I went to a charity book sale today - which was bad, because my to-read stack is already bigger now than it was at the beginning of the year. So I spent the whole time I was at the sale telling myself that it's not such a bad thing because the money is going to charity - so I'm not really compulsively buying books, I'm doing good deed for someone else. Okay, so that's kind of stretch, but it's how I justified buying twice as many books as I had planned. I always have such good, sensible plans while I'm still in the parking lot, but all reason goes out the window once I get near the books. But, as one of my dear readers pointed out in the comments sections, it's not such a bad habit when you compare it to doing cocaine. Okay, so that's a stretch too, but I'm going with it.
Today's book; "Ginny Young crosses the country for a reluctant reunion with the mother she has not seen in thirty-five years. During the long hours of her flight, she returns in memory to the summer when she turned twelve and her family turned inside out."
This book has been in my to-read stack for a long time - I would guess about 6 years. I have picked it up many times to read it, but somehow I have never gotten past the first page. But today, in a fit of spring cleaning, I decided that I was either going to read it right away or get rid of it. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I got past the first few pages, which were a little dull, that the book was quite good. There was a minor little mishap when I turned to page 8 and discovered the squished bug that had crawled into the book and died - that'll teach me to keep books around for 6 years before reading them.
I usually save Elizabeth Berg novels for traveling because they are quick books to read - which require very little concentration which makes it the perfect book to read in an airport when I need to split my focus between the book and listening for flight announcements - and yet they are not fluffy and mindless enough to cause your fellow passengers to judge you harshly. Although I say if you can't make a fool of yourself when you're on vacation, then when the heck can you? So, I ignored the squished bug, overlooked the fact that I'm not on vacation, and read the book - and it wasn't bad, although I find Elizabeth Berg books are the kind of books that I enjoy the idea of more than the actual book.
The picture I used for this blog entry isn't what the cover of my copy of What We Keep looks like, but I like this one better, so I'm using it instead. And now I'm feeling totally ripped off that I looked at an ugly cover all day when there were better versions out there. I'm shallow, so I do judge a book by it's cover, and I think I would have read this one a lot sooner if it had a better cover. The three most important things for me in buying a book are; the cover, the title and the first page - which makes me wonder why I even bought this book in the first place, since I'm not crazy about any of the three? The mysteries of my shopping habits, will they ever be unveiled? It's so sad when even I can't figure out why I bought something.
