Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a great lover of books and read quite a few books every year. This year too, I’ve been reading to my heart’s content despite everything else going on in my life. I reached my goal of reading a 100 books this year a few months ago.
Reading To My Heart’s Content
I laughed when I read this quote, because it’s so true.
“Read to your heart’s content. Though if you are a reader, the heart is never content.”
― Jenny Hubbard, Paper Covers Rock
Just yesterday I was chatting with my blogger friends and talking about books among other things. We had a laugh about how we can’t resist buying/ acquiring more books even when we have so many still unread. Book greed? 🙂
Vinay and Shinjini gave me book suggestions I’ve listed them to be acquired soon. Vinay suggested Ganesha’s Secret by Devdutt Pattanaik and Shinjini told me about The Mountain of Light by Indu Sundaresan.
What am I reading right now? Two books, as always! One fiction and the other non-fiction and I’m enjoying them both.
The View from Rainshadow Bay by Colleen Coble
Shauna McDade is single mom to a five-year-old son after her husband was killed in a climbing accident. Her aerial photography business is on the verge of bankruptcy after a string of mechanical failures that don’t seem coincidental. She recently took pictures for an environmental study and noticed a dark spot in the Juan de Fuca Strait. Her pictures created a furor when it was discovered that the runoff is coming from one of the largest lavender growers in the valley, a family business inherited by Shauna’s estranged cousin.
When her mentor and business partner is murdered, Shauna realizes that she’s in danger too. Fearing for her son, she turns to the only ally she has. Nate Bannister was her husband’s best friend—and is the person she blames for his death. Nate is only too happy to try to assuage his own guilt over Jack’s death by helping her in any way he can. But the lavender fields are a shroud for something much darker, and these are secrets that someone will do anything to keep buried.
Holding Space : On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go by Amy Wright Glenn
A look at the spiritual, emotional, and philosophical implications of end-of-life care by an elegant and literary writer who is a hospital chaplain.
As a hospital chaplain, Amy Wright Glenn has been present with those suffering from suicide, trauma, disease, and unforeseen accidents and has been witness to the intense grief and powerful insights that so often accompany loss. She weaves together memoir, philosophical inquiry, and cutting-edge research on death/dying to chronicle how we, as individuals and as a culture, handle everything from grief to mortality.
Glenn is also a professional birth doula with a deep and committed mindfulness practice who has thought deeply about the significance of human love and loss. She asks us to embrace the task of being present with what is — through courageous and mindful expressions of compassionate presence — and helps us to accept the fact of our own mortality on a visceral and emotional level, not simply as an intellectual abstraction.
Holding Space concludes by integrating key insights drawn from working directly with the dying into a moving and compelling meditation on the healing power of “holding space” for all involved in caring for the dying, a healing sorely needed in our culture at this time.
What are you reading right now?
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This week’s prompt: heart’s content
I had started to read “Turtles all the way Down by John Green but couldn’t get into it. Perhaps I was expecting another masterpiece-I so loved The Fault in our Stars. I’ve always loved reading and I’ll just find another book.
100 books in a year? That’s magical. I used to read many books when I was young. But gradually got list in life. But you are an inspiration. Now I will start again.
Amazing 100 books! I was focused on 12 this year and was able to surpass that. I do full understans book greed. In fact, I think I will go buy one now… 🙂
Book greed, a contagious sickness. Somehow, I have managed to keep mine under check as I had to leave behind a lot of my beloved books, while shifting to Cape Town from Grahamstown. And I also shifted to Kindle, which doesn’t put me under the throw away stress. All the best with your reading.
I love fictions. And now after reading about The “Views From Rainshadow Bay”, I have put it on my reading list. After finishing ‘Jaya’ by Devdutt Pattanaik, I had taken a long break from reading. But then my daughter got “Great Stories For Children” by Ruskin Bond, from her school library. So here I am reading that one. Its a good collection of short stories!
I feel ashamed 🙁 As a self confessed book lover, I am far from my target of just 24 books!!!!! I really envy you the ability to read to your heart’s content. I don’t know why I’m always playing “catch”. There are so many things I have to just catch up with……
I love that quote – it’s so true for book nerds! No matter how often I tell myself I have more than enough books to last me a couple of months at least, I cannot overcome the lure of an interesting sounding book! I’m currently reading The Woman Behind the Waterfall (fiction) and The Goddess in Everywoman (non-fiction).