Rating: 
Summary: The title of this book is its best feature
Review: I had the highest expectations for this book based on the title, which capsulizes the agonizing dilemma I expect that I share with most other book lovers -- how to feed my reading addiction while still maintaining a 'real world' life. Expecting to see how another passionate book lover faced up to this dilemma, I was disappointed in Sara's very cursory (although amusing) summary of her year of thinking about the books she chooses to read. Since Nelson had long been a voracious reader, I found myself annoyed by her frequent references to the self-imposed burdens she assumed in assigning herself the task of reading a book a week for 52 weeks. The task that I expected her to take on was to think and write profoundly about how much, if at all, a year's worth of reading books had affected her life choices, and how she felt about all the time devoted to books that otherwise was unavailable for family, work, friends, other hobbies and pursuits, as well as other media (periodicals, press, films, tv, internet) -- which subjects are treated in tiny snippets, if at all. Given the signficance she placed on this particular year of reading and thinking about reading in diary format, I thought that Nelson's mustering only about 60,000 words (by my rough count) or less than 200 words a day (fewer even than this capsule review of mine), was not a lot given all the reading and living she does (the book all too briefly touches on issues in her marriage, child-raising, work, travel, attending to an elderly parent, etc.) I felt, in sum, that Nelson had barely dipped a toe into a vast ocean of possibilities subsumed under this mother of all book titles.
Rating: 
Summary: So Many Hooks, So Little Signs
Review: Good prose is simply defined. To the reader it feels like the book is reading itself. The subject matter flows through you and into you as easily and comfortably as air into your lungs.Few writers get there. Ms. Nelson's book about a year's worth of passionate reading consistently operates above that bar. To put it in the vernacular, you won't be able to put this down. While this book will appeal to the "bookaholics" among you, its real charm lies in the memoir. Ms. Nelson's touching, insightful, heartfelt pages on her family, life, and times are the real meat in this meal. While her intellect and intimate knowledge of an extraodinary number of authors and titles is frankly incredible, it is her storytelling that wins the day. As a well-known publishing columnist for the New York Observer, it is understandible that Ms. Nelson might use this books and reading vehicle as her literary coming-out party. She has hooked us with her prose, storytelling abilities, and charm, yet gives us no sign of what she might write next. Let's hope it's a good, gripping, spellbinder of a novel. Alice Hoffman, Sue Miller, and Joyce Carol Oates, move over!
Rating: 
Summary: Any avid reader would love this conversational book
Review: The hours I spent with Sara Nelson, discovering along with her the ups and downs of a year spent reading and writing about a book a week, were not wasted. While I wouldn't put aside a terrific novel to hear what an editor/reporter/reviewer has to say about a batch of books she more or less chaotically chose to read over the course of a year, it was fun to eavesdrop on Nelson's lighthearted yet insightful musings. An engaging memoirist, she shares who she is, her own failings and humanity, the state of her marriage, the condition of her nightstand pile of unread books, while letting us in on her choosing and reading and writing process. I don't thoroughly relate to her ending, though, where she muses on what she may have missed by reading so much (the relocation of a local art museum, some TV that everyone else has been watching). Choices must be made in a busy life, and it's a good thing, really, to opt for literature over the incessant pull of pop culture. Nelson's enthusiasm for some of the books she read, though, should make many of her own book's readers head straight for their own toppling reading piles with fresh verve.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate reading indeed
Review: Sara Nelson's journey of reading was fascinating, but in the end a bit of a letdown. Instead of discussing plot lines of books, authors and genres as I had expected, she explores what it is about the process of reading that is so alluring. Her observations and thoughts on the matter are wonderful (and made for better reading rather than a re-hash of plot lines and titles.) To read really is to become someone else, or to travel to another place and time - and is a mental release. But I think every passionate reader already knew that - hence my disappointment. While her choices of books, and the way in which topics and authors were selected were interesting (as were her observations about sharing reading material), in the end I was left wondering if Sara had met her reading goal for the year, and I was longing for more information about her feelings on those books she did read.
Rating:
Summary: So Little Non-Fiction as Well Written as This
Review: As the result of having weathered many sleepless nights, I've hypothesized that perhaps the problem is not that I am an insomniac, but that my books are actually calling out to me very loudly with a voice only I can hear. Reading the first line, "Call me insomniac," of Sara's (I feel I can call her that now) book, I already know we're in cahoots.
From the acknowledgements to the appendices, Sara invites us into her reading life with an authentically intimate, insightfully intelligent yet highly accessible self-portrait of a year's worth of books. Even the best-read literati will find satisfying nourishment from her take on everything from the classic to the contemporary, and readers of any level are sure to discover a gem they've yet to unearth themselves.
