Tolstoy and the Purple Chair Review

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading  

 by Nina Sankovitch

Genre: Adult Non-fiction

Publisher: Harper

Source: Library

Book Description:

When Sankovitch lost her older sister to cancer, she was determined to "live her life double" in order to make up for her family's painful loss. But after three years spent at a frenetic pace, Sankovitch decided to slow down and rediscover the pleasure of books in order to reconnect with the memory of her sister. Despite the day-to-day responsibilities of raising four sons—and the holidays, vacations, and sudden illnesses that accompany a large family—Sankovitch vowed to read one book a day for an entire year and blog about it. In this entertaining bibliophile's dream, Sankovitch (who launched ReadAllDay.org and was profiled in the New York Times) found that her "year of magical reading" was "not a way to rid myself of sorrow but a way to absorb it." As well as being an homage to her sister and their family of readers, Sankovitch's memoir speaks to the power that books can have over our daily lives. Sankovitch champions the act of reading not as an indulgence but as a necessity, and will make the perfect gift from one bookworm to another.

Review:

They say music soothes the savage beast, but for others it’s books.  I loved this book and could relate to how books can help us through rough times in our lives.

Nina did this project as a way to remember the sister she lost and to honor her by reading books that she liked and some that she would have liked if she had lived.

For the author, “remembrance is acknowledging that a life was lived.”  I can’t think of a better way than sharing a love of reading.  To some people it sounds like she did nothing but read, but she did work out a way to keep up with the day to day things one must do. 

She also started a blog http://www.readallday.org/blog/  that chronicles all the books she’s read since starting the year of magical reading. 

If you love reading and have a loved one you want to remember and honor, then share a book that that person enjoyed and maybe you will have a year of magical reading.

Happy Reading!

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