Recently in Reading Category

I love The Other Boleyn Girl thus far and might not sleep tonight until I finish it. I started it last night, read half of it, fell asleep with it in my hands, and woke up with it next to me. Then I read it for 20 indulgent minutes after I woke up, and I really had to force myself to stop. I would like to savor it, but it's just too delicious.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will officially "review" it at some time but it is exactly the type of book I am looking for.

I also read The History of Love a few days ago and didn't have this sort of reaction to it. Some of you may hate me for that.

Ok, awesome. Tons of suggestions, and they will definetly get me going. I'm calling it the 2007 book list, although it will obviously start as soon as I get my next book. I tried to mix up the order a bit from the order that people commented in, and I'll add more if you think of 'em. My master plan is to take a bunch of books to the used book store, sell back what I can, and then get at least one book, maybe two, off of the list to start with. Then I'll go from there.

I broke the list down into four categories:
- Books I will read and would love for you to read with me.
- Books I have already read but that others suggested
- Books by authors of books I have already read... I'll eventually read these, too, but new authors get priority here.
- Books that were suggested, but that are in French. Since this site is in English, I'll read in English. But maybe I'll sneak a French book in there without letting you know about it.

I'll post a permanent version of the list on the Bookworm part of the site, but here it is for now:

Uh-oh.

Also. I am very sick - I get dizzy when I stand up, have the body aches, and have had three fevers. This is NOT the way I want to travel (leaving in 36 hours).

I just went crazy and totally re-organized my bookshelves. I have two of them, and they were overflowing. Overflowing onto the floor in the bedroom, onto the chimney, onto my desk. Since college, I have been a borderline freakishly organized type, and this lack of finesse to my bookshelf techniques was just not working for me.

I began by trying to move my crappy Ikea bookshelf in order to make room for my Senegalese chairs. My Senegalese chairs? Awesome. My Ikea bookshelf? Crappy. Dude, every time I tried to push it, it just leaned from wherever I was pushing... holy shitty bookcase, Batman! So I ended up pulling almost all the books off and lifting the damn thing.

Once all my books were on the floor, I began considering organization styles. I've known that I needed a change. So I made the judgement call: I would begin doubling up.

Now I have two, double-layered fiction shelves on my main Ikea bookshelf. Of course I had to put my faves out on the front (Auster, Boyd, Doyle, Atwood, Coetzee) and hide a few embarrassing pieces of literature (Da Vinci Code, anyone?). I got to thinking about how I should collect some books to sell at the secondhand shop soon -- I've got enough crap that I'm willing to part with that I think I could get 15 euros or more for.

It's interesting, too, to make a mental inventory of the things I am obviously interested in, judging by my books: tons of fiction, cooking (they just took over the entire fireplace), languages, linguistics, travel, knitting, nutrition, gluten-freeness, alternative health, Africa, world events, and political theory (surprising). Probably in that order.

Books that need to be reviewed on Odessa Books:

- The Dying Animal by Philip Roth
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
- The Sea by John Banville
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Ok, that's a good starting list.

Books I am thinking of taking home with me on Thursday to read:

- La Casa de los espiritus by Isabel Allende
- Child's Play by David Malouf
- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (with TheKnitters permission)

I shouldn't bring any books at all, because as soon as I go back I am booking it to Borders. It's just obligatory. So I should only bring one, maybe two for the plane. Otherwise, I'm just adding more weight to my bag.

The amazing thing, though? Remember that REALLY expensive bracelet The Boy bought me? The one that was the first gift he had given me in four years? The one that I totally loved but was a little loose? And that I lost?

I FOUND IT!!!!!

Well goodness. Today just flew right on by now, didn't it?

You know what I hate? I hate when I find a book I love. Normally, this is a good thing, but I'm learning to find it more and more bittersweet.

When I find a great book, I bring it everywhere with me, and I actually look forward to my train rides because that makes for non-guilty reading time. I really let myself go and dive in, full force, into whatever the story is. Today, for example, I almost missed my stop because I was so deep in the world of Wolvogs and Pigoons. (Shout out to Margaret Atwood, yo!)

Inevitably, I cannot control my reading binges and I obsessively open the book every chance I get. It's amazing how much time I spend just waiting around. That time, normally such a dull and drab part of my life, turns into a Potential Reading Party, if the book inspires that kind of attitude. Good books do that to me.

Regardless, I always finish the book way too fast. Today, I couldn't help myself: I did that whole I've-only-got-two-chapters left thing, and finished it up without remembering to savor. When I shut the book after reading the last page, I actually whimpered.

Oh, the emptiness I felt when I was done!

So what now? I have to work tomorrow and I only have my New Yorker to accompany me on the train. And that's ok, but it pales in comparison to the last two days. This is weird, but I sort of miss the characters from the book already.

Tomorrow, directly from work, I am going to the library.

I started Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assasin the day before yesterday at midnight, and it's so good that I might just finish all 637 pages before midnight tonight. I liked this quote so much that I'm noting it here. The narrator is an old woman, looking back on her life:

This book is full of good ones like that. Although, I would now argue that words are no longer silent. Each letter makes a sharp, annoying clack on the keyboard. Even blank spaces are noisy... on my keyboard they're the loudest of them all.

Today is my day off from everything. I plan on making full use of it by sitting in a cafe on this crisp September afternoon, drinking a warm caramel tea, and finishing my book.

Later this evening, I will continue comparing presidential candidates online. I'm not inundated with lots and lots of cheesy television ads or morning talk show interviews, so I actually have to go seek out this information. It's so much better this way. Really.