I just finished two books and I am trying to figure out why one took me two weeks to read and the other two days. Yes the one was slightly longer than the other, but I can't remember the last time it took me two weeks to read a book. Wait - I take that back. It was one of the Bronte novels whose title escapes me because it was a classic I never got around to reading before. I enjoyed the novel. I think it rhythm of the prose that took me so long. I don't know. Maybe there is something about the meter of speech from the 1800s or even the early 1900s that slows me up. In a way that is good, like savoring the taste of a new food and trying to decide if you like it or not.
Incidentally, I typically hate "the classics". I'm not too terribly fond of award winners either. I guess my beat comes from a different drummer. I did like "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh." But if someone offered me money to reread "Sister Carrie" I think I'd rather be driven over by a bus. In fact, I remember wishing a bus would run over her. I guess that would have been a hackney or hansom (sp?) cab back then, but you get the point.
Anyway, novel A was a mystery. I like mysteries. I inherited that from my dad. I think he at one time owned every Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie novel in paperback. This novel was by a reputable author with several other novels in print. Maybe it was because of the odd mood I've been in of late. Maybe there were too many characters and I couldn't keep them straight in my head. I hate that when that happens. Even as late as 50 pages to go in the novel, I had to flip back and figure out who the protagonist was because I kept confusing her name with that of a secondary character.
Now the second novel was a romance, also by a reputable author. It had far less characters to keep straight. There was a bit of a mystery that I saw coming a mile away, but I am one of those insatiable people who has to know if the hunch is right (I was). The hero was a little too good to be true, hardly any growth other than "hey, I think I just fell in love." But then again, I've always been a bit of a sucker for those knights in shining armor.
I did like both books. I just thought it was odd that one took me so much longer to read than the other.
I think I need another run to the library. I have a feeling I'll be wanting the escapism this week. Sunday I found out that my uncle was in the hospital. Normally I call my folks on the weekend, but I got sidetracked. The more I thought about my uncle, the more concerned I got, but I tried to shake it off. I mean, if it was serious, someone would have called, right?
I called my folks last night. My uncle is not good. Basically a lifetime of vices and weaknesses have caught up with him. I'd like to say we were close. He is my godfather, but he moved out to Delaware when I was little and I really haven't seen him very often. The last time I saw him was at my wedding four years ago. And yet I really feel smacked upside the head about this. Even over the phone, I could tell my parents were beginning to grieve, and I felt myself beginning to do so too.
DH and I talked about this some last night. Unfortunately, we are reaching a stage in our lives where the death of aunts and uncles is probable and in some cases, a waiting game. I'm just afraid I am not ready for this particular stage of life. Maybe I'm afraid that it will be a domino effect. Then there are our own parents to consider and I don't want to even consider it. It doesn't help matters that the last time I saw my folks they sat me down and told me some of the updated details of their will (on the lighter side of things, my sisters and I were going to sent to live with some divorced relatives - DH thought that was hilarious since we are all nearly all over age 30 and the relatives had about the ugliest divorce ever).
For everything there is a season, right?
14 comments:
You know, I think you can be in the mood for a particular author or genre; when that happens I breeze right through it. And sometimes I'll slog through thinking I don't care for a book only to pick it up again much later (months or years) and find myself enjoying it very much.
I, too, read a lot of mysteries. A product of my childhood. I went through all the age appropriate books ahead of schedule so mom turned me on to cozies. Christie, Rex Stout, and so on. You won't find too much in an Agatha Christie that you don't want a kid to read.
I was thinking about what you said, also, about too many characters. I just finished the latest Jane Haddam, "Glass Houses," and boy she does love a large cast. I did have to go back one time to figure out who someone was. But she does really good characters and I enjoy the community she created in the series so its worth it.
McB spake thusly:
You won't find too much in an Agatha Christie that you don't want a kid to read.
Well, except for the dead bodies all over the place.
Btuda, would it be untoward to ask you what these books were and by whom? (stilted phraseology, my phrases are all up on stilts due to fried brain syndrome). "It's okay; you can just whisper it to me," as Connie Chung said to somebody's mother. (And then she repeated the comment out loud anyway. But I of course have too much couth to do something like that. Even with F.B.S. Damn but those are unfortunate initials.)
