the book buying for so long. I’m only human.

A couple weeks ago, after a particularly busy week and frustrating Friday, I lost my battle with self-restraint and went on two (two!) only book buying binges, one from Powell’s and one from Barnes and Noble. After anxiously waiting for my pretties to arrive, the second package finally landed on my doorstep Monday.

I had a really good month of reading in February. Things were a bit slow in the beginning, but picked up after I took a little blogging break. By the end of the month I was able to finish 11 books, for a total of about 3,784 pages.