BOOKS: Chick Lit
Alright y'all, I'm so excited about my next reading endeavour. Sorry to have fallen down on the ole posting lately - I spent a fun-filled Easter weekend in 2 of Ottawa's finest hospitals/emergency rooms, with sick/injured friends, and last week was just busy I guess. I've been busily not going to the gym after I bought my Y membership, busily not searching for jobs, and busily letting the state of our apartment fall to a new level of squalour. Oh, and busily not buying groceries other than cat food. Howduya like them apples? I'm glad my dear old mom doesn't read this blog-o-shame these days... :-) Or MIL, as she'd promptly send for her son and lock him up and feed him vegetables in attempts to reverse his newly acheived level of malnutr
ition. :-) Kidding all. Mostly.
Aaaanyways.
My new reading endeavour. It's spring. I feel like reading trashy chick lit. Why? No idea. Maybe it's the promise of beaches and floating matress dates at Meech Lake with Sheila, or of long-weekends hidden away under the trees with just me, my tent, a lawn chair, and a stack o' books... So being the overachiever that I am, I decided the following. I, my dearest loyalest readers, will not simply indulge mindlessly in chick lit. I shall indulge with a plan. Or better yet? A list. Because as you know by now, lists give me goosebumps - the good kind. (Did y'all read the comment section a few posts ago? SO immeasurably brightened a bleak weak by providing me with the finest example of bliss in paper form that I have experienced for ages (I almost said "bliss between two covers" but that wouldn't be appropriate now would it. Shame.) by presenting me with The Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information for Buy a Friend a Book Week. It's a giant book of lists. Ya. I know. I swear, I have been in raptures ever since. The front of the book heralds a warning: WARNING: THIS BOOK IS ADDICTIVE. Let's just say that some would agree. I can now tell you 8 Memorable Lines Now Attributed to Film Stars or 6 People Who Came in Second in History, and 17 Famous People Who Were Expelled From School, and 9 People With Extr
a Limbs and Digits. A few more bedtime readings and I'll tell you the 11 Most Unusual Objects Sold on Ebay, and 15 Famous People Who Worked in Bed. Invite me to your parties, folks, I'm full of them!)
Whew. You miss posting for a few days and the random tangenting that results!!
Alright. Books. Chick lit. Oh yes, so I have read that apparently Bridget Jones' Diary is actually literarily (My word. Like it?) decent, and worth a read. Supposedly it's good writing, and since it spawned a whole new genre in a way, I decided to give it a read. (This is really just a high-fallutin' justification for the fact that I found it for $3.50 and am jonseing to read about girls who chase boys and crave chocolate and hate their bosses and buy lots of shoes. And wear pink.) So, in my twisted, list-making neurosis, I have created a plan. Bridget Jones' Diary is based on Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. So, since P&P is about girls chasing boys and eating cream puffs and never working a day in their lives, other than to "study" piano and singing and cross-stitch and other skills that will make them "accomplished" and more desirable to the dashing young men of the shire, I will read it first. Then, I will read Bridget. Then, I will read "Canada's Carrie Bradshaw" (of Sex in the City fame) - Leah McLaren. I was won by her blurbs (quotes on the back by other authors): "Leah McLaren's writing is an elbow to the ribs of the accepted CanLit notion that smart and entertaining don't belong together - a fizzy mix of intelligence, wit, and u
napologetic fun." So, we will see what CanLit has to offer up in terms of Chick Lit.
After that, if I'm still on this kick, I am going onto read writing by black women. I'll start with Zora Neale Hurston, an early 20th century writer who influenced Alice Walker. She was billed at the time (in 1930) as being a good "negro writer". She wrote about strong, progressive black women at a time when to be so was a risky choice. Then I'll read AW's The Color Purple, as I've been meaning to read it for ages. Then, onto modern black chick lit, Terry McMillan. Don't hold me to it, but that's the plan. In there somewhere, I feel like sticking in Douglas Coupland's Generation X. I loved Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree so much, I almost went right on with the Gen X urban culture-type stuff of DC, but ... well, boy-chasing and shoe-shopping calls.
