SBD Sickie Reads and rambling
When a friend was dying of cancer, he stopped reading mysteries and Tom Robbins and developed a taste for Jane Austen and Wodehouse.
I read somewhere that people who are sick make up a huge audience for traditional Regencies. When searching for comfort reads, patients apparently want conversations and other small social interactions...no huge midnight dramas or death or large passion of any sort (perhaps a bit of inner trauma, but no one falling from cliffs).
It turns out that I'm just like other people. My stomach has been awry lately--nothing horrendous--but I do have days where I feel invalidish. Today I went to straighten the cupboard in the bathroom where I store the reading material. I found Sense and Sensibility, a couple of Heyers, an Emsworth Collection and a Carla Kelly. To Say Nothing of The Dog is in there too. That's apparently action I can handle.
I tend to reread when sick. Which is also what everyone else does too, it turns out. There's that scene in some movie where the woman is clutching her beloved copy of an Eyre title. Damn. I'm blanking on the movie. I just recall feeling outraged because the damned illness came out of nowhere. Debra Winger. Bah. IMBD time.
later. . . Terms of Endearment. That's the puppy.
I think the Winger character adored Wuthering Heights. Meh. I loved it when I was teenager. When I was in my twenties I reread it and wondered why people put up with Catherine.
Since I seem to follow Standard Feminine Reading Practices/Patterns in my life, this might mean something about the Winger character. Perhaps the book's significance is that Winger played a woman who didn't grow up. Heh.
Never mind...now I remember she had some kids and was a pretty good mom, too. GOD I resented that movie. I think it managed to pull me in and that's why I was so mad instead of just slightly annoyed. I mean there has to be a reason for killing people off and it can't just be to make us cry or feel sorry for Shirley MacLaine.
Okay is this enough wandering around? Huh? Can I call it a SBD and get back to rereading Sprig Muslin?
Naw. I have to work. Right now! I must add sex to a wannabe Spice book. Bigger! Sex! Faster, stronger, sooner, better SEX! (Any second the call is going to go out for those trad Regencies again. You watch. Aging boomers will need their comfort reads.)
I read somewhere that people who are sick make up a huge audience for traditional Regencies. When searching for comfort reads, patients apparently want conversations and other small social interactions...no huge midnight dramas or death or large passion of any sort (perhaps a bit of inner trauma, but no one falling from cliffs).
It turns out that I'm just like other people. My stomach has been awry lately--nothing horrendous--but I do have days where I feel invalidish. Today I went to straighten the cupboard in the bathroom where I store the reading material. I found Sense and Sensibility, a couple of Heyers, an Emsworth Collection and a Carla Kelly. To Say Nothing of The Dog is in there too. That's apparently action I can handle.
I tend to reread when sick. Which is also what everyone else does too, it turns out. There's that scene in some movie where the woman is clutching her beloved copy of an Eyre title. Damn. I'm blanking on the movie. I just recall feeling outraged because the damned illness came out of nowhere. Debra Winger. Bah. IMBD time.
later. . . Terms of Endearment. That's the puppy.
I think the Winger character adored Wuthering Heights. Meh. I loved it when I was teenager. When I was in my twenties I reread it and wondered why people put up with Catherine.
Since I seem to follow Standard Feminine Reading Practices/Patterns in my life, this might mean something about the Winger character. Perhaps the book's significance is that Winger played a woman who didn't grow up. Heh.
Never mind...now I remember she had some kids and was a pretty good mom, too. GOD I resented that movie. I think it managed to pull me in and that's why I was so mad instead of just slightly annoyed. I mean there has to be a reason for killing people off and it can't just be to make us cry or feel sorry for Shirley MacLaine.
Okay is this enough wandering around? Huh? Can I call it a SBD and get back to rereading Sprig Muslin?
Naw. I have to work. Right now! I must add sex to a wannabe Spice book. Bigger! Sex! Faster, stronger, sooner, better SEX! (Any second the call is going to go out for those trad Regencies again. You watch. Aging boomers will need their comfort reads.)
I've been really stressed since late summer. Political crap. Son + teacher crap. Which all leads inexorably to marriage crap. (By the way, all three are much better now, in case you're worried.)
ReplyDeleteBut the point of it is, I've been reading traditional regencies as if they were postcards. Definite stress relievers over here. I think the Trads will come back after some time has passed. Hey, bell bottoms and platform shoes did, right?
But I didn't do as much re-reading as I usually do. Hmm.