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It’s Thursday:The Island of Unread Books

Written on: June 3rd, 2010 by: in Informal learning, Learning Journeys, Reading

Confession time. I do not read every book that I check out of the library or buy at the bookstore. Yes, there are cases where the title and I just don’t match up…the voice of the character or the format of the writing puts me off for some reason. But more often than not, I wind up returning/donating unread books to the library because I have gone into a sort of feeding frenzy. [What?] When serendipity steps in and I am faced with shelves and shelves of new releases or piles and piles of must-have bargain buys, it’s a feeding frenzy. I can walk out with two full bookbags.

I do feel badly though; I picture those titles on a kind of Island of Unread Books. To give them another chance to be enjoyed, my most recent returns include The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food & Friendship, Game Change: Obama & the Clintons, McCain & Palin and the Race of a Lifetime and Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Won’t you give them a try? And, why not share a few of your Island dwellers with us here?

One last thing…a special thank you for the recommendation to request a copy of Defend the Valley: A Shenandoah Family in the Civil War by Margaretta Barton Colt. To walk through those years with this family via their journals and letters made the unique, convoluted tragedy of civil war truly visible…and made clear the resilience of the human spirit. My learning is richer for the read. I appreciate it.