July 10, 2000
Books!
I'm retreating to my old bookworm-ish self once more. I started reading another book today, which brings the total of books I'm currently reading up to three. Right now I'm reading The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, which was a birthday present from Brand. He's the one who introduced me to her historical fiction, and I can't get enough of it. She's brilliant. The Sunne in Splendour is her book about Richard III, the real one, not Shakespeare's evil, hunchbacked villain. I also finally broke down and reordered The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I got a copy of it a long time ago for Christmas, probably about the time it came out. I read it and re-read it until my copy completely fell apart. I think it was my first hint that Stephen King was capable of writing something that wasn't strictly straightforward horror. It was one of those books that stayed with me for months after I read it the first time. The characters hung around my head like old friends. Periodically I'd find myself wondering what happened to them after the book was finished. Finally, I'm poking my way back through The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy... by.... erm, lemme go check, Jay Stevenson and Marcia Ian. That one's part of my longstanding attempt to educate myself despite not being in school.
It's funny. When I was a kid, I never read more than one book at a time. I couldn't stand it. I don't know why. It wasn't exactly that I got confused or anything, I mean, I'm certainly able to keep plots and characters straight. I just didn't do it. Even now, when I read more than one book at a time, it's usually a case of starting one book, losing track of the book (or wanting to read something when the book isn't handy) so I start another book. That's what happened with the Complete Idiot's Guide. I wanted to read, but hadn't found Sunne in Splendour in my unpacking yet. And then, of course, my order of Talisman arrived today, so I had to dive in and start reading it. So, what will probably happen is that I'll blaze my way through The Talisman, then go back to The Sunne in Splendour, then pick up the Complete Idiot's Guide again.
I've always been a reader. I used to get in trouble with my mom on Saturday mornings. She'd send me into my room to clean it, then come check on me. There'd I'd be, sitting in the middle of my messy room, reading something that caught my interest. Mom also never understood how I could read a book more than once, or see a movie more than once. I couldn't explain at the time, that it's like revisiting old friends. In other cases, as I'm discovering now, the writing itself is so perfect, so lyrical, that it needs rereading, just to marvel at the construction the way a craftsman might marvel at the lines of a well-built chair. I find myself stopping to marvel that a particular phrase or scene actually came from someone's mind, an ordinary mortal mind. Some people might say that's poor writing, because it momentarily bumps you out of the story, but not me. I'm of the belief that writing and story both hold equal importance. If I get momentarily distracted from your plot, awestricken by the originality and aptness of a metaphor, I don't consider that a bad thing at all.
(Of course, the most delightful thing is have that same sort of feeling when reading over some of your own writing. It's an amazing experience, to be impressed as a reader by something you've written yourself.)
I think I need to go curl up with one of my new books now.
