Reading more!
I have finished a couple of books in the last few days and it makes me happy.
I reread The Handmaid’s Tale and liked it even more the second time around. It is especially notable for its unheroic heroine and relatable villains. I admire Atwood’s restraint and style.
I also read Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge. It was disturbing, excellent and further evidence that Evangelicals will never be the artists that Catholics are. I can just imagine the horrible endings Jenkins or Peretti or LaHaye would cook up for these elegant, rich little short stories.
I bought two books last night. They were paperbacks. Sad I know, but they were all I could afford and the only way to quickly get a copy of the books I wanted to read. They are The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison. I have wanted to read The Road since finishing McCarthy’s Border Trilogy last year. I’m 75 pages in and it’s about as bleak a novel as I could imagine.
After a long conversation last night I am newly inspired to start writing again…may be nothing, may turn into a different project but I may just be going back to the book…we’ll see.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:46 am
More and more, I want to reread The Handmaid's Tale and also Flannery O'Connor. I also want to read that new biography about her.
Writing is a strange beast, isn't it?
May 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Go Flannery O'Conner. Glad to see you read it and that you liked it. She is one of my favorite authors. The Worm Ouroboros is also on my to read list. Seems like I have recommended books that you have liked so far?
May 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Your record is outstanding. I could use more recommendations all the time though…
June 5th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Ooh, the road! I actually read it before the Border Trilogy. Totally and completely different, but they're all heartbreaking and wonderful.
June 7th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
The Road undid me! I read it like one watches a car wreck. It is the first of his books that I have read. My daughter just read The Handmaid's Tale. I was probably her age when I first read it and I still had my copy.