Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: The Summer of Books

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Cynical Girl: The Summer of Books

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 03:45 AM PDT

I really wanted this summer to be all about champagne.

I needed a new hobby and I thought, “Why not learn the difference between good sparking wine and bad?”

That is an expensive hobby. And I don’t have a real job. So the summer of 2013 has been about eating chips and salsa in a t-shirt and underwear while watching Orange is the New Black and The Newsroom.

This summer has been about books, too. Most of you know that I am trying to submit a finalized book proposal to my agent. I am not writing a business book. I will not give out career advice. And I certainly won’t talk about how social media has transformed Human Resources.

The book will be essays about work, life and cats.

(I know, I know. I am doomed.)

I am inspired by writers like Mindy Kaling, David Foster Wallace, Dave Pell and George Saunders. Too bad I can’t write like Mindy Kaling, David Foster Wallace, Dave Pell and George Saunders. So I have consumed a bazillion books, this summer, to see what works and what doesn’t.

I also want to see what sells.

I am about to start The Darwin Elevator. I have read a ton of Kindle Singles. And in the past six weeks I’m done with Waiter Rant, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers and The Passionate Marriage.

(God, what a weird summer.)

So what have you read, this summer? Anything good? Anything noteworthy? What’s the one thing you have picked up and can’t put down?

Summer isn’t over. There are a few weeks left. I need more books to distract myself from writing.

And I need more champagne.