Author: Sally

In my life, I have won an inheritance and lost it. I have travelled through time and to the other side of the world. I have solved murders, experienced storybook romances, and discovered alternate universes. Which is to say: In my life, I have read. Academic tomes and romance novels, murder mysteries and classic literary fiction. Newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, and lots of product labels (but rarely user manuals).
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The unabridged list of books I read in June, Updated

The big excitement of books read this month: my return to reading paper books, at least partly. I’m still trying to work through Mount TBR, e-books edition.

The big excitement of books read this month: my return to reading paper books, at least partly. I’m still trying to work through Mount TBR, e-books edition.Books read this week, meet books read this month: Today’s WWW Wednesday, which I discovered through Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats, includes my monthly reading roundup as well. The books with the fuller write-ups are, of course, the ones I read and have been reading over the last week.

The big excitement of this month is my return to reading paper books, at least in part. I’m still trying to work through Mount TBR, e-books edition.

Books I read: Continue reading “The unabridged list of books I read in June, Updated”

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Reckoning with #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks in June

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks has challenged me to think about my reading habits and patterns as well as what I want for myself as a reader and what is realistic for me as a person.

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks has challenged me to think about my reading habits and patterns and what I want for myself as a reader and person.We’ve arrived at the halfway point of 2016, and for me, that means the halfway point of my commitment to read my own books this year.

When I’ve done reading challenges before, they’ve been numbers based, along the lines of “I promise to read 100 books this year.” The numbers game hasn’t led to much reflection for me. Mostly, it’s led to anxiety about keeping up. #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks is the first yearlong challenge that has pushed me to think about my reading habits and patterns as well as what I want for myself as a reader and what is realistic for me as a person. I’ve reflected on these before, of course, but not in the context of an explicit challenge. In the process, I’ve learned quite a few lessons about reading, and myself. Continue reading “Reckoning with #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks in June”

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Reading Pet Peeve #3: Doomsday Prophesies

With so much out of our control, how can we shift attention from doomsday prophesies to what we can control and to beauty, hope, and joy at being alive?Doomsday prophesies aren’t just a bookish pet peeve. As a general rule, I’m frustrated by fear mongering – promoting the idea that we’re traveling down a slippery slope of ultimate human suffering and destruction from which we can never recover. *Cue ominous music*

Suffering and destruction are realities of human existence. No doubt about that. But humans are also extraordinarily resilient creatures. We’ve survived centuries, millennia, of wars, plague, and life before the Internet. Lingering in anger and resentment, obsessing about the past and what we want but can’t have – these hold us back and prevent us from dealing with reality as it is, like it or not.  Continue reading “Reading Pet Peeve #3: Doomsday Prophesies”

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Wednesday reading roundup: June 22

It's time for another Wednesday reading roundup! I have been enjoying this week's reading adventures with A Man Called Ove, Beowulf, and more...

It's time for another Wednesday reading roundup! I have been enjoying this week's reading adventures with A Man Called Ove, Beowulf, and more...It’s Wednesday reading roundup time, and I’ve been enjoying this week’s reading adventures, in a big way. Before I jump right to it, I can’t forget to send a shout-out to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for WWW Wednesday!

What are you currently reading?

I have three books going. The big surprise is that, while all three were purchased at Barnes and Noble, only one is a Nook book. Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: June 22”

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12 lovable literary dads

One of the many gifts my father has given me is my love for books and reading. So it seems fitting, this father’s day, to highlight some of the loveable dads I’ve met in books.

One of the many gifts my father has given me is my love for books and reading. So it seems fitting, this father’s day, to highlight some of the loveable dads I’ve met in books. One of the many gifts my father has given me is my love for books and reading. So it seems fitting, this father’s day, to highlight some of the loveable dads, and dad figures, I’ve met in books. In many cases, I admire them because the qualities I love in my own dad (and there are many because he’s an excellent father and human) echo in them.

Some I’ve met this year. Some have been in my heart for many years. Each has inspired me in his own way.  Continue reading “12 lovable literary dads”

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How does reading change us?

While reading, I observe and interact with the world through another’s body and mind. Closing a book and returning into myself, I’m not quite the same person. I change from reading.

While reading, I observe and interact with the world through another’s body and mind. Closing a book and returning into myself, I’m not quite the same person. I change from reading.Growing up a voracious reader, I was drawn to books both for the beauty of the stories and language and for their power to transport and change me.

I mean “transport” in two ways. Books transport me to different times and places, and they transport me out of my self. While reading, I enter another’s body and mind, occupy another’s position in space and time, observe and interact with the world through another’s way of thinking. Which brings me to the change part: Closing a book and returning into myself, I’m not quite the same person. Continue reading “How does reading change us?”

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Wednesday Reading Roundup: June 15

This week's reading achievement was finishing a book I began a month ago and beginning a book that fulfills two of my 2016 reading challenges.It has been another slow week of reading for me, though for different reasons than last week. On the *plus* side, I’m excited to have finally finished reading a book that was languishing on my “currently reading” list for the last month.

All credit to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for WWW Wednesday and inspiring me to continue writing about what I’m reading every week.

What are you currently reading? Continue reading “Wednesday Reading Roundup: June 15”

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Wednesday reading roundup: June 8

Reading time has been scarce this week, but I managed a bit of reading and listening. Now I just need to figure out what to read next...

Reading time has been scarce this week, but I managed a bit of reading and listening. Now I just need to figure out what to read next...This week has been a bear. And I don’t mean a cute, Winnie-the-Pooh-getting-stuck-in-a-doorjamb-because-he-ate-too-much-honey bear. It’s been a giant, hungry, roaring, why-did-you-wake-me-up-from-my-hibernation bear of a week.

All this is to say, reading time has been scarce. I’ve gotten some listening in while walking and driving, and I managed a few chapters before sleepy time most nights this week. Put all together, not many pages have been read.

Well anyway, here is the full, if slim, tally for WWW Wednesday, with thanks (as always!) to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats: Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: June 8”

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The unabridged list of what I read in May

My May reading goal was to smash my stack. I haven’t so much smashed as gently nudged it. On the upside, I I exceeded my goal to read 80% of my own books.

My May reading goal was to smash my stack. I haven’t so much smashed as gently nudged it. On the upside, I I exceeded my goal to read 80% of my own books.Happy new month, readers! My May reading goal was to smash my stack. I haven’t so much smashed as gently nudged it. To be fair, though, it’s a gargantuan stack. On the plus side, I promised to read at least 80 percent of my own books this month, and I exceeded that goal. I read 10 books, nine of them my own. Thank you to JMill Wanders’ Take Back Your Stack Readathon for the final push!

Books I read: Continue reading “The unabridged list of what I read in May”