Something that starts with "O". Obsession, perhaps?
More books. Last night I sat myself down on the living room couch and had a little intervention. With myself. My dogs Harley and Ellie sat at my feet. Rouger,the cat sat in the doorway. My daughter was upstairs texting, iPod and t.v. blaring. My husband snoring away in the bedroom. The purpose of my meeting was to put my foot down on how many books I've been sneaking into the house these last two weeks. I don't need to sneak, no one is going to chatise me, especially since the majority of the books run around seventy-five cents to four dollars, but my book mania is really getting out of hand.
I finally figured out that the reason I've been grabbing books at an alarming rate is that I'm using them as talismans to ward of the evil eye. Winter came this morning and left its scurf. I'm not ready. The sun is heading to its cave to hibernate; it's dark on the commute to and from work, and I'm a little frantic that this year will be a repeat of last year: Danna becomes a hermit.
I've always looked to books for comfort, and also to suggest solutions to any problem, not matter what it is, as in if I can understand it, I can make it better, or get it to go away. Books have always been solace and sanctuary, but, in this case I believe Toni Morrison said it best in Beloved: "this is a loneliness that cannot be rocked." To paraphrase, "this is a brain chemistry that cannot be read away." Instead of books as talisman or remedy, I think it's time for a SAD lamp.
Here's the list of the lastest book purchases, sans sublimation:
Leap - Terry Tempest Williams
TTW examines Hieronymus Bosch's El Jardin de las Delicias, The Garden of Earthly Delights,through the filters of science, Mormonism, and symbolism. In the process she explores her fixation with the painting and it's meaning in her own life. I hate to admit it, but I'm hearing the siren song of books that explore faith, especially of the type I've eschewed all my life. No, I'm not sliding down that slippery slope of joining up, but I think it's time to confront this deamon and finally see if we can be friends.
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Dystopia, violence, redemption. Everything that's old is new again. Read this book in the tub. Keep a cocktail handy.
The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
I have yet to start her other novel I picked up during last week's bibliophile mania shopping spree, so I'll start right here with this one.
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone - Sasa Staniszc
I opened to the first page and laughed at the three sentence chapter title, so I had to take it home even though I'm really trying not to acquire any more books. It's about a Bosnian refugee who spills memory like sand. Something about the voice reminds me of Jonathan Safran Foer. Be grateful your neighbors just gossip about you,(about how much you drink, that your clothing is far too outlandish for your age, how sad it is that you're so irreligious, that you swear so much, that you aren't insulted by their passive aggressive cluster bombs, and dammit, that you must be botoxing),and that they can't saunter over and exterminate your entire family, or just toy with you,with impunity, for their sadistic amusement. Yes, creepy neighbor, I'm talking about you.
The Year of the Death of Richard Reis - Jose Saramago
I love it when ghosts interject themselves into the lives of ordinary men. Begin this novel on Day of the Dead and invite your favorite ghost to dinner, (just don't touch the food on their plate, or you'll be very sorry).
The Heretic's Daughter - Kathleen Kent
Cotton Mather was an ass hat is all I have to say about the idiocy of the Puritans and their hypocritical quest for religious freedom. And for that matter, why does religious fervor always end with a hanging, a burning, or a piling on of rocks, a dunking in a really cold lake, a beheading, and too many blood-letting horrors to mention? Thinking about it gets me all pugilistic. Hmmm. A novel to begin on All Hallow's Eve.
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