Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Reading (what else do I do?)
I finished Game of Kings! I've been reading it off and on since November, so I finally grounded myself from starting anything new until I finished it. It feels like quite the accomplishment to be done...except now there are the rest of the books in the series, just waiting for me.
I realized while reading this that I've gotten out of the habit of concentrating on lots of characters and intricate plot details. (My on-and-off reading certainly didn't help--I need to curb my book schizophrenia.) But I greatly enjoyed exercising that side of my reading again. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy this kind of thing: Scottish/English history, intrigue...and yes, Julie--I do indeed find Lymond extremely attractive.
If only he weren't fictional. ;-) Though I doubt I'd be able to hold my own with him in face-to-face banter.
After Game of Kings, I felt the need to spend last night reading children's lit. Saffy's Angel, by Hilary McKay, was wonderful. When Saffy's grandfather dies, the family finds a note pinned to his will: "For Saffron. Her angel in the garden. The stone angel." No-one in the family knows what this means, but Saffy doesn't dismiss it as easily as the others. The book is the story of how she discovers her angel. I loved the unique personalities of each of the kids in the family, and the way they interact with each other. I wasn't quite as taken with the characterization of the parents, but that's a minor point.
There's an especially endearing section which I must quote.
I realized while reading this that I've gotten out of the habit of concentrating on lots of characters and intricate plot details. (My on-and-off reading certainly didn't help--I need to curb my book schizophrenia.) But I greatly enjoyed exercising that side of my reading again. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy this kind of thing: Scottish/English history, intrigue...and yes, Julie--I do indeed find Lymond extremely attractive.
"That," said Henry Lauder, closing his spectacles and throwing his pen in the wastepaper basket, "is a brain. If I were ten years younger and a lassie, I'd woo him myself."
If only he weren't fictional. ;-) Though I doubt I'd be able to hold my own with him in face-to-face banter.
After Game of Kings, I felt the need to spend last night reading children's lit. Saffy's Angel, by Hilary McKay, was wonderful. When Saffy's grandfather dies, the family finds a note pinned to his will: "For Saffron. Her angel in the garden. The stone angel." No-one in the family knows what this means, but Saffy doesn't dismiss it as easily as the others. The book is the story of how she discovers her angel. I loved the unique personalities of each of the kids in the family, and the way they interact with each other. I wasn't quite as taken with the characterization of the parents, but that's a minor point.
There's an especially endearing section which I must quote.
The car behind swerved all over the road too, avoiding Caddy, and the driver shook his fist.
DON'T
wrote Rose indignantly, and then, with Indigo's help, a whole series of messages:
THERE WAS A FOX
SQUASHED FLAT.
POOR FOX.
SHE IS CRYING.
SO YOU HAD BETTER NOT
TRY PASSING US YET.
I WILL TELL YOU WHEN IT IS SAFE.
The driver of the car behind gave Rose a thumbs-up sign to show he understood, and a few minutes later Indigo was able to stop passing Caddy tissues and they could write,
IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT NOW.
"Everyone waves when they overtake," observed Caddy innocently, knowing nothing of Rose's messages. "I wonder why."
Labels: reading
| posted by Barbara | 6:10 PM