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. Recently added to my TBR list
If you’re like me, you get book recommendations from all sorts of sources — book blogs, print reviews, radio or TVÂ interviews (The Daily Show comes to mind), friends, library displays, bibliographies in other books, the list goes on! Â I usually make a pretty fast decision about whether I am going to actively seek out a book, and if so, the title, author, genre, and info source immediately gets added at the bottom of my color-coded Excel sheet that I call “Reading Records” (one worksheet tracks what I want to read, a second sheet tracks what I do read and when). Â If I don’t put something on a list, it doesn’t get done — so this is the only way I’ve found to actually keep track of all my reading desires and actions. Â (I also keep a reading journal to note responses, quotes I want to remember, etc., but the Excel sheet is what I turn to to stay organized. Yeah, I’m a “little” Type A!)
Anyway, I usually only talk about the books once I’ve started reading them or when I get around to writing the reviews, but I thought it might be fun to occasionally update you on recent additions to the list, since it might be quite some time before I get around to buying and reading.  (Plus I never know when one of you will endorse a book so heartily that I’ll have to bump it up higher on the list!)  So here are some titles I’ve added recently:
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. Swim, a novel by Marianne Apostolides, recommended at Kate’s Book Blog
2. Woodsburner, a novel by John Pipkin, reviewed in Powell’s Review of the Day
3. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, a story collection by Wells Tower, discussed in Poets & Writers
4. Into the Beautiful North, a novel by Twitter friend Luis Alberto Urrea (@urrealism)
5. Library: An Unquiet History, non-fiction by Matthew Battles, recommended by Twitter friend and novelist Elise Blackwell (@eliseblackwell)
6. Hopscotch, a novel by Julio Cortazar, recommended by novelist Emily St. John Mandel (whose new novel I mentioned in my last post)
7. Written on the Sky: Poems from the Japanese translated by Kenneth Rexroth, reviewed in Powell’s Review of the Day
8. Perfecting, a novel by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, recommended by Bookninja
9. Scotch River, a novel by Linda Little, recommended by yet another Twitter friend, @mdbenoitÂ
If you’ve read any of these, I’d love to know what you thought. Â And do let me know what titles have recently made it to your To Be Begged/Borrowed/Stolen list!
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