It is with great joy that I observe Darwin Catholic and Wine-Dark Sea have brought back some classic blogging with the Immediate Book Meme. I am obliged to join in out of pure patriotism.
Even though a personal blog would be the more apropos traditional location, since this is where I’m currently writing my day-to-day, all-topics blogging, we’ll do it here.
1. What book are you reading now?
A Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province, Martin C. Yang. Thrift store find that took me forever to get to, and boy am I kicking myself that I didn’t read it sooner. Yang describes in detail how life was lived in the village he grew up in, circa 1945 but with a look back at changing traditions. Highly recommended for world-builders, history buffs, and public policy types.
The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, L. M. Montgomery. It’s like meeting Anne of Green Gables but for real.
Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès, Maurice LeBlanc. A public domain English translation is here. No kidding I found this in the original, in a shiny new-condition version on the table at my local Habitat ReStore. Child of mine received a boxed set of English-language Arsène Lupin stories for Christmas; we’ve been watching the Netflix series together and I jumped on the chance to introduce her to the source material. I will say that my French is especially rusty when it comes to early 20th century day-to-day detective life.
And of course the Magnify 90 book is on-going (and so far quite good!) but I don’t think of it as “reading a book” in my list.
1a. What is your current read-aloud?
Don’t have one, because I don’t have an audience at the moment. But, some tie-ins:
- The Anne of Green Gable series, way back, was one of the absolute hit read-alouds in my not-very-literary family.
- I don’t think it quite counts, but to rehabilitate that rusty French, I’ve been doing some of the daily scripture readings from iBreviary out loud. So, it is reading aloud? Except just for me and the cat.
–> This is why I never quite manage to finish learning Spanish (so practical!), because every time I start, I end up thinking French is more fun. I’m sorry, Spanish. Maybe one day you will get your due.
2. What book did you just finish?
I’m gonna decline on too many specifics, because I’ve read a lot of books lately that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. The theme has been mysteries, thrillers, and other fast-paced fiction, primarily pulled from the “free to good home” shelves in the public library vestibule.
(I am trying to get better at writing this stuff, that’s why. Plus, I mean: Twist my arm.)
I will say out loud that Tony Hillerman’s been good to me.
Also recently re-read Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, or at least I think re-read it? Because I was sure I had read it in the past, but I didn’t even recognize the plot details beyond the basic concept. Maybe I only saw the BBC dramatization? Anyway, the mystery itself was not as strong as others in the series, but it was an insightful look into what the author had on her mind in terms of the social and cultural challenges for female academics in the 1930’s.
3. What do you plan to read next?
I have no plans, it will be a surprise.
4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?
The Four Ways Forward: Becoming an Apostolic Parish in a Post-Christian World, by Susan Windley-Daoust. What I’ve read was great! I just keep forgetting to pick it back up.
So I suppose that should be my plan.
5. What book do you keep meaning to start?
Not sure. I have a goodly collection of unstarted books (and explanations for each of them), but nothing stands out as the big one hanging over my head.
6. What is your current reading trend?
Things that are low-key and pleasant but won’t suck me into the book trap. This fall the run of detective fiction had quite a few trap-books, but we have moved over to a different phase of life now.
Artwork: Charles Emmanuel Biset, Still life with Books, a Letter and a Tulip.
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