Permission Granted

For the month of November I have granted myself permission to:

not read,
not blog,
not expect too much of myself.

Ahem, well...

Reason being - NaNoWriMo

I'm writing a noVEL.  Well, at the very least I am writing.  50,000 words in a month.  That's the goal.

I told a friend the other day that I was writing three novels that somehow have gotten all interwoven and therefore would need a killer editor to unwind my mess.  The response I got?  Why not one big ass novel.

Yes, why not?

Permission also granted - by Anne Lamott (oh alright, indirectly as in Bird by Bird) for a shitty first draft.  Let's just call it one shitty big ass first draft.  And leave it at that until at least December.

So glad we agree.

A Break in the Rope

Had a really great string going there - book after book, after book I read straight through.

Then about a month or two of not even browsing.  Ok maybe a browse - but at the pace of a page a day - it's hardly worth mentioning.  Inspire me.

Great book - come to me, I am ready to read.

ps - Harry Potter is in the closet across from the cedar closet, now that I think of it perhaps I should have chosen the olfactory benefits across the hall.

Finding time - Sunset.com

Link to interview with Anne Lamott on writing -

Finding time - Sunset.com

Add a New Book to the Mix

As if the pile was not tippy enough, I have added another title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  My son, Charlie, loves to read - to be read to (he's 5) - so I thought I would preread and see if Harry Potter might be a good read for a little guy.

eBay made it easy.

Though I did encounter a problem - the book smells...like smoke.  My sense of smell is extraordinary.  I had to put that book on the floor.  The book will be what it is - BUT I never expected it to reach ALL my senses.

Some Simultaneous Reading

Had a pretty long stretch there of reading straight through - but now I seem to be doing a bit of switching around.  I am reading Hard Laughter but I am kind of grossed out as it is a first edition and it is from the library.  I can't help but think of George Castanza and the art book in the bathroom episode.  I get sceeved out by airplane headrests and theater seats.  This books has crumbs and smudges dating back to the 80s.  

ugh.

So I like the story - and that it is Lamott's first - I so do not like the DNA factor. (body shudder) bbbbbllllaaahhhhh

I am LOVING Operating Instructions though and seeing as it is mine the yuk factor is way lower. 

Got a little Dark Side of the Inner Child going on casually.  The Enigma of Arrival strewn across another bedside table and two Horvath library check-outs at a safe distance from my pillow.

I am arranging the book shelf in the corner of my room by color.  Hands down I have the most books with blue covers with green and white both tied for second.  I wonder if this would be considered a true sampling or skewed by my love of aestetics.  Probably the latter as they represent my desired color palatte and we all know of my true motive for choosing books.

Imperfect Birds - Check. Northward to the Moon - Check.

Two books finished all in one day.  I dreaded coming to the end of Imperfect Birds (Anne Lamott) and when I did immediately moved on to a YA book I had recently checked out from the library because - you guessed it - because I liked the cover.  Predictable, I know. 

Northward to the Moon helped get me over my immediate depression of losing Rosie. Sequel to My One-Hundred Adventures.

Now I am reading Hard Laughter.  Immediately - to me - it meant laughing ridiculously hard.  Not my mom - she said, what's so hard about laughter.  Think she is more on the right track.  Hmm.

Anticipation, Dread, and Fear

I am nearly done reading Imperfect Birds - anticipation, dread, and fear is what I feel.

Anne Lamont spent nearly three decades composing what took me two months to devour.  And then what?  I've read Rosie I, Rosie II, and Rosie III - of which I will talk later.

There is no Rosie IV.

I read Rosie 3 in hard cover.

Real trouble.

It's gonna be a tough night when I put that book down.

Another New Book

that I didn't blog about...I don't really like playing catch up but it shouldn't be too hard to do as I have been reading very, very slowly.

Still on Imperfect Birds.

What I need to review:

Crooked Little Heart
and
The White Garden

New Book

that I have not yet blogged about yet - but will.  Guess I need more focus and more computer time.

Maybe less procrastination.

Eh, tomorrow...

haha

Behind by a Few

Instead of reading a book, then blogging about it - I've been bad. I read a book, then read another - skipping a step it seems.

No problem - I will go back.  Hope you don't mind!

So you were with me when I finished Rosie right?  Then I picked up a mermaid book - mermaid only in that it had mermaid in the title, uhhhh let's see, title...

Got it: The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey

Another older book I picked up at a used book sale - maybe the Woods Hole Library? Copywrited in 1998, written in the seemingly popular style of multiple perspectives, and infused with Gaelic myths and culture.

Ultimately about a mother/daughter team disrupted by life and its happenings. And ONCE AGAIN with my favorite theme - who's gonna save me.

He saves her, she saves him, or does she save herself?

Or perhaps it's my favorite - do they save each other.

Only because sarcasm is hard - or is it impossible - to read.  I will say that the act of saving or of being saved really is my favorite theme.  (Hey, the most read book likes it too.)

And since then - this mermaids song - have been two others - Crooked Little Heart...
and The White Garden...while I wait for the third installment of Rosie in the mail - won in on eBay!  But as for right now... think I'm gonna see who's gonna save whom in the white garden.

Rosie with a Reason

Just finished Rosie.  I think I mentioned it in my last post - it was the book on the bottom of the stack...but it was unopened.  Once I opened it, I read it straight through.

