I Heart Books!

It is no surprise I love books - I love the way they smell, the way they feel in your hands, and most importantly, the way they transport you to another life, time, or place. Since I was a little girl, I have used the summer months to catch up on all those books I haven't had a chance to read during the school year. This summer, I've already been lucky enough to read four books (besides my textbooks of course), and it is just the beginning. Why tell you this? Because along with rediscovering my love of reading these past couple weeks, I have had a lot of fun with goodreads.com. It's a way to see what people and your friends are reading, to read reviews on the books being read by your friends, and to get ideas of what you'd like to read when you finally get a chance. So if you have a minute, check out goodreads.com. Even if you're not churning out novels by the week (or by the day if you're my sister or my grandma), it's still entertaining to see your friends are reading.


And despite sounding much older than I am, I have to tell you how much I enjoy attending my book club. A group of my teacher friends started it a few months ago. The book club is great because we have teachers that come from all disciplines so we get a variety of perspectives from people who have such different backgrounds. Our most recent discussion was on "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." It tells the tale of a nine-year-old boy who has recently lost his father on 9/11 and the journey he takes in trying to understand both his father's life and his death. I cannot adequately explain the story in its uniqueness and its twisting plot, but it is very well written. The author uses pictures and color to help demonstrate his themes and points--I've never read or seen anything like it in an adult novel. Our book club discussion was all over the place as we hit topics varying from world politics to what the objects we value mean to those who are left behind after we die. Not to mention that we laughed at a nine-year-old's take on love, New York City streets, and the quirky people he encounters. I'd highly recommend it. Next month we're reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" if you want to join us--

Anyway-- enough random spill on books. I have to be careful. Once I get started talking about books, I almost cannot stop. I am off to read "Twisted" or "Salvaged Pages" - not sure which I'm craving more. Happy reading!