Up all night

For me, reading before bed is not usually something that helps me to fall asleep. I do read in bed almost every night but is it usually a struggle for me to put the book down and to go to sleep. Sometimes I am overcome by the book and can't stop until I have finished. Luckily for me, I am a very fast reader.

The books that keep me up at night are not necessarily suspenseful, I just get so invested in something that I am unwilling to leave the world the author has created for me.

I have a friend who prefers to draw out books that she loves in order to increase the length of time that she spends under the spell. I am a full immersion girl, reading every spare moment as quickly as I can, not wanting to be drawn away for even a minute.

Here is a list off the top of my head, in no particular order of books that have kept me up all night:


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski I read this on the plane to Las Vegas and spent a fair amount of time reading in my hotel room. It is a twist on the Hamlet plot, set in Wisconsin. The hero is a mute boy who raises dogs. Parts of this tale get a little long but its a satisfying read.

Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger I love this writer. His writing has a great peaceful tone and rhythm; and his his characters are excellent. Both books I have read by him are set in the American West and are really lovely. The country is almost a character in itself.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith I mentioned this recently. Again, it is a great story about place and is just great book about coming of age and hardship and family.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen I wanted to read this book because it is set in a circus during the depression. I was interested mostly in just reading about a circus and the circus people. Plus it has a great cover. I was pleasantly surprised to find a great novel and love story inside.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck This was one of the first books that I remember staying up all night to read. I read it cover to cover one night when I was a senior in high school. It was a memorable night for me. I was first, very proud to have read such an important book so quickly, but secondly, Steinbeck became one of my favorite authors.

Harry Potter. I would stay up all night just to re-read any Harry Potter book. J.K. Rowling does such a great job with setting that I love diving in to visit occasionally. I try not to talk about it too much, but like many, many people I am a HUGE J.K. Rowling fan.


I am going to stop now, but plan to make lots and lots of suggested reading lists on this blog.

Note: I am hesitant to link to Amazon for many reasons, but am doing so just in case it helps you to locate and read these books.

My Personal Library

I am cheap. So cheap that I maybe buy a book at full price once a year. Maybe. And then it is probably a paperback. I used to consider it a splurge to buy a book at Costco. However, I am such a reader, that I sometimes read a few books a week. Here's how I do it: Often I steal. Sometimes I borrow. Occasionally I buy, but only if it is for less than three dollars.

I find that once people read books that they have purchased, they are pretty much done. They don't go back to their shelves often to look for stuff. Or if they do, they don't know to ask me, the perpetrator.

My two early but still fruitful sources of book stealing have been my parents. Rather than send me to jail their little hearts burst with pride when they realize their baby is reading all their old favorites.

I regularly peruse the bookshelves in my father's basement for castoffs from my stepsiblings' high school career I got my Guide to Birds of North America that way, the uber boring Guns Germs and Steel, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (worth going to jail for). They probably think I am doing them a service by decluttering; or perhaps they wonder why my purse is always so square and heavy like a sack of bricks when I leave their house. I don't ask.

Another excellent way to feed the addiction is by borrowing. From the LIBRARY duh. Also from my friend Stimey's library. At any given time I have like six of her books, and now in her basement I have a few shelves of my returns. I like to visit and see what I've read; its like visiting old friends. The best thing about Stimey's library is that there are no late fees. Plus, she is so silly that she actually purchases new books. I think at full price. Silly Stimey. This way I get my dose of current fiction, so that I am not so hopelessly out of date as to poke my curling iron in the fire and potentially burn off some of my hair.

One (several) of Stimey's books have actually traveled to other countries in the backpack of my brother who is apparently also a professional book stealer. T-- I am still waiting for Skeletons of the Zahara to come back so I can read it and return it to Stimey.

Another great place to get books almost for free, is from the Library used book store. This way you get to keep your library book forever. Conveniently there is one in a branch close to me. I get obscure cookbooks there, classics all full of pencil notes from college students, and confusingly still barcoded and mylar wrapped hardback fiction for a dollar.


