Nerdy Book Post

So I've been reading quite a bit this week, in an attempt to enjoy the printed word again. It hasn't been working quite as well as I'd hoped.

I would love for someone to tell me what the big deal is about Gregory Maguire (author of "Wicked" and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister"). I've read both of those said books now, and I kinda want to go find Mr. Maguire and give him a lesson in proper sentence structure. This is not a sentence - "A market." No one should write sentences like that unless it's in a screenplay. Although I detested "Wicked" for being completely ludicrous and a terrible assault on a cherished story, I came close to that level with "Confessions" just because of the horrific writing. It got better as it went along, but it really shouldn't be obvious that the author spent most of his time telling himself, "This prose of mine makes this book real literature! Gosh, I'm so brilliant." I half expected his bio at the back to simply say, "I'm the king of the world!"

Anyway, I got the book for a $1 at Half-Price, so I suppose that's not such a bad cost to pay for the stupidity of giving him a second chance. I suppose I'm annoyed because it's a concept that appeals to me - retelling fairy tales so that not every character is what they have seemed to be for centuries - but my theory is that's why everyone else reads these books too. I'm just more honest about how its execution fails to live up to that concept. Or I'm just being overly-critical.

Then I read a book by Margaret Atwood called "The Penelopaid". Atwood, unlike Maguire, is one of my favorite authors, although not many live up to "The Handmaid's Tale". ("Oryx and Crake" is close.) But this one was so far from THT that I was almost depressed. It wasn't *bad*... it just wasn't the involving, mysterious book that I wanted it to be.

But that's okay. I'm going home tomorrow for a couple days, mostly to see NIN in concert (*squee*). I'll pick up a couple of my tried and true favorites, like "Jane Eyre" or "Emma"... which will promptly be left on my bedside table to get dusty, because I have PC this fall.

Sorry, it just always comes back to that.