Larvae

I finished "White Teeth" and I really enjoyed the second half of it. Then I wondered if I was supposed to enjoy it. I've been feeling guilty of late; I feel like I'm going soft, not using my mind. My days consist of cooking and cleaning (for the most part) and while I read quite a bit, it's purely for enjoyment. I don't really think about what I'm reading. I should pick up some nonfiction maybe. Or start reading a few journal articles, Nature is available online I think. Thinking about my reading habits, I thought I'd check the 100 best novels list put out by Time and see how many I'd read, (not that that list necessarily means quality), just out of curiosity. I was surprised at how few of them I'd read (only eighteen). I'd expected that number to be higher if only because I'd have been made to read some of them in school (I hadn't, not even one, maybe because my English teacher was obsessed with CanLit?). "White Teeth" was on the list, which I didn't know, so hey, my count is one higher than it would have been last week! Unsurprisingly, I've read most of the sci-fi on the list (though I haven't read "Slaughterhouse-Five" yet). I was surprised to find "Ubik" on the list. I'd read it during my Phillip K. Dick phase (brought on after watching Bladerunner). I expected that either LeGuin's "The Dispossessed" or "The Left Hand of Darkness" would make the cut but maybe I'm biased because she's easily one of my favourite authors.

At the moment I am reading "The Mysteries of Udolpho". I have been trying to get through it for almost two months now, having decided to read it after watching Northanger Abbey, wanting to feel like an Austen heroine. I was expecting melodramatic horror but so far there has been a lot of scenery, a brief romance and poetry directed at scenery. It reads like a nature guide. I'm half through and there's still nothing more sinister than a step-father trying to marry the heroine off against her will. Well, I still have two weeks left before I need to return it to the library so I'm going to keep at it. I have faith that it will eventually win me over!