Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Nerding Out.

I've been a little wistful this week because I'm reading two really good books and have been missing my lunchtime reading sessions. Don't get me wrong, the lunch plans I made instead were super fun and I wouldn't trade lunch with a friend for an hour of reading, but man, both these books are in my head, poking, poking, poking at me. That's when you know you have a good one, when it pokes at you. It's like having a crush, where it's always in the back of your mind and you get a little frisson of excitement at the thought of seeing it again. Yeah, I'm a book nerd. Or, I should say, I'm a story nerd. I love a good story and I love books and words and everything related. Amusingly, both these books are nerd heaven:


The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. This one is a story-within-a-story about a young woman writing the biography of a famous and eccentric author. It's SO good, y'all. That's my review so far. I'm trying to read it slowly because I don't want it to end. Also, like Her Fearful Symmetry (which I wrote about recently) it's got a great creepy twin element going on.



The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault. This is kind of a mystery and also a book for word-lovers - it's about a couple of lexicographers who stumble upon mysterious cits that seem to tell a story about a murder. But the origin of the cits, a book called The Broken Teaglass, doesn't exist! Ooooo...NERD MYSTERY. I love it. I also want to be a lexicographer now because I can't imagine a better job for an introvert than one that involves analyzing words for use in a dictionary all day. Rock star, that's me.


5 comments:

  1. Cool - I'll have to add these to my "must read" list. I checked out the new Stephen King and the librarian gave me a frowny face when she handed me the GIANT DOORSTOP and said, "This one's due in two weeks. I'm sorry." I told her I could handle it. It's King after all. I'm not afraid of 1,074 pages.

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  2. Several people have raved about the 13th Tale to me, but I haven't gotten to it yet. However, there's another book about a woman writing a biography of a famous author where the tales get intertwined that I really, really love: Carol Shields' Swann. It's a good geeky read. I think you might like it.

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  3. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely check it out. Claudia, let me know how the SK book is.

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  4. I LOVED The Thirteenth Tale! It's so marvelous! And, also, it's not Hamlet. ;-)

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  5. "It's like having a crush, where it's always in the back of your mind and you get a little frisson of excitement at the thought of seeing it again." Perfect description.

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