Do libraries make anyone else weak in the knees? I have been spending a lot more of my time there lately and I find that it is comparable to a meditative act.
Anyway, I suppose that rather than being the year I read dangerously, this is the year that I read choosily. For some reason I am finding it much easier to drop books that I'm not into. This past week I said goodbye to both War of the Worlds and My Antonia. I was about 1/3 into WW and 1/2 into My Antonia, but I couldn't take either anymore - they both bored me. I am secure enough in myself to admit this, though these are both deemed classics.
In other news, I finally started reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. This book was recommended to me years ago by a college classmate who swore by it. The only Vonnegut I've ever read is Slaughterhouse-Five but that was enough to make me a fan. Cat's Cradle is odd - naturally - but I like it!
I also took a short Italian novella out of the library in order to brush up on my language skills. It is called La strada che va in città or The Road to the City. It has been pretty readable so far, and quite enjoyable. The author, Natalia Ginzburg, was Palermitana like the part of my family featured in my novel :)
6 comments:
oh yes...LIBRARIES!! they are so fun...all filled with wonderful books just waiting to be read. oh, yes.
And yet I have friends who, despite being in their 2nd or 3rd year at university, have yet to set foot in the university library. My favourite bits are the books they don't put on display either because they're too old, too fragile, or too rarely read.
Oh yes, i really love libraries. After all, they let you take books home without asking you to pay for them. What more could anyone possibly ask? (OK, so they want you to bring them back as well, but with a bit of luck you can hang onto them for quite a while.) I have a close friend who in another life, before her children were born, was a librarian. Wherever they go on holiday the first place they visit is the local library so that Lorna can give it the once over and pass her ery critical judgement.
Good for you setting aside books that don't blow your skirt up. I've gotten much better at it myself, and it's sort of liberating.
I too have been spending more time in the library (first time ever in my life), and I'm lovin' it!
I like a good library - I'm afraid I'm very fussy and only like places that are quiet - which some are not, I find these days. The British Library is my idea of heaven - there is a wonderfully hushed atmosphere in there.
Oh yes -- libraries, yes and yes. There is almost nowhere on earth I'd rather be than in a library. There are some gorgeous ones on my campus, and so I can even be choosy about the atmosphere on any given day.
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