The Lost Art of Reading

When I say the art of reading has been lost, I mean mostly on me. The rest of you have all been plowing through books like champs - good for you! You should be proud. I have to admit that it has been far too long since I've had a good reading year - like before college long. I've read books along the way, but rarely, and often not to completion.

So a few weeks ago I decided to put an end to this dry spell! To do so though, I had to go to the library and pay the $34.90 in fines that has accumulated on my account. It's definitely the most money I have ever given to a library and I can't even be mad. When I first got my Iowa City library card I was so excited I checked out a ton of books, read none of them, and then waited 6 weeks to bring them back. So, I think we can all agree the fine was justified. I am really thankful though because the library is so much more high tech than it used to be when I was a kid and I was able to pay the fine using a self-checkout kiosk, which saved me the massive embarrassment of having to hand a librarian my credit card to pay off my insane debt.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with the library. I would try to check out so many books that my dad would tell me to put some back and remind me that we would be back in just a few days for more. I signed up for every program the library offered for kids and was on a first name basis with the librarians. The library was my jam! Then somewhere around college I got too busy for books, which is such a sad excuse but actually kind of legit. It wasn't like I just turned my attention to Netflix. In fact during those college years, I hardly watched any TV....expect for a few marathons of desperate housewives. I just never thought to make reading a priority, and now in grad school I always feel guilty reading for pleasure because I should be reading for science. But scientific writing, while it feeds my brain, does not feed my soul. So in an act of self-improvement I am returning to the land of books which I once considered my own personal playground.

I am hoping this blog can also be used to share some of my thoughts on these books, in case you too are attempting to read more often.

Here are my current reads:

This was pretty interesting. The problem I had was that the story does not really unfold the way they would have you believe. I mean right there on the cover it says unlocking secrets, and I'll let you know that secrets were not unlocked until the very end of this book. Also, I wish there had been more about his traumatic brain injury because I am all about the brain, but it was still pretty interesting. Super dark, but insightful in a way.

This book was excellent! I really loved it. It was a short read and written in the style of a dictionary, but tells the story of a modern day couple. Beautiful and clever writing. If you enjoy the intricacies of word meanings, you will enjoy the word porn that is this novel.

Music Update: here's a great tune we've been listening to around our house lately. This is Benjamin Booker. My husband was playing this the other night during one of his dance parties for one,  that quickly became a dance party for two, and I have to say while a lot of Devin's music is not to my liking - I am quite fond of this song! It is a wonderful song to dance around the living room too (if you are into that sort of thing) and in my opinion this acoustic version is even better than the original album version.

Enjoy!