So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading
by Sara Nelson
Overview
From the Publisher
Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.
My thoughts
Huge thanks to my friend Karyn for sharing this book with me ! I love it already and I've only just begun reading it!
This book did wonders for me! You see, before I read it, I thought I was a book worm. I thought I was a bookaholic. I thought I was, well, bookish. But I'm not!!! What a wonderful affirmation!! Craig is never going to believe this!!!
You see, the author describes her love affair with books! As much as I love books, and oh, how I do, I am nowhere near the deep end where the author resides! I still have a life outside of books, and it's a darn good one!! If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, read the passages below! You'll see!!
Oh, and about the book, it was quite enjoyable! I laughed a lot and related at times and was totally miffed at other times. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I had read the books the author talks about, but she's a fiction kind of girl and I'm a non-fiction kind of girl, so we didn't meet often. But it's still a fun book and I liked it a lot. And she really should read David McCullough!
Thanks, Karyn!
Favorite Passage
Explaining the moment of connection between a reader and a book to someone who's never experienced it is like trying to describe sex to a virgin. A friend of mine says that when he meets a book he loves, he starts to shake involuntarily. For me, the feeling comes in a rush: I'm reading along and suddenly a word or phrase or scene enlarges before my eyes and soon everything around me is just so much fuzzy background. The phone can ring, the toast can burn, the child can call out, but to me, they're all in a distant dream. The book -- this beautiful creature in my hands! -- is everything I've ever wanted, as unexpected and inevitable as love.
...and another passage!
An occasional disagreement over a book’s merit should not be a big deal to normal people, but the people I love – and the person I am – are not normal: we’re book people. To us, disagreeing about something we read is as shocking and disruptive as, say, deciding that we hate each other’s husbands. (Jessie only half-jokes that when she and her husband disagree passionately about a book, she contemplates divorce.) I should let it go, or reconsider my feelings about the book in question. But I end up reconsidering the friendship instead.
Luckily, the situation with Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake did not become so dire, though I admit I had a second surge of anxiety when I mentioned to another book friend, Laurie, that Mary had passed it along to me. “Oh! It’s so bad,” she blurted. Ut-oh, I thought, friendships at risk everywhere I look.
