Wednesday, July 11, 2007

"God! Look at that thing! You'd have gone straight to the bottom!" - Jack, in "Titanic"

I seem to be reading LM Montgomery’s The Blue Castle; I picked it up one afternoon when I needed something to read while sitting on the floor in the bathroom while The Baby had a bath (and sunk the Titanic and poured water on the floor). It’s typical Montgomery, and although I find the plot assumptions (spinster heroine grows a bit of a spine, throws over overbearing family, and finds herself) a little improbable and slightly tired, it’s mostly pretty charming. I didn’t set out to read it, it just happened to be at hand. I could have picked up worse things.

My ILL of The Shadow of the Wind came in yesterday. I was immediately turned off within the first ten pages by the ten-year-old boy conversing at length with his long-dead mother every night. Is it just me, or does this seem unhealthy behavior? I guess I’ll keep going; I was in a mood yesterday so it may not rub me so wrong later today. Or I’ll wait till Katya sends me the extra copy she’s got and I am in the mood to read it. What I want it to be is another Secret of Lost Things, and I don’t suppose that’s likely, hmm?

Speaking of Katya, she loaned me a copy of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. It has worked its way to the top of my TBR pile, but it looks fairly intense. I may shuffle it down a few books yet, Katya, if that’s ok. My brain just isn’t up for intense right now.

The other night I left my copy of Meg Wolitzer’s Surrender, Dorothy on the floor of the baby’s room, where I had been reading while he played with his trucks. He was just starting to calm down and get ready to sleep and I couldn’t go back in to retrieve it (which was honestly fine, as it is a little dated and not nearly as good as The Position which I really liked), so I picked up Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn which was sitting on my downstairs bookshelves. (Yeah, I seem to start a lot of books that way. There’s something to be said for having books all over the house.) Jamaica Inn seems to be a strange little almost-Gothic tale, along the lines of Jane Eyre or maybe even Wuthering Heights. So far; it’s fun. Du Maurier writes atmosphere like nobody’s business, and the rain-swept moors are helped along by Pittsburgh’s grey skies and pre-thunderstorm winds today.

The boys and I are off to the main branch of the library, to track down some more Encyclopedia Browns and Asterixs (Asterices?) for Primo, and books about the Titanic for Seg.

I am wearying of reading books about the Titanic; I mean, it’s not as if the events of the night are in any way disputed, and how many different fictionalizations can be generated? (Actually, you might be surprised. Apparently hundreds.) But if it saves me from having to read The Magic Hockey Stick ONE MORE TIME (a charming and very sweet book but one I am heartily sick of), I am all for another unfortunate soul perishing in the watery depths of the North Atlantic. I am debating trying to turn Seg onto the Marie Celeste story, though that might be a bit too creepy for bedtime reading.

I have already terrorized them with The Hobbit - Smaug freaked them right on out, and why does Bilbo have to become a burglar, burglars are BAD; and The Wizard of Oz: it didn’t seem to matter that the Wicked Witch of the West was, well, WICKED – she was still killed by a house falling out of the sky, and it’s not as if Primo needs any more help generating neuroses to obsess over. So, back to the drawing board. Or the library, as the case may be.

7 comments:

Sarah Louise said...

I heart -- omg -- how did I confuse Jamaica Inn as a Mary Stewart book. Well, I heart Mary Stewart. My brain is mush.

You've done Wind in the Willows with them already? B/c Frog is really the only bad egg, and he gets better in the end, with the help of his friends.

Yeah, I've started reading Saint Maybe in the middle (the beginning didn't grab me, and I read the beginning eons ago) because it was next to my chair.

I don't think I've read the Magic Hockey Stick. I'll have to pick that up...

Kathy said...

I haven't read The Shadow of the Wind yet except for the first few pages -- I really want to like it -- it's very much something I would normally like. I should be mailing it today if I remember.

You can read Kindred (or not) whenever you want, bb, it is your book! I do hope you like it though when you do read it.

I remember reading the Mary Celeste story when I was a kid -- I'm just not sure how young I was. My mom had some book about it.

Badger said...

I don't know how to say this politely, but I think you might have ADD. In fact, I think I HAVE ADD just from READING that.

I seriously have no idea how you keep so many books going at once. It's like some kind of bizarre superpower. I had to stop doing DailyLit because I was getting confused between what I was reading there and what I was reading in actual book form, fer cryin' out loud!

BabelBabe said...

dude, you may be right. it's the heat. i can't concentrate on....wait, was that something shiny? what was I saying? who are you, do i know you? wha???

Iamthebookworm said...

Kindred is really good, but it is not a "fluffy" book. Its worth reading though. My nephew (age 9.5) loves reading about the Titanic. That and NASCAR.

Sarah Louise said...

Some folks can read many books and keep them straight. I am one of those. Babs seems to be too. Others read one at a time.

I don't think it's ADD. It's multitasking for books!

Sinda said...

Oh, Oh - Mary Stewart! i LOVE Mary Stewart.

I do the same thing - I have books going all over the house, in the car, at my MIL's house...I literally can't sit still without a book.