{"id":6755,"date":"2025-01-16T13:59:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T19:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=6755"},"modified":"2025-01-16T13:59:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T19:59:26","slug":"i-am-simply-a-book-drunkard-and-heres-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/i-am-simply-a-book-drunkard-and-heres-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Am Simply A Book Drunkard’ and Here’s Proof"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

\u201cI am simply a \u2018book drunkard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2015\u00a0Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables<\/em><\/p>\n

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I share that sentiment with Ms. Montgomery, the Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables<\/em>, a hugely popular children\u2019s novel adapted for stage, screen, and television since its publication in 1908. Several years ago, my Beautiful Mystery Companion gave me a wooden tchotchke with that quotation on it, which now sits on, well, a bookshelf.<\/p>\n

With the passing of the holiday season, and another stack of books arriving as gifts from my family, who understand and share this addiction, I am taking my annual look back on the books I read in 2024. For the past seven years, I have used Goodreads to keep up with the consumed titles. The social media app is useful for that, more efficient than writing titles down in a journal as I once did. I refrain from using any of Goodreads\u2019 other tools, not bothering to review or rate books or really pay attention to what others are reading. I have never had any desire to join a book club, being naturally resistant to being told what to read if I am not enrolled in a class.<\/p>\n

I always have one fiction and one non-fiction book going at the same time. For example, at the moment I am reading There\u2019s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension<\/em> by Hanif Abdurraqib, a young (to me) poet and essayist who takes on the sport he loves in transcendent fashion. For fiction, I am continuing my deep dive into the work of Attica Locke, a Houston native whose Highway 59 mystery trilogy deftly captures Deep East Texas. Now I am reading Pleasantville<\/em>, set in her hometown of Houston.<\/p>\n

For the record, in 2024, Goodreads informs me I finished 69 books for a total of 26,257 pages read. That is a plethora of page thumbing, though it didn\u2019t feel so at the time. The longest book I read was Reagan: His Life and Legend<\/em> by Max Boot, weighing in at a cat-crushing 880 pages. Boot is a respected conservative columnist for the Washington Post <\/em>who wisely left the Republican Party with the ascendancy of that orange-haired fellow in 2015. I was never a fan of Reagan, but the biography is even-handed and interesting. It is a welcomed addition to my collection of presidential biographies and autobiographies.<\/p>\n

The shortest book read was the Miniature Donkey Owner\u2019s Manual<\/em> at 110 pages. (I momentarily thought about getting some miniature donkeys but decided it was not feasible on our land.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As we stumble through January, from that 2024 list here are some reading suggestions to keep you cozily camped out by the fireplace:<\/p>\n