Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Literature

Picked up Catcher in the Rye a few weeks ago. I had been tagged on a Facebook note about the top 100 novels and thought I'd try and check a few more off the list. Man is that guy a whiner! The entire 200+ pages were this 17 year-old kid whining about how he can't focus in school and has been expelled again and hates everyone (except for his little sister, which I have to admit was sweet), and he keeps latching on to ideas obsessively and then discarding them. Teenage angst has a lot of potential for readability, but this was just sad. The beginning of the book refers to the similarities with David Copperfield (a young man writing about his life and all) in a dismissive way, but I have to say I'm enjoying D.C. a good deal more than mister Salinger.

I take it as a sign of maturity that I'm now able to start a book and then decide not to read it. In the past I'd be too stubborn to quit once I'd started. Or if it was a book I'd heard a lot about I'd feel obligated to read it. Atonement was on the Top 100 list, but once I picked it up from the library I remembered I indeed had watched the movie and didn't relish the idea of reliving such a bitter story. My Jim I had heard about, but decided I wasn't up for wading through the dialect. Another book I have was written retrospectively(? - starts at the present and each chapter takes a step back into the past) and frankly I'm starting to feel like since I know how it all turns out there really isn't much to keep me interested in finishing it.

With fall coming on, I need to find a reading nook. Somewhere cozy with a window to let the sunlight in. My apartment windows are unfortunately not faced appropriately and I'm still looking for a coffee shop that has both comfy chairs and sunny windows.

Suggestions?

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