So Many Books, So Little Time 6-copy counter

by Sara Nelson

“Will make many readers smile with recognition.”— The New Yorker“Readaholics, meet your new best friend.”— People“This book is bliss.”— The Boston GlobeSometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described “readaholic” Sara Nelson. The project began as an experiment with a simple plan—fifty-two weeks, fifty-two books—that fell apart in the first week. It was then that Sara realized the books chose her as much as she chose them, and the rewards and frustrations they brought were nothing she could plan for. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Essays, Writing

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Sara Nelson is an American publishing industry figure who is an editor, book reviewer, consultant, and columnist. She is currently the editorial director at Amazon.com. Nelson is notable for having been editor in chief at the book industry's chief trade publication Publishers Weekly from 2005–2009 during a time of wrenching restructuring and industry downsizing. After that, she was book editor at Oprah's O Magazine. Her book So Many Books, So Little Time was published in 2003. Her views have been widely reported in numerous publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and she has appeared on television broadcasts including CBS's The Early Show. She has written for the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post about publishing industry trends and has been described as a "lively presence within the book publishing industry." She is an extensive reader and has been described as a lover of books.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara Nelson is a celebrity in the book business - she's written for publications like Glamour and The New York Post, but she's more notable for her years as editor-in-chief at Publishers Weekly, followed by time as editor on Oprah's O Magazine, and a stint as editorial director at Amazon.com, before heading over to HarperCollins, where she is now.

She's a big deal, and has, as you can well imagine, been a big reader her whole life.

This lovely book of hers, published in 2003, is a unique blend of memoir and reading commentary. Many of us Goodreaders who have taken reading to Olympic levels and live reading lives as a conscious choice, will feel a kinship to Ms. Nelson. She's witty, she's funny, she has opinions. And the books she reads are a vital part of her life.

So Many Books starts in January, and journeys through the year in which Sara has set out to read one book per week. Don't worry, this isn't a collection of book reports. The titles often serve as a launchpad into a myriad of topics, whether they are personal to Sara (and she does get quite bravely personal regarding her marriage and its struggles) or things that most any book lover will find relatable.

For example, the way that a book finds you... it may be on your shelf for a decade, but one day, inexplicably, you reach for it just at the right time. Or the dangers of book recs - how they can make or break a friendship. My favourite part addressed something I've struggled with my whole reading life: putting a book down when it's not working for me.

Allowing yourself to stop reading a book - at page 25, 50 or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end - is a rite of passage in a reader's life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.

I guess I'm only a sporadic adult, based on this wonderfully wise statement. I'll get there, Sara, that's all I can say.

There's plenty of lit talk here too, and she shares her thoughts, good and bad, about books that you've probably read, and plenty that you may not have, and will then put on your list. She's delightfully open to a wide range - you won't detect a snooty tone here, though this woman does have discriminating taste. Mainly, though, she shows how the lines blur between the volumes we consume, and life itself. How reading a book is as much about the context in your life in which the reading took place, as it is about the actual story, which mysteriously becomes part of your lived experience.

A book written by a book lover, for book lovers to read. What's not to love? Thank you, Sara Nelson!

[Debbie W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why I chose to read this book:
1. just check out that title - I think EVERYONE here on GR loves this quote (attributed to Frank Zappa);
2. I love reading books about books! I often get inspired to read some of those mentioned within; and,
3. July 2025 is my "M and N Authors" Month!

Praises:
1. author Sara Nelson's 2002 project was to read a book a week. Although she does discuss several of the books she's read, this is NOT a book of her reviews. Instead, her chapters focus on many thoughts and issues that I personally experience as a reader. For example:
- the "sophomore slump" - when a second book doesn't hold a candle to the debut. This can be such a huge letdown for me!
- that it's okay to DNF. I think writing your thoughts about a book that you DNF is perfectly acceptable, but should a rating be given? I don't think that's fair;
- over-hyped books (Yep! I hear you, Sara!);
- what is the proper protocol for lending and/or borrowing books?
- reading and/or reviewing books by people you know very well;
- reader's block (what should I read next?) I remember being overwhelmed looking at my physical books one day, wondering how to choose my next read. I had later read a magazine article which stated that when we are overloaded with choices, we tend not to make any decisions at all! My solution? Have monthly themes! This not only narrowed down my choices, but it has also helped reduce my WTR list significantly!
- rereading old favorites (I used to do this, but time is running out for me based on my WTR list. Also, be careful doing this! You might experience books differently than what you originally remembered!)
- reading aloud to kids (she focuses this chapter while reading Charlotte’s Web with her son);
- first impressions (of titles, cover designs, blurbs, even first lines!)
- favorite authors and their bodies of work (this made me think how some authors churn out the same books while others write completely different genres);
- her personal reading lists for the year; and,
2. some new vocabulary that I've learned:
- roman à clef : a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names
- oeuvre : the works of an artist (e.g. author) regarded collectively

Niggles: None from me!

