Book Lust. I Haz It.

Now that it's summer, I can't get away from the feeling that summer is for fun, not for work. Years as a student taught me that is the case. Even if you have a summer job it somehow seems like you have way more time to loaf about with the entertainment of your choice. I find myself actually angry that I have to go to work because it means I can't just plonk myself down in the sun with my book and read for hours (it's so very unsatisfying to read for less than 20 minute stretches...)

Is book lust a deadly sin? Probably in that I'm sure it must be related to greed. That's right, my biggest vice is books. I can't walk away. I can't say no to their smooth covers; their clean pages; that wonderful book smell; the physical feel of a paperback that's soft, but not so floppy that it becomes unwieldy; the hardback with a perfectly neat dust jacket that you can use as a bookmark and the somehow fabulous feeling of holding open a book you're 2/3 of the way through. I have books I bought 2 years ago and still haven't read--not because I don't want to, but because I can't indiscriminately read. I find it very difficult to enjoy a book if I'm not in the mood for it, no matter how good it may be. There are books I have started three times and could never finish, but finally the day came and I read them through and they were BEAUTIFUL (yeah, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close!) And now my book lust continues as When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris' new book, arrives on shelves. Technically it came out yesterday, but I was prostrate with illness all day or I most certainly would have gone to Borders immediately. I can't say no to books. I DEFINITELY cannot say no to David Sedaris. He touches my soul.


In honor of my book lust, here are several that you should read in order to become a better person (by my standards, anyway):


Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim both by Sedaris. Everything he writes is gold, but these are my favorites. 24k gold, one might say. Perhaps, white gold?


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. If you like random pictures, inventions, tambourines and wonder constantly why beds aren't made with a space for your arm when you're lying on your side, you'll like this one.


How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen. One of the best etiquette books for children ever written.


I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean! by Kevin Sherry. Giant squid learns a lesson in humility.


Cowboy & Octopus by Jon Sciezka. Cowboy. Octopus. 'Nuff said.

The Stand. I just love Stephen King. There is no cure. If I survive a global epidemic, I hope I meet Stu Redman. I'm on his team.

There are more. Many more. But start with those. Let me know when you're done.