The Great Book Bind of 2011. Summer is coming to a close. What to read?
Last October. For $5.
I haven't made it past Chapter 2.
It's the thorn in my side - the book I so desperately want to read (because I KNOW I will see the movie, and I want to read the book first like a good nerd). But, I just can't read it. I can't get past the inner dialogue and true-to-the-era vernacular. I want to, but I can't.
So I bought Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. So many friends have recommended it, and it sounded lovely. I even started my 1,000 Things journal - jotting down all the things I am thankful for. I bought the book, and couldn't make it through Chapter 1. I felt her words were forced; too lovely to be real. When I read, I want meat. Her words are hefty, but too chewy for me. If you want my copy, I lost the receipt and would gladly give it to you. :)
I'm surrounded by books. A husband who reads for a living and a bride who can't say no to a good book deal. We own a lot. Good books. Books like When I Don't Desire God by John Piper and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (which I have already read more than once) and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
We have fun reads, like Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (don't lie, you liked it). Books that remind me of times in my life: Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. And over half a dozen Shakespearean plays that I will most likely never read, but always daydream about.
And I can't pick a darn thing to read. It's as if I have too many choices. Our book collection is just like everyone else's - books we have read and loved, books we have read and can't let go of, books we bought in hopes we would read, books we will never read, books we will never read and are embarrassed to own.
If you have a book suggestion, do share. Maybe I already own it.
I have that problem frequently, but I'm going to recommend you give one of the books on this list another shot. I really thought I was going to dislike The Help for the very reasons you said. But by the third or fifth chapter, I was hooked. I read it in one day (helped that I was flying across the country that day!). I think if you keep going, you'll really like it. I was nervous about the language, because I was afraid it was going to come across as white author trying to imitate black "help" language and failing miserably. But I really think Stockett wrote a compelling novel that's sensitive, one that didn't make caricatures of its characters.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I will take your advice! A few people have said the same thing - once they got a few more chapters in, they couldn't put it down. I think it just has a slow beginning and it doesn't help that I read my last book in one day (a Harlan Coben book, of all things!)!!
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