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”
Another Wednesday, another opportunity to share my reading roundup. Many thanks, as always, to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for the inspiration!
This month’s reading challenge is to “smash your stack,” and I’m doing my level best. So far, I’m sticking to my promise to read only my own books, the one exception being Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn for my book club (well done, me!). Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: May 25”
I had so much fun providing a Wednesday reading roundup last week that I’ve decided to make it a regular thing. Thank you, once again, to Taking on a World of Words and Coffee and Cats for the idea!
Since I’m doing the May Smash Your Stack challenge, as part of the Read My Own Damn Books challenge, all but one of this month’s reads so far come from my collection.
Something else I noticed this week: 2016 has found me rereading more often than at any time since childhood. Back then, I’d read the same books on a seemingly endless loop. As an adult, I’ve tended to resist rereading because I feel like I *should be* reading new books. As to why I’m drawn to rereading all of a sudden, maybe it’s something to do with growing older and feeling nostalgic. (This I will want to explore further in a future post!)
Now on to the questions: Continue reading “Wednesday reading roundup: May 18”
Happy hump day reading! Taking on a World of Words is hosting this fun meme, which I first discovered at Coffee and Cats. It asks three simple but ever alluring questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
They’re alluring questions because … because … oh well, I can’t help myself:
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a book lover in possessions of three current reads and 500+ of her own damn books* must be in want of more book suggestions. Or something.
Now that’s out of the way… Continue reading “Fun Wednesday meme: Three WWWs”
I could live the rest of my life quite happily without ever, ever again hearing the phrase guilty pleasure applied to one’s reading choices.
What bothers me is, it constructs false binaries: pleasure or enrichment, entertainment or education, fun or value.
As an academic, I’ve seen how these binaries can taint the idea of pleasure, as if feeling happy or good is somehow unworthy or lacking in value. If we’re not suffering, we’re probably not being challenged enough, or working hard enough, or smart enough to understand that we don’t understand.
No.
We can enjoy books and still be smart about them. We can enjoy books and still be rigorous with them. Now I think about it, don’t we enjoy books because we find value in them? Continue reading “Reading pet peeve #2: The phrase guilty pleasure”
