Recently in books Category

1. I love office supply stores. A new Staples opened up in the neighborhood (finally an office supply store in the neighborhood!) and I love to wander the aisles and buy post it notes, photo mailers, printer paper, ink cartridges. Happiness is a well stocked office supply cabinet.

2. I've grown so bored with The L Word I can't even bring myself to write recaps. I'm sorry, I just can't.

3. I've been reading aloud to B from Wendell Berry's collection of stories, Fidelity. There's a reason so many people, when asked who their favorite Kentucky author is, say Wendell Berry. The stories in this collection are almost breathtakingly beautiful in their efficient but eloquent prose, reserved yet emotion filled, action packed and yet bordering on being described as stories where nothing much happens. Berry is brilliant.

The act of reading aloud to your partner is immensely satisfying. We sit or lie together and take in the stories. Occasionally we'll both giggle or gasp and when a story is complete we'll discuss it in detail. It's a wonderful experience to have a piece of fiction be equally as fresh in both person's mind when you discuss it.

4. I'm quite heartbroken that yet again I'm not going to SXSW. A year ago when finances forced me to cancel my trip to SXSW (including participating on a panel) I was more than certain I would be attending this year. I think I would get a great deal out of SXSW and it's that lost potential for knowledge, experiences, friendship making, networking and cultural exploration that hurts the most.

5. Willie Nelson's Teatro is one of the best albums ever produced. I've been listening to it a lot lately and its genius keeps revealing new layers of itself. As always I've also been listening to a lot of Van Morrison. It's interesting to me that as much as I love music I've been having a really, really hard time finding new music that really speaks to or connects with me. I can think of maybe 4 or 5 albums from the past few years that meet that definition. Maybe. Though the Adele record that was generously shared with me recently is getting more than a few spins.

Title: Another Turn of the Crank
Author: Wendell Berry
Genre: Non-Fiction

Wendell Berry is one of Kentucky's great treasures and it's a real failing on my part that I've read so little of his work. 2008 is the year I change that. Another Turn of the Crank is a small collection containing six essays that each deal with community. Specific topics include local food, local economies, public, private and common wealth land ownership, forestry programs, conversation of land and humanity, health care and education but the overall theme is community.

I wondered to myself as I was reading this collection whether there is value in reading a collection like this where you are in almost complete agreement (even if you didn't know it yet) with the author and his positions. I've got to say that I believe there is first because I do agree with Mr. Berry on so many things that I didn't even know I agreed with him on because I'd not been pushed to think of them and my mind had not taken up the task of pondering them on its own. Second I think there is great value in reading the works of a man who strongly takes and lives his convictions. While I can agree with Mr. berry on so many things I cannot, or perhaps will not is more truthful, move back to the farm or take some of the more drastic measures that Mr. Berry takes on a regular basis to help his local economy, help farming, help Kentucky, help the environment, help society at large. His words remind me of how small my efforts in these areas have been and how much more and better I could do. In short, it gives me a good deal to think about and a good deal more to strive for.

"They believe that knowledge is property and is power, and that it ought to be. They believe that education is job training. They think that the summit of human achievement is a high-paying job that involves no work. Their public boast is that they are making a society in which everybody will be a "winner" -- but their private aim has been to radically reduce the number of people who, by the measure of our historical ideals, might be thought successful: the independent, the self-employed, the owners of small businesses or small usable properties, those who work at home."
 - Wendell Berry Another Turn of the Crank

Title: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Genre: Non-Fiction

I really do hate to be a follower but enough people whose opinions I trust kept telling me to read this book and eventually I relented. I'm honestly glad I did. This was a very quick read that I enjoyed and it has me thinking. I cannot ask more of a book than to give me some pleasure and things to think about.

Gilbert's personal journey would struggle to be anymore different than my own but there are some common themes and feelings. I saw myself both in her moments of despair and in her moments of pleasure and joy. This may sound trite but there are so few people (dare I say few of us?) who actually do take the road and life less traveled that it is hard not to feel connected to those who make that choice and then share with others the life and journeys that stem from that choice.

I can't recommend the book to everyone because for some it will seem too much like a fairy tale, too unrealistic though it is the author's actual life. I can't fault anyone for not wanting to read real life fairy tales but when they are well written and when the stories and prose touch me I can't help but be one of those women not only loves fairy tales but also believes they can be real.

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I've decided to occasionally (maybe always?) post items from my Reading List here as well. Reading List is mostly just a running list for me, posts here are open to discussion and in fact I'd welcome discussion. I do so love to talk about books. Well, I like talking about books with smart people. I do not like talking about books with people who, when discussing an autobiographical memoir says "the author is self-absorbed." Of course the author of an autobiographical memoir about a spiritual journey is self-absorbed. What else should she be obsessed with? My goal, after failing miserably in 2007, is to read 40 books in 2008.