I hate hay fever. My head hurts and I haven't made much headway in my leaning tower of to-be-read books this week. I could catch up on some overdue reviews but my thoughts are too fuzzy. I am struggling with two books that I do need to finish: one is Lady Chatterley's Lover for book group next week and the other is a review copy that I need to finish reading and write up for the end of the month; the former I have barely made a dent in and the latter I am enjoying but do not seem to be progressing with at any great rate.
To give myself some semblance of reading achievement this week I have started to read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a book that I have been meaning to read for some time. When I read "breathing the finest pollen in the world, book dust, with which to develop literary allergies" in Bradbury's preface to the novel, I knew I had made a good choice. Fahrenheit 451 immediately ignites the imagination and I look forward to reading more and sharing my thoughts. I need to finish it quickly so that I can return it to the library and collect a few requests but I don't think that will be much of a problem, providing my head allows me. Perhaps I should be relieved that I only have hay fever and not a bout of Swine Flu since it seems to be spreading at an almost alarming rate in my home city...
Season 2 of the HBO series True Blood based on the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries series began this week and upon watching the premiere I tried to request the second book in the series (I read the first at the beginning of the first series last Autumn). Regrettably the library don't stock it but when lamenting that to a friend he very generously offered to post it down to me and it arrived today along with the next two in the series! He thought that they would keep me occupied and they certainly will; this series is my guilty pleasure and pure addictive fun (um, a bit like Twilight ... so you could say I have two guilty pleasures). This is also the friend who introduced me to the Armistead Maupin Tales of the City series two summers ago so you could say that he is a great friend indeed, and he really is. He is also off to San Franciso tonight, of which I am very envious, and will be taking photos of famous locations from Tales of the City.
Oh, that reminds me of one of the most obscure book-related anecdotes that I have to share... as I was reading one of the books from the series, on a train home after work one night and immersed in the fun of 28 Barbary Lane, I was interrupted by somebody asking "are you in love?" I looked up startled to find the train conductor looking at me oddly and as I was too busy checking for the exits and calculating my chances of survival if I jumped from a moving train I didn't answer in a hurry (even though, yes, I am very much in love). Perhaps noticing my panicked state he elaborated, "I mean with Michael?" Ah... strange conductor on train is actually engaging me in literary conversation and is asking if I am in love with the main protagonist of the series, Michael Tolliver, I realised and sighed with relief. I managed to find my breath and squeak "Yes". Later on as he passed through the carriage again he apologised after realising that he had freaked me the hell out.
Lastly, did anyone read this article on today's Guardian online? I actually have a copy of ANONthology that I picked up from my local bookshop recently but you can download a copy for free from the website. This makes for an interesting experiment and I look forward to participating. Now back to the reading and taking of painkillers.
6 comments:
I wasn't familiar with the Sookie Stackhouse series until today, when you posted about it, and also, when I saw a giveaway here. You might want to check it out. You'll have better chances because I won't be joining. :)
Thanks for passing on the info about the giveaway, Claire!
Interesting post, I've not come across any of those books at all, but I love the Bradbury quote. My sympathies for the hayfever; I thought I'd grown out of it the last few years, but I was wrong.
Verity, this is the first year that I have ever suffered from it; in the past I perhaps haven't been aware of it and thought it was a sinus infection and thought I was one of the lucky ones. I don't like it interfering with my reading time!
I saw the Anonthology site yesterday. I love the concept but I don't have a hope of guessing who wrote what! I've read the first though and I intend to read them all before the authors are revealed.
Jo, it's such a great concept, isn't it? I plan to read them all too.
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