Currently I'm about half-way through Pride and Prejudice, and am enjoying it very much. The main character, Lizzy, is very witty and so is her father. Some of the other characters are so pompous and self-absorbed that their ridiculousness makes me laugh. And the smouldering mystique, sarcasm, and handsome good looks of Mr. Darcy - me likes. :-) So folks, there you have it. Those of you who know me and my ADD tendencies will be understandably shocked if I stick to the plan - remember back when I said I needed to read more classics? Ha! Anyways, off we go.
ition. :-) Kidding all. Mostly.Aaaanyways.
My new reading endeavour. It's spring. I feel like reading trashy chick lit. Why? No idea. Maybe it's the promise of beaches and floating matress dates at Meech Lake with Sheila, or of long-weekends hidden away under the trees with just me, my tent, a lawn chair, and a stack o' books... So being the overachiever that I am, I decided the following. I, my dearest loyalest readers, will not simply indulge mindlessly in chick lit. I shall indulge with a plan. Or better yet? A list. Because as you know by now, lists give me goosebumps - the good kind. (Did y'all read the comment section a few posts ago? SO immeasurably brightened a bleak weak by providing me with the finest example of bliss in paper form that I have experienced for ages (I almost said "bliss between two covers" but that wouldn't be appropriate now would it. Shame.) by presenting me with The Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information for Buy a Friend a Book Week. It's a giant book of lists. Ya. I know. I swear, I have been in raptures ever since. The front of the book heralds a warning: WARNING: THIS BOOK IS ADDICTIVE. Let's just say that some would agree. I can now tell you 8 Memorable Lines Now Attributed to Film Stars or 6 People Who Came in Second in History, and 17 Famous People Who Were Expelled From School, and 9 People With Extr
a Limbs and Digits. A few more bedtime readings and I'll tell you the 11 Most Unusual Objects Sold on Ebay, and 15 Famous People Who Worked in Bed. Invite me to your parties, folks, I'm full of them!)Whew. You miss posting for a few days and the random tangenting that results!!
Alright. Books. Chick lit. Oh yes, so I have read that apparently Bridget Jones' Diary is actually literarily (My word. Like it?) decent, and worth a read. Supposedly it's good writing, and since it spawned a whole new genre in a way, I decided to give it a read. (This is really just a high-fallutin' justification for the fact that I found it for $3.50 and am jonseing to read about girls who chase boys and crave chocolate and hate their bosses and buy lots of shoes. And wear pink.) So, in my twisted, list-making neurosis, I have created a plan. Bridget Jones' Diary is based on Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. So, since P&P is about girls chasing boys and eating cream puffs and never working a day in their lives, other than to "study" piano and singing and cross-stitch and other skills that will make them "accomplished" and more desirable to the dashing young men of the shire, I will read it first. Then, I will read Bridget. Then, I will read "Canada's Carrie Bradshaw" (of Sex in the City fame) - Leah McLaren. I was won by her blurbs (quotes on the back by other authors): "Leah McLaren's writing is an elbow to the ribs of the accepted CanLit notion that smart and entertaining don't belong together - a fizzy mix of intelligence, wit, and u
napologetic fun." So, we will see what CanLit has to offer up in terms of Chick Lit.After that, if I'm still on this kick, I am going onto read writing by black women. I'll start with Zora Neale Hurston, an early 20th century writer who influenced Alice Walker. She was billed at the time (in 1930) as being a good "negro writer". She wrote about strong, progressive black women at a time when to be so was a risky choice. Then I'll read AW's The Color Purple, as I've been meaning to read it for ages. Then, onto modern black chick lit, Terry McMillan. Don't hold me to it, but that's the plan. In there somewhere, I feel like sticking in Douglas Coupland's Generation X. I loved Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree so much, I almost went right on with the Gen X urban culture-type stuff of DC, but ... well, boy-chasing and shoe-shopping calls.
Currently I'm about half-way through Pride and Prejudice, and am enjoying it very much. The main character, Lizzy, is very witty and so is her father. Some of the other characters are so pompous and self-absorbed that their ridiculousness makes me laugh. And the smouldering mystique, sarcasm, and handsome good looks of Mr. Darcy - me likes. :-) So folks, there you have it. Those of you who know me and my ADD tendencies will be understandably shocked if I stick to the plan - remember back when I said I needed to read more classics? Ha! Anyways, off we go.
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