I have always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library.
— Jorge Luis Borges
What I’m reading right now:
- 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12, by Thomas W. Phelan
- The Year of Silence, by Madison Smart Bell
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan
- A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler
What I’ve read this year:
- The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
- The Royal We, by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
- The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year, by Matt McCarthy
- A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade, by Kevin Brockmeier
- Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger
- The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
- Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public, by Pamela Ribon
- If you want to know what I was like in high school, just read this book. You will laugh, cry, and cringe, as Pamie relives her high school years through drafts of letters to boys that she saved. There’s a sex talk between her and her dad that will make you wish the floor could swallow you up just imagining it happening to you.
- Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
- Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
- Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
- All Fall Down, by Jennifer Weiner
- Why Girls are Weird, by Pamela Ribon
- When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories, by Molly Ringwald (yes, that Molly Ringwald)
What are you reading?
Hear Me in the Harmony 
I need to start reading, again. I feel the pull nearly daily, now, but have yet to make the time. I have two novels on my bedside table that could only be categorized as “escapism entertainment reading.” I need to read. Lunchtime reading is something I might be able to get down with.
I started “The Accidental Buddhist” yesterday. Loving it. I’m also in the middle of “Managing Humans” by Michael Lopp, also love it (see his incredibly witty blog here: http://www.randsinrepose.com/).
I recently finished “Clarke County” by Allen Steele. Before that it was “Spindrift” by Steele as well. In the recent past was Neal Asher’s, “The Skinner”, “Thirte3n” by Richard Morgan.
And of course an ongoing string of psychology research articles (because I have to) and the better part of “Observing the User Experience” by Kuniavsky.
I just ordered “The Inmates Are Running The Asylum” and “About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design” by Alan Cooper. Snoozers maybe, but we’ll see.
I saw the “84, Charring Cross Road” movie. It has Anthony Hopkins in it and I cannot remember the actress’s name. I think it would be a better book.
I love anything by Jodi Picoult. Her new one “Change of Heart” is amazing also.
Right now I’m reading “The Almost Moon” by Alice Sebold. Very different that “The Lovely Bones”. I’m still not sure what I think about it.
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. Right now, I’m reading The Third Angel, by Alice Hoffman, and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (that one’s a re-read, actually). Recently finished Gods Behaving Badly. It’s a hoot.
The End of America: I keep seeing this book come up on must read lists…think I’ll give it a gander. Does it make you want to get more active about working for change, or does it confirm some suspicions? Are you a serial reader, meaning you only read one book at a time, or do you, as I do, have many books open and being read at once and don’t necessarily even feel compelled to finish them all?
Michael
ps. like your blog and your interests…
Thanks for reading, Michael. The End of America made me feel . . . scared, quite frankly. It feels like such a huge thing to deal with, one that a lot of people would rather not be out in the open. It feels unbeatable in some ways, too, at least without a change in administration. But I think it’s also hopeful in a lot of ways, too.
I used to only read one book at a time, but in the last several years, I’ve started to read more than one. Now, because I commute using public transportation, I always have a book in my bag, which is why I’ve been able to read so much this year – I read one book during my commute and a different one at night before I go to bed. I need to pick a new commute book since I finished the Mark Haddon book on the bus home tonight.
And oh – I feel compelled to finish them all. I rarely feel ok stopping for good in the middle. I’ve put books down for months at a time, especially this year for some reason (Portrait of a Lady and Straight Man come to mind), but I always come back to them.
A quick question about the baseball fan book by Zack Hemple (well, alright, a couple questions): Who is Zack Hemple? I mean, is he a journalist, a sportswriter, some other kind of writer, something else entirely? Also, what kinds of things did you learn? What about baseball did he teach you?