Sunday Salon: Back
Posted on April 27, 2008 in Books
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
Life changing books from 17 scientists
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If you are enjoying the Kingsolver for what it has to say about the concept of self-sufficiency you might want to start reading her fiction with ‘The Prodigal Summer’ which has something of the same motivation behind it. It is the most wonderfully fecund book. I loved it.
I enthusiastically agree with Ann! Prodigal Summer is one of my favorite books (as is Gilead!) I taught Othello for years and never grew tired of it… Stupid Iago…
I want to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, too. It will be my first Kingsolver title as well.