Well up til I was felled by the cold to end all colds Thursday night, it was a very good week for meeting goals. I managed about four books, completely toasted my reading synapses and then spent two days layed out but the cold. Writing went well too up to that point. I was getting writing done both in the morning and in the evening pretty comfortably. So, now I know it can be done.
They say any habit takes a month to establish. So let's make that the goal. One month: write in the AM, write in the PM, and read at least 100 pages every day.
Let's do this!
Last week's reading was like swimming with the flow; it was easy. At the same time, I found myself captured by some pretty difficult narratives.
Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak was a book I picked up randomly because I knew the author. In case it escapes you, this is the guy who wrote
The Book Thief. Turns out Zusak is an Aussie, which surprised me for some reason.
Getting the Girl turns out to be the last book in a trilogy. There is no indication of this anywhere on the cover of the edition I have, and I only found out when I entered it into goodreads. (I have since bought the first two books in the series and will aim to read them this week)
So, ok Cameron Wolfe is the youngest of four kids (three of which are boys.) He desperately wants to be with a girl. Sex is a part of it, but it's not the whole thing. This is the story of Cameron getting the girl...who happens to be his brother's ex.
This was a surprisingly difficult read to start out because a lot of the terminology was heavy on Aussie jargon. Once I got used to it, after 20 pages or so) it was fine, but I'll probably have to pull it from my classroom library for that reason. I'll have to see how the first two books go. I should also note that I'm a much bigger fan of this book than
The Book Thief.
Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley is a faux instruction manual for guarding against the faerie menace. It's presented as a series of articles published originally in Britain and republished as a group in the U.S. The articles are anecdotal in nature and the author, Bakeley, comes across as both angry and bitter. He even goes so far as to discuss cooking and eating the fairies that he captures which seems more than a little sinister. I finished it in a matter of a few hours. While it will never be my favorite things ever, the attention to detail was impressive and it was interesting how it hang together as a sort of narrative without telling a story in the traditional sense.
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven was a gut punch that I blasted through in about a day and a half. It was an intense read that left me emotionally spent. I wrote a
full review if you are interested.
Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider Ham: The Complete Collection Vol. 1. Alright, Ryan and Thomas got me this for my birthday after it was clear that I was a big fan of "Into the Spiderverse." Peter Porker was my least favorite of the spider people. Came to find out that they took some pretty serious liberties with the character when they pulled him from the 1980's comic book. It's like he got a Warner Brothers make-over. The comic books are like reading a pun-riddled version of Spider Man filtered through Archie comics sensibilities. Honestly, that's why it took so long to get through. I liked it just fine, but I couldn't read more than a couple issues at a sitting. I'm really rather looking forward to reading these with Thomas. It's a fun introduction to most of the Marvel properties.
Ok, so next week I'm focusing on finishing a couple of series I started. Here's what's up:
Spider-Man Noir: The Complete Collection (Finished 2/13/2020)Darkest Light by Hiromi Goto (Finished 2/12/2020)- Fantasy Stories edited by Diana Wynne Jones
- Where Do You Get Your Ideas? by Fred White
The Underdog by Markus Zusak (Finished 2/12/2020)- Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak
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