Good Reads

Not too often do I blog about books I've read. But every once in awhile I find a book that is blog worthy.
I like to read books like I watch most movies--in fast forward. If it's a good book I read it quickly, usually in one night. Last week I read Austenland by Shannon Hale. It was entertaining, it made me laugh, it was fun to think about, so I gobbled it up in a couple of hours. I also quickly read through a couple of other books last week. Fun, fun, fun!
But, rarely does a book come along that I read slowly! At first it almost annoyed me that I felt I had absorbed so much only to find that I was only a few chapters in. Is my reading pace slowing in my old age? I wondered. No, it's just a different kind of read. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is my latest project to help me ignore the laundry, the sweeping, the dishes and all those other things that have not yet made it to my list of hobbies. The book is about a family who devotes a year to eating foods that are found within a hundred miles of their home. It's inspiring and a bit romantic to read about their garden (it's huge), the amount of tomatoes canned (over 300 lbs.) and the good lives their animals (or their neighbors' animals) lived before being 'harvested'. When I read the book I feel a sense of reverence towards plants and animals. It makes me feel even more excited about my garden and ways I can better my family's eating habits. Books are a great source of entertainment for me, but books that help me to change my life for the better get to be placed on a pedestal for awhile.