Short and left me feeling slightly smug. A perfect book to start 2011! Really, who is going to read a book about the so-called lost art of reading other than people who read quite a lot (which is why the NY Times Book Review didn't like the book much). But I love books like this — I collect books about books, about 1/3 of which are of the real-readers-are-disappearing-all-hell-is-breaking-loose variety. I read/collect books about books to be reminded why I read, why it's important, why I am compelled to enter into yet another story.
One quote: "This is the burden of technology, that we are never disconnected, never out of touch. And yet, reading is, by its nature, a strategy for displacement, for pulling back from the circumstances of the present and immersing in the textures of a different life."
And I say: this is why I read. Because when I have a hard day with the girls and am feeling very much like a stay-at-home-mom, I can immerse myself in something else — even for a few minutes. I don't like to be connected all the time. I turn my phone off, put my computer on the shelf and engage in another mind or another life. I don't think I could have survived three months in the hospital without the ability to lose myself completely in a book. Reading brought solace and the sense that life was teeming outside the narrow scope of my hospital room.
Andrea Y. Griffith 
I just want to say that if you write about even half of your 52 books, this will be the best year ever.
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Excited to read your other reviews, the last sentence/paragraph was so visually perfect. Love it.
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Must agree with Missy — keep reviewing!
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me toooo.
books that make you feel smug should be a recognized personal-ized genre.
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[Alert: friend of Alyssa’s chiming in from Prineville!] I’m the oldest of 3 girls too, Andrea, and I dearly love books. But how to find the time with two little ones (boys, in my case) is the neverending question. I got a special new bit of insight from this review–compartmentalizing deliberately, strategically, so that I can enjoy my reading time technology free. Brilliant!
By the way, I LOVE your blog–your writing is fun and fresh, your energy contagious, and browsing your LibraryThingy is better than getting a massage. (Well, almost.) Can’t wait to read your thoughts on all 52.
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steffany – i think we should be friends 🙂
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