Bill and I were in Las Vegas recently for the Rock n Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon (read my Race Report). While walking around the Strip and taking in the sights we ran across Bauman’s Rare Bookstore in the Palazzo. As bibliophiles, this store was the epitome of “awesome”. We saw First Editions of Huckleberry Finn ($12,000), M*A*S*H ($1,250), The Hobbit ($75,000), and my personal favorite, The Outsiders ($3,800). The Outsiders is my very favorite book, ever. I read it in 5th grade and felt an irrational affinity to Pony Boy and Johnny. If you feel like buying ”The Outsiders” for me, ask me for my address and I’ll send it to you, no questions asked.
There’s never enough time to read. I can walk into any good bookstore and find about six books that I want to read. An Amazon gift card is a perfect present, an ideal present. Be sure there’s about $200 on the card, if you will. I’ll have it spent in no time.
I have a stack of books that are just waiting to be read. And I’ll get to them ALL, it’s just a matter of “when. Here’s what’s on the shelf, in no particular order.
Between Me and the River, by Carrie Host. She’s a Boulder, CO author writing a memoir about living through cancer. She uses the metaphor of the river throughout her book in a way that is accurate, intense, and brutally honest. I’m half-way down at this point, and am plowing through this.
Precious, Based on the Novel Push, by Sapphire. This has been made into a movie, which I really want to see, but I want to read it first. The paperback is available at Costco right now for $8.49.
The Disciple, by Stephen Coonts. This is his latest book, and looks like a great thriller. I haven’t read much by him, but all accounts say this is worth it.
Stones into Schools; promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, by Greg Mortenson. This book is by the author of “Three Cups of Tea”, one of my favorite books of all time. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I applaud the fact that he realizes that education girls is the way to peace. I would love to work with this project, I believe in it that much.
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver. I have no idea what this is about. I bought it because I loved “The Prodigal Summer” and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”. She’s an author at the top of her game and I’ll read anything she writes.
Ceremony, by Leslie Marmom Silko. The back of the book says “Ceremony is the greatest novel in Native American literature. It is one of the greatest novels of any time and place. I have read this book so many times that I probably have it memorized. I teach it and I learn from it and I am continually in awe of its power, beauty, rage, vision and violence.” – Sherman Alexie. Do you know Sherman Alexie? Brilliant author in his own right. Check him out.
Lost Horizon, by James Hilton. This is the first paperback ever published. The author had an idea and got an advance, then spent the advance and had nothing to show for it. So he holed himself up in a hotel room and wrote this in a week. It’s now heralded as a classic!
Reconciliation; Islam, Democracy, and the West, by Benazir Bhutto. This is not her biography, but the book she wrote shortly before her assassination. My book club is reading this for our February book. Bill read this about a year ago and raves about it, and it’s been on my “to-read” list ever since. Thank God we’re reading it in Book Club, so I can finally get to it!
The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. This is what the movie “The Hours” is based on. I haven’t seen it and nope, haven’t read the book either. Seems strange, doesn’t it? Anyway, it’s on the list and I’ll get to it very soon, I promise.
Gourmet Rhapsody, by Muriel Barberry. This is the second book by Ms. Barberry; her first is called “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” which is a brilliant novel told from the perspective of the concierge. I adored “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” because of the sheer intelligence of the prose. I had to keep a dictionary close by, and that is NOT usual.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. A Young-Adult novel, this was reviewed in Time magazine recently. The reviewer says that this book explores the effects of war and violence on those who are coming of age in a way that doesn’t flinch from the very human desire to participate in those activities. I was completely intrigued by the review and rushed out to buy this book. I didn’t buy the sequel, Catching Fire, as I wanted to read the first one before I committed to reading the second.
The Assassin, by Stephen Coonts. Another great thriller, which is what I need to mix up my reading material.
Not pictured:
The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski . We’re reading this for our December/January book in Book Club. It’s fabulous, and I’m about half-way through it right now, though set it aside to read “Between Me and the River”. I’ll get back to it shortly, as I’m cruising through the memoir.
Fool, by Christopher Moore. I’m a theatre geek and this is theatre prose. Bill’s reading it right now. We’re a sight to see at night when we’re settled into bed with our books; he’s laughing out loud at “Fool”, and I’m sniffing and tearing up at “Between Me and the River”. When we’re done, we’ll trade.
They say it’s good to have diversity in your portfolio; I think that’s true across the board in just about every aspect of life. Friends? Don’t have friends in only one group, because you’ll slowly outgrow them. Flowers? Too much of one kind gets boring, even though they’re beautiful by themselves. Clothes? Imagine having twenty pairs of jeans and twenty white t-shirts. Bored yet? Yup. And this is why I have a lot of different things to read.
