First it was Elizabeth Strout. A thorough reading and rereading of Olive Kitteridge wasn’t enough and I delved back into her other novels with abandon: jealous and thirsty.
Then it was an inordinate amount of chick lit, the best of which (probably Jennifer Weiner?) I’m even almost too embarrassed to admit.
Right now it is John Steinbeck. East of Eden sent me in a tizzy and just the first few chapters made my heart ache so much that I had the rest of his novels on reserve at the library before I even finished. They are stacked askew on my bedside table right now—balanced precariously on a bevy of magazines, in between a half-empty water bottle and my iPod.
Growing up in the south bay and near Salinas (Steinbeck’s stomping grounds), I actually read much of this in high school. But I can’t remember—or I’m a different person now, and the words were wasted on me, and so back to them I go to feast.
I am pregnant and so I’m especially lazy, and especially (maybe too much so?) forgiving of that laziness. I have no qualms sneaking to my bedroom in the middle of the day to partake my weakness: I love to read. And right now, I love it more than anything. Is it that I know these days of indulging my weakness are numbered? That soon I won’t be able to read so intensely, so freely?
Anyway, I know about Goodreads and all, but I’m curious about your summer reading lists, and maybe what keeps a permanent place on your nightstand these days. Are you are reader too? What are you reading? What’s next? Or are you in a place in your life where reading for pleasure is a luxury? And if so, what’s on your wish list?
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