"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This year was by far my worst year of reading . . . ever. Although there are 11 days left in the year, I am calling it. I do not think I read even 15 books this year. January started off fine, maybe 1-2 books off pace. But then, that was it.
I don't want to be one of "those" people - a person who doesn't read. How can a life-long well-loved habit be lost so easily and seem almost insurmountable to regain?
Do I need a fabulous recommendation? Not really. I have lots of books, hundreds, in my house to choose from - books that once must have intersted me. I've started The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman - that Mary references below in her most recent post. I'm on page 36. It's a perfectly good book - but rather than lie in bed and read for 1-2 hours in the evening, I just lay there and stare at the TV.
Maybe I should give my TV away? :-)
I don't know what to do to make 2011 what 2010 was not - a wonderful year of reading.
National Poetry Month
6 days ago
1 comment:
re: book review request by award-winning author
Dear Reading Gals Blog:
I'm an award-winning author with a new book of fiction out this fall. Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about childhood published by West Virginia University Press.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher's website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: "In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering--emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story "The Scratchboard Project" received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings
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