This post contains affiliate links, which may result in a small commission if you click through to purchase. I was so thrilled to be chosen as a part of the launch team for Anne Bogel‘s newest book I’d Rather Be Reading. I got an advanced copy to review, plus lots of fun social media goodies, and it’s been so neat to see what other readers had to say about this adorable read.
I’d Rather Be Reading than: working, driving, sleeping, folding laundry, cooking dinner, dealing with dramatic middle schoolers, preparing for maternity leave, waiting on baby, checking off my to-do list, grocery shopping, unpacking boxes… basically everything on my list except for snuggling our new baby (NEXT WEEK!).
From Amazon: For so many people, reading isn’t just a hobby or a way to pass the time–it’s a lifestyle. Our books shape us, define us, enchant us, and even sometimes infuriate us. Our books are a part of who we are as people, and we can’t imagine life without them. I’d Rather Be Reading is the perfect literary companion for everyone who feels that way. In this collection of charming and relatable reflections on the reading life, beloved blogger and author Anne Bogel leads readers to remember the book that first hooked them, the place where they first fell in love with reading, and all of the moments afterward that helped make them the reader they are today. Known as a reading tastemaker through her popular podcast What Should I Read Next?, Bogel invites book lovers into a community of like-minded people to discover new ways to approach literature, learn fascinating new things about books and publishing, and reflect on the role reading plays in their lives. The perfect gift for the bibliophile in everyone’s life, I’d Rather Be Reading will command an honored place on the overstuffed bookshelves of any book lover.
This hasn’t been a great season of reading for me, but it isn’t for a lack of trying. In my first trimester, any time I got still enough to read more than a few pages, I fell asleep. Once I wasn’t sleeping or throwing up all the time I was able to conquer plenty of books on my summer list and was feeling much better about myself. Now that we’re counting down the days until baby’s arrival, there has been so much to do and when I wasn’t conquering my to-do list, I was busy reading all things baby-related. I’m sure I’ll get to tackle plenty of books during my maternity leave and midnight feeding sessions, so I’m trying not to be stressed or disappointed at the measly three books I’ve conquered this month.
Luckily, Anne’s new book came at just the right time and given both its lighthearted material and super short length, it was exactly what I needed this month. The chapters alternate between fun stories about Anne’s reading life and hilarious lists of things readers are embarrassed about, ways to organize your bookshelves, and more. It made me think so much about why I read the things I do, how to pick really good books, and why I hope my girls continue to love reading as much as their parents do. I started it one afternoon at the pool last week and when I had a bout of pregnancy-induced insomnia that same night, I finished it by book-light in under an hour.
Chapter one was definitely one of my favorites — confess your literary sins. It was full of hilarious anecdotes about which parts of their reading lives people were embarrassed by. Two things in my own reading life came to mind:
- I went through a year long phase where I only read young adult romance novels. Not good, interesting, tell-your-friends-about-it YA romance, but the kind that you want to keep a secret. I’ve tried going back to some of those authors and I couldn’t even get past the first few chapters. Looking back, it’s embarrassing, but at the time it helped me get back into the regular habit of reading and I’m much better for it. Just don’t tell anyone I was in my early thirties at the time!
- Over the weekend, I shared another literary sin on Instagram and got some really great comments and suggestions. Did you know I didn’t have a library card? And hadn’t since college? It’s not that going to the library didn’t sound wonderful, it’s just that our local libraries had terrible hours and the one closest to my office wasn’t in the county where I lived, meaning I’d have to pay for an annual membership. A few months ago, a new library opened in our county, that is very near Ella’s dance studio. We decided it would be the perfect place to hang out in between classes and it would greatly help our book budget each month. We headed there on Saturday morning and all three girls in our home got their very own library card. Sophie came home with four new titles, Ella grabbed two really good YA novels, and I’ve added several things I want to read to a hold list and I can’t wait to dig in after we’re home from the hospital.
Do you have any embarrassing literary sins?!
Bookworm Problems was another of my favorite “list” chapters — filled with all the things that plague regular readers. Had Josh and our dog not been sleeping nearby, I probably would have laughed out loud!
My favorite chapter of the entire book was The Readers I Have Been. I’ll admit that the only Madeleine L’Engle book I’ve ever read was A Wrinkle in Time, but the more I read about her, the more I think I should expand my exposure to her words. Anne shared the following quote:
The great thing about getting older is you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been… I’m not an isolated fifty-seven years old; I am every other age I have been, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… all the way up to and occasionally beyond my present chronology.” — Madeleine L’Engle
Anne suggests that not only are we a combination of all the ages that we’ve ever been, but of all the books we’ve ever read. The idea of being a combination of all the words I’ve read over a lifetime resonated so deeply with me. I am still the young girl who accompanied my mother to the library and filled in all of the ice cream cones on my summer reading guide. I’m the girl who snuck romance novels from her older cousins at the beach and didn’t admit it to my mother until recently. I’m the young adult who discovered Jodi Picoult at an airport kiosk and promptly devoured her whole catalog. I’m the new mother who read the entire Twilight series during maternity leave and had exactly zero shame about how much I loved them. I’m the same woman who challenged herself to read at least one non-fiction title a month last year, but who hasn’t read nearly as many this year and isn’t at all mad about it.
Anne’s book is adorable and so relatable if you consider yourself a reader. It’s one that is perfect for all ages, perfect for gifting and sharing (my mom has read it already and I’m going to insist that Ella read it next), and perfect for reading again. It doesn’t come out until next Tuesday — September 4th — but you can pre-order it now and get all sorts of fun, free goodies. Head to I’dRatherBeReading.com for all the details!
