ltgmars | in which Inez talks about books as a concept || gimme some book recs

I finally sat down and organized my bookshelves. (My parents were nice enough to get me a second one when I complained that I couldn't clean my room without having a place to put my books. Till now, I've had stacks of books and boxes throwing up all over my floor. I think that was part of the impetus for my mother's going out and finding me a bookshelf, heh.) It took some shimmying, and I'm not quite content with where everything is (because Harry Potter doesn't belong on the foreign language shelf, but that was the only shelf that had enough space left for giant hardcover books), but for the most part I'm proud that I got it to fit.

Sitting down surrounded by books made me realize how lucky I am to have books to read. I guess it's because I'm whimsical enough to think that you discover something about yourself when you read, but I think reading is such a special thing, and having the opportunity to read, to learn about yourself and connect to the world from within your own home, is so personal and important to me. I don't read enough; I never did and I never will. I think my priorities are messed up enough that reading has been shucked to the bottom of the list when really it deserves to be on a separate list entirely. But it's one of the things I always say on surveys about "your hobbies" and whatnot: I read. That's what I like to do, even if I haven't been able to for years.

It reminds me of those privilege walks. (If you aren't familiar with them, they're basically team-building exercises where you take steps forward or backward based on certain criteria and you "think about your background" and "come to appreciate the diversity" within the group you're working with; it's a little hokey and really problematic in what it sees as privileged, but that in itself is something to consider when you're living in a world where certain things are valued and privileged over others. ("Take a step back if you had to use public transportation to go to school", for example, doesn't necessarily seem like a disadvantage if you live in a city that runs on public transportation, but it says something that the people who penned that particular privilege walk had that to say about public transportation.)) One of the prompts that always stuck with me was "Take a step forward if you had more than 50 books in your house growing up." And of course I went to a hoity-toity liberal arts college, so there was never anyone who didn't take a step forward, but it struck me that there are people out there who couldn't have taken that step forward, who didn't have books to read as children.

I'll be the first to admit that I was spoiled rotten as a kid. (I'm still spoiled.) But one of the things I'm most grateful for is that my parents always bought me books to read. I don't know how ubiquitous they were, but in grade school, we always got those "Scholastic Book Club" pamphlets, you know, those eight-page leaflets printed on newspaper paper with the cyan offset just enough to make the words hard to read. I would bring them home with a big smile on my face, and my mom would say to me, "Okay, what books do you want this time? Circle them and let me know." It helped me build a decent collection of Newbery Award winners. It introduced me to Animorphs and Harry Potter. I met a lot of dear friends that way.

Reading is so important to me. Every day I think to myself, "I want to read." Most days, I don't make it to the bookshelf. Maybe some day, when I'm an old codger (what's the female form of "codger"?) and I live in a townhouse in Seattle with my cats, I'll have time to read again. It'll be like revisiting a sublime state of happiness.

So, my dear friends of the flesh-and-bones variety, summer reading 2010, LET'S GO. If you could recommend one book to me to read, what would it be? Basically, give me your deserted island book. (For those who gave me a book to read last year, give me a different one.) The likelihood that I'll get to read it anytime soon is slim, but it really means a lot to me to have recommended books from people I know and like. It makes it more personal, somehow. I read a book and feel closer to you, knowing that it was a book you felt strongly enough about that you recommended I read it.

... shut up, it just happens, okay?

ETA: Okay, I love that you guys read, but seriously, stop cheating. Give me one book. Just one.