March 09, 2007
Hello, hello... Is there anybody out there?
OK, OK, I know! The care and feeding of this blog has definitely fallen way down on my list of priorities. So if there is anyone who still peeps this thing - sorry it’s so dead. (Funny thing, it’s so quiet here, I don't even get spam anymore. But I guess I shouldn't complain about that...). What can I say? Life just gets in the way sometimes and the daily grind just saps my energy. Lately, I've been using my laptop mostly as a radio and a mailbox, but not much else.
So in an effort to get the post- juices flowing, here's an easy one (I stole it from someone's VOX):
Kitty asks you to name a book you started reading but never finished.
Here’s mine:
Let’s get into the wayback machine, shall we?
About three and a half years ago I was living in NYC, working a crazy museum job, dealing with an even crazier commute, and hanging out with my friend "A". She recommends the book Interpreter of Maladies. Knowing how much I loved reading short stories (usually the perfect length and intensity for my subway commute) and also knowing my interest in immigrant experiences, women writers, New England, and Indian food, among many other things, she tells me I'll just love this writer. She also tells me that Lahiri was a classmate of hers at college. Though they never spoke, "A" had always heard how brilliant this woman was, and here she was winning the Pulitzer at the ripe old age of ... 33. Right. So I quickly try to suppress my growing envy and I check the book out from the library. I read the stories and am instantly IN LOVE WITH THIS WRITER. These were sad and thoughtful stories, written in beautiful, beautiful prose, simple sentences that somehow conveyed so much. Well, clearly I'm not that kind of writer but I keep trying...
Skip to Christmas '05, I have recently moved my kit-and-caboodle all the way back across the country. I'm in LA. AGAIN. I am broke. AGAIN. And it's Christmas, UGH! But surprisingly, I make it through the holiday with my sanity and a few nice gifts, one of which is Lahiri's first novel The Namesake. So I settle down to read it, but somehow it just doesn't take. Without the rumble of the subway or the knowledge that the story will end in 20 pages, I just can't get into it. A few months later I try again but the thought of an arranged marriage and this poor woman pregnant and isolated in the middle of Cambridge, Mass. makes me sad (and COLD). I put the book down and it stays down until…
Cut to spring 2007, (or now, for those of you still paying attention) and I read that Mira Nair's big screen adaptation of The Namesake is opening March 9th (that's today, folks!) Now, I feel ridiculous. This book has literally been sitting on my shelf, unread for YEARS, and the thing that has finally shamed me into finishing it is that I want to see the movie! But I have a rule about reading the book first. So now I am reminded of “T”, another NY friend who has since fallen off my radar. “T” was my movie buddy and the person from whom I adopted the "read the book first, see the original before the remake, eat your dinner before your dessert" rule. I can't stop laughing as I recall walking up to meet him one night long ago, on the ticket holders line to see "Bram Stoker's Dracula" at the now defuncked Paramount theater. Seeing him desperately trying to skim the last few chapters of the signet classic edition before being let into the theater, is among the most hilarious memories I have of T. Maybe you had to be there, but seriously, he looked pretty ridiculous.
So I will try to finish The Namesake this weekend before I let myself spend $ on the movie. I mean, how can I pass up the chance to see Kumar as Gogol!?
OK, so if there is anyone out there still reading: Tell me what you're currently NOT reading :)
Posted by lk at 08:44 AM | Comments (2)