Mary - no big secret - I'm posting it here afterall!
The mystery was April Fool Dead by Carolyn Hart and the romance was The Last White Knight by Tami Hoag. I picked up April Food Dead because it had an author quote on the cover by Diane Mott Davidson who I enjoy very much (she puts recipes in the novels about her caterer-turned amateur sleuth). I know, I remember Jenny's comments about author quotes, but it was the library and I needed something to read.
BTW, my MIL works for Random House Books over here (in the warehouse) and she gets free books from time to time. She was able to pick me up this awesome book on the Civil War that has all these neat inserts like replicas of telegrams, maps, money, and photographs. It'll come in handy when DSS studies it in school.
The Hoag novel was my Christmas present from here that I finally got around to reading.
Geez, I meant to say the Hoag novel was from my MIL. Obviously that Diet Coke hasn't kicked in yet this morning!
Mary expounded ...
Well, except for the dead bodies all over the place.
Details, details.
Mary: Newt Gingrich's mother, I believe.
btuda: (HUGS) to you and your uncle.
idpjhzyg they're kidding right?
Me, thank you. It bothered me that I couldn't remember the woman's name.
McB, I'm glad I expounded. For a moment I misread that I had expanded, which while probably true is a depressing thought.
Um, Btuda? Can I say this on someone else's blog? I hope so, but I don't mean to tread on anyone's toes. Just really wanted to say that I Cannot Stand Carolyn Hart's books.
Well, I only read one, or tried to (couldn't finish) but if I hadn't been on a plane I would have flung it out the window. She had one character (I think he was the villain) who had a "bold forehead." Still trying to work that one out.
And after making me suffer through 8 separate POVs, she united them all in one place at one time. And each paragraph was in a different POV. First one character's thoughts & feelings, then a line of dialogue. Then switch to another characters t&f, then another line of dialogue. Then a 3rd. She probably did this for all 8, but I didn't wait to find out. Reached for my alternate book (an extremely depressing memoir about an Irish feminist's extremely depressing love life) instead.
Hopefully this book was something she wrote early on and then she went on to write better books? But I have no inclination to find out. It was a very depressing plane ride, and it was All Her Fault.
Sorry for all that diatribe. It was rather cathartic to let it all out. Btuda, is there a charge for this?
zceejid -- Mary votes that the awful book she tried to read should be zceejid from a great height.
There are a number of authors out there who are quite popular but that I have trouble reading. I say popular because they have a lot of published books on the shelves and I figure they would continue to be published if someone wasn't buying the books. Maybe I've become too much of a perfectionist in my old age.
For what it's worth, I do not enjoy Nora Roberts' writing. Makes me an oddity, but that's not exactly a news flash.
Mary - you know, you may have just hit it on the head. No wonder I could never remember who the heroine was supposed to be. The POV WAS all over the place - the victims, the murderer, the neighbors. So much for my lazy read. Even when I am trying to ignore pesky details of our craft, the biggies simply will not be ignored, right?
BTW, my uncle is doing somewhat better. Still dying, just the end may not quite be so immenent. My folks drove out last night and my dad's sister went out the day before (uncle is in Delaware, aunt in northern Indiana and Mom and Dad from Tennessee).
Thanks.
Sheryl - not an oddity. Just your preferences. I've got some too.
Btuda - I'll keep your family in my thoughts.
Thanks, McB.
It's turning out to be a crazy day and I cannot find the words to express how thankful I am I have a place or two to chill with friends.
Even if there is glitter all over the place.
Not my glitter. Unh unh.
Know that you're in my thoughts and prayers too. Weird day to say the least. Planets must be lined up backwards or something. maybe they had to detour around some crazy ass truck spill on the Milky Way
Hey, if there are Milky Way candy bars spilled on a highway somewhere, I'm there.
Oh wait. That's not what you meant at all.
Well, you know how they say we read what we WANT to read ...
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