Jonathan Arnold reviewed So many books, so little time by Sara Nelson
Review of 'So many books, so little time' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Fun book about Nelson's reading habits for a year. Her and I couldn't have more divergent tastes for books but it was still good to read about another read-aholic. Despite sounding slightly neurotic, she did a lovely job of explaining how books and life can get all intermingled. She writes a very honest, touching and heartfelt book.
She touched upon a few things that I want to talk about. The first was about sports. She has an 8 year old son who is just getting into sports like baseball and asks the reader if anyone has any good memories of sports, and comes to the conclusion (strangely enough for someone who admits to being pretty clueless about it) that no one does.
Well, I beg to differ. While certainly no All Star, or even a starter in some sports, I have very good memories of sports, from my earliest days …
Fun book about Nelson's reading habits for a year. Her and I couldn't have more divergent tastes for books but it was still good to read about another read-aholic. Despite sounding slightly neurotic, she did a lovely job of explaining how books and life can get all intermingled. She writes a very honest, touching and heartfelt book.
She touched upon a few things that I want to talk about. The first was about sports. She has an 8 year old son who is just getting into sports like baseball and asks the reader if anyone has any good memories of sports, and comes to the conclusion (strangely enough for someone who admits to being pretty clueless about it) that no one does.
Well, I beg to differ. While certainly no All Star, or even a starter in some sports, I have very good memories of sports, from my earliest days playing soccer to my current days coaching my girls in it. From my days as a basketball scrub to being the goalie for a tournament winning hockey team just a few years ago, sports have always been fun and a big part of my life. I enjoy the camaraderie of the team sports and the challenges of the solo ones. I enjoy a good "real life" sports book, although I can't say as I've come across too many fictional ones.
She also surprised me by claiming many of her friends will actually read a book's ending and/or middle before (or instead of) reading it through. While she admits she never does that, it is still crazytalk! I had a high school English teacher who claimed you had to read the ending of a book first, and then read it through to see how well the writer did in getting to that point, especially with a mystery. But I'm not sure if he was just being his usual contrary self. That's just to bizarre a thing to even think about!
Ms. Nelson had a great idea that I am going to try and implement on a wider scale here. She read a book ([b:Charlotte's Web|24178|Charlotte's Web|E.B. White|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167520504s/24178.jpg|987048]) at the same time as her son (not aloud) and then talked about it together. I'd like to get my whole family to do that. A8.6 is reading [b:Peter Pan|34268|Peter Pan (100th Anniversary Edition)|J.M. Barrie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168548189s/34268.jpg|1358908] and I think that would be a fun book to have the four of us read.
I also liked her very frank discussion of what book to bring out in public. While I like to think of myself as nearly immune to anything of the sort, I also find myself thinking about how I would look carrying around certain books. Like if I am going to read something while the girls are at basketball practice, I don't want to get too geeky by reading a programming book, or too cerebral by hauling out my [b:War and Peace|18245|War and Peace|Leo Tolstoy|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166890447s/18245.jpg|4912783], so I try to find some middle ground.
I can't say as I have read too many of the books in her 2002 reading list and,for that matter, are not interested in reading too many of them. She's a huge Philip Roth fan, but I can't say as I've read any of his. She did like [b:Disgrace|6192|Disgrace (Penguin Essential Edition)|J.M. Coetzee|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1212858531s/6192.jpg|1882981] by [a:J M Coetze|4128|J.M. Coetzee|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200575883p2/4128.jpg], but I wasn't too keen on it. It is kind of strange that the list in the back of the book doesn't really seem to coincide with the books she talks about in the book.
A few books did seem pretty interesting, and that I've added to my To-Read list. [b:Heartburn|225343|Heartburn|Nora Ephron|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172861365s/225343.jpg|1897560] by [a:Nora Ephron|5691|Nora Ephron|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208275303p2/5691.jpg] sounds like bitter fun, while [b:Bird by Bird|12543|Bird by Bird Some Instructions on Writing and Life|Anne Lamott|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166504428s/12543.jpg|841198] by [a:Anne Lamott|7113|Anne Lamott|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201096743p2/7113.jpg] sounds like it might be just the thing for a procrastinator like myself. [b:The Crimson Petal and the White|40200|The Crimson Petal and the White|Michel Faber|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1222767604s/40200.jpg|1210026] by [a:Michel Faber|16272|Michel Faber|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208459077p2/16272.jpg] sounds like an interesting historical novel. But despite our divergent tastes in books, I thoroughly enjoyed her description of a reading year.
