Just before the St Paul Public Libraries announced they were closing, my daughter Kate received a notice that Ann Patchett's The Dutch House was on hold for her after a long wait, but it was too late. How excited she was, therefore, when one day last week she got an email from her neighborhood library saying they would be open for a couple hours that day for patrons to pick up books they had waiting for them on hold. Yahoo!
Even though I have plenty of books on my shelves to read for the first time or to re-read, I admit I miss my frequent trips to the library, and I know when restrictions are lifted, that will be one of my first joyous outings.
Because of time spent with my father who is in decline and needs ongoing care, I am not reading more than usual, and, in fact, for awhile I had a hard time settling into a book when I had the opportunity. I was a bit concerned when I discarded book after book, reading only a few pages. Recently, however, reading has reappeared as my solace and my delight. I usually read around ten books every month, and this month I read twelve.
Here are my top four favorites for this month.
1. Swede Hollow by Ola Larsmo. (Fiction) Although it is about Swedish immigration to St Paul, this fascinating historical novel is not for Minnesotans only. I was so struck by the steadiness, the stalwartness, the resilience of these immigrants, and I suspect that is true for those who have come to this country in more recent years.
2. Little Bee by Chris Cleeve. (Fiction) This is also an immigration story, but so different. Little Bee is from Nigeria who enters the UK illegally after a tragic incident on a beach in Nigeria involving a couple from England. One of the characters is the couple's young son who thinks he is Batman and wears the costume constantly. I have not read any other books by this author, but will in the future.
3. The Longing for Home, Recollections and Reflections by Frederick Buechner. (Nonfiction) An uneven collection, I would say, but the title essay and one called "The Journey to Wholeness" are stellar. I keep thinking about them. Here's one section from the title essay:
"...what we furnished home with was ourselves, in
other words. We furnished it with the best that we knew
and the best that we were, and we furnished it also
with everything that we were not wise enough to
know and the shadow side of who we were as well as
the best side, because we were not self-aware enough
to recognize those shadows and somehow both to
learn from them and to disempower them." p. 15
4. Fifty Days of Solitude by Doris Grumbach. (Nonfiction) This has been waiting for me on my "to be read" (TBR) shelves for a long time and now clearly was the right time to read it. This book is a recollection of novelist Grumbach's decision to live in her coastal Maine home for 50 days, rarely speaking to anyone. The result is a meditation about what it means to write, to be alone, and to come to terms with mortality. I love this prayer, an evening prayer, she quotes from The Book of Common Prayer:
"O Lord, support me all the day long, until the
shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the
busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over,
and my work is done. Then in thy mercy grant me
a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last."
Bonus Titles from March
1. Convictions, How I Learned What Matters To Me by Marcus Borg (Nonfiction)
2. Writers and Lovers by Lily King (Fiction)
3. Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner (Fiction)
4. The Women in Black by Madeleine St John (Fiction)
5. The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell (Fiction)
6. Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen (Fiction) Actually read this in February, but had already written my post on favorite February books.
I hope during these days of social isolation you can find companionship in good books.
An Invitation
What have you been reading? Are you spending more time reading now?
This year I have rebonded with libraries.
The first library I remember was in my elementary school where the library consisted of temporary shelves in a hallway. A sort of reading nook with a limited number of books, but so seductive for this little girl who was on the path of becoming a voracious reader.
When we moved to a town smaller than the suburb where we lived in my early elementary years, I was old enough to bike to the city library. I recall a librarian noticed how frequently I was there and what I was reading, and she directed me to books I might not have discovered otherwise. I wish I remembered the titles of those books.
With each move after that, and there were many, a first item on the To Do list was to get a new library card. A real bonus was if I could get to the library on my own. When I was in college, I studied most of the time in the large reference room, comforted and encouraged by the books and the hushed silence around me. I felt studious and serious sitting at the heavy and masculine looking tables.
I have fond memories of other libraries that beckoned me over the years and, of course, memories of taking our children and grandchildren to libraries. The library habit dwindled over the years, however, as I built my own library. Independent bookstores became my passion, instead, especially the years that I worked at Odegard Books, a fabulous bookstore that no longer exists.
I continue to buy books and am a patron of independent bookstores like Arcadia Books in Spring Green, WI, and Next Chapter in St Paul, and Content in Northfield, MN, and on my bucket list is to go to Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN and owned by author Ann Patchett. However, I am more conscious of what I add to my personal stacks, for during this time of life I am more focused on downsizing and simplifying than acquiring. But this is also a time of heightened time of reading. I am devouring books.
Back to the library!
