Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Booklessness

I'm out of things to read.

Usually, I get to the last fifty pages of one book and I'm already eyeing something else, but somehow I was genuinely surprised to finish The Portable Dorothy Parker even as I was counting down the pages. Now I'm feeling kind of disoriented--I think there were books I was planning to read after Dorothy, but I don't really remember what they were. East of Eden, maybe? Anyway, they all sound wrong.

Now I'm carrying around a bunch of books about books, because if I can't find something appropriate, I can always read about other people's reading. In the past two days I've been dipping in and out of 84 Charing Cross Road, The Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby's collection of his book reviews/essays on reading for The Believer), and Book Lust, Nancy Pearl's eminent book of book recommendations. It's nice, light reading, but I have to say that it kind of emphasizes that I'm uncommitted at the moment. I find this unnerving.

Christine's going to bring me her copy of Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book, even though I didn't love The Eyre Affair. It actually sounds pretty appropriate right now, though--it's quick, it's fiction, and it's about the books I was meaning to read before I forgot how to read (Miss Havisham! I love Miss Havisham!). After that, I have the vague idea that maybe I should read David Copperfield. So maybe that's it. I'll keep you posted.

68 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me be the first to suggest The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It is a page-turner. Mom

Anonymous said...

D'oh! I had the book in my bag the ENTIRE day. I left it on your chair before I left the office this evening. Or was it tonight? I suppose I should say tonight because it was already dark. *le sigh*

Anonymous said...

I want to read that too! (Lost in..) I'll ask Christine if I can borrow it when you're done. A friend told me they are really two halves of one book, and he doesn't know why they got published as two.

Liz said...

H, she dropped it off yesterday, and I don't think she has plans to read it anytime soon. So I can probably just pass it off to you when I'm done. But maybe we should run this plan by her sometime.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Heather, you may borrow the book. Liz, feel free to pass it directly to Heather. If you leave it up to me, I may forget again and carry it around for several days before remembering.

These are the days of my scatterbrained life.

Anonymous said...

D'oh...didn't mean to be anon.

Dogeared said...

I recently finished "Vroom With A View" by Peter Moore - he's like Bill Bryson, and this is about him fulfilling his long cherished dream of riding around Italy on an old Vespa, just as all the stars in old films did.

Very funny, very sweet, and it feels like you're there.

Have you tried BookMooch? www.bookmooch.com. In a nutshell, you list books you will give away, people request them, you pay to post them to the moocher. This earns you points, which you spend mooching books from other people. Mooching from/posting to abroad costs/earns more points, to offset the obviously higher postage costs. Good way to try new things!

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Save the whales, collect the whole set

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

Anonymous said...

When there's a will, I want to be in it.

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Anonymous said...

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

Anonymous said...

When there's a will, I want to be in it.

Anonymous said...

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

Anonymous said...

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

Anonymous said...

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

Anonymous said...

Ever notice how fast Windows runs? Neither did I.

Anonymous said...

Hello all!

Anonymous said...

I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.

Anonymous said...

Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.