It's not like I needed more books. My sister (the supermom C) got me hooked on Harry Potter. I whipped through the first three pretty quickly. Imagine my surprise when I saw the sizes of 4, 5 and 6! As anyone who has read them knows, the books get much longer as the series goes on. So these next three should take me awhile. Not to mention the books I already had on my TBR pile. However...I babysat for C and her husband last night so they could see a musical with our parents. My adorable niece E and the never-tiring nephew I behaved very well; we had plenty of fun and I stayed overnight. We decided to head out this morning looking to keep the kids occupied, and I remembered a used bookstore not too far away.
Fortunately, my niece loves to read and my nephew can usually find something to occupy himself. I wandered around the bookstore and quickly came up with a pile of 10 books. All for around $34 -- and that included a hardcover and two trade paperbacks.
I've been thinking about Stephen King's short-story collection Night Shift for awhile now. Not sure what originally got it in my head, but I remember that it's one of the first "grown-up" things I read in my teens. When I found that, I also found another short-story collection I had forgotten about, Skeleton Crew. And in the same section (though it probably shouldn't have been) was On Writing. I've read about it on a couple of blogs, so I thought I'd give it a try.
E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime was an impulse; I've never read anything of his so I thought I'd give it a try. I've had Philip Roth's The Plot Against America on my list ever since it came out. The Nanny Diaries is pure fluff for when I feel like reading without thinking too much. I picked up The Good German mostly because the movie sounds so good. A Student's Guide to 50 British Novels has a cool cover and was only $.50. How could I miss?
Finally, I picked up Elizabeth Bowen's To the North. I know I read about her on someone's blog and I'd love to give them the credit; I just can't remember who! Finally, there's The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (which also includes three other stories). The 1945 movie is really great if you've never seen it; it's got a clever twist which I won't reveal because it will spoil the surprise.
This should keep me occupied for awhile. I hope.
3 comments:
Okay...you must really want me to comment if you dubbed me "supermom C"! I wish I could embrace this term but you know all too well my insecurities!
I will, however, agree with you about my kids! E started her book, Dealing with Dragons and really likes it so far.
To those of you who read my sister's blog, I don't have as sophisticated tastes in books as my sister but I do enjoy reading. I was just telling her about trying to start The Historian one evening and had a hard time. I told her I've been reading too many "young adult" books such as Harry Potter and I need to exercise my brain to take in more mature themes. The problem is most of the time, I'm reading after putting two kids to bed and my head is not always up to the task!
Thanks again for babysitting...we really enjoyed our night out! --"Always-Learning-Mom C"
Lots of book bloggers read YA books, so don't worry too much. If it's good writing and you enjoy it, that's what's really important. Someday you'll have time for the other stuff!
Let me know what you think about The Good German. I really want to see that movie b/c I am a huge noir film fan and that has noir written all over it.
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