Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books

Professor, NPR book critic, and bibliophile Maureen Corrigan discusses the books that have been important to her, dividing her choices into three categories: women's extreme-adventure stories, stories about work (including interesting considerations of detective novels), and Catholic martyr stories. Corrigan's discussions are fascinating and insightful, and she discusses how these books informed her life well. Recommended to anyone who enjoys books about books or the reading life.

I enjoyed this book much more than a couple of other similarly titled books (So Many Books, So Little Time; and Ruined by Reading), which simply did not hold my interest and failed to deliver in regard to unearthing rare classics or more books to read. Corrigan's lists of books at the back of Leave Me Alone are a treasure trove for booklovers. I guess my only difficulty with her book was the inordinate amount of space give to the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen, whose books I've tried to read, but have never finished. After reading Corrigan's extrapolations of them as "extreme adventure" type stories for women, I've decided that it's probably not just me; it's a gender thing. The parts I probably enjoyed the most were her more show more autobiographical revelations, about her parents (a father who loved books and a mother who did not), and her friends growing up in Queens. She also let us into her adult life, telling of the ordeal she and her husband endured in trying repeatedly to have a child and then of the adventure of the successful adoption of their daughter in China. But I also loved the segments of stuff she read throughout her life. Odd to find out that a distinguished scholar and book critic like Corrigan loves mysteries and noir detective stories, and also enjoyed "series" books. Her descriptions of the Beany Malone books that Catholic girls apparently loved from the 40s through the 60s even sounded interesting. Made me think of a few similar books I remember reading somewhat guiltily many years ago, since they were thought to be "girls' books": Mr & Mrs Bojo Jones, and Seventeenth Summer. I was somewhat surprised that we share many "favorite" books. And although she never mentioned it, while reading this book I also thought often of Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda's wonderful memoir of his life-long love affair with books, An Open Book. I think I'll put the two books side-by-side on my to-read-again-someday bookshelf. This was a terrific book. From a confirmed fellow booklover, thanks, Maureen. show less

Corrigan's memoirish comment on reading and its numerous affects on her life started out beautifully, capturing the mindset of the obsessive reader with her misanthropic comments about longing to be reading when in the company of friends. The first section of the book carefully balances her stated subject matter, reading and books, with a look at her life in books. A number of times, I reread passages which described my feelings about reading and books with a frightening accuracy.

The meat of the book, the four primary chapters, did not live up to the promise created in Corrigan's introduction. I am a life-long and obssessive reader, just as Corrigan describes herself, and I expected the remainder of the book to expand on reading and show more books from this angle. But Corrigan's literary review and classification of both fiction and non-fiction works important to her seemed overly professorial. The concepts she uses to describe the development of certain strains of writing are interesting but, after awhile, seem dull and clunky. While I appreciated her insights, I felt like Corrigan was too often preachy in trying to convince the reader of her positions on feminism, religion, and class in fiction and non-fiction.

Even in the midst of these tutorials, however, Corrigan still conveyed pieces of the feelings she grounds in her introduction. From the quirky story of how she chose and what she chose for her trip to adopt her daughter to the heart-warming interludes of how her reading habits and her father's were interwoven. These passages kept me reading the book.

The epilouge of the book falls completely into memoir, describing Corrigan's attendance at a party in New York a few days before 9/11 and her reconnection with old friends and family. The material has a built in readability. Unfortunately, Corrigan didn't tie this material back to her stated subject much more than to wonder how important reading and literature were in light of the terrible events.

All in all, I expected more from this book. While I enjoyed reading it, I would more likely reccomend Ruined By Reading, A Life in Books by Lynne Sharon Schwartz or Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. Both were much more on point and neither tried to do too much. I guess, for me, it felt like Corrigan tried to do too much; write an essay on reading, defend literary hypotheses, and write a memoir.

3 bones!!! show less

Corrigan speaks about her life as an avid reader, focusing on three topics in literature: female extreme adventure stories (including her own story of adopting a daughter from China), detective stories, and Catholic martyr tales.

I started out really liking this book, but it ended up driving me insane, The good parts were that Corrigan is an entertaining writer and I got to write lots of titles on my “to read�€? list. The bad things were that the memoir aspect of the book and the literary criticism aspect seemed forced together- not at all seamless. Additionally, the author at times seems very self-important- she was astute enough to see the good in “hard boiledâ€? detective stories, she was enlightened enough to show more marry a Jewish man and adopt a daughter from China, she is a radio celebrity (I didn’t even know we had those anymore). Yes, yes, we’re all very impressed. show less

In this delightful memoir, the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air reflects on her life as a professional reader. Maureen Corrigan takes us from her unpretentious girlhood in working-class Queens, to her bemused years in an Ivy League Ph.D. program, from the whirl of falling in love and marrying (a fellow bookworm, of course), to the ordeal of adopting a baby overseas, always with a book at her side. Along the way, she reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life—from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan’s love for a good story shines.

Maureen Corrigan, book critic/host for NPR's Fresh Air, professor and author opens her debut novel with, "It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others - even my nearest and dearest - there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book." and from that moment on I was hooked. This memoir resonated with me throughout its pages, how many times have I hated to come up for air when someone around me interfered with my newest find! As its pages progressed I found myself identifying more and more with Corrigan. We learn of her Irish Catholic background, her love of hard boiled detective fiction, female extreme adventure stories, and her childhood book list list including Catholic martyr tales. show more There is no literary snobbery to be found here, in fact she often pokes fun at her graduate school memories. If you too are a bookaholic this is a gem! It is a rumination of her lifelong obsession with books that I found at times, both appealing and original. What books did she pack for her trip to China, what books did she pass on to her father, what books influenced her education? For the answer to these questions, you too will need to take a trip with Corrigan! show less

From a truth in advertisement standpoint, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books delivers.

The literary memoir opens with Maureen Corrigan writing, “it’s not that I don’t like other people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others‑even my nearest and dearest—there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book.” That is a woman after my own heart.

It’s no surprise then that what follows is literary criticism that those of us without a master’s (or doctoral) degree can understand. Corrigan is an engaging writer, and shines when correlating books to tales of her Catholic working-class childhood or adult life. One wonderful chapter delves into her time in graduate school and her show more discovery that the world of academia may not be for her. She escapes into the world of detective fiction, on which she became an excerpt. “By day, I shambled listlessly around Penn; by night, I walked down the mean streets of hard-boiled heaven,” she writes.

That said, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books is a tough sell, even for those of us who love to read. I started and stopped reading this book over several months, and it’s only 200 pages. Many of the chapters narrow in on a very specific book, and if you haven’t read it, you find yourself slogging though. Case in point: I’m sure Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries) is wonderful, but there are several PAGES devoted to the exploration of it as a female adventure tale that anticipated “today’s feminist-inflected detective fiction.” However, I also found myself reading aloud some of Corrigan’s sections on Robert Parker, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to my husband, whose book diet consists almost exclusively of mysteries. It’s almost as if this book was designed to be in audio format, so that you could hear Corrigan giving you insights and recommendations in small doses without getting lost in analysis. In the end, it’s a book that I liked and think is well-written, but I’d only recommend it to certain NPR listeners who want to look erudite on their Metro commute.

This first appeared at www.elizabethsbooks.com show less