Like a Hole in the Head by Jen Banbury
Like a Hole in the Head...rare books, a midget and a cranky, bitch-of-a-heroine. And a nonstop, 48 hour day of bizzar events. Borrowed this book from the library after reading the first few pages because a. she works in a bookstore, b. she has no freakin' direction in life whatsoever, and c. she's 100% cynical and disillusioned. Distant and unattached (why do we read the things we already know? Hang all the weak and trembling ones, I'd rather have the fire). It's edgy, modern, hip and fast-paced but luckily it's also got interesting characters, so that makes up for the angst nouveau. And for a first novel, that's quite an accomplishment.
This was kind of guilty-pleasure reading for me. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was the junk novel type, which I told myself I wasn't going to do so much of this year. I tend to just read anything that will suck me in and help me forget about current events, and that made this book perfect. I still feel like I need to do this a lot, but I'd rather read things that push me forward instead of always maintaining distance between everything and myself. That's going to be hard. Even harder to remember to convince myself that I want to. That books have such a hold on me might not make sense to some, but I relate everything and translate everything into them somehow. It's just the way my mind responds to a word obsession, I guess. That doesn't mean that the bibliophiles don't think for themselves. Only that the narrative in my head begins to take book-form if I'm not reading one already. But the stories are full length novels written out in picture books because I can't seem to seperate the world from art either.
Busy reading Intro. to Library Public Services and Reference and Information Services, two very stimulating texts that will be the majority of my entertainment for the next few weeks. But- the Reader's Robot resource is so very fun. So is Novelist when it wants to cooperate.
Incidentlly, I just watched The English Patient in movie-form. Gives me an entirely new view of the book which I both like and dislike. Certainly makes me want to read it again. So very sad...