Books & stuff

After reading a Facebook post from a friend about her "book reading goal for the year," I decided it might be interesting to blog a bit about my personal reading habits. I do quite enjoy reading, and it is for this reason alone (well, mostly - Dr. Lucas' kind remarks on one of my Freshman Humanities papers also factored in the decision) that I decided to become an English major (after my Chemistry plans were sidelined by my struggles with Physics).

When I took an editorial job at ProQuest in 1998, however (though the company was called UMI Data Courier at the time and has changed names countless times since then), my interest in reading was severely hampered by the fact that I spent 8hrs every day reading and summarizing hundreds of pages of "general reference" journal materials. I was simply too tired of "looking at words" at the end of each day to even consider picking up a book when I got home.

Thankfully, though, I switched to the Humanities databases in 2001 and shifted my focus to Music journals (which were certainly more interesting, if not as varied, as the "General Reference" stuff), and with my promotion to "Editorial Coordinator" in ... oh... 2004, I think... my daily tasks shifted away from mindnumbing "A&I" (abstracting and indexing) to more varied tasks. Now I'm sort of the "Jack [or Jill] of All Trades" for the Humanities Department (which, in addition to Music journals, also focuses on all the Performing Arts as well as Black Periodicals). While the days are still often rather tedious, they are no longer quite so mind-numbing.

I also park across the street from the Main Library downtown, and this fact has provided me with a plethora (insert "Three Amigos" quote here) of opportunities for intellectual stimulation, or just plain literary enjoyment. I've now read all the Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" novels (which certainly DON'T qualify as "intellectual stimulation"), and have thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to the stylings of Jim Butcher - his "Dresden Files" (which I decided to read after enjoying the sadly short-lived Sci-Fi series based on the novels) are incredibly witty, tremendously funny, and just good fun to read. His "Codex Alera," while similarly enjoyable, is sufficiently different in style and prose to make me truly marvel at Butcher's gifts as a writer.

Currently I've been making my way through Kathy Reichs' "Temperance Brennan" series of crime novels, which follow the adventures of forensic anthropologist "Tempe" Brennan. I'm a huge fan of the Fox TV series "Bones," which is based on Reichs' character (though not really based *at all* on the novels), so I thought they'd be enjoyable. And they are good, but I definitely don't appreciate Reichs' prose nearly as much as Butcher's.

I've also read Christopher Moore's "The Fool," based on the character from Shakespeare's "King Lear" - it was good, but I was disappointed with how it ended. It seemed to be all building up to this dramatic climax... and then the book was over. I expected a much different conclusion, and felt a bit let down at the end. It did inspire me to go back and re-read "King Lear," though, so that can't be a bad thing. I spent a good deal of time and energy on that play in college, and I guess I have to say it's one of my favorites.

Let's see... what else... I'm also in the process of slogging through Gregory Maguire's "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," but it's slow going. I wonder if maybe his politics are not just a wee bit over my head. The musical was great, though.

That's all I can think of right now. After *finally* watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Tuesday, though, I do find myself itching to re-read all the Harry Potter books now...

One of these days...