What Books Do You Enjoy?

Light reading? Mysteries. Oddly enough, I never even try to figure out whodunit – I just like the genre.

What I don’t like are the “boilerplate” computer programmed novels and mysteries that actually are written by a formula: Let’s see now, every 12 pages, some raunchy sex; every 20 pages, somebody killed – that kind of thing. That kind of program really exists, and is used especially by the authors who churn out dozens of novels every year.

I like historical novels. Especially medieval and 19th century.

Anne Perry – anything of hers.

There’s a Regency period series I like by C. S. Harris, featuring Sebastien St. Cyr. One of my book buddies and I are enchanted and delighted by the fact that it’s really “soap opera” style – laughable, really.

I like the Brother Caedfal medieval mysteries, too.

But my favorite ’Read them over and over" books are: Alice and Wonderland, Gone With the Wind, and Shakespearean plays.Sounds kind of a strange combination, but they are my “go-to” books.

Right now, I’m planning to start Harris’ “Who Slays the Wicked,” and Kate Wilhelm’s “A Wrongful Death.”

The thing about Shakespeare is that, as we get older, we appreciate each play differently.

Take for example, King Lear. That’s the story of an old king with 3 daughters, Goneral, Regan and Cordelia. He wanted to know which of them loved him the most, because to that one, he would leave his kingdom.

Well, Goneral and Regan expressed their love in undying terms, while Cordelia said if you don’t know I love you, words won’t make a difference.

So Lear was angry and disinherited her. Goneral and Regan took over the kingdom, ousted Lear, whom they claimed was too senile to run a kingdom.

And there was Lear, having learned too late that actions do indeed speak louder than words.

His immortal words were: "How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child!

That was meaningless to me back when I was 19 years old.

But now, after a lifetime of watching children and their relationship with their aged parents, I totally understand it.

Some adult children love, appreciated and care for their parents. Others – no so much.

We have different insights as time goes by.

Same with Alice In Wonderland.What was a child’s story, is actually far more than that to me now.

As far as historical mysteries are concerned, that’s a whole different thing. I hatred history as a child. It was nothing more than memorizing dates, and we studied each county separately from any other. Nothing connected. The relationship between the United States and France during the French Revolution and our American Revolution simply were not connected in our class. It never came alive.

Now, it’s vibrant and living for me. It’s about people, not dates. 1066 – the Battle of Hastings, 1564-1616 Shakespeare’s birth and death. But what was it like to be alive then? That’s what fascinates me now.

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘It was a dark and stormy night’?

The first ‘dark and stormy night’ was conjured up by the English Victorian novelist, playwright and politician who rejoiced in the name of Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.

He used that as the opening line of one if his dreadfully boring Victorian novels.

It has become synonymous with the Victorian melodramatic style, of which Bulwer-Lytton’s many works provide numerous examples. This style has long been out of fashion and considered kitsch and laughable. So much so that, since 1982, an annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been sponsored by the English Department of San José State University, California. Contestants are required “to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels”.

Some very talented people get great delight out of entering the contest to see who can write the very worst paragraph or two!

Is that couple of paragraphs on your Kindle the start of a real book, or was it one of the joke campy entries?

It’s a pretty dreadful opening line!

If it’s a real book, I sincerely hope it improves as you read along…….

It actually reminds me of “Heidi”, the little girl who slept in her grandfather’s attic bedroom…… Course, I haven’t read that in at least 70 years!

I will be perfectly candid here. Gone With The Wind. I’ve read it many times.

I’ve seen the movies probably a dozen times.

The film and the portrayal by the actors and actresses is so wound up together in my mind that, even when I’m reading the book, I see the characters and hear their voices.

That movie was powerful – very well true to the book.

I can still hear Butterfly McQueen talking to “Miz Scarlett” as she tightened the corset to give Vivien Leigh an 18 inch waist! I still hear Clark Gable saying, “Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn.” How perfect it was.

Sometimes, the movie is actually better than the book. Sometimes, it’s not.

“The Help” was a powerful book; the film was spectacular. Again, I can see and hear the actors when I’m reading the book.

I used to belong to a gym called Curves – all women, small informal group classes. We had a sort of lending library. People would bring in books; other people would grab them, read them bring them back. And then – honestly, we’d discuss the books while we exercised. It was so much fun. (They were all senior citizens, and the physical exercise was not too strenuous, so it all worked out just great.) There were a couple of ladies who came regularly, and leaned against the machines, but never exercised – they just wanted to talk about the books.

And then, one Monday we all arrived, and there was brown paper over the plate glass windows and – Curves was gone. We never knew why, either. Just pouf! I still miss it.

Not often you can combine physical and mental exercise and stimulation in a single activity…..

Kind of interesting, too we all had different health insurance plans, but all of them paid our gym memberships.

I actually think they found it less expensive to keep us well by paying for the gym that it cost them to take care of us when we were ill.