My Reading Life

So, I’ve decided in 2012 I will try to become a more private person. More introspective. To mull over options, choices, ramifications, and possibilities. To think before I act…and blab. To keep the things I hold dearest a little more personal. In keeping with that resolution, I’ve decided it’s time to change this little blog of mine again. To head in a different direction. I am going to start blogging about my reading life. Pat Conroy, my absolute favorite author of all time, wrote a book titled My Reading Life and I LOVED it. So I'm stealing his idea. Plus, I read A LOT. So I figure I'll have plenty to say. Still personal, but I think it supports my resolution quite nicely.
I’m a HUGE lover of books. I read anything and everything and I like them all. Non-fiction is so inspiring. So exciting. I love to read something true, to be affected by it, to know this thing or person or event really happened and changed something in some way, changes me in many cases. Fiction is even better. To me, it all seems so….possible. Even the impossible.
I always read the last word first. Always.  
So, here is my 2012 Reading Life so far: I started with Stephen King’s 11/22/63. As a lover of both fiction and non-fiction, nothing could please me more than when they both collide on the same page. All 900 pages were incredibly imaginative and accurate. I LOVED every word and finished it in 2.5 days. Historical fiction amazes me anyway. The research it requires!! So impressive.
Next I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This book is so quirky and smart and heartbreaking and uplifting. Jonathan Safran Foer, the author, is Extremely Witty and Incredibly Talented. I love his style and cannot wait to read Everything is Illuminated later this week. I have a feeling the movie is going to be good, but in a totally different way.  The book is just weird. In a deliciously intelligent, inventive way. I have a feeling the movie may be watered down.

And this brings us to Born to Run. This is a non-fiction book written by Christopher McDougall. My dad gave it to me for Christmas and when I opened it I thought…hmmm, interesting. At the very least I expected it to reinvigorate my running workouts. But I wasn’t DYING to pick it up and read it right away. Today I did pick it up and have quickly decided it may actually be THE most interesting book I’ve ever read!! I’m only 20 pages in, but I’m already hooked. I followed Josh around the house this morning reading aloud and discussing the interesting-ness of it all. I can’t wait to finish it.

I’ll let ya know how it goes!

Rubies

I started reading Extremely Loud and Incredible Close today. I knew it would make me cry before I even began. But I didn't know I would fall in love with it so quickly. I love every quirky line so far. Especially this part:


"When I was your age, my grandfather bought me a ruby bracelet. It was too big for me and would slide up and down my arm. It was almost a necklace. He later told me that he had asked the jeweler to make it that way. Its size was supposed to be a symbol of his love. More rubies, more love. But I could not wear it comfortably. I could not wear it at all. So here is the point of everything I have been trying to say. If I were to give you a bracelet, now, I would measure your wrist twice."