BiblioAddict The First Step on the Road to Recovery

On thankfully reading weekend, sea monsters, ghosts, and same sex unions:

You probably don’t need me to tell you that I didn’t get nearly as much reading done as I’d planned.  I figured it was an ambitious plan to begin with, but well, a girl can dream, right?  I didn’t keep a page count, because I’m never as diligent as all that (and I never realize that it might be a nice thing to know until after the fact), but I can tell you that, for one, I put a very sizable dent in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters.  The dent is so large that I’ll probably finish it some time later today.

I have to say, I am really enjoying this book.  I don’t know whether it’s because I’m not familiar with the storyline since I haven’t read the original or because Winters did such a wonderful job with this monster mash-up.  Whatever the case may be, I had a hard time putting this one down this weekend.  And remember when I said that reading Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters might inspire me to give the original another try?  Well, it has.  In fact, I pulled it off the shelf last night with the intention of diving into it when I’m finished with the mash-up.

I also read more of Mr. M.R. James (Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories).  I love these stories.  Have I said that already?  Well, I do.  This collection is definitely getting better and better and I’m already sad for the day when I turn the last page.  I read:

“The Treasure of Abbott Thomas.”  A researcher learns than a deceased abbot hid clues within his church that lead to a hidden treasure.  In a funny kind of way, this reminded me of The Da Vinci Code, only the researcher finds something far scarier than a murderous albino at the end of his journey.

“A School Story.”  All private schools have their horror stories, right?  Haunted rooms and ominous sounds in the midnight halls…  But how many of those stories are really true?  Perhaps it’s the story of the instructor who disappears in the middle of the night.

“The Rose Garden.”  A woman wants to plant a rose garden in a deserted patch of ground at the edge of town, but some areas are deserted for a reason and some things should be left undisturbed.

“The Tractate Middoth.”  A man comes into the library looking for a book and an assistant is sent to pull it from the stacks.  When the assistant gets to the stacks, he sees that an old, decrepit man has taken the book from the shelf.  The assistant leaves and comes back only to find that the book is returned to the shelf and the old man has disappeared.  The next day the assistant is sent to look for the book again, and faints from a horrible, unspeakable fright.  What did he see?  And why the sudden interest in such an old book?

“Casting the Runes.”  A scientific association refuses to let an academic read his alchemy paper at their next meeting.  Soon, the man who rejected the paper feels a malevolent presence watching him and stalking his every move.  Is it just his imagination or is something (or someone) out to get him? (This story features one of the most drastic reactions to a bad book review I’ve ever read.)

Finally, I also read a couple of essays out of Daniel Mendelsohn’s How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken. The longest was an essay on Same Sex Unions in Premodern Europe by John Boswell.  The premise of Boswell’s book is that, based on his reading of classical texts, the Roman Catholic Church once embraced and performed same sex unions.  Mendelsohn, who is himself gay and supports gay marriage, writes that Boswell sacrificed academic accuracy and honesty in Same Sex Unions in order to further his political agenda.  He is, in Mendelsohn’s words, “The Man Behind the Curtain” (a reference the the wizard in Wizard of Oz), furiously pulling the strings, trying to make the classical texts say something they really don’t.

And, that’s about it as far as my great Thankfully Reading Weekend goes.  I am, nevertheless, comforted by the fact that Bethany at Dreadlock Girl Reads is hosting a 24-hour readathon this Saturday on Dec. 5.  I probably won’t read for the entire 24 hours, but I’ll try to read for at least half of that.  Hopefully then I’ll be able to put a bigger dent in my currently reading pile.

Happy reading, all.

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