Thank you for your encouragement yesterday. The comments, emails, and messages I received from you letting me know that we’re all in this together were so helpful. I loved the suggestion to take up yoga. I want to! I will! What a great idea for centering and focusing my thoughts. I love to run and I don’t think when I run. I am too busy counting my footsteps. Really, I do that. Talk about crazy.
Until I can find a yoga class I like (I wish I lived near her so I could take her class!), I’ve been reading. Finding moments of quiet to shut off my own head and listen to someone else’s. I love witty non-fiction from other flailing their way through life women who keep it real. It has made me laugh and cry this week to pick some of these books up again and to be encouraged. Throw in some fiction from other authors I adore and I am filled up.
Talk about not being focused though. Who reads 5 books at the same time? I do, that’s who. Maybe goal #1 for focusing my head and heart will be to pick and finish one. And when I have finished them all, I’d like to know…what are you reading? And what should I read next? Recommend away!
I have my MA in Political Management with an emphasis in Leadership…which means that I took a HOOPLA of classes on personality and temperament. Did you know that some people are hardwired to be better readers when they are reading more than one book? Crazy, huh?!
On another note, glad to see that you’re buckin up little chipper. Can’t wait to see ya next week!
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I just finished The Lacuna and loved it. I also really liked Eat Pray Love when I read it a couple of years ago.
Notes From the Frugal Trenches recommended I check out “America Unchained,” so I am about to start reading that. It looks really interesting!
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Emily Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
I will have to check that one out, too!
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ha! that took me by surprise. you are MORE than welcome to come to yoga. I’d love it. You would love it. Seriously though, let your mind go and may I also suggest YogaToday online google it) they offer one free class a week. Just need space by your computer.
I am reading The Red Tent.
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Emily Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Oh, The Red Tent is one of my favorite books!
Will check out YogaToday online, thanks!
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well now, see, I WOULD recommend a few books, but my TOP FIVE FAVORITES ALMOST EVER are those in your photo.
I do love Anne Lamott so very much.
If you’re looking for brain candy, without it feeling like total empty calories, read The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher. An oldie but a goodie.
For the smarty pants among us, Possession by AS Byatt is great. Someone told me recently that her newest one, The Childrens Hour is a good read too.
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I count when I run too, and I find it very relaxing, very Zen to do so. For years I scolded myself, thinking I should empty my brain, but once I started studying meditation techniques, I noted that counting breaths is a very elementary instruction to begin training with. Then I combined it with walking meditation, began running, and … voila! Meditation and exercise all in one.
I love how emptied out my brain gets through counting when I run, and how clean I feel, both mentally and physically. Obviously, I don’t think you’re nuts at all!
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I am SOOOO excited. I had no idea Barbara Kingsglover had a new book! Poisonwood Bible is my all time favorite book. I hope her new one is half as good. I really liked Eat, Pray, Love. Must mostly the Eat part. Made me want to visit Italy again… be single and kid free again too!
I’m the same as you reading more than one. Most are books I would NEVER think of reading but somehow have them and really like! Right now I’m LOVING the vampire series by Charlaine Harris. They are addicting!! It’s the books the HBO series True Blood are based on. I’m actually listening to the audio books. The reader is fantastic with the voices and it helps me zone out while I’m cleaning and I actually get the cleaning done and not distracted like usual. LOL!
Books I’m reading in paper are…
Patrick Swayze’s Biography- I know, I’m a dork! But, I always loved him as an actor and his story is intriguing.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. A fun easy read.
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I just finished reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It is a book unlike anything I have ever read, but completely mesmerizing. It’s a commitment, almost 1,000 pages, but so worth it.
It was one of those books that I couldn’t wait to get home to read and I was sad when it was over. Check it out.
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I read 5 books at a time, too! BUT mine are littered throughout the house, so I almost always have one in reach somewhere!
Right now, A Thousand Splendid Suns, A Girl of the Limberlost, Chesapeake, Atlas Shrugged, The Knitter’s Book of Yarn. I can recommend 4 of them to you!
Actually, knitting is my yoga, so you could always take up a new hobby, and I’d recommend all 5 of them!
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Emily Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns. I want to read it again, so that may be in my next pile.
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Kelly Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Well, sure…. I noticed you passed right over my comment for you to start knitting!
Hugs for you — save them for the next time you need some! 
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thank you everyone for the suggestions. I can’t wait to check them all out!
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I love your stack of books. I read Plan B a couple of weeks ago and I’m just finishing up Bird by Bird, which has helped me tremendously as I figure out a way to make myself Write That Book.
If you are interested in nonfiction by Kingsolver, I recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
I’m currently reading Bird by Bird, Outliers, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Free-Range Kids and Moral Disorder. Five books. I find I like to have multiple books going and nibble little bits from each every day. Like a nice buffet.
I’m enjoying your blog very much. I hope you’ll take the time to visit mine when you have the chance.
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i want to resume my yoga classes too, i stopped few months ago
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