One of the ways I know it’s vacation is by the amassing of reading material. I always take way too much, more books than I can possibly read, but this year I may have set a record. My mom loaned me 3 0r 4, a good friend gave me a few for my birthday, I had a trilogy to finish for book club, and I just happened to check out 4 more from the precious little Argenta library the day before we left. I can’t help it; the wealth of choices is one of the best parts. I could read this one, or this one…
Of course I didn’t read them all, and the ones I did read were vastly different. So, just in case you have a week on you hands with nothing to do but read, here are my thoughts on what I managed to get read…
Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books) is pure fluff – not the kind of thing I want to read all the time, but sort of like renting a happy, mindless movie (and it won’t take you much longer to read it than it would to watch one). It’s cute and funny and things turn out well in the end. I found it at the Argenta branch.
The Archivist by Martha Cooley is one of those wonderful books about books. The cover is a picture of a stack of books. The story centers on a librarian. I was totally set up to like this book, and I did. Mom and I both read it while we were down there, it’s a quick read – but at the same time it is full of challenging thoughts on faith and love and art and writing and relationships. The most fascinating part of the story for me is the idea of how little we really know each other, how many secrets we all hold – and who has the right to know those secrets. And of course it’s the unwinding of all those secrets that keep you reading through all those thoughts and ideas. I would definitely recommend this one; lucky for you it was one of the birthday present books, which means I know where a copy is if you want to borrow…
And then there was The Green Branch and The Scarlet Seed, the final two books of The Heaven Tree trilogy that we are reading for book club. I want to put my vote in especially for this one, people, because if you ever see this book just sitting around, you’re gonna think good night what is that thing? It’s huge. 899 pages. But I’m telling you, it’s so worth it. Every once in a while, don’t you love to lose yourself in a book (or in this case, books) that takes you long enough to read that you feel like you live with the people inside the story? And these people are so worth living with. It’s a glorious, grand, sweeping story and what else can I say to convince you? Just tell me and I’ll say it. How about – there’s a copy sitting here at my house with the corners of the pages turned down where my favorite quotes are…? If that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will.
But the most significant thing that happened on our trip, bookwise, was actually in the car. You see, on this trip, my kids and Bryan and I finished a series of books that we have literally been listening to for years: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Here’s the deal: you know these books are great already, in fact your kids have probably already read them. At some point Elizabeth got tired of waiting for the next car trip to listen to the next book and went ahead and finished them out on her own. But still, know this: nearly all thirteen audio books are read by the incredibly fabulous Tim Curry (for some reason the author reads books 3-5, Curry reads all the others) and friends, I don’t care if you have all the books memorized, it is worth your time to hear each character’s voice, each snort and snuffle that comes out of that man’s mouth. He is hilarious, and he has some great material to work with. Plus, they’re free at the library. Go get them the next time you hit the road; you will love them. I promise.
Ok, I suppose that’s enough ‘here’s what you should do’ for today. I only hope your summer has space for some good stories left in it…
