The other day when I was talking about my July reading plans didn’t I say there would likely be a few surprises? Well those surprises arrived today at the library. Oh, you know, the usual routine: you place a hold request on a book a month, two months, three months ago. You are number 87 in line, number 50, number 48. And your turn comes up for every single one of them at the same time. The chickens came home to roost today.
I am already frantically reading two books I can’t renew, The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison and The Gardener of Versailles by Alain Baraton. Now add to that Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Attracting Native Pollinators by the Xerxes Society, 3 Sections by Vijay Seshadri, and In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen.
I am well into The Empathy Exams and liking it very much. I am also a good way into The Gardener of Versailles, a fun book about gardening and the history of Versailles from the current gardener-in-chief who has been employed there for over 30 years. But because I have to finish these two books first, I will be delayed in starting the other books.
The other books, Gathering Moss is about moss. Attracting Native Pollinators is about what its title says and is much longer and in-depth than the filled with photos and lists gardening book I expected. 3 Sections is the poetry book that most recently won the Pulitzer Prize. I read the first poem and I think I am really going to like it. And In Paradise is Peter Matthiessen’s final book, a novel that takes place in 1996 at a weeklong retreat at a concentration camp where the 100 participants meditate on the train platform and offer prayer and witness at the crematoria.
I have my reading cut out for me!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I had better go get started.
I know what you mean by ‘frantically reading’ when library books on hold suddenly become available all at the same time. I’d returned without reading The Luminaries, and several others in the past. Will you be writing a review on The Empathy Exams?
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Arti, does returning books unread make you feel guilty? It does me and then I feel silly because, really, there is no reason for the guilt. Oh yes, I am very much liking Empathy Exams and will definitely be writing about it once I finish.
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I had to do the same with the Luminaries when I found out just how long it was and there was no option to renew cos there were too many other people in the queue.
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You certainly have! It is a nice problem to have but, in my case, it leads to gobble,gobble,gobble!
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Ian, it is a nice problem to have. Oh I know about the gobbling! I do that too and then suffer from small pangs of regret over not being able to be more leisurely and attentive.
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This is a common feature all over the world it seems. I requested two, one seven weeks ago and one last monday, and just received a message they are both waiting for me. Strange. And that while just having restarted the only book I have been reading for more than three weeks now.
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Cath, definitely a common experience of readers it seems! And today one more book arrived for me. I hope your library books are ones you have been really looking forward to π
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Feast or famine! It’s always the way. I do hope you find some really enjoyable chickens amongst your roosters there. Remember, all this means is that you can drop the less engaging books and concentrate on those that really grip you!
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Litlove, except more and more it seems I am stuck in a gluttonous feast and I am going to be like that man in the Monty Python skit who gorges himself and then makes the mistake of eating a tiny mint and explodes. The trouble is, all the books I am reading right now are engaging!
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Lol! Yes, I see the dilemma… Better warn the Bookman there may be a Mr Creosote moment!! π
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Now I know why I stay away from libraries! I have enough books peering sternly at me, without books whose due dates are about to expire doing the same! Good luck!
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whisperinggums, says the former librarian! π I have become quite good at ignoring the stern looks from the books on my shelves.
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You have to, really, don’t you. They heed to know who’s bossM
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With all that on your plate what on earth are you doing in here talking to us? We want to hear the sound of those pages turning.
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BookerTalk, heh, the pages are furiously turning as even more books arrive!
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Along with Gathering Mosses”, what about Elizabeth Gilbert’s “The Signature of All Things”?
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Alta, I have heard good things about the book. The wait list at my library is a mile long though so I am being patient.
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