One way that I make sure that my own personal library is not depleted is that I mark the books I lend out with my name. Sometimes in Sharpie. On the cover. Don't take my book you book stealers. I know all your tricks.

Not so sure I'm a blogger.

Argh. I totally suck at blogging. I have been thinking and thinking about it, but... nothing. Now that I am supposed to be writing something else, something fictiony that is due in four hours and fifteen minutes, sooooo, I will write a blog post.

War and Peace? Awesome. I am right smack in the middle and I can't wait to find out what happens to everyone. Reading W&P is kinda like watching a great miniseries on DVD from Netflix. There is a substantial number of fairly important characters, and you get to watch them emerge, and follow their life a little. War and Peace is totally not a miniseries though. It's a full on tv program of like three or four seasons.

I like the peace parts better than the war parts though. Napoleon Bonaparte actually appears as a character and I have to force myself to read those boring parts about him and various generals and the war. Snore.

The getting married parts, and falling in love, and maybe almost kidnapping and elopements; super exciting and compelling.

Reading is Fun!

I like it!

I have been under some time constraints, but War and Peace, it's great. I really want to know what is going to happen to Pierre; who so far seems totally boring, but he is now heir to the largest fortune in Russia, so he's probably going to get more interesting soon.

Also, I see a marriage going bad, the little princess with a mustache is not that popular with her husband who is now at war. Something big is going to happen with him too.

I can't wait to read it!

Reading with the Kids

Have you ever had really fond memories of a book, only to re-read it and think it sucks? This keeps happening to me with children's books. At some point after I had read some Harry Potter I thought I would have a quick review of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was totally not as good as I thought it was when I was young.

Also, I have been reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume to my son at night. I know I liked it as a kid, and I think my brother and sister liked it too. It's kind of a minor American classic. Boring. I keep hoping the boy will forget to ask me to read it. And I may have been known to whine a little when forced to continue.

Some things have improved with age though. We (me and my two kids) have read or listened to in the past year: Ramona the Pest, Ramona and her Mother, Ramona and her Father, Ramona the Brave, Ramona Forever (I'm not kidding you, we are Ramona CRAZY) Ribsy, Henry and Ribsy, Runaway Ralph, plus probably a few more by Beverly Cleary.

I love that woman now maybe even more than I did as a kid. If I didn't love Beverly Cleary there is no freaking way I would read all these books at night or listen to them in the car. I could not take this much of just any author. I kinda feel at this point that I have lived on Klickitat Street myself.

Wrap Up: The God of Small Things

It is so goddamn hot in my apartment, that I can now wrap up The God of Small things. Apparently I have to imagine myself in a slummy fire-trap in India to talk about this book

It turns out this is a great novel. At the same time, it is confusing and mixy, and sweaty, and suspenseful. From the beginning you know someone has died because you get to go to her funeral. There is also a visit to a police station. My interest was piqued by all this information; but reading to the end was a little like say, fighting your way through a jungle with a machete. Roy gives her characters and setting amazingly vivid physicality. It's really impressive. And opressive.

I listened in on a conversation with two friends the other day about travel, and they discussed going to India. The more experienced traveler warned how you have to brace yourself when you step off the plane; and how it's not relaxing; and you kind of have to fight the entire time you are on vacation. He preferes Thailand. Roy gives the reader the same type of intense experience, but it makes for kind of tough reading.

To make up for your hard and tragic trek through India; Roy finishes with a jewel of a scene that makes it all worth while. Upon closing this book, you have a lot to chew on: sacrifice, unhappiness, right and wrong, justice.

Lovely. Deserving of the Booker Prize, which she won in 1997.

Pathetic Update

My grill pan kicked ass tonight. My steak was awesome. About the fat Russian; the relationship is having a little trouble getting off the ground. I am on... get ready... page 52 of War and Peace. Only 1200 to go. I know, get to work girlie.