Lately I have been bad about making time for just sitting down and reading. Which is why I was proud of myself for dedicating a solid chunk of time towards reading today. I started John Green's looking for alaska today while waiting for Owl to get off from work, and am nearly done with it now. Even though it is a book that I am not entirely sure I like, despite trying very hard to do so, I am still grateful to have made the time to read it. (Well, almost all of it. I'll finish tomorrow, if not later tonight.)
Since I did a review of the shows Owl and I were watching a few months ago in the post "Rivendell is Watching..." I thought it would be interesting to do an occasional update for what we, or at least I, am reading, as well. If nothing else, it will help make me aware of how much, or little, I am actually reading, so that I can remind myself to devote more time to it.
I'm almost always reading at least two books simultaneously, often many more. I guess I just like to have options for what I read, depending on what mood I'm in, or what interests me in the moment.
So, here's what I'm reading currently:
looking for alaska
John Green
I still have yet to decide whether or not I actually like looking for alaska. I still have about fifty pages left, and I have enjoyed reading it, but that isn't necessarily the same as liking it. I certainly respect John Green immensely, both for his writing and for his videos, and he's done something that almost nobody else has been able to do, which is getting me to read books that center heavily on teenage angst and romance, so that's already a great credit to him. looking for alaska just isn't clicking with me the way I expected it to, and that's okay. It certainly has captured my attention, and is absolutely thought-provoking. For those who don't know, looking for alaska centers around Miles "Pudge" Halter as he experiences his first year at Culver Creek boarding school----a setting very much based on John Green's own experience with boarding school in Alabama. He is instantly drawn to Alaska Young, though I will admit this: I cannot fathom why. I find Alaska wholly unlikable. But this is redeemed by a strong and memorable cast of supporting characters that are clever, funny, and incredibly enjoyable to read, which more than makes up for my distaste for Alaska (and Miles, when it comes down to it.) The book's most notable feature is that it centers around a clear turning point. The nature of this turning point is only made clear when it happens, but the entire book is framed in two sections, before and after, with each subsection consisting of a day during Miles' first year at Culver Creek. The days are either formatted as "xxxx days before" or "xxxx days after" and it certainly added an element of suspense to the story, even if the turning point itself wasn't much of a surprise for me.
Mort
Sir Terry Pratchett
I started rereading Mort about two weeks ago. The Sunday before last, I managed, in an act of true stupidity, to injure my head, enough for it to bleed quite a bit but not enough to be concussed. The details involved a very ill-placed cavalry sword in a heavy steel sabre we were given as a gift last Christmas, a wobbly bookshelf, and me re-shelving some comics. Perhaps you can guess the details. Suffice it to say, head wounds hurt, swords don't go on high places if they're unsecured, and Owl is a trooper for, once again, tending to my bleeding war wounds.
After the blood had been sopped up, I sat on the futon in our spare room with an ice pack to my head, and Owl brought me in a book. She knows that I like to read familiar books when I'm upset, sick, or in pain, and she also knows that there's not much in the world I enjoy reading more than a good Pratchett book. (Good, in my mind, means all of them, by the by.) Without asking, she brought me one of my very favorites, and since then I have been reading it slowly, savoring it, allowing myself the luxury of returning to an old, beloved friend even though I have resolved to spend more time reading new books and less time rereading old ones.
Mort was the fourth Discworld novel to be published, in 1987. Pratchett's Discworld books are often broken up into "mini-series", based on which group or entity they focus on, and Mort is the first book in the Death "miniseries". Though Death appears in all but one of the Discworld books, Mort is the first book to focus on him, and in Mort, he takes on an apprentice...fittingly named Mort. Mort, to me, is a prime example of what character development should look like. At the beginning, he is a somewhat simple country boy with little going for him, but when he his apprenticed by Death he begins to change, gradually but ultimately drastically, until he can stand up to Death himself. One of my favorite books, I always enjoy reading Mort, and I find myself cherishing every reading of a Pratchett novel all the more in his passing.
Which is why it shouldn't surprise anybody that the third book on my list is...
The Carpet People
Sir Terry Pratchett
The Carpet People was Pratchett's first novel. I started reading it quite a while back (I first mention it here, when, just days after Pratchett's death, I am stunned into silence by a simple memorial to him in the form of a Barnes and Noble endcap honoring his legacy) but was interrupted several times due to various instance of Real Life getting in the way, and have not made much progress. As I am not very far along in it, I won't say much, but I will say that it is as clever and as witty as I have come to expect from Pratchett, and that if my first book could be a slim fraction as enjoyable as his was, I should be so lucky.
I am also making my way though The Runaways, which I talk about here, and Pandemonium and Parade, which I talk about here.
In closing, I am, for reasons that will soon be apparent, looking to make a number of relatively quick posts (but still interesting and informative) in a very short period of time. Do you have any queries I can answer? Lists you would like to see? Pressing questions about archaeology, video games, or Battlestar Galactica? List them in the comments and maybe I'll make a post on them! It might be a Reader's Digest version, or, if I really like your question or if it sparks a much more detailed post, it may be saved for later to get a nice long post of its own!
That's all for now,
Raven
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