My Current Booklist

I have an Echo Dot and it has the most annoying habit of trying to recommend books to me.  I can't figure out how to turn it off.

In all my life, I have rarely needed book recommendations, especially once the Internet came into existence.  When I was younger, I would read the New York Times Book Review back when I used to buy the Sunday New York Times.  In the past few years, there is a free publication called Book Page I can get at some local libraries.

In the old days, I would have to either use the library reserve list, or buy, books I wanted that the library did not have readily available but I could still find reading material by physical browsing of the shelves.  I've spent many happy work lunch break hours in libraries. 

Then, e books came along.  While many have embraced them, I never had.  I just don't get the same experience with an ebook.  True, you can change the font size and true, you (with many ebooks) can press on words you don't know the meanings of, and get a definition.

But I can't fall into an ebook the way I can a physical book.  It's just not the same experience.

For a while, the pandemic cured me (or so I thought) of needing a physical book.  In the couple of months libraries closed here in New York State in the early days of Covid, I found refuge in ebooks. 

It helped tremendously when the New York (City) Public Library opened its ebook collection to residents of New York State (I believe the Brookyn Public Library also did this) and my iPad became my library.  The beauty of this system was that when the book was due, it disappeared.  No fines.

But now, I've gone full circle.  I want physical books again.  I still use the New York (City) Public Library but if my local library gets a book in when I am reading the ebook, I return the ebook.

Right now, I have these titles out as ebooks:  I have anywhere from 16 to 19 days left before they vanish.

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.  This is a debut novel that takes place in a near future dystopia.  The author is from downstate New York and I'm OK with it as an ebook but I really wish I could have the physical book. I'm perhaps a quarter of the way through.

Prequel:  An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow.  This is non fiction I was looking foward to reading, but I'm already struggling with reading it as an ebook.

The Cost of Free Land:  Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren.  This is a stunning book by a Jewish woman who grew up in rural South Dakota and what happened when she started to dig into her family's history of having fled pogroms in Eastern Europe only to collide with the Indige­nous peoples who had once lived on that same land.   I have a long way to go but I think I can manage with this as an ebook.

And, on the reserve list of ebooks:

Julia: A retelling of 1984 by Sandra Newman.  This is a retelling of this classic story from the point of view of a character who was never fully developed in the original.  This was authorized by the estate of 1984's author George Orwell.  I have some trepidation because I tried reading another book by Sandra Newman, The Country of Ice Cream Star and it was a Did Not Finish for me.

So, what happened today?  I found a physical copy of Julia at my local library.

I took it out.  I have three weeks and I know it probably won't be able to be renewed.  So I might stay on the ebook reserve list.

I can't read four books like this in the next 20 or so days, though.  So some decisions need to be made.

But Alexa isn't going to help me with those decisions. I don't want her blurting out unsolicited book recommendations when I ask her to set a timer or ask her when a certain football game will be on.  I really wish I could shut her up sometimes.

What do you do when books suddenly pile up on you?