"Currently" Reading

my living room library

My Goodreads account notes that I am "currently reading" ten books, some of which have been on that list well over a year, some longer. Some of them have been on that list long enough that I have read three dozen other books in the meantime.

Here are the books my account thinks I am reading:

from On Writing

On Writing by Stephen King. I am actually reading this book. I have read several pages today and will probably finish it this evening. I recommend this book to anyone who writes or wants to write or wants to get better at writing. King tells his own journey into writing and shares insight into his own writing process. Fascinating stuff.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Also reading this. (These early titles are the most recently updated in my list so they are, of course, what I am truly into.) Ferrante delves into the sometimes confusing and haunting events of childhood and follows her characters into adolescence. I've just started the adolescence section. Took a break to read Stephen King.

Selected Stories by Alice Munro. I think I've read three or four pages of this. I took it with me on a long plane trip a couple of weeks ago, with every intention of finishing it. My other books that trip was Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. I read that instead and have not yet returned to Munro. Earlier this year, I read Munro's Dear Life, also a collection of short stories. Her work moves me. I get lost in the language.

Barefoot Church by Brandon Hatmaker. I picked this up because I've really enjoyed Brandon's wife's work. (Jen Hatmaker has written 7 and Interrupted, among others, I'm sure, but those are the two I've owned. I'm partway through Interrupted, but don't tell Goodreads...) Can't recall why I set this one aside. It sits atop a stack of books on my dresser, most of which I have begun and not finished and none of the rest of which are recorded in this list.

with Hannah, who played Tammy

Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen by Jimmy McDonough. Last summer, a whole year ago now, I performed in a production of Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story as young Tammy and a whole host of other characters, including at least two of her daughters. I added this to the collection (along with two other Tammy Wynette biographies) as "research." As you might have guessed, I haven't finished any of them. The show closed September 20, 2014. My motivation is all but gone.

The Mill for Grinding Old People Young by Glenn Patterson. In 2012, I visited a college friend in Ireland and bought three books. (The others were Girl Reading by Katie Ward and The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, both of which I enjoyed immensely and highly recommend.) I started this so long ago that I don't remember much of it. When I return to the story, I will probably begin again.

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. My first experience with this author's work compelled me to become a vegetarian (Eating Animals). This book had the unfortunate luck to fall into my lap in the midst of a busy work season. I read about a third of it and returned it to the library. If it's still there, I'll take it home with me this evening.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Ah, dear Don Q. Another bit of "research." I didn't even record my progress, but I think I made it more than a hundred pages. Maybe not. The bookmark remains in place, but to summarize: Don Q sets out to do something hare-brained. Sancho tells him that's a bad idea. Don Q does it anyway and is surprised when it ends badly. Rinse and repeat. The musical adaptation by Dale Wasserman & co. is magnificent. I don't know that I'll ever finish the book.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan. A friend recommended this title to me some time ago, and I read some of it. It's outside my usual reading interest, but I trust this friend's reading habits so I gave it a try.  I remember that it reads much like a novelization of a film, which makes sense considering del Toro's background. In any case, I might go back to it. Perhaps not. I remain undecided.

The End of Poverty by Jeffrey D. Sachs. A meaty economics study with tons of real-world accounts to balance the academic side of things. I'll finish this at some point, but I was sidetracked by fiction.

to read...

Lest the sad state of my "currently" reading list lead you to believe I have not been reading at all, I assure you that I have. Goodreads reports that I have read 35 books this year. Reviewing this list reminds me that I was rather enjoying some of these and might want to revisit them, even if it means starting over at the beginning.

What are you reading?

The Books I'm Reading in 2015

Every year, I tell myself, "Under no circumstances are you to acquire more books until you have finished the hundreds that lie around unread on the shelves in your living room!" Every year, I ignore that order, and lo and behold . . . more books! I have no idea how this happens. Okay, I do have some clue. It has to do with paperbackswap, free books, and the local library book sale. These are all dangerous avenues to increasing the library.

It is unlikely I will stop acquiring books. It is a thing that happens and has been happening since before I can remember and will continue happening. So rather than setting a goal about not having more books, I have opted for more specific reading goals. These goals are attached to definite numbers and titles so that I can work my way through the existing living room library.

The broad goal for 2015 is to read two new-to-me books each month. To that end, I have set aside these 24 titles to read:

The Mill for Grinding Old People Young - Glenn Patterson

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf

The Hours - Michael Cunningham

Up in the Air - Walter Kirn

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood

Snow Flower & the Secret Fan - Lisa See

The Story of My Life - Helen Keller

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen

Then Again - Diane Keaton

Tim Tebow: Through My Eyes - Tim Tebow

The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers - Maria von Trapp

Anna and the King of Siam - Margaret Landon

This I Remember - Eleanor Roosevelt

Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen - Jimmy McDonough

Grace of Monaco - Steven Englund

The Letters of Abelard & Heloise

Dreams in a Time of War - Ngugi wa Thiong'o

I'm also really excited about Amy Poehler's Yes, Please and B.J. Novak's The Book with No Pictures. I'll be picking up Novak's book at the library tomorrow!

What are you reading this year? Anything you're particularly excited about or have been waiting to read for ages? Tell me in the comments about the tales that await you in 2015.

