Category Archives: book collectors

Books read in 2012

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This has been a year of delicious reading for me. I’ve made friends with Anthony Trollope, Edith Wharton, and Saul Bellow to name a few. Trollope’s autobiography led me to feel great affection for him. I don’t know what I’d do without reading. I love books. I am utterly perplexed by those who don’t, and, frankly, feel a bit sorry for them. Books offer an endless number of experiences. The date at the end of each entry is the date I finished the book.

Books read in 2012 

1)  “Over by the river & other stories” by William Maxwell 1-5-12

2)  “Ghost Soldiers,” by Hampton Sides 1-17-12

3)  “Ethan Frome,” by Edith Wharton 1-19-12

4)  “Far from the Madding Crowd,” by Thomas Hardy 1-30-12

5)  “The Age of Innocence,” by Edith Wharton 2-7-12

6)  “Madame Bovary,” by Gustave Flaubert 2-16-12

7)  “Summer,” by Edith Wharton 2-19-12

8)  “The Warden,” by Anthony Trollope 2-26-12

9)  “A Ladder of Years,” by Anne Tyler 3-1-12

10)  “The Woman in White,” by Wilkie Collins 3-19-12

11)  “Barchester Towers” by Anthony Trollope 4-6-12

12)  “Autobiography of Anthony Trollope” by Anthony Trollope 4-19-12

13)  “Dr. Wortle’s School,” by Anthony Trollope 4-23-12

14)  “The Meaning of Everything,” by Simon Winchester 5-9-12

15)  “Ragtime,” by E.L. Doctorow 5-26-12

16)  “The Haunted Bookshop,” by Christopher Morley 6-12-12

17)  “The Way We Live Now Vol. I,” by Anthony Trollope 6-27-12

18)  “The Way We Live Now Vol. II” by Anthony Trollope 7-7-12

19)  “The New York Stories of Edith Wharton” by Edith Wharton 7-20-12

20)  “Of Human Bondage” by W. Somerset Maugham 7-30-12

21)  “Dr. Thorne,” by Anthony Trollope 8-26-12

22)  “The Given Day,” by Dennis Lehane 9-8-12

23)  “Moonlight Mile,” by Dennis Lehane 9-10-12

24)  “Shutter Island,” by Dennis Lehane 9-14-12

25)  “Fiddlers,” by Ed McBain 9-20-12

26)  “Fat Ollie’s Book,” by Ed McBain 9-25-12

27)  “Walking to Gatlinburg,” by Howard Frank Mosher 10-12-12

28)  “Pnin,” by Vladimir Nabokov 10-17-12

29)  “Life Class,” by Pat Barker 10-23-12

30)  “Anthony Trollope: A Victorian in his world,” Richard Mullen 10-31-12

31)  “The Dangling Man,” by Saul Bellow 11-5-12

32)  “The Victim,” by Saul Bellow 11-10-12

33)  “Herzog,” by Saul Bellow 11-18-12

34)  “Roseanna,” by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö 11-21-12

35)  “The Man who went up in smoke,” by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö 11-22-12

36)  “Every Last One,” by Anna Quindlen 11-25-12

37)  “Humboldt’s Gift,” by Saul Bellow 12-8-12

38)  “More Die of Heartbreak,” by Saul Bellow 12-16-12

39)  “Tinkers,” by Paul Harding 12-20-12

40)  “Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned,” by John A. Farrell 12-26-12

Without A Book

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I love to read and I am, without question, a bibliophile. 

The first time I heard I was a bibliophile (a collector of books) it sounded like something that required a hefty dose of antibiotics (do they make pro-biotics? ).  Anyway, a world without books would be like a world without sunlight. Nearly as bad is the time between books. If you find an author you love you can gobble up their books one after another. I am, for example, overjoyed to hear Howard Frank Mosher has a new book out, “Walking to Gatlinburg” . I love his writing.

I am pages away from finishing “Elmer Gantry” by Sinclair Lewis, my sixth Lewis book in a row, so I’m up for a change.

Being without a book is to feel a bit rudderless in the world. There is an almost familial comfort to know you have a book to return to as you go through the rest of life. A place to retreat, meet friends, places, experiences to be had that, while you are in the process of having them, belong solely to you.

Anyway, I’d like to talk more but I need to finish Gantry, then find another book to welcome me.

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