Day: April 27, 2008

I am back to reading again, though the recovery from such a busy two months has not been easy to transition. I’ve been watching more movies lately than reading as a result. I am a bit restless, but I have gotten back to it. I have four books going right now. I’m not usually a book polygamist, but circumstances have let it happened.

I haven’t really read Othello in weeks, and I’m taking a break from Count of Monte Cristo because I had to return the library book. I started Gilead by Marilynne Robinson last Sunday when I was on the road home, but I’m actively reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life this weekend.

Food books and memoirs are not foreign to my literary diet, but this is actually my first Kingsolver book. I bought The Poisonwood Bible last November during a book sale, but like many books I own, I have yet to read it. I like her style, though her fiction may be slightly different than her nonfiction. I do enjoy the idea of gardening and having the abilities to produce one’s own food. I share a secret dream of owning chickens for eggs and meat, and of course, a large, varied garden.

I will probably finish the book tomorrow if all goes according to plan, and I want to finish Gilead and Othello before next Sunday as well. When I started Gilead, I was in a vulnerable state, and it very well written. I was easily affected by the prose; it’s interesting how our emotional and literary lives converge. I am not in that same state now, and the words are less impactive as they were when I started. I’ll see how it is when I return to it in a couple of days.

Tina tagged me for this meme:

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to Ganns’s blog (he’s the one who tagged me) once you’ve posted your three sentences.

I am using Gilead:

And he looks me right in the face, as though he wants me to know he knows it is a performance and he’s amused by it. I suppose an attempt is a performance, in some sense. But what else can I do?

Feel free to be tagged.

Off I go to read more Kingsolver and maybe take a late afternoon walked. It rained yesterday evening, and while people seek the sun, too many dry April days worried me. Until next week, fellow Salonists.

Literary Links:

The Telegraph’s 50 Best Cult Books

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Frequently asked questions about poetry

100 Best Lines from Novels