I love books. I love reading books; I love reading books about books. I love talking about books. I love pictures of books; I love quotes about books and reading. I am a book lover.
Later today (probably) I will finish reading "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman. I started it yesterday. It is a short (162 pages) collection of essays about being a reader and writer. The best part so far was finding the term 'persistent intellectual curiosity'. Finally, I have found the words to describe my constant mental state. I also love the essay on proofreading; I am happy to know that I am not the only one who has no way to shut that part of my brain off. It's not that I consciously seek out errors but that my brain seems hardwired to find them anyway.
Yesterday, I travelled to Toronto for the Mythbusters Behind The Myths Tour. I had dinner across the street from the Sony Centre at the Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill. I ate my dinner while reading "Ex Libris" at a booth with a book-themed wallpaper. I just HAD to take a picture of it.
Finding new-to-me titles to add to my TBR is one of my favourite activities (even if I will never read them all). For me, books I want to read take on a certain aura or personality based on my expectations of the content. I build up anticipation of reading a book based on these expectations. Inevitably I will be wrong about how the content and I will mesh but not always for the worse. Most of the time I will very much enjoy a book even though my interpretation of the blurb (aka the publisher's interpretation of the content) will be vastly different from the actual content of the book. There are times when this results in a book and I parting ways before I have completed reading it. But I think that is the nature of a reader.
Read on,
Paula
I don't like to be scared. I am not a fan of horror movies or scary anything. And yet, listening to the latest episode of The Readers podcast has induced me to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and "Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle for Halloween. Since "Hound of the Baskervilles" is a part of the complete Sherlock Holmes book that I'm reading, I will be making progress on that too. And the only version I know of Sleepy Hollow is the animated Disney version that I haven't seen in ages so I have forgotten how it ends.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
Wow! The most drastic difference between the original text and the animated Disney version is that Ichabod Crane doesn't get nearly enough description in the movie. In the text, Crane is useful and agreeable and surrounded by a bevy of females drawn to his "gentlemanlike personage" and his intelligence. He believed in witchcraft and superstitions but was easily spooked. I listened to the Overdue podcast episode about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and was happy to discover that I am not the only person who found the actual text of this story to be disappointing and so not scary at all. Basically it is a story of a love triangle that ends with a prank.
Hound of the Baskervilles:
Yet another story that disappoints if you're looking for a spooky read. I guess I am too preoccupied with trying to solve the mystery to be susceptible to vague supposition. Also, it is debated throughout the plot as to whether or not the hound is real or supernatural or whether it exists at all. Aside from that, I did enjoy reading it. There is just enough suspense to keep you reading. This is a Watson-focused story where Holmes doesn't show up until close to the end of the story. It has a number of side plots that eventually each get tied up until you all you have left is the main mystery. The Book Fight podcast episode about "Hound of the Baskervilles" discusses a lot of ideas that I had myself about the pompous nature of Holmes and how looks down on Watson (Succinctly stated as 'Mike wants to know: Is Sherlock Holmes supposed to be a giant dick? Why does Watson keep working for him?')
Overall, it was enjoyable reading but not nearly as spooky or scary as implied by the various television/movie adaptations.
Have you read either of these stories? How spooky or non-spooky did you find them?
Read on,
Paula
