So Many Books, So Little Time For Rereading Them

People ask me often -- especially those who are helping me move -- why I keep as many books as I do. My uncle, when lugging another box of books up the three flights of stairs to my new apartment last summer, said, "But you've already read all of them," when I apologized for how many boxes of books there were.

And it was true. Outside of maybe one or two boxes, I'd read all the books. And I'd love to say I keep them all so I can reread them on a whim, but most I probably never will.

There's this undeniable comfort for me to be surrounded by books. It's not always that I'm going to go reread that book in the bottom corner of my bookshelf, but just that I have the option to. That no matter what is going on in my world, I'm surrounded by countless others.

In just the past week, upon hearing the news that Wislawa Szymborska had passed away, I was able to find my copy of View With a Grain of Sand and read a few of her poems. I was introduced to her in a Polish culture class in college and really enjoyed her poetry.

From Amazon.com

Then I decided to reread Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere, and when I found it on my shelf I first noticed the tabs sticking out the side, marking some of my favorite quotes. I read the first paragraph and remembered the voice that made me fall in love with it the first time, then fell in love with it all over again.

So I wonder, what makes you decide to reread a book? Do you keep a lot of books around, in case the desire to reread one strikes you?

To be honest, most of the time I don't reread books because I feel overwhelmed by all of the other books out there I want to read and haven't found time for yet. But sometimes I love one so much, I want to get lost in it again. This past week in particular, I had just read a series of meh books -- ones that I enjoyed but hadn't really consumed me. I was waiting on a bunch of books from the library and just wanted to read something I would truly love, so I turned to The Sky is Everywhere.

I'm excited that it's 2012, because I've decided that the only way to exist in this world is by rereading all of Harry Potter, in order, every two years. When someone finds a way to add more hours to the day, I'll allow myself to read them every year. But, well, we're stuck with 24 hours, and I last read them at the end of 2010, so I, for one, am psyched about 2012.

What books have you reread lately? Are there any you read regularly?

Books I Read in 2011 that I Recommend You Read

I'm awful at picking favorites, so I don't have a top 5 books list of 2011, or even a top 10 list. But below are some of my favorite books I've read in the past year that I highly recommend. They weren't all published this year, and they're of all sorts of genres, and I recommend them for all sorts of reasons.

• Looking For Alaska – John Green
• Everything about John Green's writing just makes my heart happy. It's smart and funny and compelling and rings true.
•  Room – Emma Donoghue
• This one's a bit disturbing, but it needed to be. And the five year-old narrator is extremely well done.
• An Abundance of Katherines – John Green
•  Paper Towns – John Green (Can you tell this is the year I discovered John Green?)
• Fall For Anything – Courtney Summers
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – John Boyne
• This one might break your heart a little. A quick, lasting read.
• Where She Went – Gayle Forman 
• I highly recommend the first book, If I Stay, too. I wasn't sure how I felt about this second one switching point of views before I read it, but I think I may have even loved it more than the first. 
• Divergent – Veronica Roth
• Don't start this if you've got a lot to do. I was sucked into this world and the voice of Tris and couldn't put it down.
• Imaginary Girls – Nova Ren Suma
• Immediately after finishing this book, I couldn't decide how I felt about it. But I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since, and that says a lot.
•  Before I Die – Jenny Downham
• The prose is just beautiful and heartbreaking.
• Invincible Summer – Hannah Moskowitz
• I couldn't get enough of the families in this story. The book takes place over four summers, but it's about so much more than summer and teenage summer love.
• Wintergirls – Laurie Halse Anderson
• If you loved Speak, you have to read this. It's just incredible.
• The Help – Kathryn Stockett
• I didn't think this was my sort of book, so every time someone told me it was great I just smiled and nodded. But it really is as wonderful as everyone said, and it certainly made me stop and think about the world we live in and how people are treated.
• How to Save a Life – Sara Zarr
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan
• Beyond Belief – Josh Hamilton
• This is a memoir of one of my favorite baseball players who very easily could've died from a crack addiction. His story is so complex and inspiring, I can't recommend it enough.

Here's to another great year of reading in 2012!


Have you read any of these? What were your favorite books you read this year?

Getting Out of Bed

I have a mantra. Okay, I have quite a few mantras, but I'm talking more specifically about one of my overarching life mantras. It's this:

Don't let anyone convince you that something which gets you out of bed in the morning isn't worth your time.


I seem to have been blessed with loves for things that are not widely considered acceptable hobbies. Even at a fairly nerdy college, I got teased for the amount of time I spent reading for fun. Even among avid sports fans, the fact that I watch about 150 out of my baseball team's 162 games each year is considered lame. I was essentially told by a friend that my dream to have a book published was stupid, because books don't matter. But, well, that's a grander issue to be tackled another time.


Sometimes the hardest part of attacking a day is just the first part. Just the decision to sit up, get dressed, and face it. And each one of those things I love so dearly makes me want to get out of bed. They make me excited to go about my day, and they get me through required tasks I don't enjoy as much. So who's to say they aren't worth my time? They keep me going.


Shortly after I started reciting this mantra to myself, I realized it doesn't universally hold true. For example, even if stealing cars makes you want to wake up each morning, I definitely don't condone stealing cars. But you get my point, I'm sure. 


