Haven't recorded my books lately...
Just finished reading The Tempest. Hadn't ever read it front to back before (nor back to front, for that matter...), but this time I read it on our new Kindle, and after just watching a recording of the latest Stratford performance of it (from 2010- we missed it because it began playing when Juniper was due). Despite not having read it all the way through, it was always one of my favorites, and I was not disappointed when the bookclub chose to read it. It was funnier than I remembered, and also a little deeper. But the sea magic, the spirits and the people wandering about an island in threadbare, sea-wrecked, bejeweled robes always seemed romantic, and I enjoyed that just as much as ever. I think watching it just before reading it makes it a thousand times better, too. They were meant to be watched and heard.
I also began reading, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss. Got through the first, abandoned the second to get The Tempest done in time for the bookclub, and haven't gone back, although it was my intention. There are interesting things, but it's a little too... aware of itself, maybe, and trying a little too hard. I don't know. Those are forgivable things, but it also feels a bit derivative. I'll be reading along and suddenly think I'm in someone else's series. I can almost smell it in the air, the smells and feelings that went with the other story. It's not entirely a bad thing, almost interesting that he can evoke that. It also may be unavoidable. In some ways it's kind of neat. But overall I find it distracting; it's a little clumsy. It's a bit of one author and a bit of another, which does mean that you might miss that if you haven't read a lot of the same people he's read... I saw many reviews claiming it was very original and different-feeling. But the author and I must have similar tastes. Still, I may try to finish it.
I also tried to get into the 5th Song of Ice and Fire, and find I just can't get past the first couple of chapters. I really did enjoy the earlier books, but this time I find I really don't want to be exposed to the constant vulgarization of life... Hearing about every fart expelled by a dead body just gets a little tiresome. Is there really no beauty at all in this world? Blah. I don't have time for that anymore. I change enough poopy diapers...
