Enjoying the things I don't actually do.

23 May 2012

Literati.

 {Not just to sound smart}


My recent obsession has been books. I have always enjoyed reading from a youngster, and recently my thirst for bound paper has been unquenchable.

You see, I used to use books as another obscure way to define myself. So I kept my reading material on the up & up. It was an attempt at relating a high brow sensibility. People might see my selection of e. e. cummings and think "wow, this girl must be very intelligent and interesting to read this wacky poetry".
the tortured beauty inside....
I do still read this collection yearly.

My short attention span led to me dive into the work of short stories and essay. Again, I felt this made me somehow supreme - my capability as grasping information or a story line in a quarter of the time compared to a novel must keep me wry!
I do still love story fiction and non-fiction both, but I have recently rediscovered my love for the novel. Even novels off the best seller list! Gasp! It required a level of commitment, and to become immersed in a story, in these characters, their pains, joys,  triumphs, is so captivating I cannot seem to stop reading any one book once the front cover cracks open.
I consider it my duty as a lover of writing, reading, and America to read this every year.

I feel it's also a sign of maturity that I am able to say "Yes I actually like The Hunger Games quite a lot!" and not feel I'm somehow above that. I have finally humbled myself and it feels like I have been released from my own leash of intellect - or really to be truthful my fool-hearted cloak of appearing intellectual. I don't think I ever fully got that other stuff.

Last night I finished The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt. It is a western which I would have shied away from had a trusted friend not recommended it. The protagonist is a melancholy type, and I am a sucker.



It's only onward from here, friends.