It doesn't matter if someone else understands why something makes you happy. What matters is sticking with it. Every night as I fall asleep I think about the next day, about what I'm looking forward to. And when my alarm goes off on a morning I really want some more sleep, I just think to myself, "I get to work on my WIP tonight," or whatever the case may be for that day, and I'm out of the bed in seconds. I'm smiling. I'm ready.


So what makes you want to get out of bed each morning? Has anyone ever told you it's a waste of time?

Likeable Characters

I have a question for you! Something I've been pondering lately...

In the past half year or so I've read a young adult book and an adult book that deal with the main character cheating with their best friend's boyfriend. In both cases, the best friend was portrayed as insecure, needy, bossy, and selfish. Not to mention that she treated the main character pretty horribly.

So, as a reader, I rooted for the main character to get the boy, despite the fact that she was betraying her best friend. She would claim that her relationship with the boy was deeper than the best friend's relationship, and of course I believed it, because that was how it was presented.

As I read the second one though, I began to wonder - how would I feel about this main character if the best friend were kind, considerate, and selfless? Would it affect how much I enjoyed the book?

I don't think I need a likeable main character to like a book, so long as the character is complex. For example, I loved Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, and I didn't really care for the main character as a person for most of the book. She was exactly the sort of person I would have disliked in high school. But she was multi-faceted, complex, and - ultimately - she changed. She recognized the ways she was unlikeable, and she grew throughout the book.

I can't decide if I'd rather read a book where the main character cheats knowing her best friend is incredible and just owns up to it, doesn't try to defend her actions by claiming that, in some ways, the friend deserves it. I think there's a good chance I'd be incredibly frustrated with the main character. But I also think that in many ways it will feel more true, more honest. I'm sure not everyone who cheats with their best friend's boyfriend does it because the best friend is actually awful and deserves it.

So what do you think? Do you need likeable main characters?

I love books. These are my random thoughts about them...

I currently have three books beside my bed, partially read. And as I read a fourth book, I've been thinking about what makes me stop reading. (For the record, though, I do intend to finish each of those three - just bit by bit.)

The reason is the same as when I was a teenager and scoffed at essentially any genre other than murder mysteries. No matter how wonderful the writing is, I have to be sucked in by the third page or it will take me weeks to finish a book. A good book I'll read in a day (given there is the necessary time). For example, on recent Saturdays I read Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall and Jodi Picoult's House Rules, each in less than 24 hours. Neither are short. Neither are murder mysteries.

But before I go on I must go back to my junior year of high school to a conversation I had with my english teacher. When I told her I had never stopped a book in the middle, she said, "But there are so many other books out there you could love, why waste your time on ones you don't?" I pondered this statement, then put down Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and never picked it up again.

Here's the thing - clearly Hemingway is an excellent writer. I'm not saying he isn't. But when I'm not invested in a book (which I wasn't with Hemingway), it takes me a while to read even though I read every day. So when I have shelves of books in my house I am itching to read, why am I forcing myself through a different one?

My bookshelf once upon a time... LOOK - it's The Sun Also Rises

In the end, I think it was pride. But there is another reason to keep reading, too. As an aspiring author, the best way to learn how to write is to read good writing. Let's take, for example, one of the half-read books beside my bed right now: Atonement.

I have passages galore highlighted in it, but I have little motivation to finish it. The writing is beautiful and stunning and I can learn from it, but the plot has taken forever (at least in my opinion) to develop and I'm still not really sure why I should care about the characters.

Somewhere around the end of middle school I couldn't find books that held my attention anymore, so I turned to murder mysteries and legal thrillers. From page one these books have suspense, so even if I wasn't crying over characters I was at least racing through the pages. I read every single Mary Higgins Clark and John Grisham book that existed, then discovered the plethora of other authors in the same genres.

Eventually, I began branching out again. I can't choose a favorite anything to save my life, but I can tell you without regret that my favorite book is The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Why? Well, I talk about that here. Not a murder mystery at all, but from page one I was drawn in and couldn't put it down.

Now I read a murder mystery only on a rare occasion, because that is not a genre I will ever write in so I do not need to be familiar with it. And I now find that a much broader range of books (and I mean BROAD, from chick lit to dystopian YA to non-fiction accounts of Mount Everest and Ebola) can suck me in and earn my devotion.

I truly believe that every person in this world could love reading, if only they found the right genre. Case in point: my mother. She never enjoyed reading. My entire life I never saw her read and finish a book. But she loves sewing, and in the past year she discovered a few series involving quilters and mysteries - and she's read several of them. She has been eager to read them, and tell me about them, and find more of them. I think that many of the people who tell me they don't like reading or don't have time for it have just never taken the time to explore books outside of what is required reading at school.

So what is my point, exactly? I'm not sure. In all honesty, I was about to go to bed. But in summary...

1. I think it's okay to stop reading a book in the middle...
2. But even a book you don't particularly love can still teach you something valuable.
3. Different genres, perhaps, are suitable for different parts of our lives...
4. and the reason there are so many different types of books is because we all have different tastes!

So what is your policy on not finishing a book? What makes you stop reading, if you do? Has your taste in genres changed over time? Seriously, I'd love your thoughts!