Welcome to my weekly Saturday feature here at Erin Reads, where I highlight new books that have entered my life, what I’ve been reading, and what’s happened on Erin Reads over the past week.
New Acquisitions
The vlog is back! This week I have books from several different sources to share.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hniCoJsg0qw
- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman: Vishy recommended this book of essays to me when I mentioned Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I was thrilled to find a copy at Half Price Books!
- My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor: My mom passed this memoir along to me. It’s a brain scientist’s story of recovering from a stroke.
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy: Also from my mother; I’m planning to try some of Tolstoy’s short fiction at some point, since I’m enjoying War and Peace so much!
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: Clare from the Literary Omnivore was kind enough to give away a copy of this one, and I was lucky enough to win. I’ve never read it, even though I really enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
- Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell: I’m looking forward to reading this travelogue/memoir/exploration of language by a linguistic anthropologist.
TBR Additions
Some personal things came up this week, and my blog reading suffered. As a result, I added nothing new to my TBR list this week. I’m not worried…I’ll be back to adding things soon!
Read This Week
This week I continued my stroll through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I have about 100 pages left and am deliberately reading slowly to make it last! I also started The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for this month’s Reading Buddies as well as Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain.
On audio, I wrapped up A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson for Reading Buddies as well as The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. I’m currently listening to The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, which is fascinating so far!
Erin Reads Recap
- I started the week with a Sunday Salon post in which I asked where you stand regarding reading up on authors’ lives.
- Tuesday I sent you over to Bonjour, Cass! where I faced Book Apocalypse.
- Wednesday’s Classics Reclamation Project post looked at my first classic from the 1960s, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré.
- Next up, I shared my thoughts on Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
- Finally, yesterday, I posted the Reading Buddies discussion post for The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Your Turn!
How was your reading week? Do tell!
Ivan Ilyach is the only Tolstoy I’ve liked. Have fun with it! 🙂
Excellent! I hope to 🙂
I think you’ll like Fadiman’s Ex Libris.
And congratulations on being accepted into the bunker!
I think so too. I spent way more than I usually spend on used books on Ex Libris based on the bits I read. And thanks! It’s good to know I have a place to go should the Apocalypse hit.
I love Ex Libris! It’s one of my favorites.
Awesome! From the bits I’ve read, I think I’ll really like it, too.
I’m pretty sure I read Ex Libris but didn’t like it too much. Those types of books almost require you to have read many of the same books as the author. But I might be misremembering that.
I read the beginnings of a couple of the essays, and the ones I read seemed to be about bookish topics more than specific books. But it might just be the couple I read! I do tend to prefer essays about books I’ve read to ones I haven’t, where particular books are concerned. We’ll see!
I can’t wait to hear what you think about The Hobbit. I thought the Lord of the Rings was all over the place, but I loved The Hobbit. It’s simpler and less boring. LOL. 🙂
Lord of the Rings had its moments for me. Overall, I liked it, but there were some slow/boring/confusing bits. (I still don’t know why there had to be a Sauron AND a Saruman…I couldn’t keep them straight!) If the Hobbit is the good things about LOTR without the less good, I’m sure I’ll love it!
Wonderful acquisitions, Erin! I hope you enjoy reading ‘Ex Libris’. It is one of my alltime favourite books. I liked Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ when I read it. It is quite a deep book. I love ‘The Hobbit’! ‘My Stroke of Insight’ looks like a very poignant memoir. ‘Madre’ looks quite fascinating from your description of it.
Glad to know that you are enjoying reading Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ and ‘Jane Eyre’. Also glad to know that you enjoying listening to Simon Winchester’s ‘The Professor and the Madman’. I attended a talk by Winchester a few years back when he spoke about this book and it was quite fascinating. Each of his books is well-researched and unique!
Enjoy reading all your new acquisitions 🙂
Oh, I bet Winchester was fascinating to listen to! There was a brief interview between Winchester and another gentleman at the end of my audio version, which was very interesting to listen to. I loved how, in The Professor and the Madman, he took such an obscure and somewhat random story and made it into a cohesive, interesting tale. I haven’t read anything else by him, but I’d definitely try another of his books.
Yes, he was wonderful! I haven’t read ‘The Professor and the Madman’ yet, but I have read a travelogue on China by Winchester called ‘The River at the Center of the World’. It is quite wonderful! I also saw a recent book by Winchester in the bookstore called ‘Atlantic’ which is a history of the Atlantic Ocean and how it influenced the lives of people and civilizations. It was a huge temptation, but because I had got too many books recently, I resisted it.
Oh, Atlantic sounds very much like a book my dad would enjoy (me as well…but especially him!). I’ll keep it in mind for his birthday, and then maybe borrow it 🙂 I’ll definitely read something else by Winchester at some point!
Jane Eyre is my favorite book. It reawakened my love of reading as an adult and showed me that you don’t have to read only fluff for entertainment. We did Poisonwood Bible in bookclub a while back and it was a good discussion book for sure. I’m on a break from Tolstoy but can recommend his short stories. I’m also halfway through A Walk in the Woods and look forward to a conversation about it with you.
I’m glad so many of the books I’ve read / am reading worked out well for you! Jane Eyre definitely didn’t read the way I’d always thought classics would read. Poisonwood Bible is already starting to be a good discussion, even though I still have a couple hundred pages left to go!