yawn (twitch)

[luciab]

Last night the book I picked up to start reading was The Time Traveler's Wife. I finished it this morning at about 4:15. Then I was so wound up thinking about it I still couldn't go to sleep and I figured it was pretty late to take a pill, so I read another book for nearly 2 hours to get sleepy enough to actually doze off. All told, I got about 3 hours sleep.

Which is to say, The Time Traveler's Wife is a great book. I sort of avoid most modern fiction almost as assiduously as I avoid poetry. I really have no interest in reading a whole book probing a marriage, for example. It tends to be boring or make me feel like a voyeur, or worst of all, both. Man, I hate being a bored voyeur.

Anyway, I suspect that if I made the effort to go back and read the book slowly, there would be all sorts of wonderful things I'd find that I missed because I was gobbling it down so fast. Kinda like yesterday when I said I was eating my ice cream in about 1/2-teaspoon-size bites to make it last longer. That book has "book club" written all over it and has surely been analyzed to death. But ya know what? It's magic, and I don't want to analyze it. I just want to hold it next to my heart for a while.

Comments

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I'm almost done with this book, and I love it too, although not quite as much as the eight zillion people who've recommended it to me have.

I can steer you towards some really great contemporary fiction, stuff that's more thoughtful and speculative as opposed to just soapy (I hate that, too). My four years working in a bookstore has to be good for something.

First, you MUST read "Ella Minnow Pea" by Mark Dunn. I recommend it to anyone who'll stand still long enough. Everyone I've given it to has loved it.

Another terrific read is "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell. I rave about that one, too. And I think you'd love "Pattern REcognition" by William Gibson (whose work I don't normally like, but this one was superrific).

[luciab.livejournal.com]

Ella Minnow Pea-- what a great title! (Reminds me of the name of a restaurant that I read yesterday-- Beau Thai. Heh.) I'll have to read those books; I've actually never heard of either of the first two. Cool. Thanks.

[zihuatanejo.livejournal.com]

Eeee! I just finished that book, too! At 3 a.m. no less!

What a grand book.