On My Nightstand

I'm in the middle of a few books lately, which is something I hated to do when I was younger but now seems a way of life.   I don't make as much time for reading anymore, when it used to be at the top of my priorities.  Maybe that's why I'm taking on so many books at once.

I'm a big fan of Goodreads.com - where you can make To-Read lists, catalog what you've read, check out book reviews, see what your friends are reading - I only recently found this site and have become obsessed.  I'd love to be your friend there and see what you're reading!

I like to have several types of books on my nightstand:  something non-fiction so I can feel learned, something autobiographical, some kind of deep, good literary type fiction and something fictional I equate with junkfood for my brain, or TV books as my brother calls them.  There's nothing wrong with TV books (as in, books that are more like watching TV than reading literature) I think we all need them to decompress and escape sometimes.   So here's what's on my night table  - won't you share yours?

Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff.  I heard a great interview with the author on NPR and had to get this book.  It's the true story of a planeload of servicemen and WACs surviving in a remote part of Dutch New Guinea in 1945, complete with plane crashes, headhunters and cannibals - it should be an exciting read, if I could just get past the first few chapters of introducing the characters.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  Okay, this is an big one, and while Steve is a fascinating person who left us too soon, sometimes his character flaws and personality can be too much and I have to step away from this book.  I will make it through, someday.

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen.  I found this one on Goodreads, plus I have a thing for  apocalyptic fiction.  This story is set in a small commonwealth in Washington State during the 1918 flu epidemic.  I also heard a great review on NPR which you can listen to here.  I'm loving it so far, though I just started it.  I worked with a Native group in Alaska documenting an abandoned graveyard that had so many grave markers from this period.  I even had a professor that warned this virulent flu could survive in the soil.  This professor tended to taste soil at dig sites, but refrained in this area.  I was never sure if he was kidding or not.

And now for my late night junkfood book - Feed by Mira Grant.  It's another apocalyptic story, complete with zombies.  It feeds my addiction to all things end of the world and takes the place of The Walking Dead while I await it's return.  It's a fun, fast book and is the first book of three, so I know there's more to come when I'm finished.

Underneath those are some issues of bon appetite, Bazaar and House Beautiful for perusing, you know, in my down time.  I wish I had the time to take it all in.

Friend me on Goodreads, share what your reading, I'd love to add to my to-read list!