Overall Thoughts:
A very witty yet affirming read for this particular lover of books!

I've put one of the books Nelson mentions on my WTR list (I just couldn't resist), and ordered another to gift a writer friend of mine!

Re: reviews - recently, a GR member (not a friend, btw) commented that one of my reviews was "ignorant and offensive". Whoa! Nelson's memoir reminds me of how books are so subjective! I didn't agree with some of Nelson's thoughts about certain books, and that's okay! However, we should never be rude because someone else's life experiences and connections to a book differ drastically from ours. You don't know their personal story. Be respectful!

[Erin Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

recommended to me

I liked the premise--reading a book every week for a year and chronicling the experience--but as the author and I have very different tastes (she hates 'historicals,' rarely reads anything written before the 1950's, and avoids nonfiction history accounts like the plague), I didn't feel any sense of shared experience.

also, while I didn't expect each chapter to be a book report, more often than not her reading list just served as a pretext to talk about her marriage or family or childhood or child or job or famous friends or fill-in-the-blank of anything not related to the novel-at-hand. I thought I was getting into a book that would discuss the experience of reading, with the occasional tangential topic--not a memoir loosely organized by book titles.

and last, but probably the ultimate nail in the coffin to me, she's an nyc editor and reviewer, making much of it way too scenes-tery for me.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.

My Review: “Allowing yourself to stop reading a book - at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end - is a rite of passage in a reader's life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.

Really, I could stop right there and have given you a full review of this tasty li'l morsel of a book about reading, loving, choosing, and enjoying the books that mark your life.

“You know you're in a bad patch when the most interesting part of the book you're reading is the acknowledgments page.”

No, no, this would be a fine place to end one's quest for a summing-up of this aperçu-heavy literary profiterole. A pyramid of crispy pastry filled with rich, scrumptious vanilla ice cream and loaded with fudge topping.

"Reading's ability to beam you up to a different world is a good part of the reason why people like me do it in the first place---because dollar for dollar, hour per hour, it's the most expedient way to get from our proscribed little 'here' to an imagined, intriguing 'there'. Part time machine, part Concorde, part ejector seat, books are our salvation."

Heavens, what was I thinking to have left this crystalline distillation of the infinity-edged pool of publishing's unending and occasionally successful manufacture of lovely writing, pretty jackets, and escapist/timeless/delectable work.

...and so you see my dilemma...stop where? stop there why? explain or not?

Just go read the damned book already.

[Michael Dworaczyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

After about 50 pages into it, I decided to put it down. For someone who is an editor and columnist, the grammar is just awful. I realize my own writing style would probably make Henry Fowler cringe; but for someone who writes for a living? It seemed as if she had no idea of how to construct a meaningful sentence. I enjoy stream of consciousness when it’s done right, but this drivel…

And her constantly reminding me that she was in an interracial marriage, or that her husband worked for SNL, was getting rather tedious. Make your point, and then move on, please.

In the dedication, she thanks her father, “who didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he taught me to read all those years ago.” It’s books like these that make me wish I had never learned to read. Thank goodness I only checked it out from the library, and didn’t buy it. I’m thankfully returning it, long before it’s due.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Like Nina Sankovitch’s Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, this is a memoir about a year of intense reading, though Nelson averaged a book a week rather than Sankovitch’s one per day (!). It’s enjoyable in much the same way that Nick Hornby’s collected “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” columns are: she’s forthright about what she likes and doesn’t like, and she ruefully reflects on the gap between what she meant to read and what she actually read in 2002. Her reading diary tells a lot about her personal life too: having a non-reading spouse and a novelist sister; memories of her late father; and the struggle to instill a love of reading into her young son.

Inevitably a little dated as it engages with ‘It’ books of the time like A Million Little Pieces and Kitchen Confidential, the book has staying power because in each chapter Nelson broadens out from her discussion of one or more books to craft a thematic essay, with topics such as being a “completist” (reading all of one author’s work), first lines, reading two books at once, books everyone loves that you can’t get on with, art commenting on life and vice versa, sex in books, what you can learn from the acknowledgment pages of a book, and so on. This was meant to be my bedside book for the second half of the year, but I devoured it in less than seven weeks.

