November Book Recommendations & Reading

My love affair with books began pretty early. I was the type that saved pennies for books instead of toys and could crack through 4 or 5 a week. Travelling pre-internet meant I always had a book for long haul flights or bus rides. There was nothing I loved more than a rainy day and a book or reading something so good just before bed that you have the best dreams.

There\’s a lot of reasons why I fell off the reading bandwagon; part of it started in 2005 when I suffered huge memory issues before being diagnosed with Celiac and resolving that. I couldn\’t remember what I read on a previous page which made reading super frustrating. It took me about a year and a half before I got back up to speed. But by then I was out of the habit, my mobile phone became a reading tool on the daily or my computer on long flights plus the whole \’just got too busy and tired\’ poor excuse.

Over the years I\’ve accumulated more books than I\’ve been able to read and it finally got to the point where I just couldn\’t look at that bookshelf without feeling guilt. That, plus I also saw the list of books referenced on Gilmore Girls and when I tweeted it out, my friends (whose brains I deeply envy) shared that they\’d read at least double the amount that I had. So I realised I had to really up my reading game.

So I\’m bumping this old 2007 post back up (and removed the initial contents) because it had a lot of great reading suggestions that I thought would be a great list for anyone who\’s also in the same place as me – wanting an excuse to get back into reading and not sure where to start. Maybe this list (or Rory\’s!) can help.

On my nightstand for November:

The Road Not Taken and Other Poems by Robert Frost: I confess to buying this because of the cover. I\’ve always struggled with poetry so we\’ll see how this goes.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America\’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson: This has been recommended by so many people that as a non-American who wants to try to understand so many situations even a little better, I thought this might be a good place to start.
A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway: I started and stopped this so many times that I\’m just committing to getting through it.
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography Hardcover by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Love this so much. There\’s a lot of info in here but if you\’re an Ingalls fan or just an American West history fan, this is a really, really good read.