Wednesday Wafer-Thin Reading
Not much reading in the past week, mostly as a result of terrible time management.
What I've Just Finished Reading
Emma is so good! I really enjoyed Emma as a character -- her cleverness with all its familiar pitfalls, and her ability to learn and change for the better in spite of it -- and I like that everything works out in the end. Emma has probably the most cheerful ending of any of the Austen books I've read, where nothing goes really badly for anyone, and everyone is basically good and happy and no one has to be thrown out of Decent Society for shacking up with a naval officer in Bath. [Spoilers for Emma!]I didn't exactly want Emma and Mr. Knightley to get married -- I love their friendship a lot, but I wasn't really sold on them as a couple -- but whatever; Emma's so believably happy about it that my objections can take a hike.
What I'm Reading Now
The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, for 99 Novels. It's fast-moving and strangely not-strange. It feels like it was made by cutting up a Norton Anthology of English Literature and then putting the pieces in a food dehydrator. Like, it's this very loose, very cynical fake pastoral-village-pseudo-tragedy. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but it has my attention.
What I Plan to Read Next
Sense and Sensibility! I'm a little sad that I'm going to run out of Austen novels soon, but I am going to enjoy them while they last. And then I have a couple of other books to finish, too, that got left behind when I was away.
What I've Just Finished Reading
Emma is so good! I really enjoyed Emma as a character -- her cleverness with all its familiar pitfalls, and her ability to learn and change for the better in spite of it -- and I like that everything works out in the end. Emma has probably the most cheerful ending of any of the Austen books I've read, where nothing goes really badly for anyone, and everyone is basically good and happy and no one has to be thrown out of Decent Society for shacking up with a naval officer in Bath. [Spoilers for Emma!]I didn't exactly want Emma and Mr. Knightley to get married -- I love their friendship a lot, but I wasn't really sold on them as a couple -- but whatever; Emma's so believably happy about it that my objections can take a hike.
What I'm Reading Now
The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, for 99 Novels. It's fast-moving and strangely not-strange. It feels like it was made by cutting up a Norton Anthology of English Literature and then putting the pieces in a food dehydrator. Like, it's this very loose, very cynical fake pastoral-village-pseudo-tragedy. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but it has my attention.
What I Plan to Read Next
Sense and Sensibility! I'm a little sad that I'm going to run out of Austen novels soon, but I am going to enjoy them while they last. And then I have a couple of other books to finish, too, that got left behind when I was away.