After my 4,000 words last week, I lay awake on Sunday night worrying that the big scene I’d so enjoyed writing wasn’t where it ought to be or perhaps it’s just that too much is revealed. So yesterday I didn’t do any writing at all: I finished Rebecca instead.
Oh I am so sad I finished Rebecca. I really enjoyed it. I must have read it longer ago than I thought because there was only one time when I pre-empted what was about to happen. Every other plot twist came as a total surprise. It makes me so sad that for all the years I’ve been reading I haven’t kept a log book of what I’ve read. That list – over there on the side bar – is the first time I’ve recorded what I’ve been reading.
Other book related news:
I’ve just started The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters for Book Club. I don’t normally suggest titles for book club because the whole point of it for me is being told what to read by someone else. The Little Stranger was my choice though because of an administrative cock-up (mine) I had to insert something at the last minute.
For commenting over at Novel Spaces I won a book by Farrah Rochon which I received a couple of days ago. Thank you for that, Farrah. It’s quite ridiculous how snail mail still excites me!
This morning I must write (HA, Sheepish, not so easily sidetrack my woolly friend!) and this afternoon I must continue the Bangkok wide search for some suitable, gargantuan trekking shoes for Son.
Showing posts with label Rebecca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rebecca. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
On getting out of hand
I’ve got to confess my To Be Read (TBR) pile is teetering out of control. I’m not exaggerating when I say my life might be in danger: it would only take an arm flung carelessly while I slumber and the whole lot could come toppling down on my head.
A little while back I bought some TBR shelves (that isn’t to say you can read the shelves… rather that all my TBR books could live on the new sarcophagus shaped shelf. You can see here how they looked when the bookshelves were new.) It would make life easier, I thought; I wouldn’t have to trawl through all my books to see what I wanted to read. It doesn’t look all neat and tidy any more. It was stupid. Promise me you won’t ever do it? See, Husband has watched the pile grow, from fitting neatly onto the shelves to getting double stacked and now piling on the top and being placed on the floor in front and at the sides of the shelves. It was so much better when I could just mush them all together in with the ‘read’ books. Even more unwisely, I started keeping account on my blog of the books I am reading. Husband has been making arithmetical calculations about the speed at which I read against the speed at which I buy books. Sometimes Husband* unwisely says things out loud regarding my book habit…
Anyway this week I started to think about the next book for book club, even though I’m still reading and studying Rebecca. It’s The Little Stranger and it was okay because I’d seen it in Kinokuniya and told everyone it was available but it was a bit on the pricey side. Then I got an email from someone who couldn’t find it in Bangkok. I offered to lend her my copy before I read it.
She declined, but still I needed to think about reading it so I thought I ought to find it. I searched through all the double stacked books including the ones on the top and the double stacked pile next to my side of the bed and then I went over to my desk to make sure it wasn’t there and when I thought more about it I realised that I couldn’t remember actually buying it. *Draws breath.* I really thought I’d bought it. I think things have got a bit out of hand.
*Note to Husband: It'll still be really unwise to make any 'I told you so' noises.
A little while back I bought some TBR shelves (that isn’t to say you can read the shelves… rather that all my TBR books could live on the new sarcophagus shaped shelf. You can see here how they looked when the bookshelves were new.) It would make life easier, I thought; I wouldn’t have to trawl through all my books to see what I wanted to read. It doesn’t look all neat and tidy any more. It was stupid. Promise me you won’t ever do it? See, Husband has watched the pile grow, from fitting neatly onto the shelves to getting double stacked and now piling on the top and being placed on the floor in front and at the sides of the shelves. It was so much better when I could just mush them all together in with the ‘read’ books. Even more unwisely, I started keeping account on my blog of the books I am reading. Husband has been making arithmetical calculations about the speed at which I read against the speed at which I buy books. Sometimes Husband* unwisely says things out loud regarding my book habit…
Anyway this week I started to think about the next book for book club, even though I’m still reading and studying Rebecca. It’s The Little Stranger and it was okay because I’d seen it in Kinokuniya and told everyone it was available but it was a bit on the pricey side. Then I got an email from someone who couldn’t find it in Bangkok. I offered to lend her my copy before I read it.
