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.