Rating: 
Summary: A book lover's book
Review: "So Many Books, So Little Time" is an interesting chronicle of one person's journey through a year's worth of reading. Not surprisingly, author Sara Nelson found that in spite of her good intentions, she wound up reading a different list of books than she planned. After all, we do not always choose books; sometimes they choose us based upon what is happening around us and inside us. Nelson, who has worked in the publishing industry as a journalist, editor, and reviewer, has an astounding insight into books and authors. She analyses what draws us to a book and keeps us there. She discusses the contract between an author and a reader. She talks about book covers or opening lines and the first impressions they make. She writes about books with warmth, passion, and humor.I was first attracted to this book because of its title, which also happens to be the catch-phrase on my Amazon "About Me" page. As relevant as the title is, it could hardly do justice to how this wonderful book represents the heart and soul of a passionate reader. I did not walk away from this book merely with a to-read list as long as my arm and with a new appreciation for books and reading. Besides that, the author spoke to me as one book lover to another. After finishing the book, I feel I know Sara Nelson well. She writes about the interplay between what she reads and who she is. There were so many places in the book where I nodded my head and said "Yes, I feel the same way!" Nelson has stacks of books to rival my own, arranged in a chaotic order, yet she can place her finger on any one of them. She often reads more than one book at a time, as I do. She has faced the same dilemmas I have: Where shall I put all my books? What should I read next? If I reread a book I loved years ago, will I still feel the same about it? If a friend recommends a book to me and I dislike it, what could this do to our relationship? Should I bother to read an overhyped book just because everyone else has? Should I stop reading a book I am not enjoying? Will an author I enjoyed on the initial go-around disappoint me in later books? What relationship is there between what I am reading and what I am doing or feeling? What attracts me to a certain kind of book? I highly recommend this gem for anyone who is a readaholic.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip this ...
Review: ... if you prefer to invest your own time reading/thinking about your own books, vs someone else's. On the Feb 27th entry of this year-long book, the author writes that she gives herself permission to opt-out of the "clean plate club -- that is, that she needn't finish a book that mid-way, she finds uninteresting. I made it to March 22 and then, yes, opted out.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable!
Review: I enjoyed reading "So Many Books, So Little Time". It is more like a memoir of the author's year and how she had planned to read certain books and, like most of us, ended up reading things she hadn't planned on.
The Author can be a bit snobbish, looking down on anyone who has different taste in books than she does. (For instance, anyone who enjoyed "The Bridges of Madison County" falls into this looked down upon category) and there were a few times I seriously questioned her taste (she didn't like "The Hours"!). However, I didn't hold it against her and I am thankful that I found a few books that I probably wouldn't have come across or bothered to read on my own - like "Slammerkin" (it is now on my must read list after reading many great reviews on amazon and reading the first page in a local bookstore.)
Also there are several books that I had put at the bottom of my neverending list but are now moving back up to the Must Read Pile.. "Crimson Petal...", "The Spirit Catces You and You Fall Down" and "Bird by Bird" (I love A. LaMott!)
If you are looking for more of a reference book, I recommend "Book Lust" -- "So Many Books...So Little Time" is a fun, easy read which will hopefully lead you to a few good ones..
Rating: 
Summary: So much self-indulgence, so little depth
Review: Don't expect to get any hints on what to read from this book. The author's selections -one more or less a week- are incredibly dull and her descriptions portray them as even duller. While posing as an intelligent aware woman, the author dismisses out-of-hand virtually all non-fiction except for one lame self-help book and a couple bad memoirs, and ignores almost any fiction that is true literature. She makes an exception for Phillip Roth, whose novels appear to appeal to her mainly because of his shared Jewishness and obsession with sex. History, science, food, biography, sports, music, literary criticism, sociology, economy, adventure, exploration, and great novels - all boring according to Ms Nelson. It never occurs to her that books should be a doorway to new experiences rather than simply validating or repeating one's own predispositions, but in fact, she doesn't seem really interested in any book that isn't a modern novel set in a Jewish family, describes kinky/gay sex, portrays the fashion publishing industry, or features protagonists in mixed marraiges. These all appear to directly reflect her own personal peferences and status. Her husband is portrayed as a grumpy, antisocial and often angry man unaware of human emotion. It never occurs to her his temperament may be a self-defense mechanism for coping with his wife, who among other things admits that she is an insomniac, doesn't cook, loves new clothes more than books, hates nature, has settled for what she seems to consider a dull marriage, and is sexually attracted mostly to "bad boys", and inadvertantly reveals even more - that she is privileged self-indulgent woman of extraordinarily conventional and narrow interests. Her comments and insights on the books she reads are brief and mostly trivial. Even more annoyingly, she is a snobbish name-dropper par excellance, and is far more interested in books that mention somebody she knows or has some very obscure connection with than those with any literary merit. In short, if it cannot somehow be linked to her, her, her it is of no interest whatsoever.
