Book: Angel of Darkness (de Lint/Key) (in which I peter out and start talking about other things)

Charles de Lint doesn't shy away from darkness in his books, but he's not usually known for the really dark stuff. Apparently he felt he had some scary icky darkness to express, but didn't want his usual readers to be surprised by a really dark book, so he wrote three under the name Samuel Key. Then... I guess his publishers decided de Lint's usual readers could handle it so they rereleased it under his real name.

Anyway, this is either the first, or all three (?) books. I couldn't quite tell if it was the three in one, or just the one. It doesn't really matter, I didn't really love the book so I wouldn't be reading the next two anyway. I usually ADORE de Lint so I was disappointed.

Ahhh.... well, I'm totally uninspired. To tell you the truth, I really didn't love this book. It started off fairly disturbing and gross, and never really went anywhere. I'm used to de Lint books being wonderful and magical and thoughtful and deep and loving and hard and complex. This was fairly straightforward, a bit confusing, not very compelling, and I didn't love any of the characters (and my favorite one died!!).

Thankfully, it was short. I wanted it to get better, but it didn't. That's about all I have to say about that.

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In other book news, I have recently started getting the London Review of Books (gift from Terri's sister!), which I'm really excited about. Both because it is, in itself, a wonderful source of reading material (giant, long, thoughtful intelligent essays about books) and also hopefully an inspiring source of new books to read as well. Although I really kind of want to get Publishers Weekly as well. When I worked in publishing, I read it every week and it was really great for learning about new books. I miss it. It's also better for browsing. The LROB is very browse-resistant. It requires sitting down with a cup of tea and the intent to do some serious reading. Not usually a problem for me, but a bit difficult when you're tired and ready for bed and just want to do a little book-looking.

Also in literary news, I think I'm going to register for a lit class for January. Just something fun and interesting, to get some writing samples and see how I like taking literature classes. I took a couple in college of course but didn't have time to take more than two or three, and any papers I wrote are either long gone or in a stack in my dad's attic, where I will probably never locate them.

So that's fun. And now... it's November. Which means I promised myself to read Anna Karenina in November. But the problem is, I have Howard's End which sounds good, and I really feel like reading something else instead of Anna (which doesn't make sense, since I love what little I've read of it so far). I think the problem is that it's still too darn sunny here. Not at all the right type of weather for a big fat Russian novel. Plus I am feeling rather scattered lately and I really think I need more lighthearted books, not something big and weighty. I really want to go to the library and get a big stack of "fun" books.

Maybe I will. So there.

Anyway. I'm back in the blogging world (for now) and am noticing that I'm awfully tired of my usual posts. So I'm going to try to do some different things. More photos and different topics. Maybe. If I can get inspired.

Mostly I just want to get in bed with a big stack of books, a big stack of cookies and a big rainstorm outside and read for a week. Alas, nothing but sun for the foreseeable future. Darn you, California, with your boring predictable weather...