I wish I weren't so fickle, but what can one do. Books. They beckon, and I succumb. It's simply a law of nature that I cannot break. No worries though, I'm not abandoning anything on my current reads pile, but as I finished two books over the weekend and another one tonight, I've got to think about which book(s) to read next, right?
A book for now.
Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding is a book Kathy at Catching Happiness mentioned she would be reading soon. Soon became now, and as I loved Welty's The Optimist's Daughter I've been keen on picking up another book by her. And here it is.
Another one to read now.
The folks at Random House kindly offered me a review copy of Andrew Motion's Silver: Return to Treasure Island, and how could I possibly pass it up. I love a good adventure story--and this one has 'perfect summer reading' written all over it. I read and loved Treasure Island a number of years ago. Silver is a sequel set forty years after the events in the original story. One of the cover blurbs promises that " . . . Every chapter crackles with energy and action. Lies, betrayals, romance, humor--expect them all." Works for me. And another good fit for my beach reading. Just started this one.
To read now . . . a book by a French author or a book set in Paris. Can't decide still.
So I was all set to read Colette, and had decided on a Claudine book, Claudine Married, but my edition is the hefty omnibus edition and looking at it and contemplating carrying it about with me has set me wavering. I do need to make a choice--the month is going to fly by while I dither. So, then I remembered this book I've long had in my TBR pile, The Last Rendezvous by Anne Plantagenet. It's partially set in Paris and is about Romantic poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. Does anyone know her work or anything about her life? She was an early 19th century French actress and poet.
It's not as though I don't have plenty of books to choose from, but deciding is such a difficult process sometimes. I just need to choose one and stick with it until I (hopefully) lose myself in the story.
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To be read soon.
I'm reading the last story in The Continental Op now, but I am not ready to leave the world Dashiell Hammett has created. Next up is Woman in the Dark, a novella.
I'm going to read all of Hammett's work, I've decided. Maybe, too, something about him, and maybe some correspondence. We'll see where my reading takes me.
Did anyone see Endeavor on PBS last weekend? I only caught snippets. But now must read the first Inspector Morse book, Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter (actually it's a reread, but it's been so long I can't remember anything of the story, so it might as well be the first time). Will try and finish another mystery first, though, before picking up this one.
A book for later.
Another book for later.
I was going to be strong. I was not going to cave in, but there was so much discussion about this book, The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey, in one of my online reading groups, that I ended up buying it after all. It supposedly reads like the "best kind of mystery story". Gosh, maybe I shouldn't wait but start reading now?
Serious incentives (in these books lined up to read) for buckling down and finishing a few (more) books that sit on my night stand. Always nice to have really tempting books to look forward to reading don't you think?