Sep 18, 2014 3 min read

I got roped into one of those Facebook things that want you to make a list. There’s the one about enumerating the things you’re grateful for (I haven’t been tagged for that one yet, but I could go on and go), and the one about books.

“List 10 books that changed your life,” was the request from my friend in Connecticut. I normally ignore these requests, but I like Julie, so I gave it a try.

I can’t think of 10 books that changed my life. Heck, I can’t think of 10 people who’ve changed my life. But there are books I’ve enjoyed and gushed about, so I listed them.

And putting that list together, I realized something rather sad. There’s not a single book on my list that was published, or that I’ve read, in the past five years. This doesn’t mean there aren’t any good books being written anymore. It means I don’t have the time or inclination to read.

Yes, I’ve been busy with work, including teaching writing at a university. After grading a stack of papers for wordiness and grammar and syntax, one does not easily slide into a published novel without mentally rewriting a sentence or four. I can’t relax into the story.

I have friends who read all the time – like, a novel a week – which makes me wonder if they have full-time housekeepers and personal chefs they’re not telling me about. Either that or they are speed-readers who, unlike me, don’t fall asleep after four pages.

There was a lot of buzz about the novel “Gone Girl,” so I downloaded it onto my iPad, read about 20 pages, fell asleep and haven’t been back to it. That was last Christmas.

I’m thinking of this now because I was at the beach last week, a long-awaited vacation during which I planned to get some sun, nap and read. I loaded a half-dozen novels onto my iPad, thinking I could catch up with the book lists of my friends.

In that week, I read exactly three-fourths of one book and one-fourth of another. I started James Lee Burke’s latest and then, distracted like a crow to a shiny pebble, found a trashy beach novel on the shelf at the rental house and ditched James Lee to start it.

Foolishly, I read them concurrently; when I got bored with one I turned to the other, causing me to confuse characters and jumble plots.

Oh, and reading in the sun makes me want to take a nap.

So really, nobody should ever ask me for a book list. I can’t be trusted anymore. (Although, if you like detective novels, you can’t go wrong with James Lee Burke.)

I just found out the movie “Gone Girl” is coming out in a week or two. I usually like books better than their movies, so I’m going to try to finish the book so I can see the movie. My friends say it’s a real page turner.

Now if only I can stay awake.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.