I have fallen in love with the library, again. The library and I have had an on-again-off-again love affair since my childhood. Reading The Bridge to Terabithia curled up in a comfy old chair by the magazine rack, while my mom browsed, stopping by the Red Bridge library in the summer to pick up the Read-It forms and a huge stack of chapter books followed up by a scoop at Baskin Robbins around the corner, sitting in the hammock in our backyard and devouring Sweet Valley High in 7th grade, college days spent at the Spencer Library digging through old art periodicals and dusty French language books on Congolese statues. God, I love the library.

But somewhere in my twenties I stopped going to the library and started buying books. Borders, Barnes and Noble, the amazing Jackson Street used bookstore in Omaha, hours spent wandering. And I love owning books, passing books between friends and family, sharing books I love, but our heaving bookcase and the tighter economy did me a huge favor, it brought me back to the library. And the library (how many times am I going to use that word? another 20 probably) in the 21st Century is amazing. I log onto the library's website, search the books I want, put them on hold and check back to see if they are ready for pick up, drive the 5 minutes from my house to the closest branch and there they are waiting for me! I still wander around the library and look for new authors, new releases, and I still love a good used bookstore but my buying habits have changed. I resist buying a book if I'm pretty sure I can get it quickly at the library, especially if its a new author I haven't read before. The last books I bought were used and by Joyce Carol Oates and Joe Perrotta, authors I love and am pretty sure I will read again and again. Otherwise the library is my answer 90% of the time! Free, easy, helpful, and brings me back to my childhood, lemonade stands, stacks of chapter books and that good ole magazine rack at the library. I think I'll pick up a Baskins Robbins scoop in a sugar cone for old times sake.

I've been so lax in posting this summer. Probably for a lot of reasons. Mostly sheer laziness and the speed with which I can be distracted, thanks mild case of ADD. Also Shelfari. I love Shelfari, helps me track my books, look for new reads, and chat with other book nerds like myself. But also sometimes I just have enjoyed the books so much and don't feel like analyzing them, don't feel like picking it apart and explaining it, I've just devoured the story and haven't felt like ruining the mystery or beauty of what's been created. Much like my odd aversion to listening to the commentaries on DVDs of movies I really like, it takes away the mystery, debunks the magic that drew me in, and just punctures that feeling of being swept away in someone else's story. So I'm going to keep leaping in to new books and ideally I'll post again soon, maybe when I find myself bored (rare) or read a book I loathe (not as rare). Why is it easier to write about a book when I hate it?

I read Pillars of the Earth and surprisingly loved it. I feel inspired to write an actual review so you might see my book report soon. Its due by Friday so I hope I don't turn it in late. My teacher (me) can be a real bitch about late papers.

I still haven't posted my book reviews and as time passes I'm guessing I won't get around to it. The blog doesn't hold my attention right now, but after all my jewelry gets made and my shows are over, really once things calm down a bit in my head, I'm sure I'll wander back. For now here is a single line review of the book I finished last night:



Lost by Gregory Maguire-compelling, creepy and with an unlikeable protagonist that I really liked, what does that say about me?

Next is either The Pillars of the Earth or 3 Meg Cabot books I'm told I'll love. They sound summery and light, so they are in the lead right now!

I've been on vacation lately. Literally for about a week, and metaphorically with all the gorgeous weather we've been having lately. My head is in the clouds and my feet are propped up on the deck furniture. So I've been lax in posting. But I certainly haven't been lax in reading. These are the heady days of devouring whole books in a weekend, luxuriating in the fifty one books waiting quietly in line in my bedroom cabinet. Who's next? Who's vying for the next slot? Who suits my mood, who can I learn something from? Who will make me stretch to understand them? Who will make me laugh? I will post on the books I've read in the last couple of weeks but I don't know when and I'm putting very little pressure on myself to post.
Besides, I'm busy reading.

coming posts on:

Immortal by Traci Slatton
Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
On Writing by Stephen King

Okay, I settled on Ahab's Wife for my next read. Not on my previous list but I started it last night and its beautiful so far. I'm excited for this one. I'll have to pace myself so I still have some of it to read on the beach or at least on the plane!

The options for the next summer read:

Paris to the Moon- a book of travel essays written by Adam Gopnick
Lost- another Gregory Maguire book
Foolscap - another madcap Southern adventure comedy by Michael Malone
or
The Emperor's Children- the life and times of 30-somethings in NY

I'm leaning toward The Emperor's Children - I love to read about whiny entitled rich people and their "difficult" lives, especially a book with so many damn accolades splayed on the cover and back, makes me just ache to dislike it, just to be different. Prove me wrong, Claire Messud.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulker

What a fascinating, masterful, unusual and utterly depressing book. I most certainly didn't like this book, but I felt like I really got something out of it. I found some of the characters hateful, ignorant and frankly repugnant but the stream of consciousness style, the fifteen different first person narrators, and the sympathetic and thoughtful characters like Cash, Darl and Vernon Tull made this book truly worth the struggle to get through it. Once I finished it, about thirty minutes ago, I spent the last thirty minutes researching the book, motifs, themes, symbols, all those good English lit class words that I've missed since college. This book was a challenge but it also reminded me how much I used to enjoy immersing myself in a complex fictional world, trying to parse out what feelings and thoughts the author was attempting to illict from the reader, and drawing my own conclusions. I think I'll read more Faulkner soon, but I'm going to need a little break first.

The poverty, lack of education, and sheer selfishness of some of the resident's in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County really made me struggle to figure out what the aristocratic Faulkner was trying to say about his rural, poor, fellow Southerners. Is he mocking them? Is he delving into the depths of their thoughts using visual and sensory techniques since their lack of education generally prevents his characters from using language to skillfully represent their own thoughts? Does he use the better educated characters, like Addie, to show some of his own lack of belief in the power of words to describe elements like love and family? I'm fascinated by Faulkner's style and Southern setting but it isn't the type of book that speaks to me or that I could say that I love. I love the challenge and I feel satisfied that I finished the book. But most high school and college students can say the same thing. I think my favorite part of the book was Addie's chapter in the middle where she shines such a bright life on her own life. Since she's dead for most of the book, her chapter in the middle was so enlightening, cynical, lonely, sad and heavily wrapped up in Christian sin and punishment, but it really allowed me to understand her bleak hatred of being trapped into her roles as a wife and mother. I finally felt like I understood the book, and frankly the point of the book. The other part that I really liked, mostly because the absurdity made me laugh out, was when Addie's widow, Anse, buries Addie on a Saturday, steals money from his daughter, and on Sunday buys some new false teeth and a new wife! Ridiculous.