I have had some trouble figuring out what to write about here: what do I want to write, like to write, what should I be writing, what should I not be writing, etc. Just another regularly scheduled what-am-i-doing-with-my-life-what-does-it-all-mean?? crisis, I won’t bore you with the details.

But as I gazed vacantly into yet another empty white post box, I also realized that I haven’t been reading much that I want to tell y’all about. I’ve been reading, yes, reading quite a bit. A few books I’ve had strong feelings about, yes, but those strong feelings were… complicated. And the rest? Good fun, but nothing worth writing home about.

So here’s what I’ve been up to:

Reading Nonfiction

I went from The Happiness Project to Michael Moss’s Salt Sugar Fat… from a straightforward, easy to read, but ultimately feel-goody memoir to a straightforward, easy to read, but ultimately depressing corporate exposé. I have said pretty much everything I could say about The Happiness Project, but I might need to write more about Salt Sugar Fat at some point. However, it’s one of those books that I could ramble on and on and on about until everyone who doesn’t have my food fixation falls down dead, so I need some time to stew on it. In the meantime, I suggest you don’t buy any Twinkies, Lunchables, Coke, sweetened yogurt, or anything with an ingredients label. You’ll be happy about it later.

 

Digital Books

Did I tell you my mama got me a Kindle Fire for my birthday? Well she did, and I’ve found the Kindle format much more compatible with Netgalley and Edelweiss than reading ePubs on my borrowed Nook. I’ve been trying to remember that reading advanced copies is not just a hobby & sport, but a way to get a feel for where trends are going, to dip into books I might not otherwise want to spend the time on. Nantucket Blue is one such ARC: it didn’t look great, but it looked readable. Aaaaand I found it readable, satisfyingly beachy, but not great. And of course my better nature is squashed when I spot THE LAST ALICE BOOK ON NETGALLEY (Edelweiss, my badddd). Holy cats… as promised, Always Alice (or Now I’ll Tell You Everything?? Why does this book have two titles?) takes Alice from college all the way through age 60, in 400 pages or less. In other words – it was a hot, hot mess, but a mess you couldn’t pay me to put down. I have so many emotions about this series. So. So. So many.

 

Filthy Books

So if it is a weekend day when you have nothing much to do except lay around in bed and read and nap, sometimes it is difficult to resist reading a book that is just a super-duper tawdry 50-Shades knock-off romance. That is happening. I read these two, and no I am not going to tell you what I thought about them.

Listening to Books

Ever since I made my “audiobooks inside the house” rule, I’ve really been digging on audiobooks again. Go figure. Monkey Mind was a good listen, although I’m not sure I would have had to patience to read through someone’s neuroses in such excruciating detail if I was reading in on paper. Where’d You Go, Bernadette was super fun and surprisingly easy to follow given it is mostly told in letters and emails and such. I was sad when it ended.

I may or may not have purchased little running belt with a pocket with not only running, but audiobook listening in mind.

But if you aren’t running, then it’s just a fanny pack. Guys, I bought a fanny pack, to serve my audiobook habit. I don’t know what this means, but it can’t be good.