Real books, audiobooks, and bedtime books . . . oh my!

Some readers are one-book-at-a-time readers; not me.  I need to have books near me at all times; I wouldn't want to find myself in a waiting room, in a crowd, on a beach, ANYWHERE and not have a book with me! Perhaps I have abibliophobia, a fear of being without a book.  To make sure I am always ready to read, I usually have three different books going:

All the faves!

1. "Real" books.  These are the books that I can cuddle up with on a rainy day or take out on the porch to read in the sun.  These are the books I buy to possibly keep forever, to annotate, to revisit when I just need something good to read.  The best are here -- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, On Writing and The Stand by Stephen King, and Stiff by Mary Roach.  Old friends, all.

2. Audiobooks.  I walk my puppy nearly every day, and every day I pop in my earbuds and listen to a book as we walk.  There is no rhyme or reason to what makes me choose an audiobook because the titles run the gamut from pop fiction (most recently, Us by David Nicholls) to random nonfiction (currently Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky) to spooky stories (The River at Night by Erica Ferencik).  A pleasant-voiced narrator and a compelling tale are the only criteria for a quality audiobook.

3. Bedtime Books.  I have a Kindle, and it only get used at night.  I regularly fall asleep unknowingly continuing to flip pages on my bedtime books.  I know this because almost every night, I have to go back several pages to remind myself what's happening before I pick up the story anew.  Oops!

So, all that being defined, here's the "real" book, audiobook, and bedtime book highlights from June (so far):

Real book:  The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.  This is one of the most charming books I've read in awhile.  The story was so engaging I finished it in one afternoon sitting.  The protagonist, the titular A.J. Fikry, is a curmudgeonly widower who owns a bookstore on a tourist island.  He owns one thing of value, a unique Edgar Allen Poe collection, and that is stolen early in the story, though that is really not the primary plot point.  As Fikry's story unfolds, he unexpectedly becomes a father, he falls in love with a quirky woman, and he interacts with all of the unique characters who populate the island.  I came to really like the cranky Fikry and was moved by his story in the end.

Audiobook:  The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich.  I love true stories, and this book combines two true stories into one fascinating examination of lives in crisis.  Story one follows the case of Ricky Langley, a man who is accused of molesting and killing a six-year-old boy in Louisiana.   As Marzano-Lesnevich explores the murder case of Langley with all its twists and turns, we learn about Langley's unique conception, birth, and childhood.  We come to have some degree of compassion for Langley, even though he is a convicted child-molesting killer.  The second story is Marzano-Lesnevich's own story.  She was molested by her grandfather throughout her childhood, and as she explores the Ricky Langley case, she is also attempting to understand what her own childhood experiences mean to her as an adult and how they shaped her to become who she is.  The author narrated the book, and that gave it a very personal feel to it.  

Bedtime book:  American Gods by Neil Gaimon.  Full disclosure:  I am struggling with this book as my bedtime book.  First, this book requires a mythological background that I don't, but probably should, have.  The reader needs to know Nordic, Egyptian, Greek mythology in order to really follow what is happening to Shadow, the main character.  In addition, as this is a bedtime book (and I keep falling asleep), I am finding the plot hard to follow.  However, I'm intrigued enough by Shadow and his experiences, and this book is getting enough positive publicity right now (probably because it's been adapted into a cable TV show recently) that I'm willing to follow it through to the end just to see what the big deal is.  I will persevere through this!

To keep the abibliophobia at bay, I've already begun the next set of books.  My current "real" book is In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi, the audiobook is Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky, and I am persevering through American Gods at night.  It's a beautiful summer day -- perfect for reading -- so I best get to it!