Undead and Unemployed

Finished Kite Runners late last night, then went to bed and dreamed that I got really old overnight. I looked at my arms in my dream and they had big huge dry spots, like the shapes dried into a river bed when the sun dries out the mud.

Then I was working the circulation desk today and a woman brought up Kite Runners to check out. I mentioned that I had just finished reading it last night she asked if I had liked it and I didn't know what to say. I couldn't put it down last night, I was completely enthralled once I was committed to finishing it as soon as possible. It was evocative and educational and interesting...but I don't know if I liked it or not. I'll have to think on that some more.

Tonight I'm going to dive into Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson. This will the second of the Undead books for me. I read the first one in the middle of the semester (guilty pleasure) and absolutely loved it. If Janet Evonovitch's Stephanie Plum had another sister who became a vampire, she would be the character in Undead and Unemployed. And lo and behold, when I went looking for links to drop into this post, I found out that MJ Davidson is just starting her own blog. Talk about a small world.

Such a Cowardly Reader

So I'm well into The Kite Runner and I'm really struggling with it. Today I sat out in the sun on a beautiful field, half watching my son's soccer practice, half forcing myself to read. After practice was over we drove home, me completely depressed, feeling horrible, like I have an ordeal to face (finishing the book), my sons bubbling over about soccer games this weekend, what's for dinner, who's going to the pool with us next week, etc.

A part of me wonders why they're not as depressed as I am, a part of me is glad they aren't. I have decided that the only way to get through this is to read as much as possible, to finish the book as soon as possible. I tell my husband that I'm down because of the book, and that I'm going to finish it as soon as I can. He looks at my yellow sticky book mark placed in the middle of the book and says "Tell me you're farther along than that!" When I say "no" he shakes his head.

It's well written...but I'm wondering why I'm reading it. It's like I'm eating something that is well prepared, beautifully presented, unbelievably tasty, but I know it's going to make me sick. But I keep eating because it's so good, and because I think it's good for me.

I suspect I'll need a lot of silly vampire books after this one.

A Cowardly Reader

I have had "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini on my "to-read" list for quite some time. It was on the NYT Bestseller list, a number of people have recommended it to me, and it's one of those books that has that certain "buzz" around it, that sense that everyone is reading this book, and you will be missing out on something if you don't read it too.

I put it on hold, brought it home, and returned it twice without reading it. Both times my excuse was that I was too busy, I had a paper to write or a project to finish, but mostly it was just that I'm a cowardly reader. It looks like an emotionally tough read, and I'm not looking forward to it. The cover blurbs promise "a moving portrait of modern Afghanistan" and "...all the great themes of literature and life...love, honor, guilt, fear, redemption," but every page I have read is full of foreboding. If it were a movie, the soundtrack would play that deep dark music that makes the audience yell out to the heroine "Don't turn the page! Don't turn the page!"

One person who recommended it to me said it gave her an in-depth picture of the background of the conflict in Afghanistan that she felt was important, despite the fact that it is a work of fiction. I have spent most of my reading life avoiding books that have to do with unpleasant things I don't want to deal with or think about. If the book had war, child abuse, murder, rape or any other form of violence as its central theme, I skipped it and moved on to the next book. Then I read The Lovely Bones last summer, (or was it the summer before?) rushing through the horrible beginning scenes that set the stage for the grace and delicacy of the rest of the book.

I have "The Kite Runner" in my hands again, and the semester is over, so I have no more excuses. There are plenty of other books waiting their turn, I could just keep moving it to the bottom of the pile. But I'm reading it nonetheless, because I feel like I ought to. But I don't expect it will be one of those books that tempt me to stay up all night reading.

Southern Vampire Series

I finished "Dead to the World" last night, which is all I've got available right now for the Southern Vampire Series. There is one more, "Dead as a Doornail" but it's on local-holds-only in my library network and my home library doesn't own it. I know a sneaky way to get around that, even from home, but I think it's about time to give the vampire books a break for a while...I caught myself actually noticing the fact that dark was falling last night.

I've been finding a lot of ideas on what to read next from the Fiction_L digest that I signed up for at: Morton Grove Public Library Readers Services. So far I'm just lurking on the list, reading the posts without adding to them, but I'm getting lots of ideas of books to read.

Add that to my normal review of my favorite book catalogs:
Chinaberry Books
Bas Bleu
Book Page (Ok, so that one is a newsletter)

And of course, when I work the circulation desk I put on hold every single interesting book that goes by. Yesterday the list was quite extensive. This is why a) the stack of books next to my chair is much too high and b) I have to hijack the hold lists of my children and my husband. (OCLN only allows 15 books on hold for any one user-can you imagine?)

My excuse for having so many books on hold is that they're not all for me...I act as the personal librarian for everyone in my house, reserving and bringing home books that I think they'll like. This summer, along with typing their own project reports, and cooking the family meal once a week, I'm going to teach my children how to put their own books on reserve. I'm also thinking about teaching them how to blog...given that it's so easy (at least so far.)

This evening's job is to pick a book from the pile to start next.