Nutgraf

DeathSnow2009!

It’s blizzarding out, and snow days always feel like special occasions to me. Maybe it’s all of the training from childhood – where you got a surprise vacation that involved hot cocoa and a softly padded world. But whatever the reason, it seemed like a perfect day to launch my newest blog notion: BookGraf.

What is this BookGraf of which you speak?

Yeah, the name could use some work. But Book Nut was already taken, and I’ve not always felt like the people who searched on “nut” were getting what they were looking for when they arrived at my site.

I like books. And had the good fortune to belong to a fantastic book club for a time. We read some super fun and interesting books, and we totally failed to take anything seriously or insist that people actually read the book. We enjoyed one another’s company, cheap wine and some very lovely canapés from Trader Joe.

In that curious but casual tradition, I’m going to feature here some of the things with which I’m feeding my head. Cookbooks, Italian mystery novels, ye olde classics, how-to, and new releases. I’ve got a broad range of interests and am always looking for recommendations.

Why would I do such a thing?

I want my kids to read.

As part of my ongoing (and probably profoundly annoying) advice project, I decided that one of the most important things I can hope to impress upon my children is an insatiable appetite for reading. I want them to read online, read books, newspapers, blogs, magazines (bonus points if it’s The New Yorker or The Economist), cereal boxes, e-mails, angry screeds, loving epistles…. All of it.

I want review copies.

Also, I must admit, one of my goals in life is to be on the receiving end of review copies from publishers. I’ve come close a couple of times, and am afraid that I let other professional aspirations distract me from this most pressing matter.  Never again. It made me feel awesome when books arrived unbidden. It meant that someone wanted me to read their stuff and tell other people about it. They thought I had an opinion, an audience and a platform that suited their needs. How awesome is that?

And last but not least:

I want to learn new stuff.

Fiction, nonfiction, biography, how-to, history, mystery and science… you can learn from it all. A new and fabulous turn of a phrase, a plot device, recipe for hazelnut biscotti. There is so much out there. And a lot of it is bad, but a lot if it is also good, and some of it is totally awesome. And I don’t want to miss those parts.

Hit me.

I’ve got a bunch of books in the queue, but please do hit me up in the comments here or at thea [at] nutgraf dot net if you’ve got a suggestion or recommendation. Your comments on my comments are also welcome.

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