Awhile back I addressed a question I sometimes hear about “Do You Really Read All of These Books?!?!?” And today I thought I would address another one that comes up fairly often, how do you decide which ones to write about?
The answer is that I go about my job as a library page, which involves processing and shelving books pretty much constantly all day long. Think about that for a second. If I am work, the chances are I have a book in my hands or am reaching for one or have just set one down in a stack or on a shelf or a cart. And I just grab any and everything that catches my eye.
It All gets checked out and brought home and piled on my couch, which is Always covered in books. One of my cardinal rules, which I have only broken once when I wrote about titles suggested by my readers and made clear that I was conveying others suggestions and had not actually seen or read the book, is that I ONLY blog about books that I actually have in my hand.
The stack on my couch grows formidable at times. And sometimes, as now I have to just face the fact that some of these books just are Not gonna get read and blogged about and are going to have to go back to the library unread.
I have gone ahead and added Worldcat links for every book cover, each of which represents an actual book that I am removing from the big stack on the couch and moving them to the stack on the bookshelf where we gather anything going back to the library on the next trip. Worldcat can guide you to the nearest library copy if you want to add the book to the stack on your couch. And do let me know if you end up reading one of them.
Since I did not in fact choose to ever read these books, their appearance and inclusion here means that one, they caught my eye. And two, I sent them back without ever reading them even enough to do a good blurb about each. This hardly qualifies as an endorsement so I have saved myself the considerable chore of
providing you with the titles and Powells purchase links. If the fact that I just couldn’t get around to it makes you want to Buy one of them, please do use the Powell’s search box in the upper right sidebar to buy it from a reputable bookseller and support this blog.
I am to my mid-week weekend and will have some time to rest and read and talk more substantively about books again tomorrow. I hope that you have enjoyed this my second recent effort to
publish a post that looks like a book review, even though it is in fact merely an admission that I simply have not had the time to read any of these books and really isn’t a book review.
That of course was the real point of the Einstein’s Brain God Is Dead Meme, a truly challenging meme that I cooked up the last time I just hadn’t had time to read any books to write about.
I bow in homage and tip my hat to Her Royal Highness Jamie, The Suburbian Queen who today awesomely rose to the challenge of writing a blog post that appeared to be a review of two books with very provacative titles that I expect will deliver interesting search result visitors that featured the covers of the two books but was NOT in fact actually a book review.
On a lesser writer it would have been a mean trick to play but I knew that Queen Jamie was up to the challenge and she showed her stuff today. Do check out her blog and get to know a very clever woman who writes really well about a number of different things. I’m proud to add Suburbian Queen to my blog roll which remains mercifully short because these are all blogs I actually read and not just
links I hope will curry me favor with someone.
It will be interesting to see what Mitch does with it when he gets back from vacation later in the month. 
And that concludes today’s post that looks like a book review but is not in fact a book review. I am to my two day midweek weekend and will have time to catch up on sleep and reading and talk more substantively about books again tomorrow.
on 
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November 13th, 2007 at 7:52 am
That’s a lot of books (read or not). I’m lucky if I finish a book a month, but I guess it could be worse. Thanks for the add, I feel honored and truly appreciate it!
November 15th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Ah, I remember my days as a library page ever so fondly.
I just checked out WorldCat… thanks for mentioning that. I’d never heard of it. And it tells me that the book one of my friends recommended is NOT available in any of the Albany libraries, so now I can stop trying to drive myself crazy trying to find it.
I’ve also put quite a number of books on my “To Be Read” list thanks to your reviews. And I’ve finally remembered to bookmark your blog.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I hope you enjoy reading them, aerten.