Thursday, May 15, 2014

Detour

You guys! I have been slightly derailed.  I'm still reading, but WHAT I've been reading is less in my physical library and more in my electronic one.  I started my next book (which Mr. Lampshade selected, randomly, from the red books - and it's non-fiction *see post on Facebook asking for next book ideas) but then April hit and we had a lot of car travelling to do.  What does that have to do with anything? Do I get carsick when I read (thank heavens..no!)?  When we travel by car, I pull out the trusty Kindle and read aloud.  Mr. Lampshade prefers it to the radio and it gives me the opportunity to hear my own voice uninterrupted for hours on end (just kidding).  We have several books going at once - it depends on whether Lil Lampshade is listening.  So, this April, we FINALLY finished "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson.  We've been working on that once since we lived in Hungary. Immediately after finishing IAL, we started up "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.  Neither Mr. Lampshade nor I knew what we were getting into with that one so we had to occasionally had to switch over to "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain whenever little ears would listen.  Also in the car rotation are "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls," "S*it My Dad Says," and "The Night Circus."

Alright - so I've qualified that I am still reading.  Just not the way I planned on going about it.  But, really, I think this journey is more about getting into reading again.  Making books more than decoration.  I will ALWAYS pick print over electronic.  Whenever I buy an eBook I ALWAYS buy a copy of the print version.  Which is what I did for the most recent book I read.

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Last week, I "eavesdropped" on a Facebook conversation of a friend of mine.  Someone I'm not acquainted with posted this on her page (my apologies to this person for hijacking their words):

I just finished it. Beautiful. So so so absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful. I might be so bold as to say that if I had to save one book from a burning building, I'd probably grab that....and then eight more 

Naturally, I was incredibly curious.  I figured out what book she was referring to and ordered it immediately.  The book was "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan.  If you haven't heard of Mr. Levithan, you may have heard of "Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist," which he also wrote.  I powered through the first quarter of the book in a few hours and finished the last page on Tuesday.  It was amazing! Crisp, precise writing that wasn't clogged with cliches and abused metaphors.  He wrote characters that were so real and relatable that you felt you knew them even though the book really only showed you a few heartbeats of their lives.  That guy can write.

The same "friend" who gave high praise for TBK, also mentioned "How To Say Goodbye In Robot" by Natalie Standiford.  I'm going to start that today.  Sorry, Library, I'll be back.  Just not today.

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