Hello fellow book lovers!

To state the obvious, I love to read. I'm creating this blog for several reasons.

1. I can't sleep. I was laid off from my job as a copy editor/page designer at our local newspaper, and since my husband is in school, that was our primary income. I see bills, numbers, and bank statements in my dreams as my husband snores happily beside me.

2. I need a project. An escape from job applications and resumes and a chance to write. One of my professors told us the first day of freshman English that writing is the only way to write better. So it's self-improvement.

3. I miss school and literary analysis and term papers. I'm a huge nerd like that.

As you've probably inferred, I was an English major in college. I also majored in psychology, which is a little more practical but not quite as strong a passion.

Part of being laid off from a newspaper made me think about how many sacrifices newspapers are making. Features -- including book reviews -- were the first to go. I've been lying awake crunching numbers and idly wondering where people go for book reviews now. The ones I see online are scholarly papers so boring they make you hate reading, the introductions to CliffNotes, uploaded essays (which usually are terribly written), or opinions from people like me who just like books. I haven't searched extensively, but that seems to be what's most readily available. Hence this brainchild, of which a childhood friend who shares my affinity for good books probably will be the only reader.

I haven't finished a book in a while. While planning our wedding (we got married in August), I read the Shopaholic series and etiquette books. Rebecca Bloomwood provided great entertainment and distraction from floral arrangements, and my friends think it's ridiculous how seriously I take Emily Post.

My grandmothers both think it's funny that I read about five books at a time. MeMe does it too, so she likes that I take after her. Nana asks me how I can keep all the plots and characters straight. I don't know the answer. I just like variety.


My philosophies on literature are pretty simple:

• If it makes me laugh out loud or cry real tears, it's good.
• It doesn't have to be prize-winning material to be enjoyable.
• Sometimes the stuff that wins awards is the least enjoyable. (Not always.)
• Grown-ups should have a regular dose of children's books. They're like personality vitamins.
• Heavy literature such as Pat Conroy's books or The Kite Runner should be followed with light, easy reading to prevent burnout or depression.
• Reading should be fun.
• Reading should make you a better person.

 Here's what I'm reading now:
1. Anna Karenina It's a lofty undertaking, I know, but it's surprisingly conversational.
2. Sanditon by Jane Austen and "another lady" It bothers me that I don't know whether Jane Austen or "another lady" wrote whatever I'm reading at the moment. It also bothers me that in this printing, single quotation marks are used in every situation that calls for any quotation marks. Including character's quotes.
3. American Pastoral by Philip Roth I've been reading this for a year. That's not at all a testament to how good the book is. Philip Roth is an amazing crafter of words.
4. Letters to Karen by a minister whose first name is Charlie -- It's a book my dad recommended for us to read when we got married. The book is a series of letters Charlie wrote to his daughter, Karen, before her wedding. She asked her dad to tell her how to make her husband love her forever. It's super sweet and only slightly dated.