Rating:
Summary: A Secret Pass
Review: To read Sara Nelson's book is to obtain a top-secret pass. Into the halls of power and might? No. Into the corridors of a passionate reader's mind, yes. In fact, her ode to literature might be titled "Finding Mr. Write." She points out, quite fittingly, the relationship between readers and their chosen printed companions. If you, like Ms. Nelson and this reviewer, have ever fawned over an intriguing title on the shelf like a teenager harboring a crush, then you'll adore the insights and shared intimacies of "So Many Books, So Little Time." Nelson attacks her subject with, uh, uninhibited desire. Examining a year of her own reading habits, she unveils the tendencies and quibbles and sparks of heated excitement found between the covers. (Of printed matter, of course--don't let her infatuations confuse you.) The metaphor is appropriate, if you share her love for books. There's the starry-eyed introduction, the clumsy yet heady getting-to-know-you stage, the culminating union of heart and soul. Our mothers tried to warn us, though: "Be careful, I tell ya. Most boys are up to no good." Yeah, and not all books are as wonderful as they appear; not all classics live up to our expectations. Nelson's unafraid of pointing fingers here. She tells us which ones left her uninvolved and clammy. While dispensing insights into her own roles as wife and mother, she also reveals truths she's discovered through the joys (and travails) of reading. Not all books are for everyone. Not everyone finds a match the first time around. Nelson never loses faith, however, in the idea that reader and book will find each other eventually. In this search for Mr. Write, Nelson keeps us laughing at her, at ourselves, and the wacky world around us. For the jaded among us, beware...You might find yourself falling in love all over again.
Rating:
Summary: A Constant Dilemma
Review: READ ME! That is what Sara Nelson's new book, So Many Books, So Little Time screamed out to me when it arrived. I have so many of the same problems. I always have at least 500 books in my "to read" pile, and they are triaged in importance, the order of which is subject to change at any second depending on my needs as a reader. So, when I saw this book, I figured it will bring a solution to my dilemma. I was wrong, and will explain why as I go on. As early as the Prologue and the first chapter, so appropriately named, "Great Expectations," as I believe it expressed Sara's intent at the beginning of this reading project, and it expressed the reader's state upon entering her creation; I was completely committed. And I continued to feel great expectations with each chapter that I read. While it did take me 3 days to read the book, longer than it should have, I did take to carrying it everywhere with me in those 3 days, a behavior that is rare for me. The book describes Sara Nelson's one-year journey to read books of her selection and to write about the experience. But as all of us 'read-a-holics' know, the next book we read is always driven by circumstances that we cannot predict. Thus it was for Ms. Nelson as well. She had a well chosen list of books she wanted to read, but ended up reading several that she did not intend to, and not reading some that she did intend to. This process could have been predicted by any well-addicted reader. We all know, that what we want to read next, may not be what we thought we would want to read next, when we started what we are reading now. It was with great pleasure that the author mentions Anne Lamott's book Bird By Bird as I felt from chapter 2 that Nelson's book had the same, 'look and feel' as Lamott's; but with a very significant difference. Lamott is trying to teach us how to self-discipline ourselves to write. Nelson is telling us what happens to us when we read. And in so many ways, she was right on. In page after page, Nelson explains what she looks for in a book, why she likes it, and sometimes why she doesn't like it, and sometimes, nothing at all. Her November 25 chapter is particularly interesting and speaks of opening lines. She is right; you only get one opening line. And had she not mentioned Melville and opening lines, I would have completely missed the full implications of her opening line, which I went back to read after I read that chapter. "Call me Insomniac." Despite the overt reference to the story of the Great White Whale, I would have missed it, because her first line did exactly what she wanted it to do, it captured me and reeled me in, because, like her, I am an insomniac. In the final analysis, I would recommend that all read-a-holics put this book into their "MUST READ" pile with special prejudice toward bringing it to the top of the pile. As read-a-holics, we must stick together. This book is one of the finest books for serious readers I have found. And she did NOT solve my problem; because she suggested so many books I had never read yet, that I now have another 5,000 pages on my shelf as recommendations. Be careful, Sara reads everything, even those 1200 page tomes that we often avoid, but shouldn't. Happy Reading!
Rating:
Summary: It's okay to disagree!
Review: If someone were to yell, "Bookworm!" as I was walking down the street, I'd turn around to see if they were talking to me. That's how much I identify with Sara Nelson's SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME.
Nelson not only loves books but she also makes her living at it, reviewing them for GLAMOUR MAGAZINE and THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.
Unlike most of us, Nelson's New Year's resolution (and motivation for the book) is to read a book a week for the next year. She doesn't stick to her plan very well, but her efforts are well worthwhile because of what she discovers about herself (and us?) as a reader. For instance, place is important to her. What she reads in bed will be entirely different from what she might read at the beach or on an airplane. Nelson also proves the old saw that we look for ourselves in the books we choose. For instance, she's married to a Japanese-American set designer and that makes David Mura's TURNING JAPANESE, the memoir of a second-generation Japanese man married to a Caucasion woman, all the more enticing to her. She's also a city girl and doesn't relate to rural settings at all, which is why she couldn't get through A THOUSAND ACRES, PEACE LIKE A RIVER, or PLAINSONG.
I had read a few of the books Nelson talks about, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR (Because I liked Wouk) and SLAMMERKIN to name two, but what really struck home was her admission that she gave up on certain books occasionally, even though she'd paid twenty dollars for them, and despite the fact that she has enormous respect for someone who may have spent five years of his life sweating blood. I could relate because I almost never give up on a book, no matter how painful, but I hadn't realized this had anything to do with maturation (Nelson's justification for jettisoning some books). I immediately threw out Umberto Eco's BAUDOLINO which was driving me up the wall.
