SeeBriRun: Reccing Ball
'Aunt Fanny, sit down, please. Augusta, do not speak again without my permission; your warm support makes me doubtful of my own cause. Essex - Maryjane - Miss Ogilvie - if my lunacy takes the form of desiring to wear a crown, will you deny me? May I not look foolish in tolerant peace?'
- The Sundial by Shirley Jackson (1958)
Book count is up by three and a half now: Jackson's The Sundial, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and a 1946 bestseller called The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward, which became a stylish film starring Olivia de Havailland that same year, and found bits of itself 'borrowed' by Sylvia Plath seventeen years later. All three are basically excellent (American novels hardly seem to date at all, when it comes to prose you can actually read), but good luck getting your hands on them for a sane price - the only one still in print is, as usual, the one written by a bloke. (The Nobel Prize for Literature might have something to do with it this time, but then how many women were on that committee?)
The half-a-book is John Dies At The End by David Wong - or rather, unless the author has the same name as his narrating central character, 'John Dies At The End' by David Wong by Anonymous - which is also fabulous and has the advantage of being available for free online*. The writing itself is nothing special, but the story is really fantastic - which is why I think the upcoming movie might actually be very good, if it stays faithful to its source material, doesn't slapstick things up too bad† and includes the homoeroticism‡.
On the to-read pile: du Maurier's The Glass Blowers, Michael Chabon's Werewolves In Their Youth, The Professor's Umbrella and The Other Caroline by Mary Jane Ward (The Snake Pit really is that good), and Just An Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson (I'm saving her unfinished novel Come Along With Me for last, so I'll be appropriately sad about it). So while I'm not actually diversifying as a reader, I at least won't be bored at work for a month or two.
Meanwhile, in the real world...
* Which: a) could I do that for expired-copyright books, legally? and b) how do I find out whether a copyright has expired or not?
† 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', I am looking at you.
‡ 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', I am still looking at you.
- The Sundial by Shirley Jackson (1958)
Book count is up by three and a half now: Jackson's The Sundial, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and a 1946 bestseller called The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward, which became a stylish film starring Olivia de Havailland that same year, and found bits of itself 'borrowed' by Sylvia Plath seventeen years later. All three are basically excellent (American novels hardly seem to date at all, when it comes to prose you can actually read), but good luck getting your hands on them for a sane price - the only one still in print is, as usual, the one written by a bloke. (The Nobel Prize for Literature might have something to do with it this time, but then how many women were on that committee?)
The half-a-book is John Dies At The End by David Wong - or rather, unless the author has the same name as his narrating central character, 'John Dies At The End' by David Wong by Anonymous - which is also fabulous and has the advantage of being available for free online*. The writing itself is nothing special, but the story is really fantastic - which is why I think the upcoming movie might actually be very good, if it stays faithful to its source material, doesn't slapstick things up too bad† and includes the homoeroticism‡.
On the to-read pile: du Maurier's The Glass Blowers, Michael Chabon's Werewolves In Their Youth, The Professor's Umbrella and The Other Caroline by Mary Jane Ward (The Snake Pit really is that good), and Just An Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson (I'm saving her unfinished novel Come Along With Me for last, so I'll be appropriately sad about it). So while I'm not actually diversifying as a reader, I at least won't be bored at work for a month or two.
Meanwhile, in the real world...
* Which: a) could I do that for expired-copyright books, legally? and b) how do I find out whether a copyright has expired or not?
† 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', I am looking at you.
‡ 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', I am still looking at you.