My books.....

I have been in a reading funk for the last few months.  If I do read, it's only in fits and starts.  My rate of finishing books has dropped off precipitously.  Not a good thing for a librarian.  The causes?  I'm sure it's a number of things.....busy at work, busy at home, the distraction of the the computer (especially Facebook), and, more recently, a change in jobs.

I look at my pile of books and the list on my Kindle.  I can say that my interest in acquiring books has also waned a bit. Since I'm not traveling to hockey games any more, I'm not stopping at Borders on my way home from weekend games.  I went to BAM which bought out the nearest Borders for the first time last week.  Unfortunately I was on a mission and didn't have time to browse. 

Now I have found a couple of books that have captured my interest and I hope that the current trend is reversing itself.  Over the weekend I finished "Left Neglected" by Lisa Genova.  I read a very big chunk of "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain.  They are both excellent reads with very strong protagonists. 

I started "Left Neglected" the weekend before because I knew I was going to see the author speak mid-week.  Well, like Genova's first hit, "Still Alice," I was sucked in by the story and main character.  I sailed through the book. Genova knows her stuff and can convey a medical condition very well from the sufferer's point of view.  She is an excellent speaker and the opportunity to hear her talk about "Left Neglected" was a treat (made even more special by dinner beforehand at my aunt's house with my Aunt Gert, cousin Patti and sister Maureen).  In the Q&A session after Genova's talk, a woman in the audience who has Left Neglect told the author that she "nailed it."  I'm not going to say anything more about the book, because you need to discover the background and meet Sarah, the main character, on your own.  Thanks, Lisa Genova, for re-awakening my need to read. 

So, now it's off to bed to continue with "The Paris Wife" and to reacquaint myself with my huge stack of books at my bedside and the wonderful collection on my Kindle.