Non Fiction Non Fun

See that thing down at the bottom of my sidebar called “Currently Reading”? I’ve replaced my old “Currently Reading” list with this one, from the Web site Shelfari. Shelfari is a social networking site for readers. It lets me set up my own “shelf” (in this case, containing the books that I am in the process of reading), and then Shelfari provides a widget that I post on my blog that can show you what is on that shelf. Click the book title link and you go to the Shelfari page about that book. From there you can read what other people have to say about it.

Okay, but notice how many books are on that shelf? What is my problem? I keep starting new books but not finishing old ones. I believe the problem is in the number of non-fiction books that I have started. I have been reading the essays in Cleopatra’s Nose for something like six months. Sometimes I really like it, but other times, not! And The Best Women’s Travel Writing is really a slog. I only read that while having ultrasound therapy on my elbow at the chiropractor’s office. I keep the book in my car so I can take it in to the clinic with me. Not the best recipe for getting through a book quickly. But I'll have plenty more chances to read it, since I spent the weekend using one of these and now my tendinitis is worse than ever. And finally, there is The Girls Who Went Away, which is completely changing the way I look at adoption, but which is also one of the saddest books I have ever read. There are certain days when I just cannot cope with it. Like, most days.

Which leaves two fiction titles on the shelf: one is an audiobook by Patricia Marx which is funny, but for some reason I can’t seem to get back to it, and the other is The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. Now THAT, I feel like reading. It is absolutely great, and you will undoubtedly read a post about it here long before I get around to writing about any of the others.