Re-reading

I've been on a re-reading kick lately.  Of course, from the few reviews I've managed to post on this blog it may be easy to assume that I usually re-read books, since two of the four are re-reads.  But it's actually something a rarely do.  Until lately.  I've discovered a certain adventure in reading over again a book I haven't read for ten years--it gives me a chance to meet myself as I used to be, to remember how a book affected me then and mark how I've changed by the way it affects me now.  Sometimes the experiences ends in disillusionment with a once-beloved book.  Sometimes I fall more deeply in love.

The next handful of reviews are all books I read ten or fifteen years ago, during my adolescence and early young adult years, and that I hadn't picked up since.  I'm behind, so the reviews will be brief (I'm always trying to convince myself that I can do "brief").  I hope you enjoy them.

What are some of your favorite books that have stood the test of time, that have grown with you?  Are there books you regularly re-read?  Any books that have been ruined for you by treading over words that should have remained in the sanctum of youthful memories?

Grand Opening, Take Two

So I knew it was kind of silly to start this blog in November, right on the cusp of all the big holiday madness that chases out the year and consumes all my (oh so copious) discretionary time. But I just had to, since the idea for it wouldn’t let me think about much else. So I started it and promptly sat it in a corner, where it has waited patiently to go somewhere, like my 16-month-old who perks up every time shoes are mentioned and asks hopefully, “Go? Go?” (Not that I ever set my baby in a corner. Let’s not take my simile too far here.) So yes, we are finally going to go somewhere. Just as soon as I get my boots laced up.

New Kid on the Blogosphere

Welcome to my book blog!

I've dithered over doing this for a while now. I feel like I don't read quite enough books to really be a book blogger. And I'm a little shy of the public aspect, of actually encouraging strangers to read what I've written (and even maybe act on what I've written). But probably my main reservation has been that I don't think I'm all that good at writing reviews, and there are plenty of times when I finish reading a book and just don't know what to say or can't be bothered to say anything at all.

And that's one of the reasons I decided I'd better do this: to nudge myself into more thoughtful engagement with the words I read. Of course there's also my impulse to emulate that surfaces when I peruse my favorite book blogs. Seriously, these book bloggers (listed under the honorific "Seasoned Travelers" on my sidebar) impress me regularly with their pithy reviews, and they truly help guide my reading. I'd love to be both eloquent and useful like that to someone else.

But what really pushed me to do this, and do it now, is that I was sitting up late one night with a sick baby and the title for my book blog suddenly came to me. It even brought along a subtitle. Before I knew it I was picking out a URL, fiddling around with fonts and pictures, colors and widgets, and Bam! A book blog. My book blog.

I'm a little giddy, a little terrified. I'm trying to remind myself of the importance of balance in one's life. I've already got a well-established personal blog, and an online book group, and an in-person book group, and another in-person book group (in Spanish) that will be starting soon. So really, how much more of blogging and books can my very busy life as mother-of-three-youngsters and wife-of-tireless-entrepreneur handle??

"But," that wiley little red guy hovering over my shoulder interjects suavely, "it's your book blog. You don't have to update it every day. You don't even have to promote yourself. You can do as much or as little as you want with it. It's just so nice to have a pretty place all your own to keep your book-thoughts in, isn't it?"

And I nod. And then... I go public.