Today I discovered something truly horrifying. My Mother forces every person that she comes in contact with to hear about my blog. That's right EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. I can't decide if I find this flattering or mortifying. Well actually I guess there's no reason why it can't be both. Today, as I stood and watched her tell the insurance salesman all about my blog, I had a childhood flashback to when she would carrying on for hours (to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen to it) about how much I love to read and I would stand there and feel totally mortified. And today I learned that I have not matured at all since I was eight, because I am still mortified when she does that. Although, there is that tiny little part of me that is actually capable of acting like a grown-up that finds it kind of nice that she's proud of my blog. So thanks for being proud of my blog Mom, but could you please dial the pride back a notch next time you're talking to a complete stranger. Thanks, Love you.
Today's book, "In the brisk and readable The Last Girls, acclaimed Southern writer Lee Smith reunites four college suitemates on a boat tour of the mighty Mississippi. Thirty-five years before, inspired by reading Twain's Huckleberry Finn in class (a detail not nearly revisited enough), the women floated down the same river on a manmade raft; now they are gathered at the request of their recently deceased ringleader's husband. The story unfolds through the eyes of each woman as the old friends weave college memories with their own dramas spanning the three decades since graduation."
Immature thoughts:
- It seems that I'm never going to learn my lesson when it comes to books about a group of women who have been friends for decades. I really, really want to like those kind of books and so, against all reason, I continue to read them despite the you've-read-one-you've-read-them-all feeling they all seem to have. Today's book was no exception - it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either and I ended up with that "Wait, didn't I already read this book?" feeling.
- I've forced myself to read a lot of books this year that I felt like I should like, but didn't. And I've avoided reading genres that I love because didn't want to overdo it. But, today I finally realized what a mistake that has been. A bored blogger does not make for really good blog entries, and the blog entries that I think were the best were written about my favorite kind of books. So tomorrow, I throw out my list of literary "shoulds" and go back to reading what I love. I'm excited, and feeling invigorated already.
- The one good thing about today's book is that they let us know one of the friends is going to die right off the bat - it's right there in the book description. It seems that the authors of these friendship books have all decided that the book is not complete without one of the friends ending up dead (usually from cancer, but today's book deviated from that particular formula.) The worst part of all is that the author seems to think the death is some kind of riveting twist that the reader is never going to see coming, when in reality I begin playing "Which Friend is Going to Die" when I'm only about three pages into the book. I appreciate the fact that the author lets us know right away who is going to die so I could focus more on the plot and not get distracted by my sick and morbid game.
P.S. My sister has challenged me to go a whole week without mentioned a certain TV show on the blog, which I cannot name without losing the challenge (but I'm sure you already know what it is) and today is day one of the challenge. I've only got 6 more blog entries to go.
