I have a generous employer that gives me both Thanksgiving Day and the day after Thanksgiving as paid holidays. The two holiday days combined with two weekend days gives me four days off in a row. Who says I am bad at math? So of course there will be extra reading time since Bookman and I go nowhere for Thanksgiving — it’s just the two of us and our vegan enchiladas and pumpkin pie. I plan on parking my fanny in my reading “nest” and snuggling under a quilt with the cats piled on top of me.
Reading material is important, there must be a lot of it because extra time! It doesn’t matter one bit that I already have plenty to read for four days, I need more! In fact, I seem to be not as good at math as I thought because the number of books I suddenly find piled up on my reading table indicates that I have four weeks instead of four days. Library holds are rolling in like the waves at Waimea.
My library offers a “pause” on holds but I am very bad at paying attention and before it even occurs to me to pause a request it shows up as in transit and then it is too late. What’s a girl to do? I must read fast and prioritize by due dates and if something doesn’t immediately strike me as interesting than back to the library it goes, I have no time for wishy-washy malarkey (I’m looking at you Invisible Library – 30 pages of going nowhere and back it went).
In unprioritized order, here are the books I currently have out from the public library:
- Finding My Elegy by Ursula LeGuin. This is a poetry collection. Did you know she wrote poetry? I didn’t. And it is nature poetry and very good!
- Ody-C by Matt Fraction. The Odyssey in space! Except Odysseus is a woman and it’s all kind of weird and I haven’t decided whether or not I like it yet.
- I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong. This is fascinating stuff about all of the bacteria that live in our bodies and the things they do. We have so much to learn about our symbiotic friends!
- Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith. Short stories, but not about libraries, at least not yet, interspersed with nonfiction stories about libraries. It’s odd, but not bad.
- The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride. I loved her book A Girl is a Half-formed Thing last year. It was one of my favorites and absolutely crushing. I have no idea what this new book is about but I am so very excited to read it.
- The Secret Loves of Geek Girls. A nonfiction comic anthology about geek girls featuring the likes of Margaret Atwood, Mariko Tamaki and Noelle Stevenson. Squee!
There are two additional books in transit:
- Bestiary by Donika Kelly. Poems about animals. It is a debut collection getting lots of buzz and was longlisted for the National Book Award.
- Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Science memoir by a geek girl. I expect to lurv this one
And these are the books I have out from the university library:
- Samarkand by Amin Maalouf. Fiction about Omar Khayyam
- The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. Poetry deliciousness
- The Story of a New Name by Elen Ferrante. I’m a little way into this and liking it very much. Damn, Ferrante is a good writer!
- Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson. A civil rights memoir.
In addition, I have a Library Journal book for review:
- The Nemirovsky Question by Susan Rubin Suleiman. About Irene Nemirovsky and the reception of her work before and after her death in a concentration camp. So far quite good.
I have no idea if I will be able to finish all of these in a timely manner. I guess I am about to find out!
Lord have mercy! I can’t read more than one book at a time! In lucky to have 2-3 TV shows or video games in my rotation at once. On the flipside, I can read a book in a day, if its good. Holdover from studying for oral exams.
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Kathryn, I think yours is the best response ever! 😀
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I hope you tell us what you think of the nemirovsky book. I read her last year, lovely and tragic. Also read a bit about her life and how she and her husband tried to keep the Nazis at bay.
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Valorie, I won’t be able to do a full review, but I will be sure to let you know if it is good. So far it is!
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Hopefully Lab Girl arrives in time for your Thanksgiving book marathon, because it was an excellent read!
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A reading marathon to be applauded! I have had a huge book cull recently (not so pained by it as I thought) so have lacked reading time but look forward to getting back on the reading track.
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Ian, I have to do some weeding myself. I am aiming for my extra long Christmas-New Year’s time off. Glad yours wasn’t as painful as you expected!
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Shay, I’ve heard good things about it and am very much looking forward to it!
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If yiu get through even half of this you’ll be doing well. Glad to know someone else just can’t get library requests to play ball with when I want them. I don’t want them turning up like the boys from the band. Just one will do.
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BookerTalk, turning up like the boys in the band! I love it! I’ll have to make sure Bookman keeps the coffee flowing so my eyes don’t get droopy. We’ll see how much I can read!
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I read a review of Bestiary (I think it was by Carolyn at Rosemary and Reading Glasses) which absolutely raved about it—hope you enjoy too!
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Elle, yes, I read that one too which is what prompted me to request the book from the library!
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I’ve had four library request books turn up this week, and I already had several out, I feel like I’m on a treadmill! But I’m interested in that Nemirovsky book, I think I only have a couple of hers left to read.
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piningforthewest, heh but it’s a good treadmill! The book about Nemirovsky is really interesting, I quite liked it.
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That’s an ambitious list for 4 days! I think you made the right call on the Invisible Library – I’m about a third of the way through and while it’s fun, I expect it’s entirely forgettable. I’ll see it through just because I’m having trouble concentrating on anything more substantial these days.
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Isabella, you have reassured me regarding Invisible Library. It didn’t seem bad, just mediocre and while that is fine sometimes, I have no time for it right now. I did manage to get a lot of reading done though and it was bliss 🙂
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Four days of reading, wow! If only. But, I do hope there’s some visiting of the Dashwoods in there too. Perhaps you could huddle in the corner with them and read to them?
Anyhow I hope we hear about your Thanksgiving day – and wish you a very happy one.
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whisperinggums, lots of reading accomplished! It was wonderful. I didn’t finish anything but the book to review for Library Journal but I got deep into a lot of other books. And the Dashwoods got plenty of attention too 🙂
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Well done. I was wondering. Glad the Dash woods didn’t miss out.
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I also have Thursday and Friday off from work but somehow my reading is not moving along. Must get back to it! Enjoy your books. I need to go to the library to pick up a hold.
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Hope you got lots of reading time Iliana!
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I know the feeling!! You should see my reading list for the last two weeks of December…it seems like I have a plan to read enough to last a year…we need HELP!!
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Heh, I haven’t even started on my reading pile for the last two weeks of December yet! For the most part it appears as though it might just take care of itself, though there is a book I am going to request through interlibrary loan. Oh yeah, we definitely need help 🙂
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The library (nay, libraRIES) Love you! I only hope they love you enough to keep those books for a really long time. I say that from experience–lol!
😉
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Danielle, heh I make sure circulation numbers stay up 🙂 I get to keep the university library books for a long time but the public library is 3 weeks and no renewals because of course there is a holds queue.
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I love to read! I am totally impressed at what you have in 4 days. You may need a few more days off… 🙂
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Haha! There will be more days off at the end of December. I can hardly wait! 🙂
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