Po(sey) Sessions

My reading goals for 2017 were extremely lofty and somewhat unrealized so far. My goal: 100 Currently finished: 13 While 13 is not a shabby number, it is half of what I am expected to have done to meet my goal this year. Despite a number of changes in my life this year, one of which going back to school fully time, I am stubbornly hoping I will find the time to make up the numbers of books read. Perhaps over the summer? Books completed in 2017: 1. Sugar - Jewell Parker Rhodes 2. Sweetbitter - Stephanie Danler 3. Food, Genes, and Culture - Gary Nabhan 4. Chew, Vol. 5: Major League - John Layman 5. Ink - Amanda Sun 6. Underground Airlines - Ben Winters 7. The American Way of Eating - Tracie McMillan 8. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer 9. Authority - Jeff VanderMeer 10. Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste - Bill Best 11. Farmacology - Daphne Miller 12. Sleep Donation - Karen Russell 13. High on the Hog - Jessica Harris Currently reading: My Southern Journey - Rick Bragg V...

I want to tell you a story. Hi, my name is Megan. I am mildly willing to admit I may have a problem with books. Problem is probably not the best term for it. I have an obsession, a mania, a philia. Some might call it a Gentle Madness. In my home I have over 5,000 books. Books that I have never read. Waiting in piles for me to find time and energy for consumption. These piles around me used to be piles of guilt, but it was fairly recently that I discovered, even on the day I die, I want plenty of books to choose from. There is a certain sadness in thinking about only having one book left to enjoy in this mortal world. But these piles of books are not my story. Or not the story of today. Once, in my dark past, I used to be a person with lots of piles of books and a blog. These things were the entirety of my book passion. I was silent in my love for books until I was able to start describing them with poorly chosen sparse words. It was through my blog and twitter that I was able t...

I realize the irony in the matter, I own a bookstore but I rarely read books in paper. I love my paper books, but there are times they just don't fit into my life. As I get older the words get smaller and the pages get dimer and finding a comfortable position that doesn't cause me to fall asleep is a challenge. Some days I have accepted it. I am old. Scaleable font and backlit screens help me read in any position and not just when the lighting is right. To me, reading is reading. I want everyone to be doing more of it. Recently that especially includes myself. I find myself with the time to read, but not the desire to invest in the storylines I am currently presented with. I think it is both common and interesting that as one gets older there is less room for books that aren't exactly what we are looking for. I used to never give up on a book I was reading, and I am still not eager to admit that I will never pick up a book again. But I am working on guilt free reading a...

In my Food and Culture class we were challenged to find our food identity. For most students we had a deep desire to connect with our childhood. This video is a representation of my childhood food identity.

I am thinking about coming back to blogging. I flirt with the idea often, I even flirt with actions of blogging. Writing and posting a piece thinking it is the beginning of my triumphant return but my resolve fizzles quickly. For many years I was the same thing. A book lover, a mother, and a basic writer. I talked about my life and my limited number of passions. But in the past five years I have become many more things. I have become a business owner, a foodie, a student, and a better friend. The internet has the unique ability to create community. It was this feeling of community that I could never find in the town where I live, or even the town where I grew up. Family and community have always been a kind of mystery to me. Growing up I struggled with friendships. The solitude of my youth was echoed by my inability to effectively interact and communicate in a group setting. Owning my dream business let me realize the opportunity for community in my own town and beyond the scope...

My 11 year old daughter hates to read. This is a great pity and sadness to me. I know she is reluctant about reading and struggles with it some. I also feel a slight rebellion or defiance in her. She enjoys saying she doesn't like to read because I own a bookstore. She cherishes that irony. On one hand I appreciate her understanding of irony. On the other hand I always think that if I present her with the RIGHT book that I can change her into a reader! Recently she listened to the audiobook for The Inventor's Secret. It grabbed her RIGHT AWAY. Like I said, she is reluctant to read. I can get her to listen to audiobooks occasionally, but she usually tells me she is bored. I want her to read with her eyes, but I also like that she can enjoy stories outside of the struggles she might feel with reading. I know those struggles well. I am not now, nor have I ever been a particularly good reader. It is interesting how something that you aren't good at can become the thing you ar...

One of the reason I miss updating my blog is that I enjoy going back and seeing what I was reading and if I liked it. Some of the books I have blogged about I still haven't finished. Some I never will. Lately I have been working on really interesting mix of reading, especially driven by my personal research in dystopian literature and communal living. Today I finished Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and it was basically amazing. It lost me in the last little bit, the moments just before the end. I am a little bummed out about this, but I think I will get over it soon and just go on loving the book. Hoping to try more books by this author soon. I "read" Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock via audiobook, and I just loved the narrator for it. I found out he is also the narrator for the audio of Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perks is one of those books I have been reading in a REALLY long time, this will be a good excuse to get back to it. I am extremely good at starting books. Prob...