How many books did you read last year?

I read 52*. I know this because I keep track of them on Goodreads, which is a fabulous tool if, like me, you're losing your faculty for remembering things you read just last month.

The LA Times is taking a poll {thanks for the link Book Bench}. One woman read 462 books. Preposterous, you say? Well read on...

How many did you read last year?

*everyone's got their Top 10 lists. Will post mine in an upcoming post.

The Arvon Book of Life Writing

We've just purchased this new book for the collection that might be of interest to those of you writing biography, autobiography and memoir:

The Arvon Book of Life Writing by Sally Cline and Carole Angier offers:
1-reflections on their trade by the authors
2-personal tips and tales from 32 top British and American life writers
3-a practical guide, complete with exercises

Thomas Fleming's 1st book - 50 years later

Member Thomas Fleming published his first book Now We Are Enemies in 1960. The story of Bunker Hill was the first on this historic event in over 85 years, and the book became a main selection of the Literary Guild and was subsequently condensed in Reader's Digest. Not a bad start to a writing career!

50 years later, Now We Are Enemies is being reissued by American History Press today, June 17, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.

Since that first book, Thomas Fleming has gone on to cement his reputation as a stellar writer and historian of the American Revolution. Just last year, he published his 33rd book, The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, which was a main selection of the History Book Club and was named the best book of 2009 by the American Revolution Roundtable.

For more information about Thomas Fleming, click here

The Writing Life

I read a lot of blogs. Ones that feed my hobbies (backpacker magazine, backcountry.com: the goat), my obsession with food (grub street, eater), my work (awful library books, and ok, Points of Reference and The Guardian's Books blog), miscellaneous crap (hipster puppies, the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks, awkward family photos), and of course, the blogs of the Library's wonderful member writers. In addition to all this blog reading, I have the usual obsession with the ever expanding pile of books on my nightstand compounded by the fact that I troll through the Library's stacks every day. My role as an aquisitions librarian also presents a hazard as my compulsory reading of book reviews is often followed by a manic compulsion to add more books to my own Goodreads list.


I nervously read through lists of books that I "must read now!", I should have read, best of, worst of, and everything that everybody else is reading. And today's must reads came in the form of member writer Alison Pace's blog post about what's on her reading pile. And that's where I discovered Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.

The Writing Life! How did I not know about this? I admit, it's not the most unique name for our member writer programming here at the Library, but I was not familiar with Annie Dillard's book. So, thanks Allison for adding yet another book to my pile. For along with everything else on my list are books to help this Writer Services Librarian understand that mysterious class of people known as writers.

So, I shall eventually get to The Writing Life, the book, after I read John McNally's fictional account of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, "After the Workshop", and the hundred other books on my ever expanding list.

So come on. Pile on. Let me know what else I should be reading blog-wise and book-wise.

Member Publications - Dec/Jan

We're getting towards the end of the month, so here's a round-up of the books published by members in December 2009 and January 2010. If I'm missing anyone's books, please let me know!

Irene Aldridge - High-Frequency Trading: A Practical Guide to Algorithmic Strategies and Trading Systems (John Wiley & Sons)

Lorraine B. Diehl - Over Here!: New York City During World War II (Smithsonian Books)

Gretchen Rubin - The Happiness Project (HarperCollins)

Margaret Sheffield - The Expressive Edge (Charta)

Mark Alan Stamaty - Shake, Rattle, and Turn That Noise Down!: How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me and Mom (Alfred A. Knopf)