BOOKS YOU MAY HAVE ACTUALLY HEARD OF WEEK
Today I did something that I've never done before - I read a book on the same day that I bought it. Usually, I buy the book and put it in my to-read stack (or Mount To-Read, as one reader called it) and I end up reading it about a year or two later.
I have a different book picked out this morning, but I woke up with this stupid cold still hanging on and the book I had picked was over 500 pages, so I decided that I would save that book for a day when I'm feeling fully coherent. So then I began to think, I wonder what it would be like to buy a book and read it that day. And since I can't seem to wonder about something without trying it (I wonder what would happen if I microwaved fruit snacks. I wonder what would happen if I made that recipe that Dolly Parton was talking about in Steel Magnolias?) - I gave in to it and bought today's book.
Today's book, "Set during the summer of 1968 in Palo Alto, California, Clayton’s novel chronicles the lives of five women who conduct a weekly writing group at their neighborhood park."
I really didn't spend very much time picking out today's book. I had planned to, but then I got to the bookstore and I began to have a coughing fit in one of the aisles. When it got to the point where people were walking over to the aisle I was in to see what was going on I decided to just grab a book and leave before I mortified myself any further. So I bought the first book I could find that was a bestseller, and then I got home and discovered it was the typical lifelong-friendship-among-women-until-someone-gets-cancer.
The book opens with a scenes where the women are having their picture taking at a funeral - and they've included the person in the coffin. That's right, a good old-fashioned coffin picture. I'm afraid to say that I have actually been shown coffin pictures before, and it was the second most uncomfortable moment of my life - with the first one being that time when I asked someone if their sister was going to have any more kids and I got the response, "Well, they're having problems in the bedroom," which was followed by twenty minutes of details which left me scarred for life. I've never been able to look at either one of them and have clean thoughts ever again.
The book wasn't terrible - I think I'm just burning out on this particular kind of book, and I'm really sick of the way one of the friends always gets cancer. It's gotten to the point where I don't even hope they're all going to live anymore - I just open the book, start reading, and begin trying to guess who's going to get sick. Reading a book about someone with cancer isn't the best way to pass a sick day - although it does provide some perspective. It's hard to get too whiny about a cold while reading about someone with cancer. So I decided I better snap out of it and improve my attitude around here.
If you haven't already read a million books like this, then you might like today's book - otherwise, save yourself and read something else, because this one doesn't have anything new to say.
