Writer. Contributing Editor at The Discarded Image. Digital Content Strategist. Here's where I publicly explore the books I'm reading, the projects I'm working on, and other current interests. Book abuse: a confession for Tuesday
Sometimes I abuse books. That is, on occasion I pick one up and let it engross me for the sole purpose of avoiding the writing of my own book. I can justify this, because what writer worth her salt doesn’t read and read much? And sometimes I have to flip the scenario and use reading as a reward, as in, Mindy, that bookmark doesn’t move one page until you’ve written at least 1000 words. (Only a nerd has to be told that ‘all things in moderation’ applies to reading too, eh?) How I miss the days of reading for sheer pleasure.
Anyway, I thought it was time to update you on the current titles in my diversion/reward stack.
I recently finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. I won’t say much about it here yet as I reviewed it for Modern Reformation (watch for the January issue), but I’ll tell you I found it an odd one. Though I have a lot of sympathy for the nature of her quest, she didn’t convince me that she had found what she was looking for.
I took my sister’s advice and dipped into the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the first book. I’ll post a review here when I get to it (I’ll probably have to bribe myself into writing it with the promise of another book!).
My main reading this week is Reading Lolita in Tehran, which I am about a quarter of the way through. It would be interesting enough just because of the subject matter (women reading banned books in Iran), but it is even better because Azar Nafisi is an eloquent and highly educated writer. When I read, I use post-it flags to mark quotes I want to remember, and this book is starting to look like the perimeter of a circus tent. I’ll definitely get back to you when I’m finished.
On Sunday, I discovered dailylit.com, a subscription service that emails you a daily portion of a book of your choice (they have lots of classics and a handful of choices in other genres). So I am now reading a few paragraphs a day of Sarah Orne Jewett’s novella The Country of Pointed Firs.
And after a hiatus over the summer—self-imposed to make our deadline for the latest release in our History Lives series (there’s that balancing act again!)—Brandon and I are back to Walter Isaacson’s Einstein biography. Since we’re not on a road trip, which is when we usually do our reading aloud, we’re starting a nightly ritual of reading for a half hour before we hit the lights and watch an episode of Scrubs on DVD. It will be awhile before we get through it, but this technique allows me to keep stopping and asking my amateur physicist to explain what the heck we just read (I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole light bouncing inside and outside the train deal)!
So what are you all reading these days? And do chime in with some helpful advice on how to keep up with my reading without neglecting my writing.
But don’t mention the fact that I could have been working on the novel while I wrote this post—I’m not ready to make blogging-abuse confessions, too.
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