Looks like I am well on my way to owning all of the 101Books We Can't Live Without!

The Imperfectionists: Book One

Starting The Imperfectionists, I must admit I was a little confused. It seems that when I first pick up a book and read the back cover, it doesn’t actually register with me. I don’t seem to understand what the book is actually about until I start reading it. But, I like it that way. Always a surprise when reading a book. 

After reading the first two sections, you might, as I immediately thought, think that this is a collection of short stories. But, The Imperfectionists is more than that. As you keep reading, each of the characters begin to appear in other stories, keeping them all tied together. 

Basically, this story is about journalists and readers who are involved some way with this particular newspaper. But digging deeper, it's about so much more than that. It's about people compromising their beliefs because sometimes they're just tired of waiting around for things to get better. It's about people who are tired with living their lives the way they have been. It's about people who think they are a certain type of person, only to discover that they aren't that person at all. 

Generally, I am not a fan of writing in present tense. But author Tom Rachman did it flawlessly. He was able to write with such beautiful language, that it almost transcended past/present tense. It's like I didn't even pay attention to the individual words, because the deeper meaning of the story was so much more wonderful. Rachman found beautiful ways to say even the most mundane things…. 

"Over the next few weeks, she hangs around the apartment, drinking herbal tea, watching Italian variety shows. She is crotchety with him, then apologizes. Once healed, she resumes her photography project on graffiti but does not return to yoga." 


This is definitely going on my list of books that I couldn't live without! 

Writing By Hand

One of the first books that I remember reading and absolutely loving was A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving There's always just been something about the way that Irving writes. It grabs me and I can never seem to put the book down. Through Twitter I recently found this article in the New York Times. It just a simple article, some questions and answers. But, there's a line in it that Irving says which I love. 

 "I don’t read anything electronically. I don’t write electronically, either — except e-mails to my family and friends. I write in longhand. I have always written first drafts by hand, but I used to write subsequent drafts and insert pages on a typewriter. Now (for the last two books) I write all my drafts by hand. It’s the right speed for me — slow."

It shows in his books. And I think that I'm the same way. I type so fast that often times, I don't even have the time to think about what I'm writing before I write it. 

It's still nice to put a pen to paper every now and then. 

Delays and BEA

Turns out I picked an awful two weeks in my life to decide to start blogging. I attended Book Expo America in New York City last week as an Exhibitor/Buyer and so the week was completely full of books, friends, excellent meals, tasty drinks and Broadway Plays.

I received some great galleys that I'm really excited about!

As for the positive tune that everyone is singing about BEA in articles, well, that wasn't exactly the same tune I was hearing on the floor. Everyone I talked to agreed that while it was cool that many civilians were there, actual sales for the books were at an all-time low. All the civilians were there just to pick up free books (obviously! because who wouldn't want to, right?). So, it merely gave the allusion that there were lots of people there. Smart on the planning of BEA.

Anyways... enough about that. I should start posting reviews here soon. I don't have another trip planned for a while!