While you wouldn't necessarily think a roller coaster of a week would be a good thing for reading, it actually turned out that way. That job I was suddenly called to on Wednesday turned out to be a sit-by-the-phone job, so I not only did the crosswords and sudoku from the newspaper in the breakroom on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but I also got a lot of reading done. Including the comics from said newspaper, and a few restaurant reviews.
For example, I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass this week. All of it. They're pretty quick, even when you are being interrupted every paragraph or so to answer the phone. I'd wanted to re-read them before I saw the movie, which I accomplished. We saw it on Saturday. I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm glad I finished the book first, and I'm still glad I saw the movie.
I also read a lot more of Reading Like a Writer. I realized, reading it, that I haven't done much reading on fiction theory since I got out of school. It feels good to be reading it again. I borrowed the copy machine at the office and xeroxed the suggested reading list out of the back (marvelously titled "Books to be read immediately"), and added a few more to it as well. So there will most likely be much to report in the coming months.
Right before I graduated from college, I'd asked my favorite teacher to make me a reading list, which he said he'd be happy to do. I remember telling him that it was my plan for continuing my education, once I left. Unfortunately, in the rush that was our graduation ceremony, I forgot to get it from him, and he had to leave early to take the guest speaker to the airport. I emailed him once or twice afterward, but never did get that list. So I'm sort of hoping that whatever suggested readings I can cobble together from books like Reading Like a Writer will stand in for the things he might have come up with.
Since the work week ended, though, I haven't read any more of it. I've mostly been reading Sherlock Holmes this weekend, which is getting very close to the end. Less than a hundred pages to go. I also started yet another book I got from the library (total count of books I've now borrowed: four, and four DVDs, which will go back tomorrow and be replaced by four more DVDs). It's a retelling of Alice in Wonderland (are you sensing a theme in my life of late? That's not even all of it, either) called The Looking Glass Wars. So far it's very good, if a little violent. The Boy-Creature was kind enough to point out that it has "war" right in the title. I stopped talking and went back to reading at that point. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting farther into it. Maybe the next office job I have lined up for this week will let me get some reading done as well.
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