I was tagged by Alyce at At Home With Books for a little grab a book and open to page…meme. The rules for this one are:
Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.
Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.
So on the top of the pile next to me is The Last Free Cat by Jon Blake. And here’s what I find beginning with the fifth sentence:
For all I loved her, what hurt most was knowing Id lost the one person who loved me, without question, utterly. Again and again the new truth smacked me in the face. I had no mum. I had no one but Feela and a friend who wouldn’t even put an arm around me.
This is a new YA book and I am enjoying it.
Over the weekend my Bookman and I went to Half Price Books (with a coupon!). I intended to get The Recognitions by William Gaddis. As my luck would have it, there was not a single Gaddis book of any title on the store shelves. But of course I couldn’t leave empty handed! So I brought home Woolf’s Second Common Reader (I already have the first one), The Art of Fiction by David Lodge, and what may seem like an odd selection, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster.
Another blogger, can’t remember who, read the Foster book earlier this year and commented on how funny it was. And Rebecca at Rebecca Reads read and enjoyed it recently (and she was an English major in college too). So I figured, what the heck? If nothing else it will make good blogging and it has good reading lists in it (as if I need anymore reading lists).
And since there was no Gaddis at HPB, I used a Barnes and Noble coupon to buy a new copy. But I didn’t want to pay shipping so I had to add to the order. I thought of being selfish, but instead I took the opportunity to get a little somethin’ somethin’ for my Bookman for Solstice. And now my arm hurts from patting myself on the back for being so good.
Veering away from blogging to a statistics class update. I know how I will be spending my four-day Thanksgiving holiday next week: studying. We get our final exam Wednesday of the following week already (December 3rd). The fall quarter has eleven weeks in it plus a finals week but the class is only going ten weeks including the final so I will be done “early.” Instead of only having a two-week break between quarters I will have four weeks! That makes me happy. A small price to pay for having to spend Thanksgiving studying.
The Last Free Cat sounds interesting. Good luck on your statistics final!
I’ve only gone Once to the HPB in Omaha. It’s sort of shocking, but maybe it’s a good thing that it’s not on the best bus route for me. I’ve been thinking I should go again soon, though. Those free shipping offers can be dangerous when you only want to buy one book! Still, very kind of you to buy something for your Bookman. Good luck with studying for your test–at least you’ll have a longer winter break to look forward to (and even more time to read what you want).
You could have bought something for me…
Ooh what a good quote from Last Free Cat. And, hurrah for getting a bit more time off between semesters. Just think of all the extra time for reading!
Yay for long holidays! And so glad you got your copy of the Gaddis. I’m so looking forward to reading with you. I’m very interested to hear more about the reading-like-a-professor book, too.
yes, lots of things on the reading list in Foster’s book! The problem for me is now I want to reread the works I”d already read.
I think I”m meant to be an English student where we get to discuss these things!
Foster’s written a companion book to How to Read Literature etc. called How to Read Novels Like a Professor. Someone’s had it checked out all. semester. long. but Monday, the day it was due, I placed a hold on it and so it is finally mine.
I hated statistics. Good luck!
Alyce, thanks!
Danielle, maybe it’s a good thing HPB is not on a good bus route for you. Saves on the wallet. The free shipping offers are terrible aren’t they? Who doesn’t want free shipping even if buying a second item adds twice as much to the order! And thanks for the good study wishes.
Cindy my sister, I could have but I’m not that good
Iliana, I am excited about the extra reading time and using it as the carrot to help me get through this last bit of school!
Litlove, I am looking forward to reading Gaddis too. I have no idea what to expect. Perhaps I will read the professor book over my holiday.
Rebecca, I would love to be a perpetual English student as long as I only had to discuss and didn’t have to write papers.
Susan, really? Cool. I look forward to hearing what you think about the novel book!
Daphne, statistics aren’t so bad, it’s more focused on stats for library research so it isn’t as involved as a full on stats class. Doesn’t make it any easier though!
The Second Common Reader sounds great — I need to read some more Woolf, it’s about time! Dec. 1 is coming up soon, isn’t it? It will be interesting to get started on that group read.
Dorothy, doesn’t it? I need to read some Woolf too. Maybe I will include reading her novels in my 2009 reading goals. December 1st is coming upon us very quickly!