Resigned to my popular fiction fate SBD
Okay, that didn't last long.
I looked through my oldest's books. He's an honest-to-god intellectual, an English major and has bookshelves crammed with volumes of essays and books like The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. He reads this stuff even when he doesn't have to--this is his entertainment.
I picked up a book by a Brazilian author. Oh, man, I have to read and reread the first page -- and the author's voice is annoying, or maybe it's the translator. Could you be any more pompous? So how about a bit of James Joyce instead? Yup, he's simple, elegant compared to that lumbering elephant prose. The Dubliners. I loved those stories right? I think? A story or two in, I remembered the misery.
I wandered out to the family room to find something else to read. Maybe the Essays of George Orwell. That'll expand the mind.
Hey! Right next to Orwell was that missing copy of Cry Mercy by Toni Andrews that I'd started and lost a couple of months back. Yes! Score!
Anyway. I tried, sort of.
I looked through my oldest's books. He's an honest-to-god intellectual, an English major and has bookshelves crammed with volumes of essays and books like The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. He reads this stuff even when he doesn't have to--this is his entertainment.
I picked up a book by a Brazilian author. Oh, man, I have to read and reread the first page -- and the author's voice is annoying, or maybe it's the translator. Could you be any more pompous? So how about a bit of James Joyce instead? Yup, he's simple, elegant compared to that lumbering elephant prose. The Dubliners. I loved those stories right? I think? A story or two in, I remembered the misery.
I wandered out to the family room to find something else to read. Maybe the Essays of George Orwell. That'll expand the mind.
Hey! Right next to Orwell was that missing copy of Cry Mercy by Toni Andrews that I'd started and lost a couple of months back. Yes! Score!
Anyway. I tried, sort of.
Hehe, this made me giggle. Ever wonder if it's not a failing with you but a failing in the default of all "classics" and "literary" forays being good? I read everything except memoirs and I find that great stuff and crap stuff is found in all book types.
ReplyDeleteDid I ever tell you I read the Disreputable History book you sbd'd about a while back?
what did you think? did you sbd it? I better go look.
ReplyDeleteI haven't posted anything about it yet but I have lots of notes on my Kindle for when I actually get around to doing it. I haven't been spending a lot of time on the computer lately. Too busy playing outside. :)
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of things I liked about it but I could never get past the fact that I always felt like the author and Frankie didn't think much of women. There was so much devaluing of the feminine that I got really annoyed. I marked down lots of examples so when I finally get back to more of a posting routine I'll definitely write something up. I'd love to discuss!