I enjoy the concept of the powers of a seventh son (though I think N.D. Wilson’s take is superior) and Card’s book was such an engaging set-up that I’m eager to read the rest of the series. I am now reading Ender’s Game and also enjoying it. Card’s stories are thoughtful but still rather light and they are quick reads. I think I’m ready to turn to heavier books for awhile.

Gregory Maguire’s reworking of Oz in Wicked is more interesting and complex than Baum’s original but it still doesn’t rise very high. According to the jacket flap this book will make the reader “question the nature of good and evil.”

It wishes.

Both the plot and characters are muddled. Not complex but confused. Motives are not simply difficult to discern, they are non-existent. Maguire, like Baum, has an incoherent vision of an alternate world without any unifying theory or philosophy. The characters seem to have been grabbed from a variety of separate works and then huddled together between the covers of Wicked. Glinda is visiting from a boarding school novel, the Wicked Witch of the East from a satire on religious asceticism, the Wicked Witch of the West from an early feminist tract, and the Wizard is imported from the original but given a dose of Central Planning and Zoning steroids. The first section of the book seems to have been ripped out of a modern novel of domestic misunderstanding and unhappiness (perhaps gender-reversed Rabbit Run?) and then grafted onto the beginning.

Frankly, the whole thing is a mess and the ending is the worst part: an anti-climactic and meaningless jumble.

I have missed being able to write the most. True, pen and paper are always available, but I am so accustomed to the ease of the keyboard and instant publishing that I haven’t been using them. I find it much easier to be creative when I can type!

I have also missed reading “stuff” online. I follow a few message boards and online communities and have missed those conversations. I have been reading books at an even faster than usual pace (reviews to come). Anyway, our laptop is working intermittently and we are planning to buy a new one in the next day or two. I look forward to getting back to normal…

If you’re interested check here and if you need me to ship it to you I’ll just ask you to reimburse me for cost!

I Am Legend

Max Brooks’s “oral history” was a fascinating read. I have a low tolerance for gore but the descriptions, while graphic, were not too intense for me. The variety of testimonies and post-war timeline kept me from getting too intensely invested in one character and so the tension never ratcheted up past my, admittedly low, threshold.

I long with the creative and interesting accounts of battles, strategies, and strongholds, Brooks weaves plenty of clever cultural and political commentary. I especially enjoyed his comments on the weaknesses of purebred dogs, the strengths and weaknesses of a cultural of individuality, and the impact of violence on societies and individuals.

It is clever and engaging but doesn’t rise above the level of light entertainment. Which is, of course, perfectly fine. Light entertainment is an enjoyable part of life.

Jasper Fforde includes enough literary allusions, academic in-jokes, and time-travel conundrums to keep things moving, even if the plot wasn’t already brisk.

I am as intensely familiar with the plot of Jane Eyre as the protagonist is supposed to be and I only have one quibble with how it is represented. Fforde posits that Rochester intended to marry Blanche Ingram when he very clearly did not. Rochester declares to Jane, the morning after their engagement, that he only courted Blanche to make Jane jealous. He also indicates in the gypsy woman episode that, while in disguise, he lied about his fortune in order to cool her interest in him – this some five weeks before proposing to Jane! This discrepancy is not attributable to the alternate history caused by time travel as it is reaffirmed in the re-writing of the book.

When I curl up with a good book the situation goes from great to amazeballs just by adding something to nibble on. I like small candies (M&Ms, Nerds, Reese’s Pieces, etc), popcorn and lemonade, beef jerky, or cookies.

When I sit down to a meal alone I am quite miserable if I can’t find some reading material to go along with it; I no longer try to read while eating with other people.

And so, here is  a list of my favorite places to eat, rated both for the food quality and the ease of reading while eating.

#1. My couch. It’s the best simply because the food is usually good (I’m a decent cook), the privacy is total, the seat is comfortable, and I can never be without a book (a library of several thousand books is in the next room).

#2. Bar Gernika. This is the best place for any dry reading and also great for absorbing reading. The noise level is moderate, the food fantastic, there is always a decent beer or wine available, and the servers don’t look at me like I have two heads when I sit down alone and order with a book in my hand.

#3. Dawson Taylor Coffeehouse. The coffee is truly great and coffeeshops are natural places to sit and read in public. I can’t always find a seat though, and they don’t have a wide selection of foods.

#4. Bittercreek Ale House. Good beer and good food help but I almost always get the two-heads look and unless I sit next to the window during the day it is too dim to read. The french fries do balance things out quite a bit…

Anyone else have favorite reading and eating places?

Here is a Q & A with me over at All Things Expounded.