Book Buying Spree

My stacks of “Books To Read” grows steadily larger and larger – near to toppling over from their precarious perch upon my old fashioned, no longer used scale.

Here’s the interesting part: along with the growing number of books I have yet to read is the burgeoning stack I’ve started and then abruptly abandoned.
     Too intricate
     Too slow moving
     Too long
     Too small font 
 
Not willing to actually bash an author – people I deeply admire in general – I will forgo specific titles to be avoided at all costs.
 
With my husband’s looming surgery, however, I was hell bent on tracking down super absorbing books to both calm me down and divert me.
 
Here’s two:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
 

 

The Midnight Library deals with that provocative, emotion laden topic: REGRETS.
     As in the road not taken
     As in the talent not tapped into
     As in the relationship left unexplored 
     As in the opportunity missed
 
Who among us doesn’t wonder where would we be if we had gone to a different college, moved to a different city, embarked on a different career path, or married our high school sweetheart?
 

The second attention grabbing novel is The Plot – a story of an “ordinary” writer who gets a glimpse of an extraordinary storyline from a former student and runs with it. It’s his fear of discovery that peoples the story – and the plagiarized tale he tells is added spice to the plot of The Plot. 
 

Along with the novel’s twists and turns is an added bonus: Korelitz utilizes lots of SAT words I haven’t used in years – words whose meanings I only dimly recall. 
     Vapidity – dullness, flatness 
     Cogent- a clear, logical and convincing case or argument 
     Opined – hold and stated as one’s opinion 
     Purloin – to steal
     Sanguine – optimistic or positive especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation
     AND my absolutely favorite, though not even a word when I took the SAT’s, and just added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2018: Mansplaining – when a man is compelled to explain or give an opinion about everything – especially to a woman. Often spoken in a condescending manner, even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or even if it’s none of his business. (OMG! I love this term!)
 
Happy reading.
Happy vocabulary building.
And Keep Preserving Your 
Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor 
 
PS While we are on the subject of reading, I’m in New York City. Every day on my walk to the hospital to visit my husband, I pass kiosks sporting faded signs indicating they sell newspapers. But I never see any. 
 
Yesterday, I stopped mid-step, pivoted back to the kiosk I had just passed and asked a simple question: Can I buy today’s newspaper paper here?
 
“Nope, lady,” the young proprietor quipped in a bored voice. “We don’t sell newspapers here anymore.” 
 
Imagine visiting New York City and not readily finding a Sunday New York Times to buy and read. 
 
Yeah, yeah, I know I can get it on-line, but my senses rebel at the sterile thought of it.