Making bread and reading are what I'm doing at the moment. I feel like one of those hipster types.
So, I should be reading Antony and Cleopatra for my next lecture. I'm thirty pages in, and IT'S SO BORING. I don't understand what is going on, I can't keep up with the characters and I have no interest in the story whatsoever.
I've also got to read Angela Carter's Nights At The Circus. I was aprehensive at first, since I found The Bloody Chamber, her collection of warped fairytales, frankly disturbing. But I finally got around to buying the book, after the introduction lecture (sat in a tiny meeting room with eight other students all staring blankly at the questions we were being asked) - and finding it in Town was a nightmare. I went all around the bookshop, expecting the book to be in 'General Fiction: C'. It wasn't. Neither was it in 'Fiction by Women'; 'Dark Fantasy'; 'Special Offers'; 'Modern Classics'; 'Short Stories' or 'Lovely Covers' - all of which featured at least one of Carter's books. I was about to give up when a display on the back wall (all but invisible unless you're exiting the shop) caught my eye.
The display: 'In The News'. And, since it was close to the 20th anniversary of Angela Carter's death, all her books were shelved there. So I bought a copy, and started reading it as soon as I got home.
I wanted to hate it. I kind of did, for the first few chapters, but then something happened and I couldn't stop reading; I was dragged, face first, into the sea of adjectives and beautiful prose. Yes, it's kind of a bit odd, and some of the sentences are about three miles long, but I kind of - well, not love, but really like it. It's interesting, and full of colour and life and odd little digressions, and every character seems alive and real, despite many of them being about as far from real as you can get. I mean, there's a real life bird woman!
With this, and that other Night's Circus book I read earlier in the year (plus Water for Elephants, which I've been after reading for ages), I'm thinking I'm on a bit of a circus-kick at the moment. But I can't read circus books, because I have Shakespeare (and a million other books of varying interest to me) to read and write about.
In other, less book-related news, I made my first ever yeast-risen tin loaf of bread today. It is gorgeous - warm and soft and tasty and even my sister, who turned her nose up at the 'crumpet-like' texture of the sourdough, thinks it's awesome. So I'm well proud. Even if the baking hobby's making me feel fat again. Which is annoying.
I've also got to read Angela Carter's Nights At The Circus. I was aprehensive at first, since I found The Bloody Chamber, her collection of warped fairytales, frankly disturbing. But I finally got around to buying the book, after the introduction lecture (sat in a tiny meeting room with eight other students all staring blankly at the questions we were being asked) - and finding it in Town was a nightmare. I went all around the bookshop, expecting the book to be in 'General Fiction: C'. It wasn't. Neither was it in 'Fiction by Women'; 'Dark Fantasy'; 'Special Offers'; 'Modern Classics'; 'Short Stories' or 'Lovely Covers' - all of which featured at least one of Carter's books. I was about to give up when a display on the back wall (all but invisible unless you're exiting the shop) caught my eye.
The display: 'In The News'. And, since it was close to the 20th anniversary of Angela Carter's death, all her books were shelved there. So I bought a copy, and started reading it as soon as I got home.
I wanted to hate it. I kind of did, for the first few chapters, but then something happened and I couldn't stop reading; I was dragged, face first, into the sea of adjectives and beautiful prose. Yes, it's kind of a bit odd, and some of the sentences are about three miles long, but I kind of - well, not love, but really like it. It's interesting, and full of colour and life and odd little digressions, and every character seems alive and real, despite many of them being about as far from real as you can get. I mean, there's a real life bird woman!
With this, and that other Night's Circus book I read earlier in the year (plus Water for Elephants, which I've been after reading for ages), I'm thinking I'm on a bit of a circus-kick at the moment. But I can't read circus books, because I have Shakespeare (and a million other books of varying interest to me) to read and write about.
In other, less book-related news, I made my first ever yeast-risen tin loaf of bread today. It is gorgeous - warm and soft and tasty and even my sister, who turned her nose up at the 'crumpet-like' texture of the sourdough, thinks it's awesome. So I'm well proud. Even if the baking hobby's making me feel fat again. Which is annoying.