Sunday, December 4, 2011

Reverb11, Day 4: Learn

2011 was another year that I was not in grad school (finished in 2009) so I enjoyed being part of my book club once again at Newtonville Books. My promise to myself when I graduated was to re-join book club and start reading for fun again.

Years ago I learned that everything is in balance if I'm reading each week. I also enjoy reading magazines (particularly when I travel for work) and I also read the Boston Globe (on actual paper!) each work day since my office gets delivery. If I'm taking time to read each day even for a little while it is a nice break from staring at the computer all day.

It's strange though--I have not been to my library for a while. I guess it is because I'm not around on weekends all that often. I was thinking about getting a library card at our town in Maine. There's something special about small town libraries. They are a dying breed in this economy, sadly.

In book club we're already into 2012. We're reading The Tiger's Wife for our January meeting. What book in 2011 made you not only learn but really think? For me it was 11/22/63. Stephen King's latest and one of the Top 10 Best Books of 2011 (New York Times). I highly recommend reading it.

4 comments:

  1. Hey, Leah! (I'm Jim Wetzel, from MFP, and I now have another blog to bookmark for daily reading ... thanks!) Let's see, a book from 2011 that made me really think ... well, I'm currently reading Murakami's latest, 1Q84, and that's quite the puzzler so far. But I think your question calls for books completely read. So I'll offer up Matt Taibbi's Griftopia. I really think we are in for some extremely "interesting" times here in our bankrupt empire, with no other truly solvent empires around (even China's got big problems, mostly as a result of being so intimately tangled in the financial life and death of the US and Europe). I'm thinking, when all's said and done, it might turn out to be a good thing to be a Brazilian -- we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, Griftopia is a relevant read, here at the end of OWS, which is probably going to be remembered as the beginning of a whole series of greatly-more-significant phenomena. Or so it seems to me.

    Nice blog!

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  2. Jim: it's great to see you here! Thanks for stopping by! You have given me much to think about with your book suggestion--thank you!

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  3. I would recommend "The Emperor’s Children" by Claire Messud as a great fiction read and "Inside the Kingdom" by Carmen Bin Laden as an insightful nonfiction book. I eagerly await "1Q84" from my local library - the waiting list is long but I know well worth it!

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  4. Thanks for the book suggestions, Roxy! I appreciate it. Glad to see that you're using your local library!

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