She declined, but still I needed to think about reading it so I thought I ought to find it. I searched through all the double stacked books including the ones on the top and the double stacked pile next to my side of the bed and then I went over to my desk to make sure it wasn’t there and when I thought more about it I realised that I couldn’t remember actually buying it. *Draws breath.* I really thought I’d bought it. I think things have got a bit out of hand.
*Note to Husband: It'll still be really unwise to make any 'I told you so' noises.
Friday, September 11, 2009
From Utah State Prison to Bangkok...
In my final report my mentor said:
“I have recently re-read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and suggest it might make a useful model for you as your novel has certain key features in common with it. Both novels revolve around a mysterious death in a family and feature the destructive power of jealousy, and both also attach great significance to a house as a metaphor for the site of conflict. Du Maurier uses a lot of circumstantial detail, but always as a means of creating a mood and building tension. If you do not already know the book … or have not read it for a long time, I urge you to read it with the aim of unpicking the way du Maurier tells her story.”
I have read it - as an adult because it was one of those gaps in my reading I was trying to fill in - but not recently enough to remember much about it (other than the opening line: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”) I certainly hadn’t made any connections to my own novel…
I finally found a second hand copy in Bangkok, at Dasa* books. It’s not a particularly nice copy: it has a tacky red silk background and small text (oh dear, how old I am getting) but it’s a copy. When I got it home I noticed that in a previous life it had resided at Timpanogos Library, Utah State Prison. I had a look at USP’s website and it looked a grim place. Not worse than any other prison and I’m not making any kind of statement about what it should or shouldn’t be like … but really, I hope some of the inmates enjoyed the book. There are notations by the text and passages underlined and it made me wonder if someone used it to study from…
I'm still wondering how it arrived in Thailand. More to the point, who did it and how did it escape the US prison system? Was it smuggled out?
*
*BKK readers: Dasa books has moved... only a few doors down (past the posh piano shop) but don't assume it's closed down. Keep walking down Sukhumvit and you'll find it... and you may need to reward yourself with one of their chocolate brownies, served warm with cream....
“I have recently re-read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and suggest it might make a useful model for you as your novel has certain key features in common with it. Both novels revolve around a mysterious death in a family and feature the destructive power of jealousy, and both also attach great significance to a house as a metaphor for the site of conflict. Du Maurier uses a lot of circumstantial detail, but always as a means of creating a mood and building tension. If you do not already know the book … or have not read it for a long time, I urge you to read it with the aim of unpicking the way du Maurier tells her story.”
I have read it - as an adult because it was one of those gaps in my reading I was trying to fill in - but not recently enough to remember much about it (other than the opening line: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”) I certainly hadn’t made any connections to my own novel…
I finally found a second hand copy in Bangkok, at Dasa* books. It’s not a particularly nice copy: it has a tacky red silk background and small text (oh dear, how old I am getting) but it’s a copy. When I got it home I noticed that in a previous life it had resided at Timpanogos Library, Utah State Prison. I had a look at USP’s website and it looked a grim place. Not worse than any other prison and I’m not making any kind of statement about what it should or shouldn’t be like … but really, I hope some of the inmates enjoyed the book. There are notations by the text and passages underlined and it made me wonder if someone used it to study from…
I'm still wondering how it arrived in Thailand. More to the point, who did it and how did it escape the US prison system? Was it smuggled out?
*
*BKK readers: Dasa books has moved... only a few doors down (past the posh piano shop) but don't assume it's closed down. Keep walking down Sukhumvit and you'll find it... and you may need to reward yourself with one of their chocolate brownies, served warm with cream....
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