The weather people are forecasting snow for sometime between today and Tuesday. Quite amazingly I'm very excited about the cold miserable weather. Whether it snows or not I don't care, as long as it is that comfy, wrap up in blanket and eat chocolate cake weather I won't complain.
I have already formed my plans and by george they are fantastic! It has been a couple of days now since the idea occurred to me, but it hasn't been the right weather to try it yet.

My genius plan is as follows:
Brew an amazing cup of homemade Chai Tea, such as I am sipping at this very moment. Grab a nice warm pinwheel scone [which I will have to make I suppose...] and curl up on the sofa to read a horrid novel. Yes, I said horrid. The other day I was feeling very Northanger Abbey but instead of pulling out the old classic from my shelf I ordered the book "The Mysteries of Udolpho" which is Catherine Morland's favourite book in the Jane Austen novel. She refers to it and others by Mrs Radcliff as being horrid novels. I'm excited.
There is not much better than a comfy wet weather plan. But perhaps everyone else doesn't care or makes plans for nice weather instead. Am I the only one who makes plans of this kind?



“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe’s works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days - my hair standing on end the whole time.” - Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey chapter 14

The long awaited book sale

Weeks before the event I was already saying "I'm excited! the book sale is coming up!", which weirded out my 'normal' and apparently 'non-geek' siblings. But I didn't care, I had been waiting for ages and now the time had come. It was the annual library book sale held in an auditorium where the books lie about on trestle tables sorted into a few vague sections. Cheap books were at my fingertips, the joy of sifting through unwanted literature was almost mine.

We arrived pretty early, an hour and a half early in fact. I sat down on the blue speckled carpet to wait while my Mum chatted to another person in line and chopped up apples for us. Surprisingly there were about twenty other people already in line before we got there. However, after us there was probably about eighty to a hundred. I didn't really notice because I was looking through the glass doors, sussing out which table I would attack first. Of course, we all decided to head to the AV table as soon as we burst into the room. There we would hopefully find some descent DVDs, CDs or even that old technology called a tape.

The doors would open at 4:30 so I went to the bathroom at the good time of 4:10. When I looked in the mirror I didn't look like a book geek. But I definitely felt like one, a little 'huzzah' almost escaped my lips but was cut short as soon as I opened the bathroom door. Oh the shock! The end of the huge line was disappearing through the big glass doors into the auditorium! How dare they start without me? I ran up to the door keepers and pleaded to be let in. I didn't notice any twinkle in their eyes as they replied, "your family is in there?" with questioning brows. They were teasing but I didn't notice. What they didn't realise was that being kept out of the book sale was the stuff of nightmares to me. Plus precious time was being wasted, I had waited a whole hour and a half only to get in a the end of the line!
In my mind I was weighing up whether to battle it out with the door guys by bursting into tears, or just laughing and running into the hall with a "you can't stop me!". Thankfully I didn't have to do either as they let me in while these plans were still being formed.

My favourite buys:
- The complete Katherine Mansfield notebooks [Dad found that]
- The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerald.
- Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo
- A room with a view, by E.M. Forster
- A rough guide to Opera.
- The evolution of Fashion

Yay. I can't wait till next year's book sale now!

Literary Dictatorship.

The best way to make a book lover feel ignorant is have them read the list: "1001 books to read before you die" I just went through and highlighted the ones I've read and my result was a lame 21. However, I do have about 50 of those books on my 'to read' list. Funnily enough several of them are more popular as movies, but watching the film doesn't count! No matter if you sat through the whole almost agonizing yet amusing few hours of 2001 Space Odyssey - you still won't live up to Peter Boxall's ideals. Do a little google search and you will find that many people have subscribed to that list and plan to work their way through each and every book before they kick the bucket. Whatever. My reaction is more on the Henry Higgins side: 'How dare you come here to dictate to me!?' Ok, I usually wouldn't get so uptight about something like that. Actually usually I would embrace the idea of people recommending books. However, recently my ideas have changed slightly.
I finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters a couple of weeks ago. I know! the name is hideous! Just like Little Women and Good Wives [augh!]. Wives and Daughters isn't like it sounds though, well, not really. I decided ages ago not to read it [because of the name]. But after enjoying North and South so much I read some reviews of W&D which changed my opinion. Yes, it was a good yarn, but definitely didn't even compare with North and South and the books it had been compared with by the literary snobbery. ie, they said "if you love Jane Austen you will love Wives and Daughters", shockingly it was also compared to George Eliot's Middlemarch.




Ok, it's not that bad really, but if you only listen to those adoring book heads you will not get an honest opinion.
Let me provide you with one:
The story isn't captivating. I kept reading it because I wanted to find out what would happen in the end. Even though it is very predictable I was seriously hoping Mrs Gaskell might work her magic. Perhaps kill someone else off? That would be cool.
Her characters were uneven. A few were very deep and amazingly portrayed, yet others were shallow and almost changing with each chapter. Granted, there are some scenes that are very powerful and beautifully written. I'm sure no one else could have done it like she did but the instances of brilliance did not save the book.
It is a social commentary, in that way it is like Middlemarch being set in a small town where everyone knows everyone. I do absolutely love the bits with county politics, the Squire, Lord and Lady Cumnor and some forbidden while some undesirable but endorsed marriages. Ah, that was cool.




I was really shocked to find out that Lizzy Gaskell died before she could finish the book! I was almost left hanging even though someone else has attempted a conclusion. It's just not the same. It was about midnight when I finished the book, I was quite tired so finding out the author's tragic ending made me almost cry. Soon after that I forgave her for not being able to edit her book properly.

I would have been all good with the book if it wasn't for the reviewers and the introduction to the book that caused me to think it might be the best thing since sliced bread. The impression I got was that W&D is a must read book. One of those that are essential to your education just like Shakespeare. Well, all I can say now is that I wont be recommending Wives and Daughters. To be blunt, people who are willing to overlook the problems with W&D should just forget it and read Danielle Steele. Or perhaps watch the movie.

Strange thing: The older miss Browning has three names in the book. She starts out as Sally, but changes to Dorothy and Clarinda at various times.