Sunday Salon update: Jan. 27, 2013

A good reading week. A good writing week.  Wrote a review of Bring Up the Bodies and then quickly read a mystery by C.J. Box. Nowhere to Run was a random pick for me –what was available at the library.  Wrote a bit about that too – not quite a review, just my so-so reaction to the book. Despite the so-so reaction I tore through this book and I looked forward to returning to each time I had to put it down.  It held my interest, but not my thinking.

So happy to be interested in writing again.

The contrast in the way I read the two books got me thinking about the pace of reading. Bring Up the Bodies was a long slow read– a comfortable stroll, where I stopped and admired the sentences, checked and rechecked the characters and succession lists and even the googled images of the historical figures. I used Wikipedia like a field guide when I wanted to know a little more about the history.  The stroll took me to slightly familiar territory that I hadn’t visited in a long while, one I hadn’t seen quite this clearly before. I marveled at the deep literary and historical views.

 In Box’s book, I was frequently on horseback –like its hero, Warden Joe Pickett. But unlike Pickett, I was on an out-of-control gallop crashing through the woods, wanting to take in the beautiful scenery but more focused on the dangers and the violence that lay ahead.

Finally, I went alone to see Life of Pi, at the movies. It’s one of my favorite books, one I once taught and fell in love with as I took students through it ever so carefully, chapter by chapter. Perhaps that’s why I found myself a little disappointed. While I thought the movie was well done, ever deserving of the praise it’s garnering, I missed the depth of the reading experience.