…and I feel fine.
Really.
Counting down to the end of this edifying, soul-strengthening, mind-clarifying edit (Maybe if I don’t call it bad names, it’ll get easier?), I am going to totally scam off of Jen Robinson and list a list of things I wish I had time to read. No, no, don’t think it’ll be full of wise books and fun titles like she has. No, mine is just a wee bit more …basic. To begin: * Five days worth of newspapers. Five. When a moment with the press has been mistaken for a sacrament in this little house! Five.
* A stack of catalogues from Coldwater Creek, my guilty-pleasure, fantasy wish-I-was-as-well-or-as-adult-ly-dressed browsing catalog.
* Two chunky adult books: Julie & Julia, which I’ve had to postpone, since my novel is somewhat food-esque (Julia Child appears as a patron saint) and Linda Ellerbee’s Take Big Bites, which is a shame, since I’ve loved Ellerbee since she did that weekly news wrap-ups way back when, and I learned to say in suave, worldly (and gravelly) tones, “And so it goes.” * An enticingly thick tome called The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by one Justine Larbalestier, which was her DOCTORAL thesis, and I’ve been dying to get into it, since I actually love old science fiction, and an exploration of women and feminism in its development would be great fun to read. If I had the time. (Edit: Apologies to Justine, who informed me sweetly that it was NOT her Master’s thesis, as I had said earlier, and trust me, I do know that between a PhD Dissertation, and a Master’s Thesis: they’re many years of work and agony different!!) (and how cool is it that one of my current YA idols has read this post?)
* A stack of library books, one of which is The Penderwicks, which I’m halfway through, The Star of Kazan, which I’ve somehow started without finishing the first, plus there’s Dairy Queen, Horn Dawgs and Sex Kittens Fall in Love, and Anatopsis sitting on the floor next to my bed.
* And let’s not get into unfinished manuscripts, things I launched into before this edit. And trying to follow the online novel AF mentioned. And the knitting projects I was trying to do to — ha hah! — unwind.
As my mother always says, “As long as you owe me, I’ll never be broke.” As long as I have ten million projects left unfinished, I guess I’ll never be bored. But good grief! I’d like to finish …something. Perhaps beginning with this … soul-fulfilling edit…
In scanning the newspapers before ruefully setting them aside, I noted that there have been reportedly fewer attempts to ban books in the past year than before (Not that that South Florida or that L.A. area school board have gotten the memo). Of course, that may be because people who like to legislate morality have found another angle…after all, the the separation of 
church and state is a lie, and not Constitutional… sigh. Maybe I’d better go back to the quiet, insular world of editing… and when I finish, I can look forward to going back to the classics and “reading like a writer.” This New York Times review promises to help me start. I have my doubts.Via Greenlake Library Blog, I found that Publishers Weekly has a great interview with the ever-hip Scott Westerfeld about the use of the apocalyptic in his novels. I really love the title to his upcoming novel The Last Days , not to mention its gorgeously surreal cover. There’s nothing like the wee yellow eyes to alert one to the fact that the people you’re dealing with…? Are just not like you. They have… special powers. Or else some major health issues… I hope you all enjoy your well-earned rest during Labor Day like I’m going to. Cheers! Hang in there, people… the weekend draweth nigh.
Huh. “Reading like a writer” usually feels like I’m not enjoying what I read, but picking at things on a structural level.
I think “reading like a reader” (or editor or librarian) is just as useful, if not more so, since that’s going to determine whether your books actually get read, enjoyed, and sold. But hey, don’t listen to me. I haven’t even published a book yet. 🙂
Not only that, but this book seems to be that rallying cry of “The Classics Must Be Read!” and lining up which books are “classics,” and why they are “must-reads.” Reminds me of those awful Reader’s Digest Condensed Books from aeons ago, in handsome, tooled-leather jackets, so that everyone would know only know that you KNEW which were the proper Classics, but that you were stylish enough to have them bound so that your children could someday benefit from your erudite and educated suaveness.
Admittedly: I hate being told what to do, what to think, what to read. Suggestions: okay. Must-Read Lists: definitely not things I enjoy.