Book Lover

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m just not the typical college student. I am almost somewhat
embarrassed to share with people the extent to which my days are planned: my workouts must be before class, a trip to Starbucks sometime mid-morning (non-negotiable), possibly an afternoon yoga session, and always twenty to thirty minutes to read before bed. Naturally, I tend to always finish homework in advance. I love my schedule; I rarely find myself over tired and always feel accomplished at the end of the day. Of course, I look forward to my workouts and Starbucks trips, but I always find myself excited to dive into a book at the end of the day. It’s the perfect way for me to relax and escape from any daily stresses I may have encountered. It’s also become somewhat of a competition with myself; I have a goal of reading one book per week. So today, I’m talking about books I’ve recently read and my current to-reads.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I had been reading Open, an autobiography by world famous tennis player Andre Agassi. I loved this book. Although not interested in tennis, I think Agassi’s story is similar to that of many world famous athletes. Agassi recounts his lifelong struggle: to do what makes him happy or to please his father. He obviously chooses the latter, and although he achieved great successes throughout his life, I would argue that his setbacks and difficulties outweigh the successes. We all know that the pressures we put on ourselves in an effort to please others can weigh heavily on us emotionally. I definitely recommend reading this book, especially if all you’re looking for is a little daily inspiration.

After finishing Open within a matter of days, one of my sorority sisters offered to lend me The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I was apprehensive at first; for one, I already had another book queued, and I typically don’t go for cheesy love stories. I’m interested in seeing the movie, so I thought I’d give it a go. Man, this book was super hard for me to get into. It may just have been me, but I was having a hard time getting a grip on the plot (I may have also been mentally blocking the book out because of its nature and genre, oops). I became frustrated with this, yet continued reading (never a quitter). While reading it at Starbucks yesterday, I became enthralled with the events and suddenly didn’t want to put it down. Imagine that, it took me about 250 pages to become excited and involved in the novel. Anyway, I knew I couldn’t finish it since I only had about an hour at Starbucks, which frustrated me even more. The second I got out of my next class, I made it my goal to finish the book (I only had about 25 pages left). I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say that I’m glad I continued to read it and look forward to seeing the movie later this month.

You should know by now that I’m no time-waster. Last night, I started the book I’ve been waiting to start: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  A Starbucks barista recommended this book to me when I walked in one day wearing a Turkey Trot 2010 shirt. He was a runner too, and he said I’d enjoy it as a fellow runner. Only about 50 pages in, I’m already deeply involved. McDougall is a journalist and runner whose motivation for writing the book stems from a foot injury. His book discusses the science of running, a tribe of runners called the Tarahumara Indians, and the super-athletes of the world. I tend to gravitate toward books where I can also learn something from them, and I look forward to continue reading this one. Review to come!

Once I made my goal of one book per week, I decided I wanted a way to track the books I was reading. Ifound the website www.goodreads.com through a blog I’ve been following for about a month now (www.pbfingers.com). Goodreads is akin to a social networking site for readers. Members have three lists: read, currently reading, to-read. While reading a book, you can read ot