Just in time I have gotten my hands on a library loan. A book that I have been curious about for years. I reserved it from the library in mid-June, and it just came available on Wednesday. I am possibly the last person to read this classic novel. Barely 100 pages in and I’m hooked. The Secret History by Donna Tartt, is living up to its classic reputation. Loving all of these characters, with their bizarre quirks and entangled secrets.
Gothic, mansions, surreal libraries, lakes, academia, retro setting–I’m loving it all.
It’s not necessarily the book I want to talk about though; it’s the fact that it’s a library book. When I took it off the reserve shelf (with the bold font reserve tag bearing my initials THLI) I felt a thrill to the touch. It was just as I had suspected: it feels amazing in my hands, as though the paper has turned into soft pliable leather as a result of strangers’ hands. The almost splitting spine is a testament to the eager readers who came before me.
I suspect it will be a challenge to finish the book within the three-week allotment. There is no renewal on books like this one. The long reserve list of avid readers is too numerous to allow it. This reminds me that I should have bought the book brand new last year when I saw it on the local bookstore shelf. Now I will definitely be buying it anyway, even if I finish the library copy, because it is a book I have a hunch I’ll want at my fingertips.
Coincidentally, I penned a short poem in an ode to the beloved library book before laying my hands on this precious copy.
Your spine is cracked
Your pages worn
With fingerprints unknown
The joy and distraction
You give free and sublime
Escape I do, into your pages divine
A delight of time in-fi-nite
Comfort the forlorn
With written words enshrined
-LTW
Do you prefer new or used books?
Hello, Sleevers, I hope you are keeping well. I have missed our back and forth here at the blog. I have been absent lately, but I have a good excuse. Book release!
My debut novel, Daughter of the Moon is finally ready! Release date is October 3, 2024 for the eBook and October 6th for the paperback.
Click for the e-book on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
Hello Sleevers, t’s been a while since we’ve talked. Life has been interfering with my blog.
I hope you are doing well. I thought a nice way to ease in back here is to share what I’m currently reading, doing and anticipating this Spring. We’re half way through spring, that’s true but it’s not too late to share what’s happening mid-season.
First, let’s talk books.
My last mail out I had asked my subscribers which upcoming book they would like to read of mine, given a choice of the three works currently in progress. The results are listed below in order of popularity:
I Don’t Drink Alone and Other Lies-a hilarious essay collection
Draft Book Cover
Between Midnight and the Moon-Poetry Collection
Daughter of the Moon-a Novel
So I did have a set back with editing my novel. But I am getting back on track with that and I Don’t Drink Alone is pretty much ready to format. So looks like I will have a few new releases in early 2024.
In other topics; The strangest thing has been happening to me. I come up with an idea to write about here on the blog and then moments later, I forget what my brilliant idea was. What the heck?! Also, I re-read my post on “Ten things Covid Made Me Do”. I looked for it on the blog because there was a Leonard Cohen special on HBO which triggered my memory. I thought of the time during Covid that I tied my Beau to the kitchen chair. You know what came next.
Welcome spooky, October…looks like me trying to come up with a brilliant blog post…
Well, September came and went in a flash. I didn’t write one post here and that is a first for me. I have never gone a whole month without writing something here. Should this concern me? I remember the early days of my blogging back in 2011-12 and I didn’t understand bloggers who would take long, unexpected breaks but now I do. They had been in the game for several years and eventually, we change.
We’re already half way through summer. It always goes far too quickly of all the seasons. Winter? Dragging…like an ellipses. Spring? The start of a new thought; like a semicolon. Autumn? Gathering, like a comma ordering things. But summer! The exclamation of the seasons. Bright, long days, swimming, parties and other exclamatory activities! But gone all too soon.
I first heard of this book while scrolling Instagram. A fellow art journal creator had posted a stack of inspirational books. Being that I’m intrigued by FK, the exceptional woman and artist, I took note of the title.
The Diary of Frida Kahlo An Intimate Self Portrait by Carlos Fuentes, has had a profound effect on me. I wrote in my own journal, “I feel grieved to come to the last page. I can’t say that I have felt that way about any other book.”
Gosh, where has November gone? Even though I’ve been operating on low-key status, the month still has flown by. While I should be editing my latest manuscript, I’ve been creating instead. Also, guiltily, I’ve been watching Netflix, HBO and FX and a little Colbert and Myers on the side.
So, not the most productive time in my life but also giving myself a break as I wrote about last week in Thinking About…Things.
A must read. Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump paints a nuanced picture of a DYSFUNCTIONAL family and the consequences of raising a son who answers to no one and gets everything he wants.
“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” as the author coins him, is now the POTUS without a conscience. Donald Trump, second son of Fred Trump Sr., has risen in the political ranks with a seemingly empty soul. He’s demolished businesses and people along the way. Mary, also a psychologist, sheds light on how he came to be and what it cost her and her father.
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