Tag Archives: reading recommendations

I’m all booked for 2022. How about you?

Posted on January 8, 2022 by polloplayer

With yet another COVID surge raging, here we are, all hunkered down again. Ugh. There’s nothing to do! Yet I’ve never been busier, because instead of panicking over how many shopping days there are until Christmas, I’m contemplating the delicious … Continue reading →

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2019 Reading Recap: Let there be lightweights.

Posted on January 4, 2020 by polloplayer

Time for the annual backward glance on the reading year… I read once, somewhere, that reading anything is good for you. I don’t know if I believe that. I used to draw the line at comic books, cereal boxes and … Continue reading →

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Reading Recap: My Lucky 13

Posted on February 10, 2018 by polloplayer

Oh, I am a jaded reader. Even time-honored classics don’t make my top ten these days. But after the way I savaged some people’s favorite books and then summarily dismissed others, this should surprise no one. I’m a slow reader and time … Continue reading →

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Shelf Life: Reading Retrospective, Part 4

Posted on January 28, 2017 by polloplayer

July was a challenging month for reading. Not the least because the languorous summer days hold so many other temptations. It was also because I had decided to read that brick, that tome, that substitute-for-a-doorstop that is entitled Vanity Fair. And … Continue reading →

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Shelf Life: 2016 Reading Retrospective, Part One.

Posted on January 7, 2017 by polloplayer

“For everything there is a season” said wise Solomon in Ecclesiastes, “a time for every purpose under the sun.” In my world, that purpose is usually reading, because, really, what else matters? As Teddy Roosevelt so aptly put it “Reading … Continue reading →

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Shelf Life: Living in a Made-Up World

Posted on January 30, 2016 by polloplayer

Parents, take those books away from your children NOW! Else they might end up like me, fully convinced that Atticus Finch and Holly Golightly and Hepzibah Pyncheon are the real deal, and wondering why everyone else seems so one-dimensional. Stick … Continue reading →

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Shelf Life: Top 5 Non-Fiction Reads

Posted on January 23, 2016 by polloplayer

The five requirements of a Top Five book: Take me away, anywhere, but do it convincingly. Authenticity. Make me believe in you and your story. It’s nice if you can make me laugh, and, barring that, make me cry. What? … Continue reading →

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Shelf Life: Stranger than Fiction

Posted on January 16, 2016 by polloplayer

I’ll reach for a novel every time. It is mostly thanks to my book clubs, travel and the occasional moment of discipline that I am grudgingly prodded into reading non-fiction. About a third of the books I read in 2015 … Continue reading →

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2012 Bookshelf, Part I

Posted on January 19, 2013 by polloplayer

Where did you go in 2012? I was all over the place. Russia, England, France and Burundi- and that was all before the end of February! There were no heavy suitcases, and no Google mapping or TSA manhandling, because this … Continue reading →

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How I Read Myself through 2011: Part Two

Posted on December 31, 2011 by polloplayer

If you’re making New Year’s Resolutions, you might consider resolving to keep a book list for 2012. I know I’m not the only one who can actually forget the title or the author of a book I recently read or … Continue reading →

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