ByGD
Bookstores might be my Tiffany’s. This look back at the haul from my very first Independent Bookstore Day reveals the severity of my tsundoku problem. I still haven’t read any of the books pictured. But Independent Bookstore Day remains one of my favorite holidays. This year they’re doing things a little differently to accommodate pandemic safety precautions, and I’m still not sure how much I’m going to participate. But I think next year will be the year I actually fill my passport.
ByGD
As you do, I was gushing about Healer, one of my favorite K-dramas. In Healer, Ji Chang Wook’s title character did cool parkour style action and great fight scenes, but what stood out from other action heroes was his situational awareness. He always sensed when someone was following him and knew when he was walking into a trap before the bad guys attacked. The day after this enthusiastic one-sided conversation I got an offer to review an advance copy of The Power of Awareness, a personal safety how-to book. Since I can’t practice most of the exercises while social distancing, I thought I’d read using Healer to illustrate its principles.
ByGD
Despite my personal history of book club and book challenge failures, I am slowly plugging away at the Reading Around the World challenge. I started early in 2020 with Afghanistan and Albania. When the libraries reopened, I got started again with books from Algeria and Andorra. Finding an Andorran book was a challenge. Choosing a book for the next country, Angola, wasn’t easy either, but the book I chose, Transparent City by Ondjaki, presented some challenges of its own.
ByGD
March is a little late to be summarizing the previous year’s reading. But I was busy in January and forgot in February, so here we are. I like looking back at my book-year regardless of when I get around to it. So if you have any interest in my reading life, here we go. My 2020 in books.
ByGD
In July of 2016 I went on a pilgrimage to Powell’s Books in Portland with my mom and my two kids. We spent two full days in Portland and we did a lot of touristy stuff. But we spent several hours at Powell’s each day, and we bought a lot of books. To this day, it remains one of my favorite trips. And I’m still reading books I bought then.