My mother and I have been visiting various book sales and getting great prices.  The last sale I got ten books for ten bucks.  Can't beat that!  Well, actually you can.  See, if you go to the Falmouth Library Sale - uh, wait, should I be telling my secret? - on the very last day, it's a buck for a bag of books!

I am such a nerd.

So I picked this book out at the Presbyterian Church Rummage Sale - Charlie thought it was a rubbage sale, hehe - because it was by Anne Lamott.  After reading the first few pages I made it a book mark.  On it I wrote: I think I wrote this book the day I was born.

Really I related less and less the further I got into the book but it was still an enjoyable read.  To me it had a To Kill a Mockingbird type feel.  Glad I picked it, this time based on its name Rosie.  My car is named Rosie, Charlie's favorite guinea pig is named Rosie...so it was only natural.  Duh.

I Slipped

So I was reading Memoirs of a Geisha, but then the library called and said my book came in.  Not so neatly stacked on my night stand are the following books:

Another Life Altogether by Elaine Beale
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Unless by Carol Shields
Rosie by Anne Lamott

I know exactly how this happens.  Why is a different story...

I was telling my mom the other day...books seem to come into my life in a particular order.  They follow specific themes. (Oh, on the table on the other side of my bed I have The Maeve Binchy Writers' Club by Maeve Binchy)

However it happens, it does.  In fact, think I need to add a few more to the stack.

The one titled Unless is very interesting.  Once I read a bit of it, the title made more sense.  The kind of sense it should make if you really thought about it when you handled it during buy or put back decision process.  Which apparently, I hadn't. 

My point being, I have not yet been hooked.  Plenty of titles, yet no inspiration to read on.

The search continues...for that most perfect book.

Slowly Reading, But Not Reading Slowly

So I am reading Memoirs of a Geisha and I am really enjoying it but for some reason I am slowly reading it.  As in I read a few pages, set it down, then return to it, and read a few more pages.

In the meantime I have finished two books.  The first was The History of Love which I thought was good, possibly great but not quite.  I loved the character and some of his quirky behavior.  Loved the detailed descriptions of old men.  Wasn't so fond of the young girl character - but it is a book I would like to revisit, though who knows if I ever really will.

Then yesterday I finished reading The Walk. Now that was a quick read.  Twenty-four hours earlierI had never heard of the book before, much less cracked it open.  I came across this one while searching the Cape Cod Online Book Catalogue.  My search was new releases.  I must have liked the cover, of course, and the blurb attracted me.  A destitute guy walks away from his former life finding hope along the way.  Or something like that.  It's what I would call a soft novel.  It tells you a story about someone who has hit bottom - he then goes on a journey - his was not metaphorical - and comes out a better man, or in this case a changed man because of the lessons he learned along the way.  Good, not heavy, feel good, up to interpretation.

Guess now it's back to Geisha.

Chow.

hmm

So I am supposed to be reading Memoirs of a Geisha, but I find myself reading The History of Love. Somehow its blue green cover and so simple title drew me in.

I know.

I am a marketer's dream. I really should work for a publisher - got a knack for what will be hot. And I'm usually right. Just saying.

The cover of Geisha is just so -- mainstream. I'll read it, only I'm not there yet.

Enjoying the trip with a quirky old guy whose got a soft spot for love. (Not sure if anyone's gonna save him - but I'll take the ride.)

Another GREAT Read...Finally

So - after thinking I never would find another book as good as the last, I did. The name? Still Alice. It's a book that I wouldn't expect to like had I just read an abstract. But that's not what happened.

This past summer while on the Cape, I found a cool little bookstore on Main Street. In it, I found the book. I'm afraid to admit - I do judge a book by its cover. Always do. And think I've admitted this on more than one occassion.

The particular cover I am speaking of is white and blue and has a simple blue butterfly. So I picked it up, flipped to page 22 and read, read a few endorsements, perused the back cover. Hmm. But ultimately put it back.

Then a few weeks later, the author of Still Alice was having a book talk at Highfield Hall. Mmmm, again I thought. Still no action.

Then, while back in Tampa, the book again crossed my mind - I saw it and purchased it, then recommended it to my book club - though no one seemed all that interested.

Just this past weekend I zipped right through it - too fast - but last night I began again. You see the story is told by an unreliable narrator - one that suffers from Alzheimer's - Early Onset Alzheimer's, a curse worse than cancer the narrator proclaims. I found myself enthralled in it all.

So tonight - instead of being sad that I have come to the end of yet another great read and now must face the night alone again - I will re-read! Something I have not yet been inspired to do - at least not once right after the first. (Re-reading 1st period, 2nd period, then again 4th period doesn't count when you're teaching Shakespeare in High School - though I do find often syntax inverted.)

Need a Good Read

I was on a roll there for a long while. Book after book I read - all the way through. But now I seem to be at a standstill. I have the same number of books littering my nightstand only the one on top is not the one I go to on a regular basis. I find my mind wandering. I'll walk to my office - stand before the open doors of my oversized book case and shake my head. Nothing.

Not a thing entices me.

So I go back to the pile and I shuffle.

One of my favorite and least favorite things at once is finding a book I so relate to that it envelopes me. By day three I've nearly devoured it. And within a week, I'm done. Sad. Alone. At the end. The end of another magnificient read. But what next? Reread? I rarely do - unless it's for school.

Then the search beings again. The search for the perfect read. Characters I relate to, a plot that inspires me, a cadence that hums to me.

It's a tall order - but eventually I do find it again. Until - another end.