For me, the day after Christmas seems to be the traditional day to dig out from under...all the tissue paper, crumpled gift wrap, empty boxes, and all the other gifty refuse that has accumulated for the last month or so. Wrapping paper goes back into the closet (neatly), all those Amazon and B&N boxes get broken down and put out into the trash (finally), and places need to be found for all the lovely gifts that were received yesterday. My family is always far too generous at this time of year. I somehow manage to come home with twice the amount of bags and parcels that I left with. Somehow places will be found for everything. And somewhere in the back of my mind I can hear a little voice say...if you took all those decorations down you could get everything all organized again...shhh. It's only the day after Christmas. It is hard to stay in the mood, however, when the sun is streaming in the window and it is strangely mild outside. It is strange to think that winter is not yet a week old and we have seen not a single flake of snow here. How far away is spring? Farther than I think I am sure!
Alas, I have not only new books and movies to help me through the rest of the season, but I also have numerous gift cards to bookstores that will see me through until summer even (well, maybe). I received several things off my wishlist--The Iliad and The Odyssey boxed set. This has both books in deluxe paperback editions translated by Robert Fagles. I plan on reading both next year. I wonder what it must have been like to have heard this spoken? It will be interesting to read it--I vaguely remember reading Homer in high school, but now I am not even sure what exactly I read. I also received Restless by William Boyd and Triangle by Katharine Weber. I don't really buy as many movies as I used to, but there are always a few that I like to own. Even if it is not exactly true to the Arthurian legend, I really liked this version with Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, and Keira Knightly. I have yet to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, but I suspect I will like it at least as much as the first one. And I predict a Inspector Lynley marathon coming on now that I now have season four.
I have managed to finish a few books over the last few days. I finally finished The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf and Persuasion by Jane Austen. I also read Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, but I will save my thoughts on these books for a later post. Now I am determined to finish Sophie's Choice. I am past the halfway mark, and I think I will be able to get in some uninterrupted reading time today finally. I also decided to ration out the stories in Michel Faber's The Apple. What is it about Sugar's world that makes it so easy to fall into and lose yourself? This is a book that could easily be read in an evening or so, but once I am done that will likely be all there is to know about Sugar and her world. I hope Santa was good and brought books to everyone else's house! Any good holiday reading going on?