I had 12 books out of the library at one time. I had a plan, usually involving renewals, with three renewals the going limit until I finally read the book. This time, I decided to return the ten books I had out, including two that reached their limit but finally began reading. Both books, Blackout by Mira Grant and Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older, can quickly clear a week-and-half to two tops. I already started the former but decided to clear the deck, start fresh, switch gears, etc.
I found myself fictioned out. (Yes, add that word to the dictionary. Heck, add the phrase too!)
I had gorged my brain on urban fantasy between Older and Suzanne Johnson (The Sentinels of New Orleans) or Walking-Dead-like dystopias (Mira Grant). Enough said my brain, bring everything back, keep the non-fiction, and we will get back to that stuff later.
Right now, the book occupying my break helps fuel the creative fire just in time of Camp NaNoWriMo. The Forest For the Trees: An Editor’s Advice To Writers by Betsy Lerner, an agent offering insight about writers as a former editor and as a writer herself. No A+ B here, she touches on the various kinds of writers she’s met from Ambivalent (finally) to the addicted in her chapter ‘Touched By Fire.’ The book delivers on the promise to not ‘Strunk you over the head with rules about style,’ basically saying the writer’s craft has a lot to do with the writer him/herself. That’s a nutshell for something complex rendered as if someone sat me down for coffee to dispense advice. Like many books I get from the library, this one I discovered by accident. While weeding the PN 140’s aka ‘the books about authorship,’ this one not only proved a keeper but hummed with the energy of read and recommend me.
Yes, I do read some books from the Red River collection.
In the meantime, I have a pile of purchased material also humming to be read. Drums of Autumn doesn’t hum it freaking throbs. Why? It’s a Diana Gabaldon book, and she proves Jamie Fraser can talk about sex like he did in Voyager, and make a reader go ‘whoa.’ (Fingers crossed they do this scene in season 3 on the show.) Outlander books are summer books to me but I also have the final book in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy to read, and one book I have anticipated since its announcement:
What did I keep?
Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
Author: Tressie McMillian Cottom
Why?
The book has made the rounds among some people on Twitter. I know the US differs from Canada in regards to private colleges, and even that differs further from province to province. For the record, I work at provincially-funded, post-secondary institution.
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
Authors: Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
Why?
This title came from a TED Talk by a historian about poverty, covering more than money. The lightbulb went on, and the library had a couple of copies. Hopefully, I can outwit scarcity, especially regarding time, and keep doing more writing.
While I mentioned library books and my own tactile collection, I have not even mentioned my tablet. That TBR needs an entry all to itself. My Goodreads widget doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Unpaused Life 