Reading matter

We got a fairish pile of books for Christmas, thanks to all those people who think that a book is a good portable, non-breakable present for those travelling. And they're not wrong. In fact, we also managed to spend the rest of my huge book token from last Christmas, because we have so many tokens that won't get spent till we finally move back home that it was a great relief to finish off one. Then we arrived back in Texas to find a big box of lovely books from Amazon as a belated wedding present. And then we joined the local library too, so we're pretty much coming down with stuff to read.
Things I've recently finished:

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. Really good. Like a modern-day Catcher in the Rye, but don't let that put you off if you hate Holden with a passion. It's just the adolescent boy with a penchant for bad language and scatalogical tendancies that made me think of it. And it's got Texas and Mexico too. We can tell everyone our town is just like where Vernon lives.

Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories: I haven't truly finished it because I stopped when I came to the end of the Wimsey section and I'll leave Montague Egg for another time. It was fun, though I'm not a big fan of short stories. But it's nice to fill in the gaps between the novels. This was actually from our trip to Barnes and Noble before Christmas; maybe it's just as well it's so far away.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: I finally picked up a copy of this and read it on the plane home. It was all a bit icky, to be honest, and I didn't really like the ending where it went all religous/fantasy, but that's just me. It certainly passed the time.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers: Continuing to fill in our Sayers gaps, this is the first book of all, and we found it in the library. Good stuff, though the culprit stood out a mile.

Currently reading:

I'm halfway through Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, which my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. I was enjoying it well enough, but then I started Vernon God Little and Sedaris just seemed like a pale imitation after that. I need to give it a while and then I'll go back to it. I'm not finding it as rib-achingly hilarious as advertised, mind.

I just started The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, given to me by my mother-in-law. So far, it's easy to read but I'm not really distinguishing the characters much. Good breakfast fodder, though, and a nice hardback cover.

And Somebody, in unwarranted celebration of a half-anniversary, gave me the new Nigella, Feast, which I had been coveting but vacillating about whether I wanted the UK or US edition as an excuse for not getting it. But really I just wanted someone to give it to me. And they did. I may make them a Chocolate Guinness Cake to show my appreciation. But mostly I just love reading it and looking at the lovely pictures. I love reading How to Eat, but its lack of photos is frustrating sometimes, so this is wonderful.

And I have to admit that I got a big fat baby and pregnancy book out of the library too - the Mayo Clinic one, mostly because everything else in that section seemed to be about having multiple births or menopause. It's just for research purposes, anyway, because I should be better informed.





3:39 pm - 01 February 2005