Some favorite lines most bibliophiles will relate to:

“Having a bifurcated reading brain—one part that likes ‘junk’ and one that reveres ‘literature’—is the same kind of satisfying. You don’t have to be any one thing and you don’t have to think any one way.”

“I believe that an unreturned book between friends is like a debt unpaid. It can linger, fester, throb like a sore wound. The best preventive medicine is the simplest: Return All Books.”

“When things go right in my life, I read. When things go wrong, I read more. Frustrated with work, bored with my marriage, annoyed at my kid or my friends, I escape into books.”

“I’m a little bit contrarian on occasion, especially when it comes to books … Obviously, I tend to get my back up when a book is hyped to death, and I have an almost instinctive ability to look at a book everybody else likes and find (or imagine) its flaws.”

“If I knew it at the beginning of the year, I’ve learned it ten times over: reading is organic and fluid and pretty unpredictable, based as much on mood and location and timing as anything else.”

[My free copy came from The Book Thing of Baltimore – I can think of no more fitting source for a book meant to inspire passionate reading!]

[Connie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the subtitle of the book calls it a year of passionate reading, the first half of the book seemed like the year of the frenzied woman trying to fit her reading into an extremely busy life, including a career as an editor at Glamor magazine. Many of the first essays were about the author's family, friends, and life in New York City with just brief mentions of the books she read. But she gets into a better groove later in the book, discussing how sometimes you don't choose a book, but the book chooses you. The book may fit in with your emotional need at a certain time in your life. I would have preferred better descriptions of the books she read, but Sara Nelson's account of her year of reading was fairly entertaining.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw it. I'd read the reviews and knew I'd love it. And I did.

Sara Nelson started the year with a goal to read a book a week for a year, and to write about it. I'm surprised nobody thought to do this before she did - lets face it, I'm sure most of us could do it without even thinking about it! The book chronicles her journey, starting with her completely disregarding the list she'd made of the books she planned to read!

I spent most of the time I was reading this book nodding yes. It's like she was talking about me. The funny quirks and OCDish tendencies mirrored my own. Nelson talks about friendships being affected by a person's choice of book and I'm ashamed to admit that I knew what she was talking about. This is a book written by a reader, not a writer. She manages to write how she feels without resorting to literary snobbishness. She doesn't use technical terms, even though she knows much about the business of books and publishing. The book was like talking to a friend about their current read over coffee.

My only criticism is that she doesn't hesitate to give spoilers, which means that I now know the end to a number of books I wanted to read. I'll still read them, but it won't be the same. Aside from this though, I loved every aspect of the book!

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were moments in this book where I was convinced she was writing about me...the way her husband doesn't read, yet she tries to get him to read; how some of her friends simply don't understand her adoring love for all things bookish...those are just a few. However, there were moments when I rolled my eyes and got a bit annoyed because she would ruin books for me that I have yet to read. The ruining wasn't just that she said it wasn't "that good" but she actually gave away the ending of a book I really want to read this year.

But, even with the things that annoyed me, I couldn't put the book down and really did enjoy it because it was so about me and my own passion for books, lists and reading goals.

[Bex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really not sure what I thought about this. I enjoyed reading it, but Sara Nelson is such a horrendous book snob! I'm sorry, but I don't really care what people think about what I read - I don't have one book for home reading and one that is ok to be seen in public with, and I don't agree that you can't be friends with someone if you recommend them a book and they hate it. The debate is half the fun! Because of this, every time I found myself mentally adding a book she liked to my TBR I had to stop myself and think about whether I really wanted to take the advice of a woman who freely admits that she owns a lot of books she doesn't even really want to read because she 'has a lot invested in what people think of her'....

Having said all that, it was an easy read and absorbing, and I do like books about books. However, if you're going to read a book about somebody's personal reading project, read Howard's End is on the Landing by Susan Hill, not this.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a mission to read a book a week, which to many is no big feat, the author selects from her massive piles of ARC’s (she does book reviews) TBR piles and what’s new temptings. She does have a family and job that adds a bit of diversion to her goal, but fully intends to work around that.

A little background into her family, marriage, book selecting makes it less of a Goodreads profile page and more biographical, hence, more enjoyable. Selective trashing, tho not ruthlessly, of her DNF’s or DNevenS, give me solace. Then her raves, well, often give me pause. Goose and gander, I suppose.

