This postIt’s been a while since I blogged about what I’ve been reading, so it’s time for an update.
From that list, Brothers Karamazov has sort of fallen by the wayside, and I need to pick it up again. (Especially because I’m right at the beginning of the Grand Inquisitor bit. And I’ve heard that part is good. :)) I really liked The Kite Runner and found that it moved me more than I was expecting it to. It’s…excruciatingly good. And The Arm of the Starfish was great — and didn’t have the stiff dialogue problems I remembered A Wrinkle in Time having. (But it’s been forever since I’ve read Wrinkle, so I need to go back and try it again.)
I’m reading and enjoying Aaron Lansky’s Outwitting History, Chris Bigelow’s Conversations with Mormon Authors, Nancy Malone’s Walking a Literary Labyrinth, Emma Thompson’s screenplay and diaries for Sense & Sensibility, and some biographies of Leonardo Da Vinci. And I’m about to start my first Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea. (I don’t quite know how I made it through 25 years without reading any of him. Funny how that happens.)
Shifting into the fantasy realm, ten minutes ago I finished the second book in Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy (The Golem’s Eye) and I really liked it, along with the first. Amazing writing, and (for me) just the right kind of magic. Can’t wait to read the third one, Ptolemy’s Gate. On my reading list: Diana Wynne Jones’ The Pinhoe Egg, Angie Sage’s Magyk (first book in the Septimus Heap series), Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Robin McKinley’s Beauty, and Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief. And The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Since signing up on Goodreads, I haven’t really used it much. I also signed up on Shelfari last week but haven’t touched it since. I love the idea of each site, and while far more people I know are on Goodreads, and while Shelfari looks way better than Goodreads, I still rarely log in. I do use LibraryThing regularly, but only to update the catalog of my books, and occasionally to check out reviews and get recommendations.
The hardest thing is making time to read. Or rather finding the balance between time spent reading and time spent writing and designing and doing my own creative work. Both have to happen, but things generally get more weighted on the production side and not so much on the regeneration side. Sad. Especially with that 80-book goal of mine. ;) I do try to read at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and that helps. But what I really want to do is just make an hour or two sacrosanct each day and set apart solely for reading. Inviolable time, that’s what I need. But I don’t know if I can do it. In the meantime, I’ve got forty minutes left before the next item on my calendar, so I’m totally going to start The Old Man and the Sea. Even though I’ve got a million other things clamoring for my attention. So there! Every so often you just have to stop and take some time to recharge your batteries. And there’s no use feeling guilty about it. (I don’t, in case you were wondering. :)) It’s amazing how good I feel after a couple hours of reading.
And mmm, I love posts about books. :)
