currently reading: The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard
books finished:
Saul Stories by Elizabeth Ellen
Turning Japanese by MariNaomi
Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higgins
House Arrest by K.A. Holt
Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalt
Dear Zealot: Letters from a Divided Land by Amos Oz
books bought:
So Much for That Winter by Dorthe Nors, trans. Misha Hoekstra
The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard
books received:
I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson (e-galley)
Dear Zealot by Amos Oz
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Hey you,
I thought I was going to lose my fucking mind today when a guy came into the bookstore and said, "I'm looking for a book about World War II, but I don't remember the title." Maybe you don't work in a bookstore and don't know this, but you could have a bookstore just dedicated to books about WWII. It would be like saying, "I'm looking for that book about friendship." I asked if he had any other details of the plot he could share with me and he said, "It takes place in Germany." I wanted to flip the desk but we don't really have a flippable desk.
Anyway, I eventually found him the book because I am great and smart and have mastered google.
It's been a big week for reading at the bookstore for me personally. Often people come in and say something like, "Wow, it must be so nice to work at a bookstore, where you can just read all day!" and I look at them like the guy in that "okay...." gif and think, Yeah, the bookstore runs itself around me. And usually there really are a lot of things that need to be done. But this week was quiet, and I read like five books standing behind the desk. And at the same time I've been complaining that I don't have anything to read, because that feels true, even though in most of those cases I was in the middle of a book, and in every case I was standing in a bookstore. (I think if I had like, a single extra degree of self-awareness I would be very embarrassed all the time.) This feeling obviously has more to do with me than it does with the quality of whatever I'm reading. It just seems like nothing can keep my attention, or when a book is great I feel removed from it – it seems great from a distance. And everything else feels like I read it a very long time ago. Which is why these missives have been coming a little slower.
Here's everything I'm actually reading right now:
And also the insomnia books I pick up when I can’t get back to sleep:
It takes me a while to get through the insomnia books, because I read them in very small bits, and then divide that by three. I don’t know why there’s such a firm divide between regular books and insomnia books but that there is such a difference feels both inevitable and surprising. Sometimes during the day I think about picking up one of these books, or bringing them with me to read on the T, but I never do it. You know when you’re watching a TV show with a friend or partner and then you find out they watched more of it without you? It would feel like that.
I’m sorry you signed up for a books newsletter and I didn’t, um, talk about any books by name. That seems like an embarrassing oversight. In my defense, I’m not sure how anyone can expect anything from me for the next few days, what with me having to listen to Ariana Grande’s Sweetener on repeat and all. You should really give it a listen. It’s as good as everyone is saying.
Your friend,
Smalls