Reading Log, March 2008

[Darth Clarissa strikes again. If you viewed this post on April 4th (dated March 18), and it looked a little...odd...that would be because my almost-4yo discovered the open post I was working on, added a few touches of her own, and *published* it. Sheesh.]


I didn't read very many books in March (compared to the number I read in January and February, not compared to anyone else), but I find it amusing that even among the few titles completed, my eclectic reading habits shout loudly.

I might once have thought I was unusual because my short list ranges from a Victorian novel to a pop best-seller to an obscure foreign author, and from a philosophical novella to genre fiction.

Yep, that's me. But the internet has introduced me to dozens more like myself--readers with wide interests who are as likely to pick up Dickens as Mary Higgins Clark, and so I offer no explanations for my various titles. I know you understand.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon--audiobook, and probably my favorite for the whole month.

The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun--a reread in an old favorite series--comfort reading of the first order--and a follow-up to the one I read in February.

The Fortieth Door by Mary Hastings Bradley--audiobook. This was just a sort of fun mystery/thriller kind of book. It's interest lay largely in the fact that it was set in Egypt, and explored the clash of cultures between east and west.

The Innocent Man by John Grisham--I really enjoy John Grisham as a storyteller, and I have read all his published books (excepting the newest one, but I'll find it sooner or later). Naturally, I had to read this book too, although I can't say the topic engaged by interest. It didn't "feel" like John Grisham in the telling, either. The story itself is a sad and sordid one, and in spite of the ultimate exoneration of the innocent man, it has no happy ending. I prefer Grisham's fiction to this.

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe--If ever a book deserved a post and a review, this one does...but I must put it off indefinitely for now. The author seems best known for another book--Things Fall Apart--but I felt lucky to find this one at the library, and took advantage of the chance to read another book on colonial Africa.

Anthem by Ayn Rand--a novella which seems downright scary, as it is easy, easy, easy for me to imagine a society such as ours degenerating into the distopian one in the story. When what "we" need or can do takes precedence above all--political correctness indeed...

I have a couple of other books-in-progress right now, but I just need to clean up the post and get it published cleanly!