October books 23 (156)

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

 ORMOND BEACH, FL -- For five months all I read were e-books.  The Volusia County Public Library has multiple databases where I can get e-books for free, and I have multiple devices that allow me to take advantage of all the databases.

 I used to carry paperbacks with me on our summer travels, and would swap them for different ones at the many free bookshelves I would find in campgrounds.

 I thought the advent of kindles and such would save space in our tiny summer home-on-wheels, but now I find I have five devices which consume about as much volume as three or four paperbacks would.

 I prefer to read very contemporary fiction, which doesn't always turn up on e-book services quickly.  So I also spent the summer keeping track via Internet of what was being published.  I kept a list of things I wanted to read when we got home, where I'm a near-daily communicant at the library branch three blocks from the house.

 Then, 72 hours before our arrival, I began to put these books on reserve. There were a couple waiting for me when we arrived Oct. 13.  And then an avalanche hit.  It was as if I'd pulled one book off a high shelf and dislodged a dozen more which fell on my head.

 It was also inevitable that when I went to the library to pick up the books I'd requested, I would glance at the new book shelves and find something else I couldn't resist.

 I have been doing a lot of reading, these two and a half weeks since we've been home.  And I'm still on the waiting list for half a dozen books.

Costello, Mary Academy Street

Daoud, Kamel The Meursault Investigation

Doerr, Anthony About Grace

Doig, Ivan Last Bus to Wisdom

Gable, Michelle A Paris Apartment

Gutterson, David Descent: A Memoir of Madness

Hallberg, Garth Risk  City on Fire

Hoffman, Alice The Marriage of Opposites

Kidman, Robin Bradstreet Gate

Lagercrantz, David  The Girl in the Spider's Web

Lemaitre, Pierre Camille

McCullough, David  The Wright Brothers

McEwan, Ian The Comfort of Strangers
Nyad, Diana              Find a Way

Novic, Sara Girl at War

Pitts Jr, Leonard Grant Park

Rendell, Ruth Dark Corners

Roiphe, Anne Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind

Oates, Joyce Carol  Jack of Spades

Oates, Joyce Carol  The Lost Landscape

Sullivan, Rosemary  Stalin's Daughter

Walbert, Kate The Sunken Cathedral
Wharton, Edith           Summer