Books People Send Me, Installment One

In the—wait, I have to calculate this whole thing in my head… 10? no… 12? 13 years? I think I’ve had an official business address (see below) since 2004. So, 13 years. A mailing address as old as my daughter who—and this cannot be a coincidence given the subject of this post—was once tasked to read 40 books in the span of a school year and when she tripled that number asked if she should fudge the number lower so that the other kids would not feel so bad.

Let’s get real. I don’t know if I’ve read 40 books in my life, and I have a degree in English, a degree generously supplemented by CliffsNotes. Remember those? Seriously, our Nineties version of google sucked ass.

My kid loves to read, and I do, too. Sometimes. If I have free time and sleep is an option, everything else loses. Reading loses, TV loses, and sorry, you lose, too. Especially if you’ve just called and asked me to meet you at the emergency room because you slipped and broke your neck. You knew I was about to take a nap. Break your neck on your own time.

Publishing houses have been sending me books since I opened that business address, and I cannot possibly estimate how many I have donated to churches or schools or other nonprofit programs. Thousands if not tens of thousands of books. Earlier this year in preparation for our move across town I cleaned out our bookcase—this does not include the room full of books that had been sent to me in the two months leading up to this—and I filled a truck with 600 books to donate. Of those 600, at least three-fourths were young adult books, and Leta had read every single one. Every one. All of them.

How I dearly want to take credit for this kid! ALAS. She likes black licorice, so we all know I adopted her from wolves.

While thinking about the redesign of this site, I decided I wanted to start featuring many if not most of the books people send me. I cannot possibly read or review every single one, and having poured my life and soul into three of these “book things” I know how important these bound pages are to an author.

Voilà, Installment One.

Most of these I will donate, but a few will find a permanent home in our library. And so, my apologies. I can’t always read or review what you send me, but I can let people know about your work.