True Confessions?

I know I claimed to have given up the blog but I'm compelled to write today even if you one else cares! I went to the library today to get the books we selected for the next 2 months. I easily located "Tender is the Night" but "Jitterbug Perfume" is not part of the university's collection (hmm, I wonder what that means...). Even though I wasn't successful in borrowing our selection for next month, I left with my usual bag of books. So many intriguing titles circled the porch at Nancy's and I just couldn't let them escape unread. So arriving home with me this evening, along with "Tender is the Night", are 1) "Water for Elephants" 2) "The Monsters of Templeton" and 3) "Garden Spells". So thanks everyone for the suggestions!

My main reason for writing today is to confess something. "Hi, my name is Linda and I have a reading problem". Yes ladies, I am a book addict. My courses begin in 3 days. I have seen the syllabi and am aware that I will be buried in feminist philosophy for 15 long weeks. The readings for my courses could not be considered "light reads" by anyone's standards, yet I am dragging home a bag of titles that will be sure to call to me in the night, assuring a shortened night's sleep as I stand at the kitchen counter (yes stand, it's the only way I can keep alert at 1:00 a.m.) for just "one more chapter". I had no intention of borrowing literary Sominex mind you, but in the end the cravings won out. Addictions are complex. I will regret yet find pleasure in the time invested in absorbing every word. I will be prepared for book club and arrive armed with critique and acclaim to share. I will also make it through my coursework somehow. After all there's always time to read, isn't there?

eat, pray, love

What a journey!
My apologies for missing the last book club meeting and I am sorry I missed the discussion -

The journey is Elizabeth Gilbert's journey - and it did read like fiction and sometimes it was difficult to believe that it was "true" - but I know when I tell my life story, it sounds much better (like fiction) than it probably actually played out.... so we take the good and the inspirational out of the actual .....
(just think about how you tell your children about your learning experiences....for example...)

This book did make me think about all the strange and unusual people (naming no names) who have made a difference in my life - Is life so straightforward that we miss those Richard's from Texas ??? She was open to every encounter and that made me identify with the story - or at least aspire to living a life where I was open to every encounter.... and realized that those encounters continue to enrich my life...
And she reaffirmed that some of us do not come to this "normal - expected " life naturally -
Some of us travel around in our emotional, personal, relational journeys to find ourselves and be able to have a true relationship - and that normal is not necessarily being just like where we came from or the community norm.....

Any reading that encourages me to examine my own life is good - this was good.

Seshat

Doris Lessing anyone?

In honor of Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize I have been re-visiting and discovering anew her works. Strangely, I had never read The Golden Notebook which is my latest choice. Thus far I have only indulged in her introduction and am struck by her straightforward analysis of life and literature.

Any Lessing fans out there? I'd love to hear from you........
~Linda

The Bookman's Promise.....

John Dunning's The Bookman's Promise p. 440: "We looked at each other in the hot noonday sun, two bookmen from different worlds, pulled together briefly by the same quest. "
You have to read this.....
Seshat

Marco Island: A Book Lover's Vacation

Syracuse to Detroit to Fort Myers:

Finished The Amber Spyglass, the last book in Pullman's trilogy Northern Lights (The Golden Compass Series). As a Narnia fan, had to read this series to see what all the hoopla was about. Be glad to discuss with anyone interested. I actually enjoyed the read but thought the ending was weak (and certainly not Narnia quality) (and I highly doubt that this trilogy would turn anyone over to the dark side). A Christmas gift from a daughter.

Coffee, sun, shrimp and grits for breakfast, and beach reading for seven days:

Found Digital Fortress, Dan Brown, on the vacation home bookshelf and thought it was a great read! Much better than The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons.
Up to the last minute excitement and never really sure who the bad guy is until the end - I loved it!

Then three John Dunning's I brought with us (out of order but to finish the series - also Christmas gifts from Leah) - Booked to Die, The Bookman's Wake, and Sign of the Book. This is another enjoyable series about a cop who quits to open a used book store and eventually becomes a "book detective" for lack of a better description. Interesting info about the world of book collectors (who would cringe at Sharon's notes in her books - which I love to have for reference when reading after her....) and the book industry. Perfect beach reading.....

Started Garrison Keillor's Pontoon which I bought for myself, but didn't engage so read Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, our next Book Club selection; finished it on the flight home and definitely enjoyed it - although I am looking forward to some conversation as it was sometimes difficult to remember that it was non-fiction. (It was non-fiction, wasn't it??)

One book on the vacation shelf that I did not read but would like to find is an edition of short stories by Alexander McCall Smith (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) which Marty described as African fairy tales. And I have to get back to Pontoon but right now am re-reading the last two Dunning books to have the story straight in my head (haha! that's a joke because my faulty memory is what makes the same book enjoyable every time I read it!).

Wishing you all a Book Lover's Vacation -
Seshat

The Female Scribe

Can it really be 3 years???
Wine, Women, and Story has proven that the love of books and reading can bring one new friends....

Check out this article in the NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/nyregion/18bigcity.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=susan+dominus&oref=slogin

and the reply I received from the author:

--- Susan Dominus wrote:

You know, my husband's from Syracuse, and I think we may well have visited the Book Nook! what fun. Thanks so much for taking the time to write, I really appreciate it. best, Susan

On Jan 18, 2008, at 7:33 PM, Seshat wrote:

For a brief time in Upstate NY, the Alzheimer's Association of CNY organized a used book store to raise funds in the beautiful small town of Skaneateles.

The store was staffed by volunteers, and as the Outreach Social Worker in the rural area, I
provided the staff oversight. The store was probably the size of ten feet by ten feet with floor to ceiling shelves (thanks to two husbands dedicated to their wives' cause).

The "Book Nook" was able to raise over five thousand dollars a year with minimun cost to the Association, a positive way to raise awareness of Alzheimer's Disease, and great benefit to book lovers as well.

The interesting part in response to your article is that the books flowed through my garage in the process of being weeded out for sale or for wherever (which was a painful process of Salvation Army or the landfill).

But the books! How wonderful! We acquired books from families who were closing homes of aging parents, or from the Post Office that conducted a book drive, and eventually from folks who just wanted to recycle their books.

It was an amazing adventure with book dealers coming to find the rare finds (which we could never identify and sold for the same low price) as well as the customers who just wanted a read at a price that wasn't the commercial outrageous price. We sold paperbacks for less than five dollars and hardbacks at less than ten dollars. It was a book lovers dream.

I miss the "Book Nook" and hope that there will always be used book stores out there and folks who just collect the books because someone will want to read exactly that book - for that price!

of course, there is always the library - but it's not quite the same as having the book on your own personal shelf......

good reading -

Seshat
_______

Our January Meeting

Linda posted a great description of our book club, and I hope we can continue comments here at this blog. I admit that I just thought about it today, so here goes my contribution.

We chose a great book - Assassination Vacation - by Sarah Vowell for this month's read. I enjoyed the author's style of writing and best of all, I learned a lot! Once again, Auburn prison makes it in a best-seller! "Old Sparky" is more famous than I thought.

I hope everyone knows that the meeting is at my house tonight (1/14). I'm sending everyone an email with directions to my house today. I hope to see all of you there.