Thanks to everyone who joined in the “bibliotherapy” conversation in last week’s Sunday Salon, and I’m very sorry for not participating more with replies to your comments, but it really was that kind of a week, I’m afraid.
(No) thanks to an unanticipated explosion of the work-related kind–not a literal one, fortunately, but the kind that required long days at the office and taking work home–I’ve been a very scarce presence in the blogging world for a few days. My fingers are crossed that this week will lighten up a bit, but I am a little nervous about what Monday morning will bring—and there’s another big project looming at the beginning of September. I’ve just about reached a comfort level with posting just three or four times a week…and everyone can use a little time off from blogging once in a while, I suppose, but I prefer mine to be planned, not an accident caused by lack of time.
Sometimes timing accidents are fortunate, though, and apparently I was out in front of a little bibliotherapy discussion trend. The Huffington Post Books section had an item up on Tuesday about the School of Life program I blogged about here last week; and although she never actually used the term in her Book Riot post “Why What You’re Reading Matters,” I think it’s what Wallace was talking about:
“…(R)eading books that show what life is really like doesn’t make anything in your life worse than it was before; instead, it shows you how very not alone we are, and how very unrealistic our expectations can be when we surround ourselves in a culture that only represents an ongoing, unrealistic happiness.”
Somehow–and surprisingly–I had time to finish two books (one print, one audio) and start one more last week, and with luck, I’ll spend more time with that book today (a review title for Shelf Awareness). And my hope for September–I hesitate to say “plan,” because that implies a commitment I’m not sure I can keep–is that I’ll get to read a few of the ARCs I brought back from BEA as their pub dates are coming around.
They will have to work around October Shelf Awareness review reading and a TLC Book Tour at the end of the month…and contend with my growing desire not to be the last person on earth to read Gone Girl, which is waiting for me in the Nook app on my iPad.
And on top of that, I want to read something suitable for Banned Books Week in late September (Sept. 30–Oct. 4), which I couldn’t manage last year–I’m thinking The Outsiders, which I haven’t read since high school (thanks to that Rob Lowe audiobook I listened to last month).
New books to read, an old book to re-read, review commitments to keep…and when, if ever, will I get around to the new-to-me books that have been hanging around my house for so long that they’re growing old unread? Kim has had a copy of Atlas Shrugged waiting on the shelf for twelve years; The Corrections has been sitting in my TBR Purgatory for almost as long, and I don’t see it coming out any time soon.
Do you know what book on your shelf has gone unread the longest? And what book(s) do you plan to make time for this week?
