reading

now that i can't knit due to breakage, i'm reading a tad more. right now am reading the indian bride by a norwegian named karin fossum. she used to be a poet and you can tell because her use of language is slightly more disciplined than what you find in the average mystery (and i say that as a person who loves the average mystery). i'm reading with several lobes of the brain at the same time--the lobe that just enjoys the story and the lobe that keeps asking how is she doing that. it's the curse of being a writer a little. you can never completely sink into a novel and lose yourself the way you did before you started writing yourself.

friend susan also dropped by the fairy tales of oscar wilde since we're supposed to be reading him for our bookgroup tuesday. dude. i'm over the irish now. this year has been a grim slog through alcoholism, catholicism, mom-ism, whatever. maybe oscar will uplift me. we'll see.

still knocking back dr. pepper. also plowed through a mountain of cummings chocolates from tom and louise. am craving garlic burgers but don't have the will to drive myself to a public place and eat.

Meanwhile

I never want to hate a book. Never. I know how hard it is to write one. And I know how it feels when people say unkind things about your work. BUT.

I am reading something I truly dislike right now: THE GATHERING by Anne Enright. It's a Booker prize winner and really it's very accomplished. But I'm not enjoying myself, which is hard, because right now I'm kind of committed to the philosophy that you should enjoy what you read.

However, I have to give a presentation (i.e. oral book report) on this novel for my book group.

Anne Enright, if you're in my cyber-neighborhood, please forgive me for being negative. Bad blog reviews of my own novels always hurt my heart a little. But still. I wish I liked these characters I'm reading about . . .