Inspiration

Backyard I, originally uploaded by Soul of a Starving Artist.

This is what I see when I look up from my work. I am truly blessed.

#2 The Handmaid's Tale - Nobody is above quotation marks...

...and Atwood would to well to remember that.

Book: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Pages: 295
Pages Read: 1-172 + 20ish at random
Entertainment Rating: 1.5/5
Snooty Rating: 1.5/5
Total Rating: 3/10
Books Read Total: 2/50
Pages Read Total: 448/15000

I kept reading this book because I was determined to stick it out until something happened. The first half was so unbearably monotonous that I figured there must be some really great twist in the second half. The story did begin to pick up a bit as I crossed the half-way point, but by then I wanted nothing more for the characters than a swift kick in the ass for being so boring. The dream scenes were bland and emotionless, offering no solace from the monotone droning of Atwood's writing. Her topic should have evoked rage and passion in me, but try as I might I couldn't feel anything but resentment towards the characters, and even then it was only because I felt they were wasting my time. Truly the only reason I'm giving her ratings at all is because she wrote a book and somehow got it published, which I suppose deserves some recognition. Perhaps her publishers will reimburse me for my time wasted.

My next book was going to be Atwood's Alias Grace but now I'm not sure. Has anyone read it? How do the two compare?

1st book of the year (and a new format!)

Book:A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Pages: 256
Entertainment Rating: 4/5
Snooty Rating: 4.5/5
Total: 8.5/10

I'm not quite sure how I read this as a child. The first half was a pleasure, Charles Wallace is simply charming, and poor Meg is...poor Meg. The book read easily but was well crafted and witty. The middle gets a bit dicey and becomes more of a chore for a reader who wants any clear picture of what the characters are experiencing physically. This is saved by the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and helplessness. At times it actually hurt to keep reading! Again, I don't understand how I read this book when I was young without being haunted by it for days afterward. Perhaps "evil" and "desperation" simply weren't words with much meaning for me when I was little. Thankfully! The book has a very strong good vs. evil theme, and evil is uniformity and lack of free will, while good is the freedom to move to your own beat. A complex book! It's a socio-political cautionary tale marketed to children...Bizarre.

Up next is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I'm about 60 pages in and not much has happened. My frustration with this causes me to reflect even more on L'Engle's book because they seem to share a common theme, but L'Engle gets right down to the point while Atwood seems to need lots and lots of setup.

1/50
256/15000 (And this time I'm really going to try and keep track of my pages.)