The Trouble with Tomes

When I decided it would be a good idea in 2014 to read all of the novels I own but have not yet read, I underestimated my bibliophilic buying tendencies as well as my stunning lack of follow-through when it comes to actually reading the books I purchase.

The list clocks in at 70 novels.

This doesn't count the collections of short stories and poetry, the memoirs, the plays, the various nonfiction tomes that have taken up residence on my shelves over the years (nor does it include the pile of books tagged for giveaway, many of which I also have not read). That's more than a book a week! (I can math, too. Cool, right?)

While I am a skilled and confident reader, that number is daunting, particularly considering that according to my Goodreads profile, I only read 23 books in 2013. Granted, this doesn't include books I re-read but rather only books I was reading for the first time. Even so, I'm fairly certain my 2013 reading didn't even come close to 70 books. Some of these are beastly long, too: Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind; Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace and Anna Karenina; Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Oof.

Is there time enough in a year? Should I split it up over two years? Three? I mean, three years would put me about on par with this year's reading, but is that making it too easy? Besides, I don't know how I'd choose. Plus, it's all so heavy, and I'm sure to get distracted. I didn't plan on reading half of what fell into my lap in 2013, and look what happened! Not that it wasn't heavy. A lot of it was. I mean, I read George R.R. Martin's whole Song of Ice & Fire as released to date in less than two months. (Did I accomplish anything else? Not really, but what's a bookworm to do when she's stuck in an epic series of novels?!)

Okay, so I guess I'll just read and see what happens. If I get through them, great. If not, 2015 is just around the corner. Besides, I'm more than a third of the way through the first book on the list (admittedly the lightest book on the list when it comes to content) so maybe . . . oh, wait. I forgot about Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Unless I trade my NYE movie marathon for a night with a book, I'm unlikely to finish that one before the new year begins. So 70 it will be.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

What are you reading this year?

FREE BOOKS!

Hi friends!

On October 15th, the local library will start accepting donations again. Until then, here are the titles from my library to which I'll be bidding farewell. Some of them I've read; others have been sitting collecting dust (and being packed and unpacked in various moves) since I acquired them.

If you'd like any of these, let me know, and we can work out how to get it/them to you. On October 15th, whatever is left will go to the library. (Yes, I know about PaperbackSwap. If you don't, you should.)

Seriously. Free books!

Watership Down (Richard Adams)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Julia Alvarez)

Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Weetzie Bat (Francesca Lia Block)

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

The Land that Time Forgot (Edgar Rice Burroughs)

My Antonia (Willa Cather)

The Professor's House (Willa Cather)

The Quilter's Kitchen (Jennifer Chiaverini)

A Pair of Silk Stockings and Other Stories (Kate Chopin)

Gigi and The Cat (Colette)

Seventeenth Summer (Maureen Daly)

The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin)

Nicholas Nickleby (Charles Dickens)

The Old Curiosity Shop (Charles Dickens)

The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens)

Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser)

Too Great a Lady (Amanda Elyot)

The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)

Devil's Food Cake Murder (Joanne Fluke)

Where Angels Fear to Tread (E.M. Forster)

Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia (James Fox)

Mary Called Magdalene (Margaret George)

Herland (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

On Reflection: An Autobiography (Helen Hayes)

The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

Mules and Men (Zora Neale Hurston)

The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels (Henry James)

13 Little Blue Envelopes (Maureen Johnson)

Bluebird, or the Invention of Happiness (Sheila Kohler)

The Red Queen's Daughter (Jacqueline Kolosov)

You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant (Jeff Koon & Andy Powell)

Hector and the Search for Happiness (Francois Lelord)

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Madeleine L'Engle)

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (Lois Gladys Leppard)

Mandie and the Trunk's Secret (Lois Gladys Leppard)

Mandie and the Hidden Treasure (Lois Gladys Leppard)

Perspectives on the Jack Tales and Other North American Märchen (Carl Lindahl, ed.)

Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers (William Bernard McCarthy, ed.)

Morgan's Run (Colleen McCullough)

Sula (Toni Morrison)

The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)

The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)

Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger)

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (Jennifer E. Smith)

Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli)

Girl in Hyacinth Blue (Susan Vreeland)

Affinity (Sarah Waters)

Some of them may have scribbles in them from surviving various university classes, but they are all in good to good-as-new condition.

Happy reading!

~Micah

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I am currently reading Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog (translated from the French by Alison Anderson). This evening, I was struck by this passage:

Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty. When you speak, or read, or write, you can tell if you've said or read or written a fine sentence. You can recognize a well-turned phrase or an elegant style. But when you are applying the rules of grammar skillfully, you ascend to another level of the beauty of language. When you use grammar you peel back the layers, to see how it is all put together, see it quite naked, in a way. And that's where it becomes wonderful, because you say to yourself, "Look how well-made this is, how well-constructed it is! How solid and ingenious, rich and subtle!" I get completely carried away just knowing there are words of all different natures, and that you have to know them in order to be able to infer their potential usage and compatibility. I find there is nothing more beautiful, for example, than the very basic components of language, nouns and verbs. When you've grasped this, you've grasped the core of any statement. It's magnificent, don't you think? Nouns, verbs . . . (p. 158)

 Barbery's novel is a stunning example of the well-turned phrase. I am not quite halfway through, and I am torn between wanting to devour it all at once and longing to linger over every word. My current method falls somewhere in between, dashing through and then returning to pages and paragraphs to savor the language. Ah, lovely!