I call it my incidental reading, the books I find while at the library for another purpose (To write in a quiet study area, to hear a lecture, or meet up with a friend.) I used to always have to leave with a book, which lead to library books piling up at home, a huge stack I couldn't possibly get through, and then there would be fines for overdue books. 
On Wednesday I found a small volume that contained essays about Spalding Gray written by friends and family, also some of his unfinished writing. It was very sad, but at the same time, Gray was fascinating and had much to say. I saw him in NYC as the narrator of the Thornton Wilder play "Our Town" and after that, one of his monologues, which I have to say, were brilliant, because they got you thinking about so many things. (Saw another one on the Sundance channel after his death.) I remember when Gray went missing. It was a big deal here, because he was more than well known, he was well liked. Later we heard he jumped from the Staten Island Ferry.So I read these essays in between my planned reading.
( Gray played the Grape Nuts munching psychiatrist who won't listen to Liev Schreiber in the film Kate & Leopold. )
Besides reading this way I've learned to read just a chapter of someone's memoirs at the library. I read a chapter of Hume Cronin's this week. I don't have to bring every book home.
6 comments:
wonderful post...I have long enjoyed taking small bites out of various memoirs - then last year I discovered this wonderful books, whose title unfortunately escapes me now, which was arranged from birth to death and used hundreds of excepts from peoples' memoirs/autobiographies....
I forgot about this book until reading this post...I need to concentrate and see if I can remember the title... it was edited by a woman....
I'm glad I popped over here...I've seen your avatar on many of the blogs I frequent.... I should have known....tut, tut
I just finished, and I'm going to reread before I send it back to the library, a memoir of sorts I think you'd get lots from: A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas. I resisted taking it out because I thought it would be too sad, but she is one great writer with so much to say I rushed through it.
Your library sounds like a second home! I think I have a lifetime of reading to catch up on.
One of the best things I saw Spalding Gray do was a series called "Interviewing the Audience." He'd just pick an audience member at random and interview them onstage. Somehow he made them sound much more fascinating than celebrities.
I grew up partly in Barrington, R.I., remember hearing about his mother's suicide ("a lady on Nayatt Road who killed herself").
My problem is that if I read a chapter and I like it, I have to take it home...
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