Remember in our first blog when I said that Jewel was upset because I had already read one book in September, thereby beating her already? Well, I'm here to talk a little bit about it. But first, some slight exposition (that's a fancy book word for stuff that happens leading up to where we are.)
I am the queen of late fines. Seriously. I could win the Olympic gold for the late fines that I've racked up. So, naturally, I had racked up about $28.00 in library fines. Sorry, Kitsap Regional Library (product placement!). So the other night, I wanted to read a book to quiet down my monkey mind before bed, so I turned to the shelf of books that I have. And found this gem on there, that I had read years and years and years ago, and decided to revisit.... (drumroll, please) A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. I know what you're saying (and what Jewel repeatedly said)... "It's a kids book! It's so easy!"
But, my friends, let me tell you something. Reading this book in 6th grade is WAY different than reading it in... 24th grade. Our brains, as we grow older, have a harder time wrapping themselves around the magic and wonder of worlds like the one that L'Engle created. Worlds where people dematerialize, where people can create holes in the universe, and where stars can become live people. And although once I started reading I slipped back into the comfortable arms of her writing and the story itself, the logistics of the world that I know honestly kept putting up little road blocks that detoured me from soaking it in fully. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's a bad book. It's actually quite a magnificent book one that I will recommend to people to read - people under the age of... oh, say, 15 probably. Because the older we get, the harder our brains work and the less space we have for our imaginations. As much as I would like to say that's not so, it is... I'm a very imaginative person, but I'm still limited by the knowledge and experiences that I've had.
So as I read the book (it took me about 2 hours), I tried to slip back into elementary Mandy mode. Minus the terrible t-shirts with cats on them, pink plastic glasses, and short mom dictated haircuts... But my grown up mind wouldn't fully let me do it. Which may be a good thing, because looking back at the pictures - I cannot believe I left the house like that.
Now off to the next book...... This is a good challenge! And I didn't even use ONE smiley emoticon on this entire blog. I'm already kicking butt. Take that, Jewel.
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| Book 1 - done! |
Haha! Fun stuff. I love kids and YA books! I also recently read A Wrinkle in Time and completely agree about not being able to soak it into our mid (maybe more late!) twenty-something minds. Anyhoo..fun reading about KRL fines. :) We are about to launch this One Book, One Community program and I just finished the book they chose - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It was good. Check it out, literally.
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