"Hey, want to burn a couple of vacation days sleeping on the ground outside?"

My friend Doug (I'm sure you all remember Doug) is going camping this weekend, which made me realize that, along with a yearning to suddenly travel back in time to 1890 and hug everyone with leg-of-mutton sleeves, I harbor the delusion that camping would be really, really fun. This is the same sort of feeling that gets me excited during Chicago winters when I have to put on every piece of wintergear I own. "IT'S JUST ME AND YOU NOW, ELEMENTS."

This is a big reason I find certain cowboy novels attractive -- campfires! bedrolls! wide expanses! hats with brims! long rides ahead of us!

Of course, then I neatly leave out the threat of snakes/scorpions/kangaroo rats, but it's not like I'm going to be magically placed in The Sisters Brothers, so whatever.

Meanwhile:

Gratuitous Alex Kingston
GIF I'm never gonna find a
reason to use

I'm actually looking for other silent Western cowboyish novels. True Grit and Sisters Brothers were oh-so-similar in tone, and it's a tone I super-like. "We shall not use contractions! And there shall be strange characters met along the way. And a magical code of the West we shall refer to from time to time." Oh, so wonderful.

It's Thursday, and this is more Fridayish, BUT please be telling me particular genres you like. And remember that the more specific you are about shit, the more interesting it is. So if someone says like "Oh, I really like romantic sorts of novels," it's like "Oh, how very general of you." But if you say "I will ONLY read time travel narratives from the POV of a Polynesian man," it's like "Well. Let's delve into that and your psyche, please."

Of course, being that specific is nigh impossible, but STILL. Genres are usually so broad and boring. And we can CHANGE that.

Comments

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't...

Book Blogger Hop, Pt II

All right. The question for this week is: "Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?" Oh-ho my. I have an issue with book commitment. I start a new book, and it's exciting and fresh, and I get really jazzed about it, and then 20% of the way through, almost without fail, I start getting bored and want to start another book. I once had seven books going at the same time, because I kept getting bored and starting new ones. It's a sickness. Right now I'm being pretty good and working on The Monk , Northanger Abbey , Kissing the Witch , and I'm about to start Waiting for the Barbarians since my friend lent it to me. But The Monk and NA are basically books I only read when I'm at work, so I don't see it so much as working on four books, as having books in different locales. Yes. This entry wasn't as good as some of the others, but I shall rally on the morrow. Yes I shall.

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar...

Reading Rambo

Search This Blog