Pat Conroy - - - again

There's not a one of you who has ever dropped by here who's not aware of how plumb goofy I am about Pat Conroy.  I've mentioned him here a time or two . . . (okay, a lot - I admit it).

Well, he's been in the news this week for a couple different reasons.

One - He discusses e-books.  He "says he knows so little about e-books that he didn't realize his work could be downloaded until a fan showed him during a recent promotional tour."

Two - he "will announce the National Book Award finalists at an Oct. 13 event in Savannah, Ga. The announcement will be made at Flannery O'Connor's childhood home."

And Three - BIG news for me - Yay!!  (a little self-indulgence can't be all bad if it's just every once in awhile, can it??)

I'm the over-the-moon happy, lucky recipient of an Advance Reading Copy of Mr. Conroy's newest book which is scheduled to hit the shelves in November.  MY READING LIFE is Mr. Conroy's most recent memoir.  

This from Random House: 

"Bestselling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life.

Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is also a vora­cious reader. He has for years kept a notebook in which he notes words or phrases, just from a love of language. But read­ing for him is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.

In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of passionate reading. He includes wonderful anecdotes from his school days, mov­ing accounts of how reading pulled him through dark times, and even lists of books that particularly influenced him at vari­ous stages of his life, including grammar school, high school, and college. Readers will be enchanted with his ruminations on reading and books . . . "

And here's a little excerpt for those of you who love Pat Conroy's work as much as I do -

"Great words, arranged with cunning and artistry, could change the perceived world for some readers.  From the beginning I've searched out those writers unafraid to stir up the emotions, who entrust me with their darkest passions, their most indestructible yearnings, and their most soul-killing doubts.  I trust the great novelists to teach me how to live, how to feel, how to love and hate.  I trust them to show me the dangers I will encounter on the road as I stagger on my own troubled passage through a complicated life of books that try to teach me how to die."

This book reads with all the emotion we've come to expect from Mr. Conroy.  It's filled with intensely personal stories that will fuel your love of the written word, make you laugh out loud, touch your heart and move you to tears.

FTC Full Disclosure - The publisher sent me the book.