The book is structured rather like Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES. Each chapter sounds like one of Nelson's columns, although some of them bleed into the next chapter. A couple of them were especially memorable such as when Nelson's sister gives her her novel to read. What would she say if she didn't like it? Would their relationships be over? She had to read it because she'd been bugging her sister for it for years. There's another episode where she reads CHARLOTTE'S WEB with her third grade son, Charley. He doesn't want to read it at first because it's about farm animals. After about three chapters he tells her he now likes it because the farm animals are a lot like people and that Charlotte reminds him of her.
I was beginning to think that Nelson was a big old softy until she let loose on TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. She hates overly hyped books and she felt Mitch Albom didn't really have much to say: Stop and smell the roses; don't sweat the small stuff; concentrate not on money or status but on love of family and community, something they teach in kindergarten. I felt the same way about ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, another overly hyped book with not much to say.
What I'll take away from this book is that it's okay to disagree about a book, something some of the Amazon reviewers who give negative votes to people who dis their favorite book ought to remember. I loved PLAINSONG. I almost feel personally insulted that she couldn't finish it, but maybe I liked it so much because I was raised on a farm, because I was a teacher, or because those bachelor farmers struck a cord with me. Besides I really hate Philip Roth! So there.
Rating:
Summary: She reminds me what I love most about reading!
Review: It's not that I thought I was the only one, but when people ask me why I have so many books that I haven't read, then I buy more, I answer, "I'm saving them." They scratch their heads in confusion, not understanding why I have so many books in the first place. They just don't get it. But, Sara gets it. Sara Nelson has been an editor and a reporter who has a library the size of my room. She is also a voracious reader. She looks for books that fit her "mood." She wanders around her library in her nightgown knowing exactly where every book is. (Like I do.) She talks about how she wasn't always that way. She used to go to the "Multiplex" and go dancing. "So when did my life change? Looking back, I can see the early warning signs of readaholism, like when my mother gave me Marjorie Morningstar when I was thirteen and I pulled an all-nighter reading--and weeping over--the Herman Wouk novel." (Mine was around the same time, but not as grown up. Judy Blume's "Are you there God, it's me Margaret?" Doomed to turn any outdoor loving girl into an indoor one.) Basically, she decided to read a book a week, and write how she felt about it. Now, this is not a book full of lists (which to me, is not a fun book to read, but more to make notes from.) This is a book that takes what she reads and she connects it to personal experience. She read books about baseball when her son was interested in baseball. She read books about Japanese Americans during WWII (because her husband is.) It makes so much sense. When I was in a bad place in a past relationship, I bought relationship books. When I was single, I bought single girl empowerment books. Now that I just want to enjoy books, I buy literature and chick-lit. Sometimes, we want to read what we know, or what we are experiencing at the time. She talks about books that are overhyped, ones that really are not that great, but people talk about how great they are, and everyone wants to read them. The book is like a celebrity: the more exposure it has, the more famous it gets, no matter how much talent is there. She talked about how when you are an adult, it's ok to STOP reading if you aren't into it. (I recently received similar advice from another reviewer who said that her mom told her she should read to her age, and stop if you don't enjoy it.) Does that work with me? If the book is really bad, which doesn't happen that often, I have stopped. But, sometimes I trudge through, hoping it will get better. But, why waste your time with something you don't enjoy? Were we taught that we had to finish the whole thing, because in school, we read it whether we liked it or not? Maybe you can try it a few years later. I got to chapter 13 in Brave New World when I was in the 12th grade. I couldn't finish. I was done. I faked my tests, and somehow made it through. 10 years later, I tried it again, and finished it. Not only did I finish it, I enjoyed it. Basically, there is a lot more to this book than "Read this, don't read that." She digs deeper, and inspires me to read some more! I hope that she writes about a 2nd year of passionate reading. I will be sure to pick it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Smarmy
Review: I had high hopes for this book. I saw it remaindered at an outlet store and picked it up. As I flipped through the book, it didn't really grab me like I thought it would. I was still interested so I checked it out at the library instead. I'm glad I saved the money and the space on my pine shelves. This book is cold and never really warms up. The writer seems to be intent on coming across as cool and clever and maybe attempting to write something that would meet some prior self-set criteria of arch style. It doesn't work. There's promise, flickers of it, but it doesn't work. It seems forced. I suspect her true writing nature is warmer, but that's not how she really wanted it to be. Her writing here is mostly self conscious and not real. It lacks honesty, like she's trying to avoid the same criticisms that those in the know, the so-called cultural elite, (which she includes herself) level against the lowly would-be artist who doesn't measure up to their standards. Maybe it's because she's too close to the world of publishing (perhaps a reason why this was even published??). I detect an anti-writer bias in the way that a lot of people start to despise those people whose existence their life work depends on, (professors to students, doctors to patients, coaches to athletes, and really everyone in any kind of service industry. Speaking of that, how could you read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich in that year and not comment on it? That probably says it all right there.
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