So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

Reason for Reading: Dewey Reading Challenge, New Author Challenge

Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.

Dear Dewey,

I did not even remember that you had read this book! I picked it up for a totally unrelated reason, so when I was browsing your blog earlier I was very happy to see that you read it too! Funny story about this book! I am not an early to bed person, so I was sharing a room with my mother when we went to my great-grandmothers funeral and she went to bed way before I was able to. I ended up reading this book in the hotel bathtub! I am just that cool! I know that the charming comedian called and one of my friends sent me a text and 'cool' was not exactly what they were thinking! It served my purpose, though. It is not exactly the book I would have pictured me reading the night before a funeral, but it was sort of fitting. I am a very moody reader and I got the impression reading this book that Nelson was, too! We both can have the best laid plans, and then just as quickly our minds change.

I really like that you spent a large part of your review talking about the chapter "Eating Crow". You brought up a lot of the points that I found myself thinking while reading this chapter. It is a chapter on friends recommending books. Nelson feels disappointed when a friend recommends a book that she didn't like. You went on to say that all of your closest friends are readers. Most of mine are not, which has always been weird to me! Anyway, if recommendations bothered me at all, I would have a lot less friends. Even my grandmother is always giving me books that do not interest me in the slightest. It doesn't change how I feel about anyone. I am doing this whole 'Bad Blogger' thing right now. I know (when my memory is good) who reviewed or talked about the books that wind up on those posts. Sometimes I love the books, while other times they are just okay. It has never changed how I think about the person that recommended them to me, though! It does happen. I do sometimes get disappointed when I recommend a book or movie to someone thinking they will love it and they don't, but it is a momentary thing and then life goes on! I mean, the charming comedian doesn't like Star Wars, and while that baffles me and confuses me, we are still talking!

Someone told me that reading this book would add lots of books to my TBR pile, too. It didn't really happen! Most of the books that really called to me, I had either already read or already owned! A lot of the books that she talked about did not interest me at all, but it was still fun reading about her year of reading! The charming comedian was looking at the title and telling me how that was my life in a nutshell and that I could easily have written the same book! He knows me all too well, huh? I think most book bloggers and readers could write the exact same book. I read more than a book a week, though.

Okay, this was a ranty letter, huh?

Until next time...

To read Dewey's review of this book, click here.