Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Loaded Nightstand




A few observations about library books

Library books are hard to take a photo of.  They have that protective covering that greatly reflects light, so you have to position them at just the right angle.

What method do you use when deciding what books to borrow from the library?

Sometimes when I go to the library I take a list of books recommended by friends, fellow bloggers, my mother, and NPR.  You fellow bloggers and my mother have rarely steered me wrong.  Thanks.  

Sometimes you and my mother serendipitously recommend the same book.  How did you know?!

Sometimes I end up at the library without my list of books, and I just grab books based solely on the look of the cover, or the sound of the title.

I am finding it hard to concentrate on what I’m reading.  Call it a combination of too much else going on in my life, menopause, and wondering if I should have started that other book first.

Two weeks I finished a great library book about math:  The Grapes of Math. I just finished (and am still cogitating on) David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m a few chapters into The Towers of Trebizond, which is, so far, an amusing tale of British people traveling to Turkey, and the other mostly British people they encounter.  And I’m reading The Burglary, which is about an Edward Snowden-like heist of secret FBI files, only it’s the 1970s and J. Edgar Hoover is in charge of the FBI.

I would like to spend hours curled up with these books, but lately that's not a possibility.  So I take comfort in just having the stack of books there.


On the Nightstand
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay
All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen
The Burglary, by Betty Medsger
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith
The Maytrees, by Annie Dillard
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
A Glass of Blessings, by Barbara Pym
Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
An Academic Question, by Barbara Pym


10 comments:

JJ said...

I recommended David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell; however, you need not read the entire book to get the idea.

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut is a popular book. Let me know how it goes; I may read it myself.

smalltownme said...

I usually have as many holds as my library allows (I think it's 12 right now), and I pick them up as they come in. Sometimes there are newer books with a 7-day term so I grab them if possible. Where do my holds come from? Friends' recommendations, book reviews, who knows? After visiting some Laura Ingalls Wilder homesites on my summer road trip (and having read her books to shreds), I am now reading some of her daughter Rose Wilder Lane's books.

Angie said...

You must read a lot faster than I. They'd all be due back to the library before I was halfway through the first. For that reason, I only check out one at a time. And usually have to renew it at least once.

Common Household Mom said...

I use the "renew" feature to the hilt, Angie. And it is unlikely I will get them all read before I use up the "renew" feature and they are all due back at the library.

Cassi said...

I have to confess, I haven't used the library since I got my Kindle. Right now I have the latest Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache) ready to read --and the weekend is coming up!

Little Miss Sunshine State said...

I have a running list. I mostly add books after I've read a review somewhere. I also get emails from Bookpage and Goodreads.

I put them on a request list at the library and usually end up getting 3 or 4 every 2 weeks.

If I'm on a long waiting list I'll scan everything on the "new books" shelves and pick up a few that look good.

Patience_Crabstick said...

I hope you like The Towers of Trebizond! And two Barbara Pym books! She is one of my all-time favorite authors.

Anonymous said...

I' reading The Peabody Sisters of Salem, The Heart of Darkness (teaching it) and At The End of Magic. I'm like you, I go off recommendations by people like you and NPR. I almost never find myself "looking" for something to read because I have so many recommendations to read!

The Crislers said...

What a pretty, pretty stack. I get my recommendations from... everywhere, it seems. Fellow bloggers (obviously), friends, favorite authors who are good about posting reviews online, my book club ladies, this free newspaper thing I pick up at the library that reviews and recommends newly published books, etc, etc.

Cheri @ Blog This Mom!® said...

I'm reading At the End of Magic right now. Love it! My biggest problem once I have decided what to read is reading it because I usually read before bed and fall asleep after two pages. The next night I have to figure out where I left off and then go back a page and start again. So, that's a page a night, for those doing the math. In other words, I will finish Mary Petrie's book when I'm 74. This has nothing to do with how good a book is (Mary's is good!). This has to do with how TIRED I am all of the time. :-) I love your photographed stack of books. It gives me IDEAS about what to fall asleep reading next!