Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovich

 

Caught up in grief after the death of her sister, Nina Sankovich decided to stop running and start reading. For once in her life she would put all other obligations on hold and devote herself to reading a book a day: one year of magical reading in which she found joy, healing, and wisdom.

 

With grace and deep insight, Sankovich weaves together poignant family memories with the unforgettable lives of the characters she reads about. She finds a lesson in each book, ultimately realizing the ability of a good story to console, inspire, and open our lives to new places and experiences. A moving story of recovery, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is also a resonant reminder of the all-encompassing power and delight of reading.

 

 

 

I had been eyeing Nina Sankovich's memoir for a while, for a few reasons - it's a book that focuses on bibliotherapy, and mainly - it's a book about books. Book about books is pretty much a magic formula that makes me act like a bee acts towards a tasty pot of honey (and I'm positive I'm not the only one). I found this one a few weeks back from a book sale, with 50% off (though I have to say that it was still quite pricey - why is non-fiction so expensive?), and couldn't pass it up.

 

After the death of her sister, Sankovich decided to dedicate herself to reading a book a day for one year. Without knowing any more details, this struck me as a bit of an absurd idea. What kind of books will she be reading? Does she intend to finish War and Peace in a day? Moreover, not only was she to read a book a day, she also decided to write a review on the book the next morning. Sankovich has the web site http://www.readallday.org, which she used to monitor her progress and publish reviews (she still posts there, although the project has ended).

 

From the book I learned that she actually had quite strict rules when it came to reading - the book had to be 200-300 pages long (I hope I remember that correctly - couldn't find that place in the book just now) and if she didn't get into it within the first ten pages, she would drop it and pick another one. There were no restrictions on genre but she was not to pick a book from the same author more than once. The whole list of 365 books that Sankovich read is also published in the end of the book. She has (or had, at that point) a husband and three boys. Obviously she did not have a day job during this year, but still, I cannot imagine taking on such a huge reading project. She had about four hours per book each day, and the time of writing a review varied, depending on the book. Four hours was based on her estimation to read 70 pages in an hour - I am not sure how about you guys, but this made me feel like I'm the world's slowest reader. (Actually I haven't taken time but I'm 99% sure I can't read and understand more than a page in a minute.)

 

I could schedule reading, writing, cooking, and cleaning. But how to schedule caring and loving?

 

The year of magical reading is weaved with the memories and snippets from Sankovich's life, mainly family related, and her thoughts about books and reading. For example, the chapter on lending out books and recommending them to others was very interesting - how will the other person receive the book that is so important for you?

 

In general, I liked the writing in this memoir, it's simple and not pretentious and the way Sankovich explains her reading experience and the characters in the books is easily understandable. She's honest and direct in her take on some more delicate subjects like sex, exes and "what ifs". She doesn't glorify or decorate the family life overly, admitting that there were, of course, problems between her and her sister, but even so, the love and closeness between them was bigger than that, and it was very difficult for her to find the answer to the question "why do I deserve to live?"

 

I did enjoy Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and it gave me this kind of comforting feeling and strengthened my faith in the healing abilities of stories. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good, short-ish memoir, who loves books about books, or who is interested in bibliotherapy.

 

A book doesn't have to be part of the canon of great literature to make a difference in the reader's life.

Edit: if I had a euro for each time I use the word "book" in this review... I could buy a few new books :p