Happy World Book Day everyone.
Okay, I realize that World Book Day was yesterday, but I still feel a need to celebrate.
Because, I did it!
I met February’s book challenge goal, even though it was a short month. (I think I deserve a cookie for this. No, make it two cookies or, heck, maybe even three.)
I read six books, and I didn’t cheat by reading a children’s book (though I do have Charlotte’s Web on my list because I feel a great longing to revisit dear Wilbur and Charlotte).
I was so pumped about this until I heard from three (three!) Facebook friends who have goals of reading over 100 books this year. One hundred books. That’s, like, nine books a month. Or, wait, eight and a half.
Gulp!
I hope to feature at least one of these prolific readers on my blog so I might squeeze some secrets out of them.
Until then, it’s time to introduce February’s books.
A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez
The Outskirts of Hope, Jo Ivester
Even You, Marilyn Oser
Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson
And I still (still!) can’t say enough good things about Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the Center of the Earth.
The book is funny and heartwarming, sad and poignant, surreal and yet strangely and humanly real. It’s impossible not to pause every so often to marvel at the language, the insights, and odd and quirky way in which Wilson views the world.
I read “Birds in the House” at the gym and laughed so hard that I almost fell off the treadmill. Yet it was also bittersweet, and isn’t that the best kind of laughter, that sad, nagging-at-the-gut type of humor?
And the ending of “The Choir Director Affair (the baby’s teeth)” is just perfect:
“You are left with the only things that any of us have in the end. The things we keep inside of ourselves, that grow out of us, that tell us who we are.”
Yes, yes, and yes! Kevin Wilson, I love your mad-scrambled writerly mind.
Big book news. Former Alaska writer Andromeda Romano-Lax’s new book “Behave” released to rave reviews. Check it out, okay?
Cinthia Ritchie 
Good grief. Personally, I am in favor of sleep and having some small type of life. 8.5? Geesh.
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I know! Not sure how they do it. I like to read but I also like to daydream. And watch movies. And run and work out and swim and just chill out and play with my toes, you know?
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Yeah, especially the toes. I get that. Me too.
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I’m not much of a reader, but somehow I made it to five this month and felt like a freakin’ superhero. EIGHT? EVERY MONTH? That’s crazy. But then I think about how much I like to run and it doesn’t seem so crazy after all. To each their own.
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Karen: Five books in a month is a big, big deal. If I were you I’d be bragging all over Facebook, lol. But yeah, people probably think we’re crazy for running so much, especially since we usually end up exactly where we started. P.S. You are getting fast in your running!
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Some of the books were short, but I really loved all of them, so they went by more quickly than others. I read the comments down below and love the one about Stephen King, because I’m currently reading his newest book, Finders Keepers. Stephen King isn’t a waste of time! A week or two ago one of the Jeopardy! categories (yup, I watch almost every night) was “One Word Stephen King Titles”. Rocked it!! It’s not often I sweep an entire category like that without any guessing at all!! I knew all the blood, zombies, and complicated intertwining character stories would be of use someday!! 🙂
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Karen: I love Stephen King, especially his earlier works (Salem’s Lot, The Shining and The Stand are my all-time favorites). And I was watching “Jeopardy” that night and also got that answer. I was so excited. I usually suck at Jeopardy. My mind just doesn’t work that fast. P.S. King’s memoir “On Writing” is so, so good. It’s one of the best books on writing I’ve read. P.S.S. I’ll have to read “Finders Keepers.” It will be nice to dive back down inside King’s mind.
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Sigh … more books I’ll have to read.
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I know! Sometimes it all feels like a burden, doesn’t it? But what a fabulous burden, eh?
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Yeah… I read something a few years ago about how many thousands of books are published each year and even voracious readers can only read so many books a year. Which leads to the conclusion that we can only read something like .00003% of the books that are published. (And I kind of made that number up, but it’s something like that.) Which makes it all feel so meaningless cause I can’t possibly read all of the good books, you know. So, why am I wasting my time tonight on a Stephen King book? 😉
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Because sometimes you just have to read a Stephen King book. (Now I want to read “The Shining” again, for like the fourth time). Cheers and happy reading.
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I have some friends who read a ton – they also read VERY fast. I don’t like to read fast. I like to savor the words. I don’t think I coudl ever get through 100 books in a year. That’s slightly more than 2 a week! I’m lucky if I get through 1 a week. I recently started reading on my phone (before it was mostly iPad or paperbacks) and that helps me get through a lot more books.
Love the cover/title on BEHAVE!
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Yes, yes, I’m with you, Savoring books is the way to go and besides, don’t we want others to savor our books, read them slowly, repeat passages out loud, enjoy? Do unto others, eh? Cheers and happy weekend. P.S. I doubt I’ll read much once summer hits because, you know, the great outdoors and all.
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I’m not a fast reader and I too agree with Pooch about savoring books. In fact, I’m very slow and if it wasn’t for audiobooks where at least I can listen while knitting or cooking or walking, I’d get through much fewer books. Right now I’m listening to David Copperfield: the narration is over 36 hours long! It would probably take me a year to read such a novel 😉
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