Stick To It-iveness

Not to brag but my "to read" pile
 is way more daunting.

I just stubbed my toe. There, do I have your empathy now? Good because what I'm about to confess may make me irredeemable to some. I will not finish reading a book I do not like, and I cheat on books all the time: if I see one that looks good, I grab it. I buy it. I take it home. And I start reading it, regardless of whether I was in the middle of something to which I had already made a promise. I also rarely re-read books and if I stop in the middle of something and I don't pick it back up right away, it kind of...never ever gets finished. It's happened with War and Peace and In Search of Lost Time. There are too many books and especially working in a bookstore, with all the new things ever coming in constantly, there's a need to just move, move, move on books. If it doesn't grab me early, and completely, I give up. Maybe this is a bad character trait. Maybe I'll improve my life if I stick to the books I have and go on a buying/hoarding hiatus. Maybe. But I doubt it. In the meantime I'm satisfied knowing that if the apocalypse happens, my to-read pile will keep me occupied through any kind of mood for quite a while.

So what am I reading now? Well I had been about halfway through The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence, but I came across this beautiful out of print biography of H. D., one of my favorite poets. Asdfo w uefh wpoi wehf wofns. You lost interest right? And gave up? Been there, buddy.

Not-so Rural Juror

Often when I'm selling (or buying) a stack of delicious books I quip that I wish I could sell time to read the books as well. But last week I got a very real dose Official Time to Read: jury duty on my day off (GLAD TO DO MY PART AMERICA)!

The morning of said jury duty I was only about 30 pages in to what was swiftly becoming my favorite book of all time; Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Jorge Amado's novel that is all at once a Cinderella story, a gossiply fable about cocoa-rich city in Brazil and a sex-and-food-infused-pleasure-spike to my end-of-winter doldrums.

And when I got jury duty (on my day off might I remind you) in CHELSEA (I live in Allston and do not own a car) I had a government sanctioned block of at least two hours with nothing to do but read. And when I arrived at the courthouse, I got 5 more hours to read before being discharged of my civic duties and by the end of my weekend I had finished all 425 pages of the novel. It was great, it was amazing, everyone should read it every day of their lives. And if you like to read, I hope you get jury duty sometime soon as I wholeheartedly endorse the amount of time you will get to read undisturbed in a room.

P. S. We have a used copy of Gabriela in now RUN DON'T WALK.