Sunday Salon: A Reading Retrospective

It is the memory that enables a person to gather roses in January. ~ Unknown

January 2004 got off to a rocky start. My workload at the office suddenly doubled, and two people I cared about were facing life and death health issues. One would not make it to the end of the month. I took solace in my books.

My ever supportive and loving husband granted my single book wish the Christmas before with the promise of a copy of Sara Nelson's So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading upon its release. It was the first book I read in 2004, and it earned my top rating.

. . . Someone in one of my online book groups said that this is the type of book any reader can write. Although I disagree that just anyone would be able to write so well, I do agree that Ms. Nelson touches on points that many book lovers can relate to. In this book, the author sets out to read a book a week and journal her experiences as she goes. It is not a book of reviews but is a book about how her life is impacted by the books she reads and vice versa. Ms. Nelson is witty and knows her subject matter very well . . . [excerpt from reading journal, January 2004]

Five years later, I remember little details about the book that I would have thought long forgotten by now. It is definitely one of those books that has stayed with me over the years.

That January I read my first review book--and, oh, was I ever nervous! I was one of 20 people selected to preview a book for Bookreporter.com. It was really an informal deal. All I had to do was write a brief summary of my impressions of the book and submit it to Bookreporter.com where it would be posted on their website. The book was called The Last Goodbye by Reed Arvin. In my journal I wrote: "His style reminded me of the old black and white movies . . ." I liked the book enough to add another of the author's books to my TBR collection.

I would fall head over heels for Tess Gerritsen's Harvest and Susan R. Sloan's Act of God that month; one a medical thriller dealing with organ stealing and the other a legal thriller touching on the controversial topic of abortion. January 2004 would also be the beginning of my love affair with P.D. James. She quickly became a favorite mystery author of mine after I finished reading Cover Her Face. P.D. James is gifted at drawing out her characters.

The less memorable books I read that month included Juno and Juliet by Julian Gough and Paragon Walk by Anne Perry, both of which I enjoyed at the time of reading. My only slight about Julian Gough's novel was a portion of the ending that left me dissatisfied.

I ended the month with Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. It is a book that still resonates with me today.

Two Chinese city boys, guilty of being the sons of doctors, are sent to a mountain village for re-education in the early 1970’s during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. There, the two best friends meet a beautiful girl who is the tailor’s daughter, discover a stash of Western books, and learn about love and life. How interesting, I thought, that these two boys, nearly men, were sent to the mountains to be cleansed of their intellectual ideas and backgrounds, to make them more like the peasants they were living among in the village, and yet it is they, with the outlawed books and “intellect,” that had a larger impact on the culture around them. Something as simple as a story from a book holds much power even in the subtlest of ways. This book was surprisingly light and easy to read. The author used humor throughout the book and his characters were sympathetic and extremely likeable. [journal entry, January 2004]

My reading that month five years ago took me all over the world and put me in numerous situations. My own stressors faded into the background for a brief while and brought me much needed relief.

January 2009 is nearly at an end, can you believe it? I am only a little farther along in The Woman in White than I was at this time last week (so much for finishing it this weekend). Company kept me away from the book last weekend, and my attention was not on books most of the rest of the week, admittedly. When I was reading, I was lost in a memoir called Walking Through Walls by Philip Smith. It reminds me a bit of Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors, another eccentric childhood story that both fascinates and amuses me while at the same time dredging up feelings of sadness and sympathy.

This week I will be posting my thoughts on recent movies I have seen along with my review of Zoo Station by David Downing. I hope you will stop in and say hello. Happy Reading!

Week in Review:
Interview with author Diana Spechler
Review of Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
The Year of Readers
Bookish Chatter

[Note: It is very difficult to type with a kitten laying across my arms.]