I’m thrilled to join the MKB team. When Kellie asked me if I’d like to contribute a book review column to the blog, I was super excited. Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I love to share good books with anyone who’s willing to listen. So please come back every 3rd Tuesday of the month to get my recommendations on the latest and greatest (and what you shouldn’t bother with). My first review post will come next Tuesday, but in the meantime, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my reading tastes.
One of the many reasons I love living in New York is the commute. Sure, I had a commute when I lived in California, but the Cali commute is completely different from what we do here. The subway enables me to have that 45 minutes of me time every morning to do whatever it is I want to do. Some choose to listen to music, I read. As much as I can. You can’t do that sitting in traffic on the 405!
I read every genre. Memoirs, check. Young Adult, check. Fiction, check. Classics, check. Non-Fiction, check. Smut, check. You name it, I’ll give it a try. At any given time, I’m usually reading three books – a couple at a time on my Kindle and one “real” book on my nightstand. I like the option to jump around between stories. People ask me how I can keep all of them straight at the same time. I liken the practice to watching multiple television shows in a given week (I do a ton of that too, but that’s a whole other post). I started a book club back in 2006 and we’ve read 70 books together! We get together monthly, and yes, we eat and drink at our meetings, but we actually discuss the books. I will definitely provide the viewpoint of my book club in this column too, so you won’t be getting just my opinion.
My favorite book of all time is Any Rand’s The Fountainhead. Rand’s writing really isn’t for everyone. She’s very dense in her prose, and her ideals are not always well received. I have tried to read her other works and just can’t get through them, but her main character in The Fountainhead, Howard Roark, is a hero of mine. He is the king of not giving a damn about what other people think of him. He lives his life on his own terms. We should all strive to do that. I could go on, but that’s enough of the classy stuff for now. As far as other books I love go, I’m a huge fan of young adult literature. The Twilight Saga, Harry Potter, even the Pretty Little Liars books are favorites. I read for entertainment and definitely achieve that goal in the young adult genre. I love contemporary literature, with some of my favorite titles including Revolutionary Road, Gone Girl, and The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Woa. In the memoirs and non-fiction category, The Glass Castle and Into The Wild are a couple titles that I loved. Finally, I love to read trash. Whether it be the Fifty Shades trilogy or James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series, I love a good escape from reality that you can just tear through in a few days. So that gives you a sampling of what I like. You’re going to get a little bit of everything in this column. And don’t think for one second that I will only be making girly recommendations! Let the guys in your life know this is a good place to find a good read.
Come back next Tuesday to see my post on Anton DiSclafani’s The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls. And remember, this is a two way street. If there’s a book you’re obsessed with, let me know! I look forward to creating many happy reading relationships here!
-Erin