A year ago, a friend of mine from high school, a high school English teacher, asked me to send her some book recommendations. I did, but I noticed that of the twenty-ish books I sent her, it was hard to drum up fiction that I would recommend. Given that I was then totally embedded in the dissertation writing process, that’s not too surprising, but it was a jolt to my system. I used to LOVE reading anything I could find, but it had been a while since I’d read anything that didn’t require a highlighter and a pencil and sticky tabs to remind myself of a bit of text that I would like to use later.
That jolt ignited in me a need to read again – to read for pleasure as well as for study. I never really stopped, but the process of writing a dissertation marked a time that I knew that I had to read for pleasure again, or my brain would melt. So I got intentional. I started asking for recommendations for “real literature”. I started by looking at previous Pulitzer winners, then learned about other book awards. I read some of them, but I found other, better ways to get book recommendations for myself.
I found that I was not just reading for pleasure, but also paying careful attention to how an author did what she or he did. I found that I was not just reading for pleasure, but also paying careful attention to how an author did what she or he did. I was mesmerized by the stark brown descriptions in The Road by Cormac McCarthy; I marveled at the way I entered into the mind of the autistic main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I treasured the way the character was enfleshed in Brendan: A Novel by Frederick Buechner.
Three things fueled this new passion.
First, being a sucker for anything social media-related, I tried out GoodReads [My profile is at http://GoodReads.com/Patloughery]. I’ve been using the also-excellent LibraryThing for a few years and liked its ability to catalog my books, but there wasn’t a social networking drive to it. Goodreads is primarily social; I can see what my friends are reading and they can see my updates; I can see their ratings and I can see theirs. I’ve found some nifty books by marking friends’ books on my own to-read list. GoodReads organizes a “Reading Challenge” – you set a goal for the # of books you hope to read this calendar year, and they track your progress against it. I originally aimed at 40 books for the year (I read 38 in 2010), but in summer bumped that to 50. I passed that in early fall. I’ve read 72 books and around 16,500 pages so far this year, and should make 75 but don’t want to update my goal this late in the year because I know I’ve already passed the main goal :).
Second, I rediscovered the library. It may sound silly, but I hadn’t used the library for anything but study space for years – I ought books, because I needed to keep them, highlight and mark them up. But for many of the books I read last year, I didn’t need to keep them, and free is a good deal. I’m happy to use the tax money I pay to the library systems :-). Later in the year, I also discovered and started making heavy use of the library system’s free Kindle (eBook) loans, and then audiobook loans (very helpful for long drives and car commute time).
Third, I found a book recommendations podcast that I totally love. When I was casting about for “where the heck should I even start?!”, I looked at some podcasts and tried a few, but only one really stuck. I madly love The Enthusiasticast. It’s done by two twentysomething (I’d guess) guys who work in the publishing industry, and each episode is a mix of book and pop culture chat, then one of the guys describes one book that he’s enthusiastic about (recommends) to the other guy, and to the listeners. I’ve found most of my favorite books this year from those podcasts. They’re not totally mainstream books, but both guys have a similar taste to mine, and I can usually tell when they’re describing a book whether I need to add it to my to-read list or not. It’s become my favorite podcast to listen to on any subject.
I suppose that’s enough for now.
These related blog topics are coming soon:
- What I Recommended to Wendy a Year Ago
- My Favorite (N) Books of 2011
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a soulful Advent to you.
pat loughery 
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