I liked the chapter on Anna Karenina & Madame Bovary, where she likens her reading to adultery... sneaking off for relationships with her characters. I sometimes feel that way. These are MY friends, don’t interfere!

The chapters are short, referring to one or more book, relating to their relevance to that time in her life, her family, her work. Often, the very selection is based on such. (Ditto!) I could not read Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy” given my husband just suffered a severe brain bleed and subsequent stroke. So, yes, the book choice echoes the mood.

It’s a fun read that allowed me to feel more normal in my reading habits. Tho I am not on a review payroll for any magazine, I do, nonetheless, get my share of ARC’s. I do still have a substantial stack of such from my years of having a bookstore. This was one such book. The haphazard method of selecting this week’s book is akin to what’s for dinner. Look in the fridge or cupboard and find something tasty. Next to my bed is a metaphor for exactly that.

So surprised to see so many books I had never heard of, but that’s just another plus to this book... several have been added to my TBR list.

[Jan Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book opened me up to the idea of books about reading. I read it a long time ago and today just wanted to add it to my new "books about reading" shelf. In the book a lady resolves to read a book a week the whole year long and subsequently uses that in a memoir and voyage of discovery. I think. The details are no longer with me but the pleasant glow remains.

[Kris]

Sitting at the library one day, I got thirty pages in. It was then I realized the author hadn’t yet mentioned one book I recognized and wanted to read. Or, conversely, no books I knew were in this book, and this book didn’t introduce me to any new books that I want to read.

It’s written by an upper class New Yorker who is up on all the latest trendy books and indie books and all those side-genre books you never heard of. As much as I want it to be my scene, it isn’t.

That’s not to say there isn’t merit in here and in the books she mentions. I just don’t have interest in picking it up again. Maybe one day.

No rating. DNFed in May 2019.

Instead, I'd recommend these: The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, or The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the author’s foray into meeting a challenge she set for herself - to read at least one book a week in a year. Currently Sara Nelson is an American publishing industry figure who is an editor and book reviewer and consultant and columnist, and is currently the editorial director at Amazon.com. She wrote this in 2003 so I can well imagine she was a book reviewer and columnist…whether she was editorial director for Amazon at that time I am unsure.

But that neither here nor there. I picked this book up at the library along with several others about books on books. I had not heard of this book. However, I picked up a paperback in its 6th printing (2004), so it must have been popular. Indeed, there is one whole page at the front devoted to book review blurbs, as well as taking up the entire back cover. Blurbs from The New Yorker, Pat Conroy, the New York Times Book Review, among others.

To my mind the book is deserving of such blurbs. She has a great sense of humor…the book is not treacly…the book is interesting. She even had a chapter devoted to one of my fave authors, Michel Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White [2002], Under the Skin [2000]). It includes her views towards a number of books, her family, why she loves to read, other people in her life who have different reading styles (if reading at all) …just a whole potpourri of stuff but quite interesting.

She had 35 chapters (with chapter titles and dates [that progressed from January to December]) with a Prologue and Epilogue to boot. There may have been one or two chapters I was not terribly jazzed about but when one considers there are 35 chapters (all fairly short) that ain’t too bad. This book was timely (not dated) which is a bit surprising given it was written 17 years ago.

I can see why this book went into multiple printings…the book was a delight to read.

[Lisa Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book spoke more to me than the book itself. I'm often ruing the fact that I'll never get to read all the books I want before I die. I was so hoping to find a kinship with another reader who feels as I do about books. While Nelson and I shared some similar book passions, I found we were different types of readers and I didn't like her rambling writing style.

I laughed at her joke, where she called herself an adulteress, because she cheats on her husband with a good book. I also sighed when she described her late nights roaming the shelves of her home library. I join her in both of these clubs.

I got the impression she was a book snob. She was more concerned with packing books for vacations and trips to see friends that would somehow elevate her status. I understand you might not want to read chick-lit or the latest Patterson thriller in front of everyone, but choosing to read a book just to impress someone is pathetic, not passionate. The part of her book, where she says you can learn more about a book by reading the foreward and who the author thanks was also just another example of how Nelson is more concerned with impressions. She did too much name-dropping for me. She also seemed to go off on tangents before rambling her way back to her original thought.

I was also was curious to see the entire list of what Nelson read during her one year reading project, however she never included the list in entirety from start to finish. There were some books I felt she was passionate about, but I never sensed she was a passionate reader. I wouldn't want to share a book or recommendations with her.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely worth the read in the "books about books" category. The author writes for a fashion magazine, although she hardly ever talks about the fashion industry. The truth is, she is one of "us". She is a bookie. She knows what makes us tick. She decides to read one book a week during 2002, and this book is about her journey through the year - why she read what she read, and how the books chose her as much as she chose them. Based on her reviews, I now have a list of 30 books I feel sure I'll enjoy - an added bonus!

