Lost in Place

Let’s call this step one in the spring cleaning of my writing life, that gets underway today. We’ll start with this — à la George Steiner (but without any deep or important reasons for my lack of writing) — here are shortened versions of blog posts I intended to write in February, yet never got around to:

Goodreads: Connecting Bookworms Worldwide

In which I rave about how much I like Goodreads as an easy way for me to track what I have read, as well as my ever growing and ridiculously unrealistic “to-read” list. Cool social networking for book lovers — want to be my friend?

Reading Roundup: What I’ve Been Paging Through

In which I write a short blurb about each book I’ve read so far this year. Yeah, right. Adding titles to my Goodreads list is about as far as I’ll get. Quick summary: Two fiction titles (by Langer and Lahiri), two memoirs (by Lamott and Manzoor*), a book for the day job (Why We Buy), one to inspire my freelance work (Keep it Real), and a few (as always) to nourish the soul (The Gift; and the poetry of Rumi and Jewel.)

*I agree with Publishers Weekly that Greetings From Bury Park (April, Vintage) is an “uneven memoir” but I still enjoyed it enough to recommend it, especially to die hard Bruce fans and/or folks interested in learning a bit about Pakistani and British culture from a guy who loves The Boss.

Bookstore Visits: More to Explore

In which I write about my plan to visit at least one new indie bookshop each month, and to eventually maintain a running list of all the bookstores I’ve visited around the world. This month I only made it to one new place, a gem that was glistening in snow on the night I popped in. Three Lives is an adorable corner bookstore in the West Village that has a milk-n-cookies coziness to it. (The tasty coffee and homemade chocolate chip I got at Jack’s down the block prior to entering the bookstore maybe have influenced this description.) I also had a chance to visit McNally Robinson for the second time, and was able to chat with events manager Jessica, of Written Nerd (who incidentally got her start in the bookstore biz at Three Lives and recently wrote about it here.)

Baltimore Blues: I Sure Do Miss Ya, Hon.

In which I write about how, although I’m enjoying settling in to my new NYC ‘hood these days, I’m also really missing Charm City lately. (B-more was my home for over ten years, during college and afterwards.) Maybe this is why I’ve avoided jumping on The Wire bandwagon - I fear that watching it might make me miss the city even more.  Smalltimore is quirky and comforting, kinda like that family friend you call “aunt” even though she’s not a blood relative. She feels like home, even though she is distinctly, not. I once bought my brother and sister-in-law matching Baltamour tee shirts, and now I’m thinking I gotta get me one too. Maybe it’s time to write my own love letter to B-more.

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So what’s next? I could pen a similar list titled “My Unwritten Travel Pitches and Articles”, something I’ve seriously contemplated on several occasions. But after chatting with interesting writer folks at last night’s Longitude travel show party, I’ve decided it would be way cooler to quit procrastinating and actually follow through on some of the creative ideas I’ve been sitting on. So, less blogging here in the months to come means I’m hard at work producing some actual stories. Or I’m plotting adventures in far off lands. Or I’m too busy at the bookstore to do either of those things.

I’m off to Javits now to do a quick circle of the travel show. Ciao!

(Oh, the photos are from the Corcoran Art Gallery, taken during my January trip to DC. More here.)