In the beginning of October, I read an article in the New York Times about a woman who’d made it her goal to read a book a day, for one year . “How about a book a week?” asked her husband, when he heard of her plans. Good point, I thought. And I threw the newspaper away, off to chauffeur one of my kids to some activity or school event or athletic commitment.
Nina Sankovitch stuck in my head in the weeks since. Could I possibly read a book a day? And review it? After some thought, I came to the undeniable conclusion: No, I could not. While The Muse and I share some basic similarities — stay-at-home mom of many children, wife of a lawyer, part-time job as chauffeur of said children — there is no possible way I could read a book a day and still have a reasonable life. Also, I enjoy a few other things that have nothing to do with being a mom or a wife or a reader: I like TV, I like newspapers and magazines, I like to cook and I love riding my bike.
I realize reading a book a week is not a very lofty goal for many. (See the readers’ comments on Times article if you’d like to witness some snarky thoughts on this.) And believe me, in the type-A intellectual environment of my son’s school, there are not a few parents who read at least a book a day. I am in awe of them. Setting a goal of reading a book a week is my realistic attempt to reclaim some grey matter, to perhaps put some perspective on this job called motherhood which I find intense, overwhelming, often joyful and more than a little exhausting. So to all you moms (and dads) out there, if I can do this, so can you.
One last note: I used to review books for a living, and it was probably a writing job I enjoyed the least. Many of the books I was assigned were average to bad, with an occasional bright star in a galaxy of mediocrity. As a writer, it saddened me: all these wasted words and paper, all these fledling hopes of a fellow writer blazing from the page, all reduced to a stamp of (dis)approval from me, who after all, was just a hopeful writer as well. So, I look forward to reading and reviewing books that I will pick, staying away from the easy escape that masquerades as snark, and occasionally getting out of my literary comfort zone.