Ironically, for someone of such bad taste and unself-awareness, she also seems to pick her friends according to their taste in books (clothes more, I'll bet). One example from the book: She feels suddenly very superior to someone who recommended the treacly novel Bridges of Madison County and indicates she can never again think well of her, yet then praises the equally treacly movie of that name and others of its ilk.
But what could one expect from somebody who is a contributing editor for Glamor magazine?
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK!...
Review: When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued by its premise, as I never go anywhere without at least one or two books in my bag and am a confirmed book lover and avid reader. If I go on vacation, I pack a bag just for the dozen or so books that I simply must take along with me. I am most comfortable when I am surrounded by books. In fact, I look forward to retirement, so that I will have more time to read. I simply love to read! I cannot imagine a world without books and, quite frankly, I have never understood people who say that they do not care to read.
So, this book seemed to be right up my alley. Well, the author does not disappoint, as she takes the reader along with her on her very personal journey. Her goal, not an overly ambitious one, is a book a week for fifty-two weeks. She does not necessarily stick to her list of books, and she meanders along, changing course in mid-stream sometimes, as many of us so often do. Yet, she always keeps up an entertaining discourse on the book that she is reading or has read, remarking upon its place in her world. She interweaves snippets of her personal life with her thoughts on those books that she reads. She talks about authors and the impact that some of their work has had on her, as well as her reading likes and dislikes.
The author writes in a light and breezy conversational tone, so that, at times, it almost seems as if one old friend were talking to another about some books she had enjoyed. I was delighted to discover that we liked many of the same books for many of the same reasons. Within the pages of this book, I also happily discovered some new titles that piqued my interest. Moreover, the author, knowing how insatiable some book lovers are, even appends three lists at the end of her book, which lists consist of books she had planned to read during that year of reading, books she actually did read but did not discuss in her book, and books in her must read pile. What book lover is not familiar with that ubiquitous must read pile of books! Anyway, I did enjoy perusing through her lists, looking for books of interest.
This book is a light-hearted sojourn into the world of reading and books that is meant to be a sharing of a wonderful passion. It is a funny and charming work of non-fiction. I thank the author for sharing her thoughts and insights, as I very much enjoyed reading them. It is, as always, a pleasure to come across such an enthusiastic fellow book lover.
Rating:
Summary: A real waste of time
Review: I hate to offend an author but this was terrible. I consider myself a readaholic and thought this was my type of book. I was very disappointed. Most of the book is about herself and comes off as egotisical. Twice she mentions that she selects one book to take on vacation, then doesn't read it for one reason or other, and is left to search for another book to read. A true book lover knows you should take between three and five books on a trip! About page 59, she mentions that she has a rule that she allows herself to stop reading a book around page 50 if it does not hold her interest. That was the best advice she gave, and I took her up on it and ditched this book. Don't bother with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Too Chatty For Me
Review: Sara Nelson must have pull in publishing, because her book was listed a few weeks ago in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, in the Paperback Row section. Turns out that reading 52 books in 52 weeks isn't Ms. Nelson's only endeavor. She really does work for a living.
Which gives hope to the hopelessly addicted bookaholic who has to work full time but still dreams of reading everything under the sun. Nelson confesses in the first sentence of her book that she's an insomniac and spends many late hours in her library with her closest friends, her books. In So Many Books, So Little Time, she gives us an overview of how her project to read 52 books in 52 weeks turned out and what it's like to be a lifelong biblioholic.
Unlike those born with book sickness, Nelson came to her "disease" late in life. She didn't develop full-blown bookaholism until her college years, when friends and dollars were few and she discovered that with a library card she could be transported to any time and place in the entire world simply by reading. That's when she discovered that reading was more than a "path to good grades."
