Wednesday, April 05, 2006

 

me me me

1) I FOUND MY PASSPORT! AMEN! I had put it in my laptop case for "safekeeping." What was I thinking?!

2) I finished reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Whenever I finish reading a long book, I seem to expect to hear bells ringing and legions of fans cheering. Alas, it is not so. Reading a book is primarily a solitary experience (except when in a book club, or for class...) and finishing it is much the same. My (unsolicited) thoughts on the book? A very good story. Great characters. Several unexpected plot twists. My writing teacher senior year of college told all of us that we were too kind to our characters, that we treated them too sweetly. Ken Follett has no such qualms. A few of his people are EVIL and they tortured the ones I liked. It was heartbreaking. I wish the book had had 27 more pages (it would round off the page total to an even 1,000), and those 27 pages would be happy ones dispersed throughout the book. I would have enjoyed reading it much more if the characters’ lives weren’t so miserable.

When I finished, I yelled out "I FINISHED!" and then went into the living room and jumped up and down in a jubilant manner in front of E and C-note. They gamely played along with my joy. Two other memorable completions of big books:

Count of Monte Cristo
I love love LOVED this book. So much better than the movie, so if anyone is thinking about reading it, dive on in. I was home for the summer, had 10 pages left. Went to the back steps with a glass of ice water, was trying to savor the moment in the sun. Bub came up, he and a friend were on the trampoline and he kept pestering me to join them. He would not leave me alone, and I was begging him to just go away for 10 minutes. I almost started crying because I was so frustrated - he was RUINING ITTT!! As I was storming inside, I angrily told him that I would never ever go on the trampoline with him ever again.

That turned out to be a lie, because I was definitely on it when I broke it a year or two later. Whoops...

Anna Karenina
I hated this book with a fiery passion. I just wanted her to die already. I was coming home from school and I was on the T – since I go big or small, nothing in between, I was lugging an 80 lb duffel bag around my neck, and was sandwiched among the rush hour commuters. I felt the anticipation mount as I got closer and closer to the last paragraph, sentence, word. I closed the book, looked up triumphantly…and no one cared. I do believe I said, “I finished it!” to the tough construction worker next to me – he kind of gave me a pity smile.

On a random note, I just saw this quote on a greeting card at the pharmacy and wrote it down: “A cowgirl gets up early in the morning, decides what she wants to do, and does it.” – Marie Lords, 1861.

*aspiring cowgirl*

Comments:
The first rule of Book Club is...YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT BOOK CLUB!

I almost forgot how to read in college, since us architects just look at pictures. But I now keep a stack of "poop-reads" on a shelf in my bathroom. Needless to say, I spend hours in there. I don't know why I just told you that.

If you want some more neo-gruesome reads where you can't decide if the lead character is heroically flawed or herocially evil...check out anything by Chuck Palahniuk.
 
oh, I loved Anna Karenina..one of my favorite authors is Garbiel Garcia Marquez, I also love John Irving.
 
Pillars of the Earth is an interesting book and one I've read a number of times. I do find some of its historical inaccuracies a bit troubling and a lot of people think that his own agenda comes out a little too strongly in the book (not sure I agree on that point).

His other books are interesting too- spy stuff, mostly. I do think, however, that overall he has far, far too much sex in his books- to the point where it seems gratuitous. That's probably my main irritation, though...
 
blogging again at work eh
 
I <3 you, anonymous!

reading blogs again at work, eh?
 
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