Mea Culpa

One and a half months into this blog, and I've already messed up.

I forgot Love Is A Mix Tape.

I meet an author, and I forget to include his book in my January recap.

Poor Rob Sheffield. If he remembers me from his book signing, and then he were to read this, I would understand completely if he hated me forever.

So yes, I read Love is a Mix Tape in January - mostly in one day, actually, which may have been why I did not include it. It certainly wasn't because it was the most horrid book I ever read - because it was not! LiaMT was a hilarious, touching tribute to music and Rob Sheffield's dead wife, Renee. While there was some generational gap-induced fly overs of cultural references (he was married for five years at about the time I entered high school. However, he looks like he's about 21 now, which is so unfair - I already have some white hairs, grr), the central core of the book rang clear. Rob Sheffield was in awe of two things: his wife and music. One has been gone for ten years, but he'll always have the mix tapes.

There once was a time I spent laboriously cataloging and tracking down all the songs used on a particular show I liked. It was the 90's, and I was a teenager with a radio and a dual cassette deck. I could make an entire tape of one song if I wanted, and I often taped hours of my then favorite radio station. Thankfully, my taste in music has improved and there are newer, better, faster ways of getting what you want in your music library. However, I still have yet to completely embrace MP3s and reject CDs - old habits die hard.

While I may not be obsessed like my coworker D is with Rob Sheffield, there is a part of me that will always be a geeky teen yearning to capture every second of Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains" on my latest tape. So it was delightful to find myself in a room with about forty other music and mix tape devotees one January evening listening to Mr. Sheffield himself read from LiaMT. There were four of us, all in varying degrees of mix tape addictions. L was probably the least affected, while J and I tied for 2nd. I'd read the book, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but wasn't sure I wanted it signed, J got into it, but not enough to buy the book at full price (yes, we were at a competing bookstore....shh!). D was full on fangirling Rob, but she maintained a calm facade.

In the end, I gave J my book so she could have a signed copy. I was going to hang back with L, but she and D pulled me up to the front, where I tried to invite Rob to our store to sign stock, but he quite possibly thought I was hitting on him. Note to self: always have business cards in your wallet - ALWAYS. D and J introduced me as their coworker, and we chatted about how LiaMT is up for an award given out by the store we work for, how it was one of our Best Books of 2007, yadda yadda. And then I have to confess that I don't have a business card on me, which is why I'm going to hand him a piece of paper with my email and phone number on it. I swear, Rob, I was not trying to pick you up. Although, you were adorable, and D would have taken you home if she could.

I think I know why I didn't remember this in my January post. I was trying to block the whole embarrassing episode from memory. So I apologize to you, Mr. Sheffield, and vow to you, my reader, and myself never to forget a book again.

And yes, I still listen to Garbage when I'm in a bad mood.

January, or The Month in Which I Buy One Book But Think About Many Things

January 2008

Books Purchased:
The Sweet Far Thing - Libba Bray

Books Received Gratis:
Angelica - Arthur Phillips

Books Read:
The Sweet Far Thing - Libba Bray
We Thought You Would Be Prettier - Laurie Notaro
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen


I look like a slow reader. January 2008 is skewing my reputation as a fast reader. Admittedly, I'm not as fast as L or E, both of whom have train rides to and from work that give them additional reading time (and they have the ability to read on the T without getting motion sick, which happens instantly to me. Right. Overshare.) I swear I read more books in December. Despite the holiday craziness, I had more time to read because I was not doing my normal job, but just focusing on getting people to buy tons of books. Sure, I was working 10 hours a day, but when I got home it was much easier to read. And then I had lovely vacation time where I spent all day reading. Now it is back to the grind, and I'm reading less.

To be fair, The Sweet Far Thing - which I had (im)patiently waited all of December for - was 820 pages long. That will take me a while, especially when my body thinks snuggling down under my covers means it's time to sleep and I'm unconscious after three or four pages. TSFT was worth savoring, though, and it's length meant that for most of January, my nightly read was something extra special to look forward to. Even now, two weeks later, Bray's characters refuse to fade away into the background. TSFT was sumptious and brilliant, and I want to reread the whole trilogy again.

After TSFT, I felt spoiled. What book could I possibly read that I would enjoy as much? Sure, I've got a shelf full of old stand bys - Pride and Prejudice, Sorcery and Cecelia, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell... (Sensing a theme yet?) - but I wanted to read something new. So I picked Laurie Notaro's We Thought You Would Be Prettier off the shelf. It was a case of 'and now for something completely different', as We Thought is a collection of humorous essays and rantings of Laurie Notaro, the founder of the Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Club. While some of her essays were hilarious - like "National Stupidity Day" where screams at the stupid customer in line ahead of her at FedEx who wants them to track her package, for which she has no tracking slip and cannot even remember when she mailed it - most of the book was a let down. Quite possibly this was because I read it right after TSFT, and it fell victim to the curse of the rebound book - the one that you read after a really great book so that the following book has a better chance of surviving.

This time, I was smart. I turned to Jane - Jane Austen. Having seen Masterpiece Theatre's adaptation of Northanger Abbey as part of "The Complete Jane Austen", I knew what would pull me out of my post-TSFT depression. The story of Catherine Morland, a young girl with a head full of gothic novels and an overactive immagination, Northanger Abbey was a perfect foil to TSFT. While TSFT is a gothic, Jane's signature wit infuses NA with a loving critique of the genre. Indeed, Catherine comes to discover that gothic novels are often overblown fantasies, and her innoncent belief in them almost ruins her chances at love with the witty and charming Henry Tilney. Masterpiece Theatre's adaptation was cleverly done, with mini-fantasy sequences representing the effects of so much reading on someone with a fertile imagination like Catherine's (if she could've only read TSFT, her brain would have exploded from fantasy overload). Both the book and the movie were absorbing and satisfying, event if NA is not Miss Austen's best work.

Speaking of Jane, we're almost half way through "The Complete Jane Austen". Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park have all aired and tonight we get to see "Miss Austen Regrets", which is based on Jane's own love-life, a topic that many new books are delving into since Anne Hathaway's rather wretched attempt at portraying the venorable Ms. Austen in "Becoming Jane". Unfortunately, both "Persuasion" and "Mansfield Park" were terrible adaptations. While "Persuasion" at least had some watchable actors, "Mansfield Park" suffered from bad casting (Billie Piper did try, but she's no Fanny Price), bad direction, and a hideous script. "When did Masterpiece Theatre become Crap-piece Theatre?" my friend B asked after MP aired. Hopefully "Miss Austen Regrets" will be good, and possibly somewhat historically accurate (though Tom Lefroy is not mentioned at all in the write up, and even if he wasn't her Mr. Darcy like "Becoming Jane" suggested, he was a documented part of her life. And he was played by James McAvoy, mmm). Thankfully, they're not attempting to rewrite Pride and Prejudice and are airing the Firth-Ehle miniseries version.

So that is January, a month in which I bought only one book, but read three. Next I'll be reading The Dead Fathers Club for my bookclub and then hopefully tucking into Angelica, which I was thrilled to see at the bottom of the last ARC box we got. February's a short month, but I think I can improve upon my stats from January. We'll see if I'm right.