So Many Books, So Little Time

A book about books… What more could you ask for? Indeed I did devour Sara Nelson’s book within the space of a few hours and there were a couple of books that I own that have now gone higher on my ‘must read’ pile, one being ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ which Sara Nelson enjoyed so much she bought several copies to give out as Christmas presents. Would I give this book out to several people for Christmas, possibly, but they would have to be real book lovers.

Sara Nelson has been a book reviewer for various magazines for years in America (you can get this book on Amazon but not in the book shops here, you can also get it on ReadItSwapIt) and she one day decided to log all the books that she read in a year, the original idea was one a week and she had a list of books that she wanted to read. Within a week the list had been rearranged and completely veered off. That was what I loved about this book; it was an honest account of books read in one year. She wasn’t preaching either, which was refreshing, and for someone who reviews books in some very well established magazines, you never felt she was trying too be too clever like some reviewers can.

I loved how you could relate to her tales, like when someone recommends her a book, she doesn’t like it and it slightly changes the way she thinks about her friend. The reverse is true when she loves a book raves about it and people are seriously unsure, have they changed their opinion of her? Has she changed her opinion of them? I could relate to these quandaries, there is also a very funny bit about partners who don’t read, again I totally empathise. She also discusses how you chose a book or a book chooses you, she doesn’t like baseball but when her son is really getting into it she finds a book that has it as a theme and so reads on, is the book any good, read Sara’s to find out.

Sometimes what I didn’t love so much was the books that she was reading but then we seemed to have quite different taste and this alienated me a little, but maybe this blog will do that to people in cyber space? I really love it when a book either makes you want to buy ever single thing the author has done, and with a book about books you would expect to walk away with a list for Amazon as long as your arm. I had heard of a few of them but not all of them, then when I looked at one of the Appendix where she stated all the books she had read and not included I felt a tiny bit cheated as some of them I would love to have read about her reading about… confused yet? It has a human feel although I didn’t need to know so much about her and her husband’s rows, I thought that was slightly strange.

This is a definite for serious book lovers/geeks like myself, you will be sat there chortling and saying ‘I so do that’. Sadly for someone who says a books cover can really put you off, I was confused with the cover they have given the book. That’s a small complaint though, I’m being picky.