So many books, so little time. I know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – so many books, so little time!
Not only are my shelves at home overflowing with books I have yet to open, my work space is being threatened by piles of books on my desk. Currently, I have three cookbooks in a stack – Mennonite Country-Style Recipes & Kitchen Secrets, The Good-to-Go Cookbook (Take-Along Foods, Quick Suppers, and Satisfying Snacks for On-the-Go Familes), and The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves – in addition to the copies of Joy of Cooking and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook nestled among my reference materials.
The hope is to review those cookbooks for this blog, though it may take me a while.
Other tomes grace my desk as well: a gorgeous coffee-table book, American Farmer, also to be reviewed at some point in time; Who Laughs Last, a small fictional delight I’m looking forward to digging into; Dirty Bow Wow, a tribute to dogs and the objects of their affection; and The Kitchen Linens Book, by the author of The Apron Book, both of which would make good reviews for GRIT readers. I also have Fish & Tips, a recipe booklet for healthier, delicious seafood that might make a good addition to a future Comfort Foods or Recipe Box.
Book publishers have found my e-mail address, too, and there are several such messages (usually about novels) that I’d like to follow up, both for my own enjoyment and for review purposes.
Of course, my desk would be empty without the catalogs. I’ve lost track of the number that reach my inbox. At the moment, I have catalogs from The Harvard Common Press, Cumberland House Publishing, Firefly Books, Travel Publishers Association, Rodale Books (Fall 2008, Winter 2009 AND Spring 2009), Pelican Publishing Company, Ivan R. Dee, and a postcard from Herald Press that spotlights Simply in Season and Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook. Whew!
The catalogs are the worst – I can’t throw them away, and I have page after page earmarked. I just might want to review that book one of these days! Well, I’ll do that, right after editing articles/pages, selecting photographs, filing recipes, writing food articles/letters/blogs, reading/editing blogs, attending meetings, answering e-mails, etc. And while I enjoy doing everything, it all takes more time than I think it will. So, the catalogs stay in a pile, because I can’t make up my mind as to which books to order review copies and I know I won’t have the time to review them if I do order them.
Wonder if I can set aside a day and go through all these books in one setting? Like I said, so many books, so little time!