I feel a bit stressed out about my choices this month. I have a lot of long to very long books on my list. Here's the list of remaining titles with length:
All The King's Men: 672 pages
Best and the Brightest: 720 pages
Blind Assassin: 544 pages
Book of Night Women: 432 pages
Bound: 336 pages
Charlie Wilson's War: 520 pages
Country Driving: 488 pages
Cutting for Stone: 667 pages
Embracing Defeat: 680 pages
Matterhorn: 640 pages
Private Life: 416 pages
Warmth of Other Suns: 640 pages
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: 356 pages
I mean, what in the hell was I thinking? Remember last February? I was able to breeze right through Amsterdam and get to Tournament reading. This year, I just don't know what to do. The good news is that I've already complete 8 of the 16 Tournament books, so that's actually looking pretty good moving forward.
Want to weigh in and help me decide? Here are the 3 I'm considering with pros and cons for each:
Pros: It's shorter than almost everything else on the list. It was given to me by a parent of one of my students. This woman's name (also Jennifer) and I run into each other at the Starbucks and talk about what we've been reading. She's a serious reader and she knows what she likes, and so I trust the recommendation.
Cons: Despite the recommendation, the topic of the book just doesn't sound super interesting to me, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Also, it's a novel and I'll be reading a lot of novels this month.
Pros: In the scheme of things also short. Next month, I start teaching Africa books to the kids. Although I'd never have them read this, it's always good to know more and have more background.
Cons: This book has a reputation for being brutally depressing.
Pros: Recommended to me by Erik, who has a pretty good sense of the kind of non-fiction I tend to like. Of all the titles above, it's the only one available in the Kindle lending library for Prime members, so I can read it FOR FREE on my Kindle. I've seen the movie, so I'm already familiar with the basics of the plot.
Cons: It's much longer than the others.
What do you think? If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Jenny
#2 is definitely out. You don't need anything brutally depressing right now.
ReplyDeleteBetween #1 and #3... I'm going with #1 (I even consulted with Bill on this and he said the same). I hear you on the "novel" problem, but hey -- you've got 2 friends (Jennifer and me) to discuss it with, so that'll get you through. Right now, you need something short.
Plus, I think you'll want to spend a little more time with #3, since you're already familiar with the story. Burning through it because you already know what's going to happen seems like you might not give it the attention it deserves (even though it's free...)