Read All Over?

A story in the Washington Post suggests 37 books that its reviewers have loved so far this year and recommends 10 more for your summer reading pleasure.

If you check out a lot of online news outlets you will see gobs of these lists, although most will not go with the oddball numbers like 37. There are also plenty of lists from famous people, like this one from Ethan Hawke. Hawke's an actor who's written four books himself, and his publisher would probably have liked him to have put at least one of them on his list of six favorites. "Ethan, baby, it's great that you like Anna Karenina, but Tolstoy doesn't need the sales like we do. C'mon, baby, if you don't sell yourself who's gonna?"

There are also lists of books for different groups of folks, like military buffs or gardeners or chefs. There are reviews of all kinds, including books that probably would be best skipped, but only by people who read.

This blog offers the writer's opinion on different books now and again, and as far as a quick perusal of the archives shows, there's pretty much nothing I won't read. Probably mostly true, although there are some authors I may have read in the past for assignments or classes that I won't ever read again. See the previous paragraph.

I wouldn't say my book reviews offer any kind of list that you should or shouldn't read, but if you've taken one of my recommendations and enjoyed it I am pleased. If you didn't enjoy it, sorry about that. I'll try again, I assure you.