Making it Up As I Go

I finished Eats, Shoots and Leaves, and it did not dissapoint. I’m recommending it to almost everyone I know. It does have me rabidly watching my usage of commas for instances that they should be semi-colons, and my apostrophes are under constant surveillance, but I don’t know that that’s a bad thing.

I’m currently reading From the Dust Returned, an odd little Halloween-y book by Ray Bradbury. The spooks, spectres, and ancient spirits of the world are threatened with extinction as people stop believing in anything at all. My favorite part so far is a ghost who tries to make a cross country trip and keeps losing his health due to peoples’ disbelief- he ends up strengthening himself by telling ghost stories to children.
It’s a bit strange in that there’s little clue as to where the story’s going at all until a good 100 pages in; luckily that’s just a trolley ride’s length or I would have put it down and moved on before I hit the interesting part. And having just read all about the proper use of punctuation, I couldn’t help but notice that his descriptive sentences are epically long and difficult to navigate. I’m sure they were intended to create mood, but they just bogged my reading down.

Anyway. I just got an ordered book in the mail that I’m looking forward to, Bandbox by Thomas Mallon, about two competing men’s magazines in the 1920’s. Looks witty and smart and thoroughly enjoyable. Before that however, I have to get Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust out of the way in my constant quest to get caught up to his current book- although I’m kinda scared of the newest one since apparently the ending is sad and I don’t want any of the characters to die. Ah well. But I have to get caught up as I have a Mitford sisters biography and novel coming in the mail and if I get sucked up into that world before I finish my other books I may never see them again.

Current Count: 30
Just finished: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Currently Reading: From Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
Next up: Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust, then Bandbox by Thomas Mallon