Reading Addict

I was born to be a teenager in the 1950s. The fashion, the glamour! I can see myself in neat, pleated skirts or beautiful silk-lined party dresses. Perhaps an eye-catching overcoat to fit over that carefully tailored, tweed look. Or maybe a sleek pencil skirt. OK, to be absolutely honest, I’m entirely too messy, clumsy, and lazy to pull off that tidy, accessorized look. But, hey, I can appreciate the era. Jazz music makes way for the arrival of new rock n roll pioneers…Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and that lady-killer Elvis Presley. And the movie stars at the time! They make me swoon.

Anyone who’s followed this blog knows my love for Cormac McCarthy and knows how over the past year I’ve become a big Spaghetti Western fan. Well, Novella Carpenter might as well pull up a chair and sit with my all-time favorite macho-masculine-tough guys. Novella is the author of the latest book I read, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.

Most people believe that librarians have read, and like, all the great classics. Once I was helping a young woman choose an item from a high school generated list. Her choice was whatever was the shortest. Her mother wanted her to choose a really good book. As we went down the list I was questioned about every title. “How long is it?” the student wanted to know. “Will she like it? What’s it about?” asked her mother.

‘Dude, Fight Club totally ruled.’

No doubt you overheard this direct quote, possibly dozens of times if you saw the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation in theatres. I didn’t see it in theatres, and I heard it about 30 times more than I wished.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘freak’ as one that is markedly unusual or abnormal, a person or animal having a physical oddity. That being said, I love me some ‘Freak Lit’! I gobble up stories about people on the fringes of society, people who have been cast out as inferior. These books humanize freaks; they force you to identify with them and examine your own life and identity. I love the intricacies of their stories; the intimate details of their inner lives, and the beauty that is found in the grotesque (Hmm. I think I just figured out why I like reality television so much.