Put down the book...no just 300 more pages!

Lately, I've been concentrating on two activities: working out and reading. I like to think of it as increasing my intelligence and beauty at the same time. Synergy.

This weekend I went on a reading spree. Earlier this year I ate up Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. Much to my delight, he just came out with a new novel, dealing with similar scenarios and locations...The Angel's Game. Now, it should be noted that I am a wimp when it comes to anything scary. In college, when I read The Shining (loved LOVED this book) for an American Gothic class I could only read it in the day time.

Because I am a wimp.

Now, Zafon - in my opinion - writes somewhat scary fiction. Shadows. Secrets. Madness. Murder. Revenge. Sadness. Both SofW and TAG (hehe) are full of these ominous feelings and events. What makes me love both books, however, is the addition of young love and an older gentleman giving a younger gentleman advice. Sure there is endless sadness and loss, but hey, there's romantic mentoring and jokes too. Plus, there is the whole idea of a cemetery for lost books that I find enchanting.

Needless to say, when I got home exhausted from the gym on Sunday I put some icy hot on my shin splints (not from working out ironically...freaking sidewalks and flat shoes) and snuggled in with TAG. 300 pages, 3 ways to lock my door, endless petting of my cat so she would sit by me and defend me if necessary, and an increasing electric bill from having ALL the lights on in my apartment later I was finished with the novel. And completely wired.

11:30 p.m. is not the right time to be reflecting on a novel thinking: was so and so's character THE DEVIL?

I had to start Lord of the Flies just to get my mind off of it.

So, in conclusion, I highly recommend both Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game. If you only have time for one, go with Shadow. If you have time for both, have at it, just...try to read during the day. For your own sake.

"There is nothing in the path of life we don't already know before we start. Nothing important is learned; it is simply remembered."
Carlos Luiz Zafon

Summer reading racket

I keep perusing all these summer reading lists, scouring for my next favorite story...for recommendations for my Chicago Public Library hold list.

These lists are letting me down.

If a list tells me one more time that the Twilight series, My Sister's Keeper or The Time Traveler's Wife are 'must reads' I am going to punch someone in the face.

I mean, am I asking too much from contemporary literature?

Internet, what are you reading right now? And if you say Lauren Conrad's 'book', I might start to cry.

...

I just finished an hilariously light novel, Schooled, about a first-year teacher who gets sucked into shenanigans at a highfalutin private school in Manhattan. It was a very enjoyable, one sit read. That was the first half of the weekend. Now, I am devouring The Thirteenth Tale, a mysterious and meandering tale about truth, past secrets, family and the craft of writing.

I thought perhaps this would be my next esoteric story find until I told my mom I was reading it and she was all: Oh yeah, I read that a while ago. I am old news.

In my reading pipeline is a mix of for-fun and for-future-teaching selections:
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Groves of Academe - Mary McCarthy
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

What's next? Should I delve back into classics? Steinbeck or Dickens perhaps? Or is there something amazing and new I have overlooked? Pray tell!

"Don't you think one can tell the truth much better with a story?"
Diane Setterfield