[Suvama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una mezcla de melancolía, dulzura, filosofía y humor."

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It didn't take more than one chapter for me to connect to this book. Stolen by one of my favorite teacher's read list. I was expecting this book to be more of like a story about reading/books from the POV someone who just happen to like books a much as I do... but NO, Sara Nelson goes way beyond an appreciation for literature. This lady really has the right to say she is "a card-carrying member of the compulsive reader's society." Though in my opinion she is the founder. I have never met someone with such passion, except the person I borrowed this book from.

On one hand I feel that I should have probably waited a little longer to read it due to the fact that she mentions and support her ideas/feelings on books/authors/famous people, that I have no idea about. On the other hand this gave me the opportunity to increase my "to-read-list." But I cant blame her, she is a journalist.

I am really glad overall that I read this book and as she says there are specific times in which books find us. And this is one of those times. I am in the middle of my creative writing class, and let me tell you! This book has made of me a better reader and a better writer, more of a better reader though. The way she describes how books are published and the process they have to go through, the things you have to keep in consideration when picking a book, all of those things I wont ever forget! Neither the "judging at the first line" idea. Great advice when looking for readings or to incorporate to your writing.

She was always true to herself and the readers, I loved how she was open to her life and shared everything and not just books. I was able to connect (as mentioned before) way more after I read, “When things go right, I read. When things go wrong, I read more.” It was perfect!

I WOULD LOVE for her to do it again, as I know a couple of books published recently Sara Nelson would have an strong opinion on, haha I can't help it, I can easily imagine her comparing it to others or going ugh to them, it would be cool and I would be the first in line... online. To buy it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always interesting, whenever I read a Book-Book, to compare myself to the author. Obviously we have a love of reading in common, but it can be so interesting to see what else we have in common and different:
IN Common:
We both love books
We both view reading a book almost like falling in love and can become, um, a little disassociated with the rest of the world when in "book love"
We both have a hard time getting our husbands to read the same books we read
We both think that timing and chance and just "rightness" play and should play a big part in what book we choose to read at a certain time
We both think it's OK to ditch a bad book before it's over
We both sometimes have issues with not wanting to read a super-hyped book that "everyone else" is reading
Different:
We have almost NO similar taste in books--I have no interest at all in most of what she actually read. IN fact, I'd run from it.
She did not particularly read a lot as a child
She does not like to read aloud to HER child (this one totally boggled me--if there's anything better than reading to myself it's reading to one of my children!)
She thinks anyone who hasn't been seriously tempted to commit adultery is lying
She's very New York and I'm very Midwest
Interesting book, good to "meet" another reader, but gleaned almost nothing for my own to-read list

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't know if it's because it's written by an American (and therefore focussed more on books published in the US), or because I hadn't read many of the same books as the author, but I didn't get much out of this at all. Had expected to be overwhelmed with lots of exciting new ideas for reading but I don't think I picked up a single convincing recommendation from all the books she had read and talked about. If a good book is like a relationship, as the author says, this book is one of those 'relationships' where you meet and spend a slightly uncomfortable few days with someone new, but stick it out in the hope they might turn out to be really interesting in the end. I ended up thinking that if we met again, there would be one of those awkward, 'hi, how are you's' and then we'd run away from each other, safe in the knowledge we didn't have to meet up again. Ah well. Next!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I just love reading about other people reading "addictions", how they select their books and where their "love of reading" takes them. I might not agree with all of her opinions in this book, but I loved and agreed with her when she said that you can't totally pre-plan your reading. I've found that out this year with all my "challenges" that I have on here. You can never know what books speak to you and call you to them and when. The journey is fun though, wherever it takes you!

[katyjanereads · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. I had a love/hate relationship with this book.
Things I liked:
-I learned about a lot of new books that I had never heard of before.
-I like that she didn’t tell any plot spoilers.
-I learned new vocabulary such as bowlerized, dotage, obstreperous, pontification, opine, schadenfreude, oeuvre, logrolling
-As an avid reader, I felt that I could relate to many of the quotes and anecdotes.
Things I didn’t like:
-She was somewhat pretentious at times. She was snobbish in the way she talked about some books like they were below her. I don’t like when someone says that this author is a better writer than that one.
-I didn’t like that some chapters really kept my interest but some bored me.
2. She really went @ her husband in some places, which I actually found refreshing. She spoke her truth without sugar coating anything. I don’t know that I would be that brave.
3. Quotes I loved/related to:
About her library: “I love this room and have spent hundreds of late-night hours here surrounded by my books.”

