A Short Confession of a Book Hoarder

Call me a pickle-brain booklover, a scattered brain bookho or a navel- fuzzy book hoarder, but sometimes I pick up books off the shelves not because they are on the best sellers list, best reviews, award winners or a solid recommendation from another fellow book lovers.

I pick them out because I like the book covers, like Small Island by Andrea Levy, A Fruit of Lemon by the same author (still on my waiting-to-be-read-bookshelf), The Baker by Paul Hond (a cover picture of bread store). For some reasons I'm trying to understand why a book cover of sidewalk cafe' fascinates me., or pomegranate, orchid, seahorse, frog, swan or mushroom.

I never heard of Maile Meloy before, but when I saw her book, A Family Daughter sat on the shelf at Target, I said out Maile Meloy loud enough that I could hear my own voice. I rolled and flipped Mai le Me loy on my tongue for a second time, picked up the book, ran my hand over the cover, gave the book a quick scan and dropped it my shopping basket. And I was right about her. I couldn't put the book down when I got home.

Her writing style was simple, but it has strength that I drew immediately to the characters. At the end of the book, I felt like giving Abby a warm hug and tell her: I'm so glad we met.

Once, I talked with another book lover/hoarder about a similar trait we share. We love reading book about dysfunctional family. And this was our conclusion: We try to understand each character in our family, we're making an effort to make sense of the past actions of our grandparents, parents, siblings that have shaped and molded us into who we are.

Comments

[anasalwa]

Sandra,
I think we the booklover, when we are out of reading material, we will read anything printed :)). And you will love the book.

[Sandra]

I bought the same book, for basically the same reason--the cover was so appealing! I guess anyone who spent their girlhood reading every book in sight would love that cover illustration. I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but I'm looking forward to it.