Why don't I just stop pretending this is anything other than a book journal?
Yesterday I found a fantastic second-hand bookshop. Right next to a train station = easy access. Books everywhere. On shelves, in teetering piles around the shelves, in drifts on the floor where the piles had collapsed. There's something about places like that. Besides, everywhere I looked I could see good books. Not just people's leftover readers digests and crochet magazines, actual, hand-selected, good books that people want to buy. I saw the Grapes of Wrath (just finished; so brilliant) and I wanted it, but it was $12 and I only had $5 so I couldn't afford it. So I bought A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley instead. There's just something about a good dystopia. I'm really into dystopian novels at the moment, and I saw a good dystopian movie too, Children of Men.
Looking back, I can see I've been reading dystopian novels for a long time, but I only discovered the word in association with The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Which was ok, but I can't remember loving it. I think I like them because they are depressing but often hopeful in the end, and I love to be made depressed by books.
Speaking of depressing books, I was rather disappointed by the Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro because the neuropsych said it was 'one of those books that makes you wish you were never alive', which is pretty high praise if you like your books depressing. So I sped through it, trying like mad to get to the depressing bit, only to find that there was none and I had been deceived. I suppose it was a bit sad that they never realised their love for one another until it was too late, but really, it wasn't depressing enough. I can't help but wonder if I didn't read it too fast and missed it, which is a pity. I didn't like the language, it was pompous and overblown but not in the way I like.
Lala, so I'm greatly looking forward to reading a Brave New World. In the meantime I'm reading a collection of short stories by O. Henry, which is good because all the stories have a twist. But because they all have a twist, it's getting a little tedious. Still, I love the language. It makes fun of itself as it goes.
Looking back, I can see I've been reading dystopian novels for a long time, but I only discovered the word in association with The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Which was ok, but I can't remember loving it. I think I like them because they are depressing but often hopeful in the end, and I love to be made depressed by books.
Speaking of depressing books, I was rather disappointed by the Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro because the neuropsych said it was 'one of those books that makes you wish you were never alive', which is pretty high praise if you like your books depressing. So I sped through it, trying like mad to get to the depressing bit, only to find that there was none and I had been deceived. I suppose it was a bit sad that they never realised their love for one another until it was too late, but really, it wasn't depressing enough. I can't help but wonder if I didn't read it too fast and missed it, which is a pity. I didn't like the language, it was pompous and overblown but not in the way I like.
Lala, so I'm greatly looking forward to reading a Brave New World. In the meantime I'm reading a collection of short stories by O. Henry, which is good because all the stories have a twist. But because they all have a twist, it's getting a little tedious. Still, I love the language. It makes fun of itself as it goes.