“There’s something comforting to me about knowing that whatever is going on in my outer world, bad or good, exciting or boring, I know I will find comfort and joy and excitement the minute I get home to my book.”

“Books get me personally.”

“Books are our salvation.”

“Who will be hit with the thunderbolt, and during which book, and why, is as magical as love itself.”

“...between book lovers, a novel is not a novel is not a novel. It’s a symbol, an offering-and sometimes a test.”

“He doesn’t need to know that my books are the affairs I do not have.”

“the ‘deepest purpose of reading and writing...is to sustain a sense of connectedness, to resist existential loneliness.’”

4. Sara Nelson questions:“What, exactly am I doing this for? Why, exactly, do I read so much and what, exactly, do I expect to get out of chronicling my reading?”
-A question I ask myself a lot. I read 100 books a year. I review all of them on Goodreads. List them in a binder. I often wonder what reading does for me and why I feel the need to read so much. Is it that productive? Am I getting anything out of it? I’m an English teacher so I know it’s valuable for that. I also know that reading taught me empathy and kindness. It was an escape when I was little. I learn things in every single book I read. Of course it has value, but I still ask.
5. The author says, “I don’t always choose the books, I’ll say. Sometimes the books choose me.”
-This is totally my life. My books speak to me. Even if I have books on my nightstand that I FOR SURE WILL READ NEXT, if another book jumps out at me, I’ll abandoning my night stand books. I had two books lined up this week to read and I looked at the other TBR pile in my room and this thin volume of short stories said, “Psst over here. It’s time to get to us now. We’ve been in this pile for over a year. You need us.”
6. Some relationship advice in this book which I found completely true. 1) The very thing that attracted you to your partner will become the thing that drives you nuts. (My husband’s jokes. One more pun and it’s a divorce.) 2) Despite what you say, you’re always trying to change your partner. (Can you please just put the dishes in the dishwasher? The sink that you set them in is literally right beside said dishwasher.)
7. “Explaining the moment of connection between a reader and book to someone who’s never experienced it is like trying to describe sex to a virgin. A friend of mine says that when he meets a book he loves, he starts to shake involuntarily. For me, the feeling comes in a rush: I’m reading along and suddenly a word or phrase or scene enlarges before my eyes and soon everything around me is just so much fuzzy background. The phone can ring, the toast can burn, the child can call out, but to me, they’re all in a distant dream. The book-this beautiful creature in my hands!-is everything I’ve ever wanted, as unexpected and inevitable as love.”
-I experience this. My husband will be talking and I don’t even hear him. Or one time a revelation came to be about a book I’ve read literally read 15 times and I screamed and got so excited.
8. Sara talking about taking books into meetings, “...sneaking glances at it, hidden under my notebook, during a business meeting.”
-I thought about putting a book in my Bible at church and reading during the sermon but 1) my father in law in the pastor and 2) I sit on the front row like a dumb dumb.
9. “A book is a way to shut out the noise of the world. It’s a way to be alone without being totally alone.”
-When I finish work for the day as a teacher, I do not want to speak to one more person or make one more decision. Books help me to shut out the world.
10. Like Sara Nelson I had to learn the lesson that it’s okay to put a book down. If I am not into it within the first chapter, I am finished with it.
11. “I believe that an unreturned book between friends is like a debt unpaid. It can linger, fester, throb like a sore wound. The best preventive medicine is the simplest: Return All Books.
-PREACH THE WORD. Also, I forget who has my books and then they are lost forever.
12. “If the definition of intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in your head simultaneously…”
-I feel this way about ideals and politics. I see both sides to things and don’t feel like I’m being wishy washy, I just have a set of values that I hold on to, but also have love for others that makes me see things from their perspective. I think being a reader has helped me in that way.
13. Also, she seemed to get even more snobby towards the end of the book. Or maybe I was just tired of her by then.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here are the top 10 things I have in common with Sara Nelson:
1. She can visualize where a book is located in the house, despite having no organizational system.
2. She can look at a book she owns and remember where it was bought and the life circumstances surrounding her initial reading.
3. She has a "bifurcated reading brain," one part that likes junk and one that likes literature.
4. She gets addicted to books -- both singly and en masse -- and arranges her day and sometimes her morals around reading more.
5. She uses reading as "a shield against potentially piercing social situations."
6. She irritably eschews books that have been overhyped or that everyone is ostentatiously reading.
7. She judges people based on their reading tastes.
8. "When things go right in my life, I read. When things go wrong, I read more."
9. She doesn't like to write in books, preferring to dogear pages.
10. She hated Empire Falls by Richard Russo, because it's terrible.

