The Pressures of Airplane Reading
Currently reading:
Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman
Books finished this week: 2
A banner week for the Library!!
★★☆☆☆
Where this book came from: Bookshop.org, using a birthday gift card from a friend (thanks, Sabrina!)
Why this book: As I mentioned last Sunday, I recently decided to become obsessed with the Clintons. (Don’t worry, the urge has passed.)
Thoughts: It might be time for me to give up on Curtis Sittenfeld. I *loved* Prep, but American Wife and Eligible fell flat for me. Same with Rodham. Though I enjoyed the first third or so of the book, I was really put off by how flat Hillary Rodham came across and how preoccupied both she and the narrative were with Bill Clinton. I expected—or hoped—that Bill would be a starting point for a fascinating narrative of the new life Hillary would go on to lead, but the book basically skips over 20 years of her life, then skips ahead again to her running for president for the 2016 election. What political stuff is in there felt forced and silly, especially after seeing what a Trump presidency brought to the forefront in our country and how things have continued to spiral out of control since then. And yes, I was also repelled by the many, many mentions and depictions of Hillary and Bill having sex. The descriptions were clinical and off-putting, entirely devoid of emotional resonance. I have absolutely no problem with sex scenes in creative works, but it starts to feel a little . . . ick when the people concerned are based on real characters. There’s a reason we don’t write real-person fanfic, and this is it.
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: I honestly don’t remember, but if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say Barnes & Noble.
Why this book: I adore PD James and I especially adore Adam Dalgliesh. Embarrassingly, the first James novel I read was Death in Holy Orders, because I first watched a TV movie version of it probably 15 years ago, because I was deep in the throes of my Jesse Spencer obsession and he happens to play a minor role in the movie. I found out it was based on a book, and we were off to the races.
Thoughts: I finished this one on a flight to Seattle, which is fun! Definitely not my favorite Dalgliesh—the first, Cover Her Face, is really an unfair bar to have to hurdle—but still enjoyable. The premise felt a little implausible to me, because good old Adam isn’t called in here, but rather stumbles into a crime while on holiday, and he also plays a bit of the action hero near the end. Still, we got the usual fun cast of characters, and I do love how real everyone feels in these novels. PD James is a master and I’m still distraught I never got to meet her.
Library updates:
One of the things they don’t tell you about adulthood——or maybe you just don’t notice it until it’s too late——is that there is never an end to the dishes and laundry that need to be done, the garbage that needs to go out. You consume, you trash; you take in and throw out. The cycle repeats.
I’m traveling this weekend through next, which of course meant worrying more about what book(s) to pack than clothes. (Though I did also agonize over whether to do laundry before the trip——proactive! Adult!——or after——more fun! Good for being lazy!)
I’m of two minds on the topic of packing books for long trips. On the one hand, it’s good to bring something you’ve already started, so you know you’re already enjoying it and will be glad to keep reading it through to the end for hours at a stretch. But then you run the risk of finishing the book, and then you just have dead weight taking up space in your carry-on. And what if you forgot to bring a back-up? Bringing a fresh book feels like a good investment of time and space. More bang for your buck.
On the other hand, bringing that new book means you’re running the risk of absolutely hating it. What if you pack a 500-page tome, finally crack it open somewhere over Illinois, and realize it’s awful? Personally, I enjoy bringing a brand-new book on a long flight (or train trip—no cars or buses, though), because it feels like starting a new project. It’s also exciting to land and see how much progress you’ve made. But I do always worry that now I’m trapped with a shitty book at 30,000 feet.
And if you do decide to bring a new book (or to pack a back-up), there’s the age-old question of hardcover or paperback? Paperback is the pretty obvious answer—it’s why they sell so many of them in the airport itself. But maybe you’ve been eyeing a gorgeous new hardcover, just waiting for the right time to sit down and dig in. Is it worth losing precious suitcase space? Do you want to maneuver the sharp edges through security? And what if you pack three hardcovers and don’t have any room to bring books home??
I ended up splitting the difference, finishing Unnatural Causes, which I already knew I was enjoying, and then bringing along Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen as the gamble. Luckily, it seems to be working out so far.
But all that worrying, and, as usual, I ended up playing Rollercoaster Tycoon for upwards of three hours.
(Also I didn’t do laundry before I left. Future!Katie is already so fucking angry.)
When I wasn’t making lists upon lists of what to pack and everything I had to do before I left (minus laundry), I came to two important realizations earlier this week. First, that some of my closest friends have come from my past workplaces, and that those friendships were often forged in the white-hot fires of chaos and strife. Nothing brings people together like a particularly difficult edit or some truly off-the-wall requests. And as terrible as some of those situations made me feel at the time, I wouldn’t trade the people I got out of them for anything. (You know who you are.)
Second, until Prom Queen, I’d only read books with one-word titles from the Moratorium Library. What does it mean? Probably nothing. Or maybe I just couldn’t focus on anything more.
Closing thoughts:
High pressure turns coal into diamonds, or whatever that saying is. The coal might still feel and look like coal for a little while after the pressure recedes, but take a minute to yourself, journal on it, get a good night’s sleep. You’ll realize it really is a diamond.
(I think I lost the metaphor somewhere, but you get it.)
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 4
(Total books added to the Library: 3)
I’m in the Pacific Northwest visiting a friend this week (hi again, Sabrina!) and we obviously had to stop in at the very cute Browsers in Olympia, WA, where I purchased Once and Future Witches and The City in the Middle of the Night, plus a very excellent Sasquatch postcard. I was supporting a local business!!
I also received my copy of Taking Root, at last! Get yours here.
