I spent a lot of time in waiting rooms (march)
Well, I had this earache that kept coming back after antibiotics, and I ended up sitting in waiting rooms quite a bit. As a result, I read a lot of UK and Indian gossip magazines. It was a weird experience. All these TV/reality TV/music/movie stars I didn’t know anything about and now I know who they are sleeping with and how they lost 2 stone and how they are taking their significant other’s betrayal with their best friend. I can’t explain why I ended up reading them instead of the work material I always carried with me. Well, yes I can. I felt sorry for myself, sitting in a stuffy waiting room, and feeling sorry for myself is not conducive (for me) to reading work materials. Ah well. Luckily, I’ve also read some good books.

- Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy L. Sayers
Well, I caved in and checked out the one other Sayers book in the library (there are about 5 copies of Gaudy Nights and one copy of Murder Must Advertise. There’s another hardback book about the same size and without a title on the cover that’s always next to the Sayers books, I always get excited and think it’s another Sayers book, and I am always disappointed to rediscover that it is, in fact, a book that’s called something like “Little Native” written in america in the 1950s about a little “native’ boy and his extremely boring adventures). Ooh, I don’t know, I just really dig these Lord Peter Whimsey books. Man! Not just a wry witty mystery, but much more somehow. wooh! Really fun look at the advertising culture back then in England as well as a good plot.

The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
Oh my.
I found this in a used bookstore. The good person Ashlee Albies, back in Portland, had recently read it and had written to me about what a powerful experience it was. I figured maybe I was finally ready for it. It’s a very detailed description of all of the events before, during, and after the murders of 2 people by Gary Gilmore. Gary was famous in the 70s because he insisted on going through with the death sentence instead of appealing to have it reduced to a life sentence.
I guess I never would be ready for this book. But I also am only glad to have read it. At the beginning I read it before bed one or two nights, and I had horrible dreams in which I was part of the working poor in America and hanging out with my friend Britney Spears. They were really depressing dreams. So then I limited when I read the book.

Ficciones – Jorges Luis Borges Short stories.
My first reaction was: I am not smart enough for these stories. But, upon reflection, I have changed my mind. I am not well read enough for Jorges Luis Borges.
I mean, what is going on? I don’t know what is going on.
I can recognize that it is clever, and involves a lot of sly mocking of various literary theories and philosophical ideas, but I don’t know enough to know what those theories and ideas are in the first place. I think Europeans and probably even Canadians and most likely Americans with a certain kind of private education would totally get Borges.
There was one story I liked quite a bit, about a librarian in a universe that consists of countless numbers of cylinders next to each other, of an indeterminable height and depth, consisting of stacks of floors with book shelves, each floor with the same layout, same number of book shelves, same number of books on each shelves, same number of pages and words in each book. Each floor has the bookshelves against the walls of the round room, each floor is essentially a corridor around the edges with nothing in the middle, so that you can see up to the floor above and down to the floor below. Everyone is a librarian.

Green for Danger - Christianna Brand
The Doctor’s office is in the Sarit centre, which is an ex-pat-ish enclave (though not quite as dramatically so as some of the ex-pat shopping centres). I hate going there. But you know, part of me, a small part, also loves it. Ah well, ah well. So, I went to a bookstore while I was waiting for my appointment, and because I was feeling sorry for myself because my ear hurt and I was stuck at Sarit, and because this book was discounted to 200 shillings, I bought it. It is part of a British series of “classic crime novels”, and I was interested to read it because 1) it is a crime novel written by a British woman; 2) it was written and published during WWII, and the story is set in war-time England. I figured it would be interesting to read something written at a time when it was not clear if and when the war would end.
And it was more or less interesting. You know, not fascinating, and a bit too much descriptions of people like “He was a tall, striking fellow, shy but self-confident”. Not particularly that, but that sort of description.
In retrospect, it was not necessarily worth 200 shillings. But then again, at the time it definitely filled a need, or at least a perceived need, so ultimately I do not regret the whole incident.

An Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers
huzzah! found more Dorothy L. Sayers 2 shelves over from the other 2 books I knew the library had. So of course I checked one out right away. Wheee!!
So, super interesting: This is one of the earlier Lord Peter Wimsey books (well, I don’t know about the order in which they were written, but in the chronological sequence of the books, it is early). His character is quite changed by the time of the later books, like Gaudy Night. It’s clearly still him, but as time goes on he becomes less flippant, less prone to have war-flashbacks, and more able to open himself emotionally. And these are Murder Mysteries! Man! I am just LOVING this whole series!
You know, it’s kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV series) in that way –the characters are impacted and affected by the experiences they go through and the relationships they form. They are still recognizably themselves, but they change. And we are, in turn, changed ourselves.
So there. Stop making fun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.