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| Source: elizabethminchilliinrome.com |
Dearest Book Bloggers, Readers, and Writers:
STOP! My TBR pile has been overwhelming and has to be at least 100 books long (I'm not kidding, I own most of the 100 on the list...maybe I'll leave the list here one day). And you are all making it worse. You need to stop blogging and recommending books. I am too weak to not come read your posts, so you need to just stop making posts!
While at Barnes and Noble tonight, I noticed how deeply you've influenced me. (I'm there most Wednesday evenings, usually just to soak in the atmosphere, so nothing out of the ordinary there.) But it hits me tonight, as I browse the tables in the center aisle, that we are just a bunch of enablers. Yes, fellow book bloggers and readers, you did me in tonight!
True, I started digging myself into a hole when I picked up a copy of Call Me Zelda, by Erika Robuck, and immediately saw the potential in it. Above the author's name it reads "Author of Hemingway's Girl." What?! Two more closer looks into the Jazz Age and its Lost Generation?! So I went searching for that one too. After entering the lives of Zelda and Hemingway in Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, I couldn't pass these up!
Two books, not bad. Quite happy with my find, I returned to my original table, waiting for my husband to wander back my way. Before he does though, I happen across The Paris Wife (this is where you come in fellow bloggers/readers). I have a series of tests through which a book proceeds in order to catch my interest. First off, the title has to catch my notice and interest me. The Paris Wife never did, so I didn't ever pay attention to the numerous times I've heard it mentioned. But, I have time, it's right there, and I know my fellow bloggers loved it. The first thing to pop off the back cover summary is "Lost Generation." The Paris wife refers to Hadley, wife of Ernest Hemingway. Again? Third book I picked up in the whole store tonight and it's on the same wonderful topic? Well, now, my system of testing seems to have failed me this time.
Ok, common sense says this one had to come home with me. I don't believe in coincidence you know. Resigned to the fate of buying another book (I would never had picked up that book if it hadn't been on all of your blogs and comments!), I turn toward my approaching husband, glimpsing as I turn the title He's Gone, by Deb Caletti. Oh no...no, no, no. This one has been all over the blogs too. I can't...but thinking I'll just refresh my memory, I pick it up to read the summary.
Needless to say, I went home with four books. The only four books I touched the whole time I was there. The last two are totally your fault book bloggers and readers! Shame on you! Lucky for you I have the Educator's Discount at Barnes and Noble. Double lucky is that I had a gift card...and so my Barnes and Noble gift card rule applies. (If I have a gift card, I am allowed to spend double the amount on the card. So for a $25 card, I can spend $50, give or take a little. Don't look for the logic, it's not there.) Triple lucky, my husband is a sucker for a happy me. So I guess you are all off the hook, since all that lucky stuff fell into place. But let this be a warning to you all!
Ha ha ha ha!! This is hilarious and I know exactly what you mean! Stinking bloggers anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteI'll try to refrain from posting for a while.*
*Not really.
I know, seriosuly! I was afraid to walk past the one table I was at! who knows what would've happened?
DeleteAnd you know if you all stopped posting, I would then post a letter complaining about you not posting.
Dear Jennine...but, you must, no really, you just have to read...dare I say it? Ha! Just kidding, but I hear you loud and clear! Although...there is one tiny recommendation that I want to add to my own TBR pile that I saw from agent Janet Reid the other day...called Five Days At Memorial. It's about Hurricane Katrina and a nurse who worked at the hospital that lost power, and the life and death decisions they had to make for patients. O.M.G. Can you imagine? I can't. Happy summer filled reading!
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine what that book contains. I would hope it's half encouraging to balance the heartbreaking stories you know are in there.
DeleteOh, bookstores. Our communal besetting sin.
ReplyDeleteBesetting is the perfect word there...you writers and your diction :)
DeleteI know what you mean, too! But really, Z: A Novel of Zelda is a great choice.
ReplyDeleteIt was a wonderful choice! It hooked me on the topic of the Fitzgerald relationship too, I can't wait to read more about them.
Deleteoh man, my TBR is long too and I go to Barnes and noble at least once a month on wed night after our book club meetings with a friend, and that so doesn't help things. I was thinking I needed to make a summer reading list for all the books I recently won during various giveaways. It's quite a stash! That doesn't include the ones I downloaded and haven't read on my kindle...eeek!
ReplyDeleteYes,I won one from a recent giveaway too! And it sounds really good....geez. I have the Kindle app on my iPad and have so much nonfiction on it. I think it's a losing battle...but I'd rather have it this way than the other - not enough to read!
DeleteTotally have me laughing so hard I may fall off my chair! You have some good choices there and with the discount and gift card the only thing you are really going to have to budget is reading time. :)
ReplyDeleteI think you're right! Haha!
DeleteWell Jennine you will be proud. I have a 20% off coupon for BAM, (Books a Million) and tomorrow I am off to buy...ta da da da, To Kill a Mockingbird.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to do it, yes I am. I'm the only person on the face of this good earth who has not read it. I've asked around and people are astonished I got through school without reading it.
"How can you call yourself a writer if you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird?" A woman I work with said. AND she reads my column, go figure.
YES! That means I have to "take back" this entire post because I've influenced you to read TKM from the blogging venue.
DeleteHeads up: know and remember the time period as you read. And plan on rereading it. Every year I taught it, I reread it and I saw or learned something new every time.
It never stops, does it? My husband was just laughing at me the other day because I was talking about driving an hour to our favorite used book store while he was working so I wouldn't feel rushed while he was with me. I want to take a full 3 hours to go through all those lovely stacks to find books I don't have space for!
ReplyDeleteThree hours to find books I don't have space for sums it up perfectly!
DeleteEnjoyed perusing your blog! You have different books than I usually see. Thanks for hosting the giveaway...wish I would've heard about it in time to participate.