Since this blog is pretty fresh and new and shiny yet and I made it quite spontaneously without a Great Big Plan behind it, I am still in the process of figuring out what categories of posts I shall put up here.
I think it’s a nice idea to record a weekly “Currently Reading” status. I mostly read several books at a time & this way I can keep track of what I am reading, which books I finish faster, how my opinions change and – most importantly – I can help myself not to accidentally leave any books behind, which is way too easy for me, since I am very easily distracted. 😀
I plan to post my current reads every Thursday. This is a pretty random decision based mainly on the fact that today’s a Thursday, & that I guess I’ll have enough time to blog a small update on all the Thursdays in the near future.
So, without further ado: let’s get down to business! 💪
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux: Not only a fun book to play “spot the ❤︎ of Darkness reference” but an exciting read in itself. At least I think so, having read about 40 pages. Enjoyable style, somehow dark and hot atmosphere. The central character – the narrator’s father – is already making me aggressive; nicely done, book. (This wasn’t irony! There’s a difference between characters making me aggressive because they are, as fictional characters, horrible & characters making me aggressive because they are extremely good horrible fictional characters. U feel me. Probably.)
“Know how they do it? Kill you? I’ll tell you, Charlie boy. They hollow you out.”
Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle: Very interesting! Some thoughts make me go “yes!”, others “no!”, but most of them “huh!”, which is the thing that matters. I already know that this is gonna be a book of many rereads.
“If your teachers suggest that your poems are sentimental, that is only half of it. Your poems probably need to be even more sentimental. Don’t be less of a flower, but could you be more of a stone at the same time?”
The Child’s Child by Barbara Vine: This is the fourth book by Barbara Vine I read so I feel I already know that I will not take long to get really suspenseful. There’s already this underlying atmosphere of aggression and anger which makes me super anxious. In some respects I’m a very soft and mushy reader who just strives for boredom. And while I know that this ‘comparison’ between the oppression of gays & of (19th century) unmarried pregnant women is central to the plot because it fuels the anger of one of the main characters, I also hate reading about it, because people ranking and comparing societal ills ruin enough things in real life, I don’t need to also read about them in books. But I trust in Barbara Vine to make me become immersed in the book nevertheless.
The Fan Fiction Studies Reader edited by Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse: I expected this one to be an interesting read & a good introduction into the field, and as for now it’s fulfilling these expectations. I have only read the first few essay and it is kinda cute reading about the i
nternet being such a new and exciting thing. 😀
“It may not be coincidental, that the specter of authorial intent, cast out with the rise of poststructuralism and postmodernism, coincides with fan fiction’s beginnings.”
In other book-related news, I have spent part of my afternoon sitting on my floor, eating pasta and unboxing some of the unspeakable fucktons of books I ordered recently. I am ashamed. But I hope the fact that I buy 90% of my books from used-book sellers is a redeeming factor.
, Rosa
probably made of roses & hello 