I now have a love relationship with the HOLD system--going online and requesting titles. Sometimes that means I have to wait for a long time for a title I want to read, but then when the email flashes in my inbox, saying a certain book is now ready for pickup, it is like receiving an unexpected gift. Books have always been my favorite present, and wow, I have received lots of presents in recent months.
For example, I just read The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, and I love this book so much that I am reluctant to recommend it because I don't want to know if you don't love it. I don't want to hear any criticism of this book! Isn't that crazy! I actually may request this book again and be the 173rd hold on 36 copies.
Right now I am waiting for The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (#29 on17 copies) and Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (#56 on 17 copies). Sometimes what I request is not a current bestseller on anyone's must read list, but is a book that needs to come from another library. Perhaps I heard about a book that appeals to me while listening to a podcast like "What Should I Read Next?" An example is a mystery set in Victorian England, A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn.
During the last few months I have read library copies of The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott, Maybe You Should Talk to a Therapist by Lori Gottleib, and The Other Americans by Laila Lalami. I enjoyed each one. Sometimes, however, I request a book, which I discover I don't like and how good it feels to simply return it to the library unfinished, knowing I had not bought it.
Writing this post has made me itchy to curl up with the next book on my list! Oh, how grateful I am to live where there are vibrant libraries and well-stocked independent bookstores owned by people who love books. I hope that is the case where you live.
An Invitation
Do you have any favorite library memories? I would love to know.
I guess it is time to make a confession: Books Are My Addiction. (Or at least my main one).
I have stashes of books I have not yet read. More than one stash.
One stash is on a shelf in the snug--mainly books I have found at Little Free Libraries in our neighborhood.
Another stash is hidden from view--on the back side of a pillar in the garret.
And then there are the miscellaneous books stacked on other shelves throughout the house. I think I have actually read more books currently in the house than there are books waiting to be read, but I am not willing to do a count.
And still I add more books, although not at the same rate as I did in earlier times of my life. Since January I have acquired eighteen books, and I confess that I purchased most of those. But not all, I hasten to add.
I know I could go a long time--a VERY long time--just reading what I have at my fingertips, but sometimes my TBR (To Be Read) list tugs, and I yearn to wander the stacks in the library. There is a kind of thrill, a rush, when I find a book that is on my TBR lists. One list in rough alphabetical order is for fiction and the other, which is more random, is nonfiction. Both lists are on my phone--handy when the car stops all on its own by the library entrance.
Recently, I made quite a haul at the library. Ten books--three nonfiction titles and seven novels. Once home I browsed my booty, both to determine what to read first, but also to make sure I wanted to actually read each one. In the process I realized that I have already read one of the titles, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, and rereading the summary, I remembered enjoying it. Cross that off the TBR list--no one said my lists are foolproof!
I decided the first book I would read from this current treasure chest would be On Beauty by Zadie Smith, a writer I have heard about, but have never read, and I love this book. Now you know what that means--her other books are now on my TBR list! As luck would have it, a few days after I started On Beauty I spotted her book White Noise in a Little Free Library--no question about bringing that home with me.
Has anyone read books by Maggie O'Farrell? Well, I checked out two novels by her the day I roamed the library--Instructions for a Heatwave and This Must Be The Place. I have no idea how those titles ended up on my TBR lists, but would you believe in the next couple days I heard glowing reviews of her books on a couple podcasts about books? I will read one of those titles next.
I know there are people who do not keep a backlog of books, who don't worry about having a book for every mood, every reading emergency, and who only bring one book at a time into the house and then read that one before getting another book, but that clearly is not me. Who are those people anyway? And I know there are people who have a philosophy of one book in/one book out. I do that with pairs of shoes and blouses, but not books.
I am apologizing ahead of time to my family when it is time to dispose of my books. I have been trying to clear the space of other belongings, but that just is not going to happen with my books. Here's my suggestion: Invite everyone who comes to my memorial service to take a book or two or three. Open the house to everyone on the block and tell them they can't leave without an armload of books. You are smart people, and I know you will figure out what to do.
In the act of confessing there is the underlying intention to do better, to change one's wayward ways. Well, I have another confession, I am not going to conquer my book addiction. I love having a store of books, read and unread, to remind me of all the beauty in the world, of how much I still need to learn and all the ways I need to grow, and to inspire me to stay awake to the glorious diversity around me.
I have 20 more pages in On Beauty to read, and I am going to do that right now.
An Invitation
What addiction do you have no intention of reforming? I would love to know.
Just before the St Paul Public Libraries announced they were closing, my daughter Kate received a notice that Ann Patchett's The Dutch House was on hold for her after a long wait, but it was too late. How excited she was, therefore, when one day last week she got an email from her neighborhood library saying they would be open for a couple hours that day for patrons to pick up books they had waiting for them on hold. Yahoo! 
