Talking of Books

I can’t imagine receiving 75 books a week from authors who are all vying for their book to be reviewed. That’s the life of Maureen Corrigan, who reviews books on NPR’s Fresh Air and reviews mysteries for the Washington Post.

She was tonight’s speaker at our Shabbat service, as part of the Fall Book Fair at Temple Micah. I tried to picture a stack of 75 books and found it to be daunting. Especially so as you attempted to decide which 3 to read during the week. He answer to how she finds time to read all those books was, “I get up very early – 4:00 a.m. every day. But I love my job. I can’t imagine a job I would like better.”

She talked about how her basement is absolutely overflowing with books – let’s see 75 x 52 comes out to just about 3,900 books a year. I hope she has a lot of shelves and a lot of reasons to donate books to charity. The first question after her talk came from the Bat Mitzvah girl’s mother, herself a published author: “Is my book in your basement?”

She read a clip from her own recently published book, “Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading,” which she said repeatedly to her mother as she was growing up. It convinced us to buy the book and get it signed by the author.

On the way home we talked about the fact that there are so many published authors in the Temple Micah congregation. My husband said, “Maybe we should write a book.” I replied that my friend keeps suggesting that I write a mystery called “Rock Creek” and that it include a lot of sex. In truth, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to begin, although I do think it’s a good title.

But for now, I will put Maureen Corrigan’s book in line just after Harry Potter #6, the last one I own. It promises to be a good read.