I'm always reading some book and often more than one.
This afternoon I stopped at the library to chat with Colette, an author, artist and librarian. She told me the latest Thursday Next book had just arrived and she thought it was on the new books cart. It was indeed, The Woman Who Died a Lot, by Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next is an enforcement officer for Bookworld, a fantasy world that keeps track of books to make sure they conform to the author's intent. Fforde's books appeal to literary snobs like me. In order to follow them, the reader must have a good knowledge of literature. You cannot read the books without it. This is my guilty pleasure reading for the week.
I am still working on the books of Junot Diaz. I've finished his two collections of short stories and now am moving on to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I am reading Diaz's books to improve my own writing.
Finally, I am still working my way through Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the basis for Stephen Spielberg's move Lincoln. Each chapter reveals another facet of Lincoln's character. Recently, someone I know who had seen the movie wondered about Lincoln's lying. Another said he would never vote for a Presidential candidate who lied. I figured he better not vote then.
Lincoln avoided stating that he would abolish slavery because he could not afford to lose states like Kentucky (which was part slave, part free) to the Confederacy. So he prevaricated ( a much nicer verb than "lie").
Last night, Charlie Rose's guest was writer Tony Kushner who is up for the Oscar for his screenplay for Lincoln. Kushner, who is gay, said that at the beginning of President Obama's first term he was upset that gay marriage was seldom mentioned. However, as he worked on bringing Lincoln to the silver screen, he realized that Obama had similar problems. Both came to the Presidency to lead a nation torn apart, one with a war, the other with a recession. Lincoln had to deal with the problem of slavery, Obama had to deal with the gay, lesbian and transgender citizens. Kushner came to realize that in both cases, the Presidents had to deal with the political situation of the day. Since we do not have dictators in this country, laws cannot be changed with a wave of our leader's hand.
It will take me another month to finish Kearn's brilliant book because there is so much to be weighed.
At the same time, I am adding e-books to the new Nook that son Chris gave me this week. The old Nook no longer was holding its charge, so I am starting over there. It will take some time before the books I ordered through the library come through, so in the next few days, I'll add some classics from the Gutenberg blog.
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Today I finished and posted yet another story for Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
This time it is a Valentine's Day story, based on two different events that actually happened to me on Mother's Day.
Tomorrow is a book signing at Sissy's in Seymour. From 2:00 to 4:00 pm, Susan Manzke and I will be signing our romance novels.
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