Books: Not Such Guilty Pleasures

Books are abundant. Even good books are so numerous I despair of reading them all. I'll admit I'm trying, but realize it's a hopeless task. One of the things that makes it so impossible is the number of new authors with talent. They seem to manage the editing process better than I have. {To me, editing is like deciding to have plastic surgery on your toddler's ears. Aren't they the way they were meant to be? Don't they fit his face the way they are?} Okay, so Im struggling with editing my own novel, but that's a totally separate topic. Today I want to discuss Gil.

Gil? I ran across Gil in PBS. Look to the left of your screen. You'll see the little PBS logo there. It's Paperback Book Swap, and I've written about it. It's amazing, and I've met some great people there as well as cutting my reading budget by about 90%. Now—back to Gil. He writes a book review blog that is my favorite new blog in months. I'm addicted. It's one of the fun blogs, because what he wrote this week is neither more nor less relevant than what you'll find in his posts from months ago. They're books. You can still find them.

Gil calls his blog "Gil T's Pleasures," and his writing is as clever as his blog title. It's got me hooked. I turned on a cooking show that usually holds my interest a few nights ago, and during the first commercial instead of fast forwarding I thought I'd glance back at some of Gil's old book reviews. Suddenly it was midnight. My DVR had ended the program, going on to something else, and I hadn't noticed. I was lost in a world of books with a new list of authors that I absolutely had to take out for a test drive—or invite for dinner.

I write for fun, and because I can't help it. I've always just written. It's part of who I am. I even write because I know some of my stories, the ones about my childhood and my children, will be important to my grandkids some day. But people like Gil write to serve us all and the authors who add so much to our lives.

Thanks, Gil.

A not quite Midnight addendum: I head from Gil tonight, and he let me know that he has older archives as well as parallel posts in another blog for anyone who wants to delve back. I had a look, and I'm delighted to find they go all the way to April, 2005. There's a little quote on top of the page you'll find of interest: "If it's reviews you want, I got 'em. Books, Movies & Music. I also hold contests (books, dvds, mp3 players, iTunes giftcards are just some of the things I've given away.)"