Thursday, August 8, 2013

Summer Reading



This summer, I bought two books.  One of them I bought from Amazon and had delivered to my house.  The other one I bought for a $1.25 at the dollar store.  Guess which one I liked better?

The book I bought from Amazon was Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (as in Sophie Can-sell-a lot of books!  Ha!  Well, I thought it was funny).  Anyway, I have normally been a fan of hers but I couldn’t finish reading this one.  It seemed like it was all about whether or not you should have sex before you get married.  Not to be intensely snotty, but I thought she wrote books for adults and haven’t adults already figured out their answer to this question?  So, I was intensely bored and … I didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for any of the characters.  Not a big deal.  Now I have to go through the trouble of pawning it before the Wee Book Inn stops accepting hardbacks.

The other book I bought at the dollar store.  I picked it up and was immediately inspired.  It was by a lady named Christina Spence (the happy slob (she’s from Calgary – woo!)) who wrote a book on housekeeping called No Hassle Housecleaning.  I’ve been reading a little from that book every day and my house has been looking better and better for it.  I mean, I have used all sorts of methods to get my house clean and keep it clean, but she’s so optimistic and cheery and her advice has really been working for me.

I think I should just forget about reading fiction.  I know that’s hideously hypocritical coming from a novelist who writes fiction, but I get so much more out of non-fiction.  L.M. Montgomery often references people in her books who think fiction is a waste of time and they are characters you are meant to like - like the hero (Barney Snaith … I love Barney Snaith!), which shows I’m not barking mad.  And there’s also Morton Harket (A-ha) who, when asked what he listened to on the radio answered that he didn’t listen to the radio, because ‘he needed that space for other thoughts.’  I could go on. 

The thing is I do really well with do-it-yourself books.  I’ve had numerous success stories, but I don’t have that kind of positive repercussion when I read a novel.  A lot of times when I read a novel, I know where the writer is coming from.  I know how they did their research and where they got the information they’re using.  Often times, I make my guesses and then read the acknowledgement section afterwards to have my suspicions verified.  I find authors very transparent these days.  And sometimes I’m really sad about it.  I used to read all the time and I found it very exciting. 

On the upswing, I hate cleaning my house less, so that’s good news.

Dream of the Wolf

Hi Ink Drinkers, I'm here today to talk about my new story, 'Dream of the Wolf'.  Here's the synopsis: Selphie awoke in a se...