The beautiful thing about an eReader is you can take a large number of books with you, but not have the extra weight. They do not, however, feel the same. While I prefer to read them myself, I have been using my library’s audiobooks to help me through my commutes daily (17 miles should really not take an hour or more, but sadly it does). That being said, when you are packing up for a week at the beach, and you are only one of 4 in the car, you don’t want to bring too many books. So I downloaded my Goodreads Decathalon book on my phone, popped my library book and my kindle in my bag, and we were off to the races. Since I am unable to ride the bike or kayak due to my knee, I was set for poolside.
First day, I finished the Thirty Nine Steps, and was a bit disappointed – I was hoping for more excitement and chases, but I forgot when it was written – but it was a pleasant read. Next day, I read my library book. And then to my horror – we maxed out the devices allowed for free. I didn’t have enough books downloaded on the kindle yet!!!! I read Life after Coffee, a book I was cautious about, not being able to be picky as it was the only book downloaded I had not read yet. The book was actually perfect for me! While it is about coffee, the main character is a woman that is the bean buyer for a small boutique coffee venture, it is more about the need to have balance in life. Amy is the breadwinner of her family, with her husband staying home with her two kids. As the story begins, you see them struggling to accept that she needs to go away again for weeks. When she is abruptly out of a job, she begins the struggle of becoming a stay at home mom, all the animosity that comes from mom’s that judge her for needing to work away from the house, and her own guilt on not being a good parent. All moms – those that are working full time at home, full time at an office, or part time at each, have struggled with the guilt and anger of being judged. Coming to terms with this, and all the choices that she has made to get her to this place, leads her to make decisions that I didn’t see coming, but was very glad it happened. Instead of the pat hallmark movie ending, this one had a twist that didn’t allow for the woman to give everything up to get what she wanted.
And then I went for coffee. Starbuck’s wifi helped me out. I downloaded everything I could from my amazon account, and set to make the decision about what to read next. In order to not get into a bind, I figured that I should read a book that is known to be longer, so I didn’t end up chewing through everything too fast so I would have nothing else to read. Thus, I downloaded The Name Of the Rose and Nobel House. I had started reading the first one, but didn’t get past 6 % when I realized, I just didn’t care. It was the second time I had tried it, but I was not going to torture myself if it wasn’t catching me. On to Nobel House. This book, first published in 1981, is a tome on Business and Hong Kong history. Well written, I don’t know if it was because I was reading this non-stop as my only distraction, but I found I was getting bored with the huge number of details provided about the people, their ancestors, the political history, and the relationships. There were a few key players, Ian, Gront, Line, Casey, Brian and Armstrong, but after I skipped about half 3 days in, I don’t feel I missed anything in the story. It was a good diversion, but I feel like I was ready to move on to a new book after that last day. And so I did.
Today, I started The Muralist. Looks interesting – learning about the art world of WPA, like in Mary Coin, and a mystery on how the aunt disappears. I will let you know what I learn. Unfortunately, my reading time will be less next week. My boss is expecting me back at work. I really will need a lot of coffee to get there!
The Source 4 Books 