Since she is also funny, this is the greatest book ever, despite the quilty, cursivey, girly gagger of a cover.

PS... In the appendix, she quotes Marty Asher, publisher of Vintage Books, as saying that Stephen King is this generation's Maugham -- too prolific and too readable to be taken seriously in his lifetime. IF I AM VALIDATED ANY MORE, I MAY TURN GOLD.

PPS... For those planning to use this book as a guide to understanding yours truly, please only take into account her experience of reading. The views of Ms. Nelson on fashion, neuroses, child-rearing, and noodles (among other things) do not apply.

[Joan Colby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I looked forward to reading this book with some eagerness as I imagined it would be in-depth ruminations about the books Nelson was reading, just the sort of mental dialogue with another reader that I enjoy. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Nelson focuses primarily on herself, her marriage to a Japanese-American (he’s a set designer on Saturday Night Live! she mentions again and again), her child, her parents, her friends, her career, none of this interesting. She treats the books she is reading with brevity and seems conflicted about her role: dedicated reader, but definitely no geeky bookworm.
A few chapters hit home. The one on book friends and what happens when you discover the friend thinks “The Bridges of Madison County” is a masterpiece.
Nelson can be disarmingly honest (serious books as accessories, the great books she quotes but never has actually read) but that doesn’t excuse her shallowness. She views Anna Karenina as mainly a soap opera, missing (or more likely skimming over) Tolstoy’s social/agronomic themes. She admits to never reading poetry as it seems too much like “homework.”She admits to disliking to read to her young son (and is dismayed that he doesn’t seem to care about reading…)
The subtitle of this book is “A Year of Passionate Reading”.It describes what constitutes her idea for the book—as might hiking the Appalachian Trail in order to write about it—but she evidences more weariness in tackling books that she deems “difficult” like The House of Mirth, than passion.

[BJ Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a disappointment!!! "A Year of Passionate Reading" was about almost everything but reading - we learned about problems in her marriage (where's the respect for her husband?), we learned about her travels and the important people she knows and meets, and we get lots of titles of books she read in the past or chose not to read or started but stopped. What we don't get is a review or synopsis of the 52 books she set out to read. We do get a 3+ page appendix of the 21 books she actually read with a brief explanation of why she liked it (or not), including an apology for actually reading a Mary Higgens Clark book.

As I was reading this, I realized that, with very few exceptions, I already have a list of the books she listed or talked about - it's called "1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die".

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific and engaging book about reading! The author, Sara Nelson makes a New Year's resolution to document a year of reading, and makes a list of books she wants to read. (Naturally I was hooked straight away). She intends to read and review a book a week - quite a goal considering she is also an editor and reviewer!! Nelson quickly discovers that it's impossible to stick to her list and allows fate to bring the books to her.

Nelson's passion for reading is contagious, and it's hard not to be jealous of her cherry shelves and expansive library. Easy to read and full of comments and references to probably hundreds of books, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even added several books to my own book list after reading it.

I would highly recommend this book to any bookworm.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I would recommend the book unless you were interested in the author. The book is more about the author's life and subsequently the book she happened to read in a year. If you're wanting book recommendations, this is not really the place to find them. There are far better books that do this in an organized manner. But that is not to say that I didn't glean some interesting Concepts from the book about reading... Such as not finishing a book if you're not totally into it and expanding your horizons in book topics.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was nice, quick read on a three hour flight from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas on Monday, even with a fever starting to bake my brain. A List, with life fillers, candid and sometimes vulnerable. Ms. Nelson read many things I wouldn't, gave me a few suggestions for things I want to check out, didn't read some things, didn't finish some (more on that...) Some of her quest was a touch of regret, touch of nostalgia, touch even of guilt, as well as desire to read some things that had been avoided, ignored, and set aside.

With respect to nostalgia, she says

It’s always dangerous to reread the pivotal books of your youth. Like discovering poetry or journals you wrote as a teenager, revisiting your adolescent feelings about books can be at best embarrassing and often excruciating.

