So Many Books, So Little Time

The Lifeline Bookfest is a favourite event of mine. Where else can you take twenty dollars and come home with an armful of books. It can be a bbit hit and miss, more hit if you are looking for Danielle Steele or Jacky Collins, more miss if you are seeking Wally Lamb or Margaret Atwood. I am an open mided book seeker, if I have heard of it before then I'll give it a go. If I haven't I'll still think seriously about it. My husband has a very specific taste in books, and managed to come home empty handed. It's all a mystery to me.

One of my finds this time was So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. It is an interesting idea, a book a week for a year, not an impossible goal, but certainly a challenging one for many people. Sara Nelson discusses many, but not all the books she has read throughout the year, but not in a normal book review sense, so much as a reflection of the books and their impact on her as a reader. It is a form of review I find very interesting. Let's be honest, the reason we like or dislike a book is far more intangible than the average book review. It goes beyond the actual words, and into our own lives and experience. Books I love are not just well written, though that is important to keep me in the story, but evoke an experience that I can relate to. Not necessarily one that I have had, but one that I can understand. I love characters I can empathise with, even if the milieu is absolutely foreign to me.

Sara Nelson has made me want to read my books more thoroughly, to understand more about myself through watching the characters on the page. I have much food for thought.