Lions, and tigers, and hurricanes, oh my!
I haven’t updated in awhile and for the the most part it’s because I have nothing to say. Why? Because I’m in a reading rut. Has anyone else ever just had too many books to read and none of them sound appealing? I just have a giant stack next to my bed and I’m picking through it slowly. And by picking, I mean reading a few chapters of a book and then moving onto the book that’s after it in the pile. I’ve stuck with The Paris Wife by Paula McLain for a bit but even that I’m fading on, unsure if I’m interested enough to finish it.
And then there’s this hurricane. Hurricane Irene is headed straight to me and I’ve spent the day waffling between a state of panic and then a strong belief that this has all been over hyped and maybe it’ll drizzle here this weekend. We are prepared, however, with water and food and what not. I, of course, am prepared by making sure my Kindle is charged and content in the knowledge that I bought the wifi/3G version so that even if we lose power I can still download books. I really do have my priorities in line.
So my goal for this weekend is to get through The Paris Wife. It’s a quick read and if I spend more than 5 minutes on it right before bed I should be able to get through it fast. Then I’m thinking of moving on to Game of Thrones. One best friend said I wouldn’t like it, another best friend said I would like it. Too conflicting for me, so I downloaded a sample to the Kindle and I’m hoping to come to a decision on that as well.
But before all that? Well, The Notebook is on and hey, if you’re a bird, I’m a bird. Just hopefully not in a hurricane.
The littlest book shop
I met some of my best friends from college for lunch today in a little seaside town that’s in between our two locations. We always have lunch at this great pub, and today we noticed for the first time this great used book store next door. What’s really surprising about this is that with two English majors and a hard-core reader in the group it took three visits to the pub before we discovered this place. It was a pretty small shop but it was just perfect. We spent about an hour wandering around and shouting out to each other books that we thought someone would like and each of us collecting a pile of books that we were going to get. I was tempted to stay there all day and buy a whole lot more but as a poor, student loan paying gal, I had to restrain myself.
Today, I went for the classics. On of the friends I was with just read The Great Gatsby for the first time. It was one of those books that she never had to read in school and though she always wanted to read it, it kept getting pushed aside. (My books is To Kill a Mockingbird. I know. But we ran out of time to read it in high school and I just haven’t circled back to it yet.) Anyway, her reading of it made me want to pic it up again so I found a copy for myself. And I would like to give you an image of what the book looks like but as the internet is plotting against me today, I’m simply going to link you to the edition. The other book I bought for myself was A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. The same friend is a huge fan of Hemingway and while I haven’t read a lot of his books, I want to! Finally, the last book I picked up was a book on how to make bread. Random? Yes. Because it’s not for me, it’s for a co-worker who heard that I was heading to Borders (RIP 
) and wanted me to find her a book on bread-making. Obviously, I didn’t make it to Border’s today, but I think this book will help her out too!
The two books I bought will have to wait a bit. Remember when I said I was reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? Because it’s my best friends favorite book and he’s been talking it up to me for years, literally? Well, it’s not going so well for me. I tried really hard to get into it, but it just hasn’t happened yet. So I put it aside for a bit and grabbed another book I borrowed from my friend by the same author, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. This book, about the a guy’s summer after graduating college, has been much easier for me to get into. In fact, so far, I’m loving it. For some reason it really reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye. I think it’s the first person narrative and the rather blunt nature of Art’s (the main character’s) thoughts, but as I am a huge Catcher fan this makes me love the book even more.
Speaking of, this is a little random, but in the movie Definitely, Maybe one of the characters always buys the same used book whenever she sees it. I can’t remember what book it was now, Jane Erye maybe? But my friend decided her book was going to be Gatsby and I think I just decided mine was going to be Catcher. Especially because I’m staring at my bookshelf right now and I can’t see my copy. The more the merrier, I say. I guess I have to plan a trip to that book shop again and find another copy!