From One Book Lover

2023 was a busy reading year for me. I got into the triple digits, discovered some great cozy reads, and lured another unsuspecting person into the World of Books. My husband was a perfectly normal person who would read books when the mood struck. Then he discovered Andy Weir, began listening to audiobooks, joined a book club, and installed bookshelves in the living room for his growing collection. It's fun to hear him say, "You'd like this book I read." It wasn't an instantaneous transition, but it has stuck long enough to be a part of his personality now. But back to the topic at hand: I read 102 books. (Goodreads calculates the average book length at 264 pages.)  I indulged in  Escargot  and met  The Knight Owl;  encountered octopuses, an ogress, Christopher Marlowe, and an alien with a Scottish accent; and discovered Dark Academy.  I read popular books, including Demon Copperhead  and Lessons in Chemistry . I discovered Howl's Moving Castle a...

What a reader considers a good book is both very personal and very public. One person's favorite book very well could be another person's nightmare. What is a reader to do if she wants to find out if a book is worth her time? Of course you reach out to your reading friends, ones you can trust regarding the author or genre in question. (If you don't, find some now — your life will be richer, and reading will get even more fun.) You may have a professional critic or two whom you trust and (mostly) agree with, which is a nice way to add to your towering TBR pile. You can accost the occasional stranger or two reading the book of interest — but if they snarl, back away slowly and don't take your eyes off them until their eyes have returned to the page. Online? Think twice, and proceed with extreme caution if you dare venture in. Back in the day, many readers believed online reviews were reliable, and a community of readers discussing books — in part because the...

Summer is officially over in the Northern Hemisphere, and I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, it means more time indoors curled up with books. On the other hand, winter is coming. But let's not focus on that just yet. Let's talk books. I did not gobble them up like a glutton, as I have in years past. Instead, I read in fits and starts, trying out (and rejecting) title after title until I found one that fit. More often than not, I found YA novels helped smooth out the snags, and I was able to read steadily for a while before I floundered around for another book. I am a firm believer in jettisoning books that don't work for the reader. Nothing against the book: my friend Carole has read books I have been unable to get into — but I'll try again. (And thank heavens for that, or I would have missed The Dinner and Less .) So, without further ado, here is what I read during the 2018 summer reading program from May 25 to September 23: The Public L...