Currently reading: The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚
Reading
Finished reading: The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King 📚
Continuing my quest to go back and read the Stephen King books I’ve missed along the way. I listened to the audiobook of this one, narrated by actor Bronson Pinchot. I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks, but the narration of the ending of this story was one of the most incredible I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. Bravo! ★★★★
Finished reading: The Silentiary by Antonio Di Benedetto 📚
What a strange little book. The narrator is slowly driven insane by all the commercial sounds encroaching on his family home: an auto repair shop next door, a nightclub across the street, an idling bus outside his bedroom window, all told in disjointed Kafka-like stream of consciousness. Made me appreciate the relative quiet I enjoy here at home. ★★★
Started reading: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen 📚
Finished reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚
Working through the few books of Stephen King I haven’t read. This is a collection of his early stories. A few are dated, and a few are exceptional. There is a bleakness that pervades many of these stories. I hoped for a good outcome for the protagonist against all odds, but I was seldom rewarded. Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut and The Raft were my favorites. ★★★★
Currently reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚
Working my way through the backlog of Stephen King books I haven’t read (I’ve read over 50 of his books!?!). What a gifted and prolific storyteller he is!
Finished reading: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 📚
A good premise perhaps weakened by too many characters and side stories. The depression era setting, poor living conditions, and the horrors of racism and cruel treatment of people with disabilities felt Dickensian. McBride held my attention by the end, but a good editor might have helped maintain it all the way through. ★★★
Finished reading: Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane 📚
Mary Pat Fennessy is one of the most compelling characters I’ve encountered in a while. She made the bleakness of the story worth it. And yes, the story is bleak!
Dennis Lehane is a terrific storyteller.
A Slow Read of the Story of Civilization 📚
Friday, October 13, 2023
I’ve had this old set of Will and Ariel Durant’s Pulitzer-prize-winning Story of Civilization on my bookshelves, collecting dust for almost a quarter of a century. These books belonged to my grandmother, who willed them to me after passing. I inherited her love of reading, so I’ve treasured these books as heirlooms of my memory of her and our shared connection.
Currently reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚
Read Better with Craft and Readwise
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Have you ever run across a book you know you’ve read but can’t recall much about it? Or, come across a passage in a book while you were reading that seemed important — something you knew you could use at some point in the future — but didn’t know where or how to save it so you could find it again?
Reading Deeply
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
I spend a lot of time with my nose in a book. Last year, I read 61 books, and I'm on track to read that many again in 2021. Yet, as fast as I read, I can't seem to make a dent in my To-Be-Read pile. So many books, so little time. Sometimes it feels like I'm running on a treadmill with an ever-increasing speed.
Lately, I've been questioning whether this strategy of gulping down so many books is wise after all. When I scan down the list of the books I've read so far this year, a few stand out, but many are already a blur. I hover over a few on the list — wait, did I actually read that?
Read More Books: Read More Than One Book at a Time
Friday, January 17, 2020
The latest in a series of tips to help you read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.
This tip may be an unpopular one. Many readers are devoted to a single book at a time, and would consider it is almost cheating to allow a second (or third) book into the relationship. I understand this view because I held it myself for many years. Yet, once I began the practice of reading several books at once, my completion rate started to climb.
Read More Books: Listen to Audiobooks
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share tips and tricks to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.
Read more books tip #6: listen to audiobooks on your commute, while you exercise, or while doing chores.
Read More Books: Set a Goal and Have a System of Follow Through
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
Tip #5: If you want to read more books in 2020, set a goal for yourself. Write it down. Better yet, create a Reading Challenge for yourself in Goodreads so you’ll always know where you stand during the year.
Read More: Make Use of Short Breaks during the Day
Monday, December 30, 2019
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
One of the most obvious ways to read more books is to … well, read more. But with busy lives and constant demands on our time, how do you rationalize curling up with a book for long stretches?
Tip #4: read on the go during the unavoidable lulls in your day
There’s a story floating around about someone seeing the novelist Stephen King waiting in line to see a movie. Mr. King, who has written over eighty books and is known for his voracious reading, inched forward in line with his nose between the pages of a paperback book. Once he found his seat, he continued reading in the dim light until the lights went out, and the trailers started.
How to Read More: Meet Libby, Your Digital Librarian
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
Read More Books with GoodReads.com
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
My second tip: use Goodreads.com. Goodreads is a site dedicated to book lovers. At its most basic, Goodreads helps you find the perfect next book to read using predictive analytics from books you’ve already read and liked.
How to Read More: Use a Kindle
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractable environment, it can be difficult to find time for books. In this series of posts, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
First tip: get an Amazon Kindle e-reader. I’ve collected rare books since my late teens and treasure my personal library, but today most of my reading is done on a Kindle. Here’s why.
In Defense of Reading
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
I have read 50 books so far this year, though it doesn’t feel like I’m really reading that much. I simply cut out the hours I might have scrolled through social media feeds or listened to half-baked podcasts, which freed up more time for reading books. I believe we are experiencing a golden age for reading with technologies like ebooks and digital audio, offering the ability to consume books wherever we are, whenever we want. More published works are available to us, most within seconds, than at any point in history.
Happy Birthday, Patrick O'Brian!
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Patrick O’Brian, the author of the Aubrey-Maturin seafaring novels, would have been 104 years old today. Mr. O’Brian passed away in 2000 but left behind a treasure of twenty meticulously researched historical sea novels set in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The books center on the friendship and adventures of its two main characters: Jack Aubrey, a British naval officer, and Stephen Maturin, the ship’s surgeon, naturalist, and part-time intelligence agent.
A Golden Age for Reading Books
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
While reading books might be waning in today’s mobile phone obsessed, Facebook generation, the tools and technology for reading and remembering books have never been better. I’d call it a Golden Age for those lucky souls willing to invest the time to read.
This is difficult for me to admit, coming from a long history of reading real books. I have a personal library of more than 2,000 books that line the shelves of a small reading place that I consider a sanctuary.
But for the past ten years I’ve read more and more books electronically on my Kindle than I have in paper format. Other than cookbooks or art books, all my reading is now digital. And that isn’t quite true either, since I use the marvelous Paprika app to house all my recipes, with an iPad in the kitchen as I cook. If I find a recipe I like in one of my books, I can’t use it properly until I successfully track it down online to import into my cooking system.
Sanctuary
Friday, July 14, 2017
Batman has his cave; Ironman has his lab; but for me, this place and my books provide such a great comfort - a salve from the trials of life and the boost of energy I need to keep pushing forward. I’ve read so many great books here, and dreamed up hundreds of plans, some limited few of which came to be. The dreaming was the best part. Everyone needs their special place to think and dream; I am so grateful that mine is here in my own home, among my dear bookish friends.