All in One

To meet my challenge, I've been perusing bookstore's lately. There's something about going into a physical bookstore to browse, I think, that makes it a pasttime that will not likely fade quickly. True, I do love Amazon; I buy books there a lot, but when I don't know what I want, I usually head to the bookstore itself in search of the perfect book.



To meet my challenge, and also feed my interest in foreign cultures, I bought Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. The goal of the book is to describe the changes Chinese women are making in modern days from a life restricted to family and village to one in the business world and big cities. I look forward to reading it when I'm done with The Devil Wears Prada. It's an easy read with an interesting plot, but I just haven't made the time I need to allow myself to read through it quickly.

While in the bookstore most recently, I came across a collection of books that directly addresses the "learn more about the world" challenge. Some of the books are a collection of random factoids or summaries that you could read each day (like a calendar, but in book form). Other books were like how-tos and gave you a book list to get through in a year. One of these such books was totally rediculous. It suggested that you read as many as 5 classic books a month. What working professional has the time to read 5 classic books in a month? We're not talking Anne Rice, John Grisham classic, but Faulkner, Tolstoi, real epics. Five of those in one month. Honestly, I think I've been reading The Devil Wears Prada for almost a month now and I'm only halfway through.

There are so many books out there I want to read. And they're not all classics. But as I roam through the bookstore, I do see I have proclivity toward the social sciences and business. I tend to stay away from history and science. So, the next time I'm perusing through the bookstore, looking for a book to help me through this challenge, I will stop in the history section. To get to science, I will need to gather up my strength.