Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live | 
#ThisOrThat Thanks for the tag @Ann_Reads !
🍂 Hardback
🍂 LOTR
🍂 Real
🍂 Buy
🍂 Chair, but I always read at least a few pages in bed each night
🍂 Mostly alone (tagged bookish essay collection is a good one), but I do enjoy my IRL book club and Litsy group reads mixed in
🍂 Bookstore, but use library regularly, especially for audiobooks
🍂 I love both nonfiction & fiction
🍂 Mostly print, but I always have an audiobook on the go
🍂 Both!
pickReading & living, criticism & memoir. Personal stories mixed with literary analysis & appreciation of craft. Courage, regret, dissolution of a marriage. The spectral father. Short pieces on Chekhov, Eudora Welty, Isaac Babel, Breece D'J Pancake, Bohumil Hrabal, many more. Humor & heartbreak, all with great candor. Love letter to reading.
“Stories, both my own and those I've taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I've become.” 2016
pickI am always nosy regarding the reading habits of others and always interested in different authors. Definitely enjoyed this overall. A couple of the last essays were too long and vague.
Such a gift. His essays reignited my passion for reading. “ My Father‘s Gloves” ...
pickThis was quite wonderful. Riveting and brilliantly written. I adored Orner‘s relationship to the books and stories he loves; he returns to favorites frequently, as I listen to certain albums. Added bonus (I suppose): it added massively to my already ridiculously unmanageable TBR list.
“Chekhov is as realistic a writer as Kafka, and vice versa. I read ‘The Metamorphosis‘ not as an allegory but as a rough morning.”
“Stories fail if you read them only once.” Hmmm, really? I‘m not a re-reader. So this is a tough idea to accept up front. I‘ve never been interested in going back over land already traveled. But maybe I‘m missing out? I wonder if it‘d be worth the time. . . I‘m still working my way through Orner‘s essays. It‘s slow going, but in the best of ways. Lots to chew on. #booksaboutbooks
Kicking off things here on Listy with a pic of my “currently reading”. 🤞I‘m doing this right?
#BookNDinner! I asked @MrBook to bring home healthy food from the grocery store. So, this is the "healthy" meal he shows up with: spinach manicotti with garlic marinara sauce, covered in Parmesan cheese! ?? Paired with refreshing sparkling mineral water. Not the lean meal I had in mind, but delicious ! ?This has been another presentation of: #MrBookBookBabeKitchen. Happy reads & happy eats! #ohthoseItalians
pickThe e-book version, at the end, has a link leading to a sampler that includes full short stories discussed by Orner. In this book about books but focusing on the short story form, Orner says about Gina Berriault: "Neither Mailer or Updike, worthy as they are, has ever brought me to my knees with a sentence ". That caught my attention! Her short story "Around the Dear Ruin" is in the companion. Now Berriault & some others added to my TBR list!
pickI love this book. I know I love it because I want to go back to the first page and read it again. I consume again work that touches me because I want to imprint it on the tissues of my being so I can call it forth at will when I need to experience something beautiful. Orner also consumes what he reads again and again but he is smarter than I am. He reads oceans while I'm still learning how to tread water and can't hold my own in the deep end.
Yes! I've been eyeing this one for a while.
Here's a TBR heads up for everyone. I'm guessing this one's a TBR for a lot of us. Just $1.99 today for Kindle. Enjoy! #buyingunderthelitfluence
#MarchIntoReading Day 21 - Spine Poetry
In honor of #WorldPoetryDay here's a little book spine haiku
Just heard school will be closed again tomorrow so I will read on today! Next up, Peter Orner's memoir about reading. How appropriate! 😊#snowydayreading
pickI like to read books about the pleasures of reading and this book is no exception. There may have been some skimming involved- I have not read most of the literature that Orner discusses- but I enjoyed his exploration of the way that fiction intersects with his life. There were so many lines I wanted to highlight so that I could return to them and I am not someone who ever writes in books. That alone earns this a pick.
I started this one last night and am only a few pages in but this is my #currentread. #riotgrams
Here is my #feistyfeb TBR. I also have about 15 books on hold at the library and need to read a few books from my shelves but these are definite reads.
