"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"
Opening lines! Some of them are grand or intriguing or unique enough to set the tone for the whole book, while others are conversational and drop you right in, as if you were speaking to the narrator yourself. Here are some of my favorites below…
Continue reading “My Favorite Opening Lines in Literature”
You never want to DNF a book, but sometimes it happens anyway. The book isn’t as good as you’d expected or heard, or maybe your attention just gets captured elsewhere and before you know it, it’s been weeks or even months since you last abandoned that book and now have a funny guilty feeling whenever you see it lying on the counter because deep down, you know you won’t be coming back to it.
But DNFs aren’t anything to feel guilty or bad over! I used to feel this internal pressure to finish every book I started, as if it was reflection on my character – like it meant I was persevering or loyal or something. But gradually I moved away from this mindset. There are so many amazing books in the world that if I’m not enjoying something, I leave it! What’s also comforting to me is knowing that even if I DNF something today, doesn’t mean it’s DNF forever. I can always come back to it later in life – maybe when I have more time, or perhaps more ready to appreciate it.
Below, three books that I recently put down…but plan to finish at some point 🙂
Continue reading “The Last Five Books I Didn’t Finish”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve discovered recently that there’s normal TBR avoidance, and then there’s quarantine TBR avoidance. Namely: I don’t want anything too involved or sad or intellectual…or long, or upsetting, or too emotional either. I know, I’m really outing my pandemic self as an insufferably lazy bum 🤣 In all seriousness, I’ve been SO restless lately and can’t seem to sit through anything that requires too much dedication, which is the opposite of what reading is all about. Here are a few books that have been on my list forever but am strenuously avoiding because of any of the reasons above.
Continue reading “Books on my TBR I’m Avoiding”
I was a voracious reader as a kid, but there were some notable books and series that somehow slipped by me – we couldn’t always afford new copies so my reading was limited to my school library and whatever we picked up at local yard sales (a surprisingly great source of books, and usually only 50 cents each at the time!). And so while I had a pretty wide variety of books under my belt, these were three that I never got around to reading and wish I had…
Continue reading “Books I Wish I’d Read As a Child”
I love book social media. Blogs, bookstagram, Twitter, the book subreddit…you name it, I’m on it and I love interacting with the different communities and seeing what everyone’s reading. Inevitably, though, each community tends to flock around the same handful of books – bookstagram’s always looking for the next trendy read and has It Books of the moment like Circe or Three Women, while /r/books tends to be more scifi/fantasy focused and has favorites like The Hitchhiker’s Guide and Master and the Margarita.
Sometimes they become a bit like echo chambers as people repeatedly recommend the same books, so I appreciate this prompt for reminding us to highlight great books that don’t get discussed as much. So below, three books I read or reread in the past year and enjoyed immensely.
Continue reading “Books I Enjoyed but Rarely Talk About”
I love this prompt since it forced me to go through my GIANT TBR shelf on Goodreads and really think about the books I added. More often than not, I’ve long forgotten why I added something, so if I rediscover and am still excited about it, there’s a good chance it really belongs! This week, I picked an action-filled classic, a natural history book, and finally a cult-favorite cookbook despite having no photographs.
Continue reading “Books From My TBR I Predict Will Be 5-Star Reads”
It’s not often I get book hangovers – usually instead of dwelling with the characters a little longer, I’m ready to get going on the next book already. BUT sometimes there are a couple of arresting works that simply demand to be analyzed more thoughtfully, that require a few more days of sitting on everything that happened and letting the story soak into your bones. Typically my hangover process is: have a good cry over it (even if the book isn’t outright sad, great books often make me feel so much emotion that I need to let it all out somehow), furiously google critics’ reviews and interviews with the author, read all the posts I can find about it on /r/books, and then maybe write a review if I want to spend a little more time with it. The last three books I felt this way with:
Continue reading “The Last Books That Gave Me a Book Hangover”
Mossflower Cove 