So you'd think that she'd go on expounding wonderfully about the authors and books she loves, and giving no quarter to books she didn't love. Unfortunately, I quickly learned why this book was filed in the Biography section of a major bookseller's store when I went looking for it soon after it was published. Nelson spends more time talking about herself and her immediate family than she does the books she read. At first, I was drawn in. Then I was annoyed. Eventually, I got over it and tried to simply focus on what she was saying about her reading. But ultimately, her chatty style was disappointing for me. Clearly, she's quite pleased with herself and her life, which is fine, but not what I was looking for. I would prefer Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader. But that's not fair. Nelson is a columnist with the New York Post, not one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Still, I would have preferred more book talk that didn't have Ms. Nelson, her son, or her husband at the center of it.
What I did enjoy about So Many Books was the reality check, one book nut to another: the "double-booking," because not all books are appropriate for all the places one can read. The superficial way of judging others based on what they read. The feeling of loss that comes at the end of a very good read, the sense that you haven't finished a book; you've lost a good friend. Nelson goes one better than friends; she sees her books as lovers. She talks about being torn over "to re-read or not to re-read?" and the surprises sometimes in store when we do. And she talks about "reading's ability to beam you up to a different world."
The short, bite-size chapters make this a quick read, so if the book is annoying, it won't last long and you can get back to more serious reading. I wouldn't go out of my way to read this book; for excellence in this genre of books about books, read Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader.
Rating: 
Summary: who knew reading about reading could be a book?
Review: It seems some other reviews were dissappointed in this book; but as I came to it not looking for it and knowing nothing about it, randomly grabbing it from a display at the library while my two tired children were whining in the stroller, I was expecting nothing, and was greatly suprised by how wonderful it was. I, for one, could not stop reading it and 4 days later, after slipping it in when I could, I feel satisfied with it and happy to have read it. It for one articulated a lot of how I feel about reading and its place in my life (one of her chapters is about reading what you know), also allowed me to escape to another way of life to new york from my west coast suburbia (another chapter, escapism), and best of all-made me want to read even more, more books, more often. What more could I ask?
Rating:
Summary: Too Many Pages, Too Little Content
Review: This is not a book about reading. This is a self-indulgent memoir full of incredibly dull personal history ("My mother gets on my nerves!" "I have sibling rivalry issues with my sister!") literary name-dropping ("I stayed in the Vermont lodge of the great Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn because I am the friend of one of his stepsons' widows!"), and obsession over the fact that the (white) author's husband is Asian ("My husband is Asian!" "Did I mention that I'm in an interracial marriage?"). Bizarrely, there is very little discussion of the books the author reads or of her emotional reactions to them, good or bad. For someone who is supposedly "passionate" about reading, she certainly makes the topic uninteresting.
I made it through page 69, and by that time (March 15), the author had given up on reading "Funnymen" and "Miracle at St Anna". So why should I avoid these books? Well, "Funnymen" clashed too much with the solemn atmosphere at the Vermont lodge, and "Miracle at St Anna" "just doesn't work". I could get more information than that just by scanning the Amazon reviews for those books, and I plan to.
I strongly suspect that the only reason this book saw print is due to the author's publishing connections. One of the novels she reads is in the form of a spiral-bound proof lent to her by her sister, who had been using it for review purposes. And then there are asides like, "There's the novel by the writer I knew of only by reputation, until he became my favorite boss".
And no, she doesn't read a book a week for a year. In Appendix B, the author notes:
"So did you make your book-a-week goal? people have been asking me. The real answer: Yes and no. Sometimes I read a book in a day. Some things took a couple of weeks. And some that I read I didn't write about. The final tally: a lot more than fifty-two books, even if I can't name absolutely everything I dipped into or skimmed through."
Um. So the point of this book, aside from self-absorbed ramblings that would be barely interesting even if I knew Sara Nelson and her family personally, is exactly what?
For readers who enjoy books that are actually about reading, I heartily recommend Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" as well as "Bookmarks" magazine.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing purhcase
Review: I heard of this book through my sister and thought that it would be so very perfect for a readaholic like me. Also, since I keep a book list, I thought it would be a great way for me to discover titles to add to my list. The book was OK. Her truths into books/reading/readers were all truths I could relate to - so I enjoyed reading about that. But I was surprised at how boring her discussion of the books she read was. And how can there be another person who adores books as much as me, yet continously discuss books I never heard of and never want to hear of again?
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