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to read or not to read

un lun dun

To Read or Not to Read: Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

S. Jae-Jones, a host of one of my favorite podcasts, Pub Crawl Podcast, recommended the children’s book Un Lun Dun by China Miéville for readers who love Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth. I do love both of those books. I’ve reread Alice in Wonderland multiple times, and I strongly considered doing a book report on The Phantom Tollbooth in fourth grade but couldn’t figure out how to obtain the refrigerator box I felt was necessary to pull it off. So, I decided to take a look at Un Lun Dun and decide: To read or not to read?Read More »To Read or Not to Read: Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

the end we start from

To Read or Not to Read: The End We Start From

I first came across The End We Start From on a LitHub list of new releases in November. The initial description checked a lot of boxes for me: literary fiction, lots of overarching metaphors, beautiful prose. It sounded promising (and the cover looked gorgeous). When I saw it on the shelf in Barnes & Noble, I had to pick it up and decide for myself: To read or not to read?Read More »To Read or Not to Read: The End We Start From

all the dirty parts

To Read or Not to Read: All the Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler

If you don’t know, Daniel Handler is the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, aka Lemony Snicket. I love love LOVE A Series of Unfortunate Events, but I haven’t read anything else by Handler. His latest novel, All the Dirty Parts, was recently published by Bloomsbury, so I picked up a copy to decide: To read or not to read?

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sourdough robin sloan

To Read or Not to Read: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

I admit, I’m already a bit biased toward reading Robin Sloan’s second novel, Sourdough. I enjoyed Sloan’s debut novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and I heard Sloan speak on an author panel at BookFest St. Louis. Naturally, he talked about this new novel, specifically about how food is such an interesting topic to write about and how he wrote his characters. I couldn’t resist picking this book up on a Barnes and Noble visit and to take a peek at the first few pages to decide: To read or not to read?Read More »To Read or Not to Read: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

to read or not to read

To Read or Not to Read: An Experiment in Intentionally Buying Books

I buy too many books.

I see a book that looks mildly interesting on Instagram and save it to my TBR Instagram Collection. I come across interesting articles on LitHub, enjoy the writing or subject, and save the author’s most recent book to my Amazon wish list. I realize that an author who wrote a book I liked has another book…or two…or three…so I buy more of his books for my collection, figuring that I’ll read it some day. I buy them because I write in books, so borrowing from a friend or a library would result in some annoyed friends or libraries.

But the problem is that at this rate, I’ll never read all the books I buy. Honestly, even if I stopped buying books today, I’d have years of new reading material on my shelves. I want to read more, in general, but I need to be more intentional about my choices, especially in which books I spend money on.

Read More »To Read or Not to Read: An Experiment in Intentionally Buying Books