Fess up

In my last post, I confessed an obsession based on recording too much info in the form of electronic data bases, having succumbed to modernity and putting my collection of yellow-lined pads to rest. My book lists go back many years and wading through available book synopsis, reviews, Goodreads, word of mouth and the best-of book lists in search for the next read gets harder and harder. We live in the age of too much info at our fingertips. My fingertips are calloused for sure.

In the “old” days of wandering through the candy store-a.k.a libraries with physical shelves, I was endlessly overwhelmed at the number of tempting tomes I lugged to the check out desk to consume before the due date (online renewal being an option). It is even harder now, since my quest for each book to be a great read, a literary gem that I “can’t put down.”  Not every book fits that bill of course, it is what I anticipate and hope for with each choice.

Decision making is truly an art. What gets in my way is my confessed tendency to become too “cerebral,” defined as a tendency to intellectualize and over-analyze every step of the way instead of just zeroing in on the decisive moment. I know I am not alone. Picking a “good” read is usually not life threatening, not as essential to our careers, health, or well being as the larger decisions we have to make through out life, but, none-the-less, remains a challenge.

So, as a follow up to my last blog and my data base library and the desire for word of mouth recommendations from revered family and friends with similar obsessions, I am asking for your input. In trade for suggestions of your favorite reads, I offer the following list for your consideration to read and some images from my book projects.

A few quickly chosen favorites starting with fiction (especially expressing my tendency towards historical fiction) All the Light you Cannot see, Anthony Doerr, The Invention of Wings, Susan Monk Kidd, TransAtlantic, Colum McCann, Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Discovery of Chocolate, James, Runcie, The Reader, Bernhard Schlink and many more.

Some non fiction favorites: 1491, New Revelations of America Before Columbus, Charles Mann.

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Nafisi, Azar, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart, Sixpence House, Paul Collins, Prague Winter, Madeline Albright–her autobiography, True North and Road from Coorain, autobiography by Conway, Jill Ker, Longitude, Dava Sobel, Evangaline, Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  I best stop there short of listing favorite authors, genres and themes. I look forward to your offerings, especially to download on my Kindle for our forthcoming trip to Israel with our family. There will be much more to share upon our return. Happy holidays to all, good health, good weather and good times. Grafiti found along the way Book of graphics Open book sculpture, 3 gorges project, China