So Many Books, So Little Time

Book: So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading

Author: Sara Nelson

Grade: A-

Welcome to my life! I don't think I need to tell you all what I thought of the book... AWESOME.

It was literally me on EVERY page. Sara Nelson and I are almost surely soul mates. All those book related OCD questions I thought nobody else contended with on a daily basis are addressed here. Nelson's book is literally ME on paper.

Premise: 52 books in 52 weeks while writing about each one. (exactly the kind of shit I get myself into!)

Generally, it's not my style to start a review with an excerpt (I find that strategy bothersome.. and moderately lazy on the reviewer's part). That being said, this is the exception to the rule. Let me sum up Nelson's book and my life's credo with this:

"If I knew it at the beginning of the year, I've learned it ten times over: reading is organic and fluid and pretty unpredictable, based as much on mood and location and timing as anything else. If a book is "good," that doesn't mean you'll want to read it, and if it's "bad," that doesn't mean you'll pass it by. I only have to glance at my original list to see that in spades. Why didn't I read Infinite Jest as I said I would? Because Charlie (her son) played baseball and because Leo (husband) had a fight. Because I was feeling nostalgic for my father and visiting with my mother. Because one of my new friends lent me a novel. I couldn't have predicted those things would happen, let alone when, so I couldn't plan my reading list around them. But my subconscious mind - the part I've heard writers call the lizard brain - could and did: it told me to reach for Anne Lammot or Edith Warton or Calvin Trillin instead. If I've learned one thing in my decades on earth, it's this: Don't argue with your lizard brain; it knows you better than you know yourself."

If your life revolves around reading and the following questions keep you up at night (as they do for me on a regular basis), Then you'll eat this book for dinner and feel full for quite a while:

Should you read more than one book at a time? "Double-Booking"

If I give you a book I love and you hate it - or vise versa, can we still be friends? "Not always"

If you give me your writing and I hate it, how am I expected to review it? ("Grade your degree of closeness to the person on a scale of 1-10, then divide that number by how good or bad you think the book is (also 1 to 10). And then tell them you love it!)

Does hype make a book unattractive to you? "GOD YES"

Are you a weak loser if you abandon a book you dislike (weak loser are my words... this question haunts me)? "NO" but she admits it took her 20 years to reach this level of maturity.

The book is amazing. It is my life. I love it.

Additionally, it provided me with a list of 14 books I must read. And nothing makes me happier than hearing about new books I must acquire.