I might be the oddball, but I only have a few "pivotal" books, and only one author is embarrassing. Okay, I'll admit it here...Ayn Rand...but like most intelligent adults, I outgrew her (sorry, certain political party.) I rather still like Herbert, Tolkien, Chalker, Asimov. Even Jay Williams doesn't embarrass me. I'll sometimes run across and download books from Open Library for the Nostalgic Re-Read. None embarrass me.

On not finishing books, and James McBride’s Miracle at St. Anna

It’s an amalgam of history, myth, and politics—and it just doesn’t work. I kept trying, because I liked McBride so much. I didn’t know him personally, but his memoir was so powerful and rich that I, along with 1.3 million other readers, felt as if I did. Saturday: an hour in bed telling myself that lots of great books start off slow (The Corrections, anyone?) and that I owed it to him to keep trying. So after a perfect winter lunch of soup and bread, I tried again. By page 60, I still hadn’t latched on to any of the characters. By page 70, my mind wandered to the words of that song in A Chorus Line: “I feel nothing.”
So I did something I have only in my maturity learned how to do: I stopped reading. Right there, on page 71, right after the hero, a brain-damaged soldier, encounters the little boy who will change his life. I might pick it up again, I told myself. And I might. But I doubt it.

Some seven years ago, I was bemoaning to a friend both my inability to slog through yet another atrocious Heinlein novel and my doggedly trying to finish a leadership book by Kouzes and Posner. His wisdom is still a challenge for me: "If I've gotten enough out of a book, I'll stop reading." I struggle with that, even if the book has little value to offer. Or, in the case of Heinlein, "Why keep reading crap?" "Because I'm stubborn." "But it's crap."

He was right. But I still have a hard time not finishing a book. Sometimes, I have a hard time starting a book. Ms. Nelson relates

I’m like an animal off its feed. I can’t get into a novel to save my life. Biographies bore me. I’ve left so many open books, belly down, on the green bedroom rug that the whole place is starting to look like an aerial view of a town full of Swiss chalets. I’m out of sorts. I’m off my game. I’m irregular.

Boy, do I know that feeling! I call it "reader's block". Turns out, a week later (this was more or less a weekly diary), she used the same term.

She's honest when a popular book doesn't cut it.

Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, a 1996 novel that may have been inspired by the same historical crime. When I read that much-praised book, I felt as though I were reading about issues and symbols rather than people. I was not a fan.

"Issues and symbols rather than people"...yeah...sometimes.

I really liked her part on the great opening lines of novels that grab you...one she noted grabbed me (and I'm going to find the book): The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall. The opening lines? "If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head. As formative events go, nothing else comes close." How could that not grab your attention?

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I stuck with this book. For the first couple of chapters I had trouble with it because the author seems to take her reading too seriously. She seems to want every book experience to a magical and eye opening experience and gets frustrated when she doesn't experience it or when her kith or kin don't see books or reading the same way.

I'm also glad that I had to wait longer than expected to read this book because it gave me more time to read from the list of books she refers to in her essays. It was through her book "reviews" that I began to like the book. She and I (for the most part) agree on a lot of books. She is frustrated by books much in the same way that I am (see her comments on Cold Mountain, Everything is Illuminated and Alias Grace).

Given our affinity for certain types of books, I plan to jot down some of the more interesting titles that I haven't read and stick them in my wishlist at Cliff's for future reference.

One last note: sometimes two books will unexpectedly synchronize. In her chapter called "A Million Little Pieces" she writes about a book of the same title. She choses to describe the opening scene and just a couple weeks earlier I had read another reference to that scene in a book I was reading. I think the other book is Watermelon but I haven't been able to find the passage yet.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara, obviously we need to meet, talk about our favorite books, go out to lunch, continue talking about books, and end the day by walking over to our favorite bookstore or library. Sara, is a "readaholic". Boy, can I relate--books have completely taken over my house. They spill out of the bookcases, they are piled under tables, they sit on top of the tables, they are stored in bags, they are everywhere. Sara decided to tackle this obsession with reading head on and one year her New Year's plan was a to read a book a week for the next year. She made a list, but, as readaholics will do, was constantly attracted to some new book, or decided to read a book she was suppose to read in college and didn't, or become intrigued in a title recommended by a friend. And better yet, she writes about each of the books that she read that year and tried to match "the reading experience with the personal one and watching where they intersect--or don't." And I was delighted to see the lists at the end of the book--books that she intended to read, books that she actually read, and books on her must-read list. I've plucked several titles from each. Recommended for anyone who can't imagine a day without some reading time.