September was a slower reading month for me...not sure why exactly. I only finished four books over 200 pages--still one a week, I guess.
September 1 - 5
*None
September 6 - 12
*None
September 13 - 19
*Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury
September 20-26
*The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne
*The Fast Diet: The Secret of Intermitent Fasting - Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer by Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer
September 27 - 30
*The Martian by Andy Weir
The book I enjoyed the most was
The Martian by Andy Weir. Its one of those books I just couldn't put down. Not the best book I ever read or anything, by far, but non-stop, compelling action. It made me fly through it in just a couple a days--quite a feat for a slower reader like me. My dad loaned me his copy, oh, I don't know, six months ago. He'd read it and enjoyed it and passed it along to me. Matt read it in August. He really enjoyed it. So much so that he put it directly on my nightstand with a, "you really should read it." I dilly-dallied a couple more weeks and then--boom--got so sucked into the how-is-he-going-to-get-out-of-this-one drama that it was almost painful to have to put it down. I now hear that a movie is being made based on the novel. I could see that. It would be perfect high-drama for a movie. There were a few points I found pretty far fetched, but overall I enjoyed it very much.
The World's Strongest Librarian started out strong, but had a lackluster conclusion--made even more so after I read online that the author and his wife (a major character in the book) divorced since its release. That kind of put a damper on the whole "power of family," part of the book. Some of his depictions of the library patron's and his interactions with them quite literally made me laugh out loud. I could relate here or there from my own experiences working in a library. As I was reading I again thought, "I don't know if I would want to be a public librarian." I kind of like it here in my sweet, little private gig. The public is, well, much more diverse. Some of his anecdotes were hysterically funny in their absurdity. People can be so strange--and it sure seems a lot of strange ones like the library. I learned quite a bit about Tourette's and the myriad ways it can present. I went online and found video of Josh Hanagarne and others living their lives--talking, walking, cooking--all punctuated by their tics, so I could better understand what they're dealing with every day. What an unfortunate, bizarre affliction! All in all it was an unusual blend of library, Mormonism, Tourette's Syndrome, and strength training. A weird combo, but not an unenjoyable one.
The Fast Diet was quite an interesting read. I picked it up after watching a health documentary called
Eat, Fast, and Live Longer. Its a really interesting idea and there is a lot of promising science going on surrounding fasting and calorie restriction (though I don't really care for that latter terminology). Even without the science though I can make some anecdotal connections. It makes sense to me that since humans evolved to survive periods of famine that our modern keep-ourselves-always-full lifestyle would be problematic for our bodies. Food is everywhere and easy to get these days. Its logical to me that this situation might not be the best for us when it comes to waistlines and our health. So, I am dabbling in intermittent fasting. This is my third week. Its actually surprisingly easy. Much easier than I'd thought since I love food so darn much. We'll see how it play out.
I picked up Ray Bradbury's
Long After Midnight because I made a book display in the library for his birthday in August. When I was taking it down weeks later I wasn't really sure I'd ever read any Ray Bradbury except for Fahrenheit 451. I thought I should remedy that. The collection of short stories was good--some better than others, of course. I really liked the one about the soldier who invents the machine that destroys all weaponry. And the one about the blue martian bottle that holds whatever is most desired. The October Game was pretty sick and twisted. It--and a few others--made me mentally compare Bradbury to Edgar Allen Poe. They could be some seriously dark fellows.
Weeks passed: 36 (and a few days)
Books read: 58
Recaps for the previous months can be found by following these links:
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August.
Wonderful cat pictures!! What does Ginger like to read?
ReplyDeleteI saw that fast-two-days-a-week idea in another book - it does sound interesting. It was a cookbook by Nancy Baggett. Don't know if I could do it, though.
Thanks! She is so gorgeous its easy to get good photos of her. She doesn't like to read, really. All paper is for shredding or chewing. Someday I hope she is the sort ot sit on my lap while I read, but she's too much of a busy body for that, generally.
DeleteAs to the fasting thing--the part I find makes it do-able is that one fasting days they "permit" 500 calories. So, its not like water alone. That would be much more daunting, I think.