What should I read next?

What are your greatest fears? Public speaking? Showing up in public naked on accident? Death? 


You know what I'm really afraid of? Being stuck somewhere without paper and pen to write with and a book to read. Seriously. My husband always makes fun of me for how I pack. Even if we're just going somewhere overnight, I have to pack multiple books - so I have a book I'm actually in the mood to read. Sometimes you want a beautiful thought provoker, sometimes you want some silly brainless fun, but then there's always the random wild card. 


Maybe you can understand that having to put all my books away into boxes in preparation for our move, I'm feelin' pretty anxious. Granted I've got enough pages on my current book to last me probably until and through the move - just the thought that I could finish and not have enough books available makes me start to grind my teeth.


I used to be a compulsive book buyer. I currently have multiple boxes of books in three different cities. That's after several sessions of trying to go through them and take as many as possible to used book stores. 


[sidebar: One of my favorite literary passages is in Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, where the author walks you through a book store, not categorized by genres, but organized instead according to your experiences with books - probably inspired High Fidelity's autobiographical organization of albums. I can't do it justice, you should check it out for yourself.] 


Recognizing that I had a problem, I made a rule for myself a while ago that I had to read three books before I was allowed to buy another one, and that helped me curb the habit. I hardly ever buy books anymore, but that means that when I do, they really better be worth it. 


If you can remotely identify with me on any of this, you can perhaps share my excitement when I read Joanna Goddard's tip on this website that helps you figure out what to read next. It's like getting lost in a rabbit trail of movie trailers, checking out potential books to dive into. This is doing wonders to calm some of my weird anxieties. 


But here's the thing, I can't just trust a website, I need some testimonials to help me out. So while I'm dreaming about the day when I'll let myself buy my next book, you can help me make a good choice by giving me some input. 


Some recent books I've read and enjoyed lead to some potential suggestions:



1) Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. One of my favorite authors, Ondaatje's background as a poet clearly comes through in his prose. He's from Sri Lanka, where I studied abroad, and a good portion of the book takes place in the Bay Area, my most recent home. He pays beautiful homage to place while spinning riveting character development throughout an unconventional plot structure. 


Out of the recommended list, Saturday by Ian McEwan interests me. I enjoyed Atonement [thanks for lending that to me Emily!]. Is this one worth checking out?




2) Bossypants by Tina Fey. For my thoughts on that, see our conversational review post if you missed it. 


mmm . . . weird list of rec's. Possible website fail. Looking for hysterically funny here people. Not sure how Jane Eyre makes that list - good - but not quite what I'm going for with this one. Maybe Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner? 








3) The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik. It's full of research from all sorts of fields from Psychology to Computer Science, and it's woven together by great philosophical questions, and it's about babies. This woman foresaw my pregnant-waddle-entry into that Pegasus bookstore the day I found that book and wrote it just for me. I wasn't 100% satisfied, but I was quite stimulated and entertained. 


This one only yields a singular recommendation: Richard Wiseman's 59 Seconds. In reading about it I feel both intrigued and skeptical. Any input?

Hmmm . . . looks like I really need some back up. Have any Lobsters out there read these books? Got any thoughts? Should I check them out or stay away? Anyone else have fun with this "What to read next" website, or found it useful? 

Bossypants: A Conversational Review

We'd like to thank the wonder that is gchat for the following conversation about Bossypants by Tina Fey:





zoe: hullo!

emily: yo yo yo

zoe: so, you finished Bossypants, eh?

emily: indeed! i sat in barnes and noble for 2.5 hours on Saturday and finished it. so i didn't buy the book, but i was a sitting advertisement for them that whole time. i made sure the cover was visible and everything.

zoe: i did buy the book - a special splurge for myself. worth every penny.

emily: i almost wish i'd purchased it because i think it would be fun to read aloud to jeff.

zoe: so . . . do you not feel like her "voice" is similar to your personality/writing style? I just couldn't stop thinking of you the whole way through

emily: i feel horribly arrogant agreeing, but yes. not through the whole thing (i have not yet reached levels of comedic brilliance equal to something like her prayer for her daughter, for example), but occasionally yes.

i think what i loved about it was that i felt like i could be friends with her. she intertwines her thoughts on producing a major network television show with her struggle to plan a good birthday party with her daughter.

zoe: That writing device was so fun and also so profound. She effectively dignified motherhood as being similarly important as running a TV show and worth glorifying.

emily: exactly. i also plan to repeat one of her thoughts to myself whenever people say dumb things about my mothering skills (which i've heard happens to all mothers at some point). she said something like "no one ever says you HAVE to give birth when you're pregnant. if it's something you actually have to do, it doesn't need to be said."

zoe: that was so great - and unfortunately an important tool to have in your arsenal. i'm amazed at how everyone has an opinion about how to mother your child.

emily: blech, i'm not looking forward to that. i don't take criticism of any kind well.

zoe: i recently got a whole slew of that. everything from judgy-looks to full out comments. but the strangest thing was - they would be amazed at how good of a baby she was, then turn right around and tell me I was mothering her wrong. If I’m getting such great results, why are my methods so wrong?

emily: man. i would have punched them in the face.

zoe: another great comeback i can't get over is when someone uses a curse word to refer to her. She says, "No. You don't get to call me that. My parents love me; I'm not some[one] that's going to take that *%^&." No one ever calls her that word again - to her face at least. I love it. I really hope I can raise Sofia in such a way that if ever anyone dares say something so awful to her, she would have the same response. Someone should work that into anti-bullying programs!

emily: hahaha yes, that is brilliant.

other reasons i loved bossypants:

1.    i was either laughing or had a stupid grin on my face the whole time i was reading.

2. she is honest about what's rough about being famous (idiotic comments on the internet) and what's awesome about being famous (photoshoots)

3. she and her husband are still married and get to be fun and creative together.

4. her daughter's name is alice, and not carrot or beast or october or anything. (i realize that’s a reason i love tina, and not specifically the book, but still…)

and 5. i already had an affinity for the tina. i admit she could have written something less awesome than this and i would have still enjoyed it to some degree.

zoe: true. i think it did end up exceeding my expectations though.

just like Date Night - I thought "Steve Carrell and Tina Fey in a movie together? That's too brilliant to have any real possibility of being all that good/funny" but it really really was. so funny that i could not watch it after my C-section cause it hurt my abs so bad to laugh that much

emily: haha awesome

zoe: other female comedians believe this myth that only men can be funny - so in order to get a laugh - they try to tell jokes that men would tell. but the thing is, funny men are ones that name surprising, unspoken truths about their own personal experience. But the woman comic isn't personally experiencing being a man. Tina, on the other hand, is funny because she names surprising, unspoken truths about being a woman. so she cracks the male-comedian code and dispels the myth about female-comedians by being so effective herself.

  

emily: i totally agree. basically, she’s brilliant.

Zoe gives bossypants two claws up. So does Emily. That’s four claws up, Lobsters. Go buy (or read in the bookstore) Bossypants today. We command you!