Today's library haul. Please notice my restraint. Only holds came home with me! Proof there is a first time for everything.
Thank you Peter Orner. Same here.
From,
A reader
Been itching to read this one #recommendedby @Liberty on #allthebooks. I think she called it an epic #nerdpurr for people who love #booksaboutbooks. Also gonna be a nice "O" for #litsyAtoZ
@BookishMarginalia
#readjanuary
@RealLifeReading
Loving this book so far! #readingtolive #livingtoread
pickAfter a hectic and busy holiday season, I finally finished this book of very lovely and very serious prose. I don't think everyone will love this book, and I didn't love it all, but there were so many beautifully written sentences that I couldn't help but keep reading. The author has a serious love of literature that is both inspiring and intimidating. Part memoir and part devotion to literature, it is unique and enjoyable for the right reader.
So I am an outlier here, but I am not participating in any reading challenges in 2017, not even Goodreads. The end of the year ended in a fairly significant slump for me, and I want to give myself as much freedom to pick the right book at the right time. Often challenges result in me picking books not because I want to really read them but for the challenge purposes (i.e. Shorter books instead of longer ones to bump up my numbers etc).
Starting my first book of 2017. 🍻
Yes I'm alone in the break room at work for my lunch!!! *insert evil laugh here* as an introvert, can't explain how grateful I am for this peace and quiet!
"Stories can't be caged."
A foggy Christmas Eve here. Our snow has come and gone! Spending some time with my next book before the craziness takes over. Beautiful and quiet writing that I am enjoying so much already. Happy holidays everyone!
Yay!!! Another happy day 😊🙃😊my brother, sister in law & niece arrived 💙💜💚and with them LOADS of goodies including these books 📚 I ❤️my family 💕💕💕
It's late, but I have a five year old with a stomach bug and it seems easier to just stay awake. There's some really good stuff in this book, though, so it's ok☺️
Loving Peter Orner's "AM I ALONE HERE? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live", wherein he compares literature with the reader's soul.
#SeasonsReadings2016 Day 2 - Kickass Heroines
Eudora Welty was a badass/kickass heroine of her writing life, according to Peter Orner
#photoadaynov16 Day 28 #currentlyreading Well, I'm TRYING to currently read all of these!! I hate being behind on my #Goodreads challenge 😭 I 💗💗💗Litsy so much!! I haven't done enough of these posts and later may post catchups! I love this community!
Here are all the books that I am #currentlyreading. I've always had a hard time reading just one at a time.
pickAn interesting collection of personal essays. Orner contrasts what he is reading - or finds he NEEDS to read at times - with his personal life. Gets a bit navel-gaze-y on occasion, but the range of authors he writes about is really awesome (particularly the short story writers). Orner has a toss-off line that states he prefers literature where families have trouble communicating and it's a through-line between his reading and memoir.
Lizzie Borden is popping up every where recently.
The quality of the prose needs to stop seducing me!!
I'm seduced by this book already 😍😍 if someone came up to me talking about books like this...just saying!
I feel like this book was written for me! Super excited!! And even though this counts as yesterday's #photoadaynov16 #readinginbed
A bit of #bookmail that I'm really excited to get to for #NonFictionNovember - especially since I heard @Liberty talk about it with @rebeccaschinsky on a recent All The Books podcast episode!! A book about books by a bibliophile 📚😍
So I'm trying to read and battle the Chaucer-kitteh for my pillow. I think I'm losing. 😕 #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #amreading Am I Alone Here? By Peter Orner from @Catapult #fridayreads
My #fridayreads (well, two of them at least)
pick"For me all stories are fiction. The only question is: Does it rattle the soul or not?"
An interesting look at a life in reading and how books and life intersect
pick‼️New Release Alert‼️
I seriously loved this book so much and now it's finally out!
It's a cross-genre love letter to literature that will melt bibliophile's hearts. If books are the lens through which you measure your life, this book is for you.
I was super excited to talk to Peter about the book, so you can learn more in this review/interview. ❤️📚❤️
http://pankmagazine.com/2016/11/01/review-interview-am-i-alone-here-by-peter-orn...
pickThis book of essays travel well. Be sure to have a pile of post-its on hand. These sentences cut clean through.
