Books books books
May. 12th, 2006 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI finally made it down to the "new" used bookstore behind the market today. It only took me nine months. All paperbacks were 25 cents, all hardbacks 50 cents. Brilliant. The selection was larger than I expected, if more esoteric. It definitely had the feeling of someone who'd bought most of their books during an ill-advised period in the 70s cleaning out their library. Most of the fiction section was made up of people I'd never heard of. But I got a copy of Andrei Makine's Dreams of My Russian Summers (a beautiful memoir I read several years ago), a time travel book involving 1882, and something by Holly Lisle that looks like it'll be awful, but in an entertaining way--all for 75 cents. You just can't beat that. It almost makes up for only getting $16 from selling all my books for this semester. There were also three Doctor Who "New Adventures" books on the shelves; two of them mention Bernice Summerfield, and one of them had a horrifying picture on the front cover which I think was meant to be some future incarnation of the Doctor. I may go back next week and get them; for 25 cents each, it's hard to resist. Even if it does mean I'll have three more things to lug home a week from tomorrow...
After making my soggy way back to my apartment (it's been pouring all day--and apparently will be raining ALL WEEK, which certainly puts a damper on most of my plans. Grrr. If it rains on graduation and we have to have the ceremony in the KAC, I will hurt someone), I settled down with some tea to finish Brideshead Revisited. Religion played a much greater role in the denoumont than I was expecting. Perhaps I missed the signs it would end the way it did because of my own similarity to Charles in the religion department. My reaction was sort of like, "Well, that came out of nowhere. Ah, well, I didn't much like Julia anyway; who cares if she and Charles don't stay together?" (I kind of thought Waugh was setting Charles up with Cordelia at one point, although I suppose she would be awfully young for him. He seemed younger and she older, though.) Although of course, now I look at the Wikipedia article and see that the book was actually all about Catholocism. *headdesk* Well, if Waugh was trying to talk about faith and conversion very obliquely, he certainly succeeded; everything up until the very end was hidden so well that it flew right over my head. I thought it was much more about the ties of family and place than religion, not to mention about class differences. Bah. Maybe I'm a bad English major.
Although at first I was thrown by the large time jump between books one and two and wondered where the early thirties had gone, I really liked how the spiraling out of control in Charles' personal life mirrored the European spiral towards war. It was more fun reading about hijinks at Oxford with Sebastian Flyte, certainly, but the second part isn't so different that it feels like an entirely different novel.
I definitely need to get my own copy of this book if only for the beautiful descriptions of Charles's travels: first Oxford, of course, and Venice, and various places in Asia Minor...also the Marquis's long soliloquy right before he dies about Brideshead itself. Also, I love the poignancy of much of the dialogue. This, for example, from the very end of Book I, Chapter 4:
Wouldn't have minded seeing more of Charles's father at the end. Ah, well.
*
All the underclassmen have to be out by tomorrow at noon. Campus is definitely quieting down; some of that may be the rain, but gradually it's returning to the state it was in for the first days of orientation at the beginning of freshman year. Whitney's off campus, Ellen's recovering from her last all-nighter, Chandra's holed up in her room on the phone, and all the lamps are off in the common room, so I kind of feel like my single is the one bastion of light and life in the flat, or possibly the world. Hmm. Perhaps I should go poke people and see what they're up to..
After making my soggy way back to my apartment (it's been pouring all day--and apparently will be raining ALL WEEK, which certainly puts a damper on most of my plans. Grrr. If it rains on graduation and we have to have the ceremony in the KAC, I will hurt someone), I settled down with some tea to finish Brideshead Revisited. Religion played a much greater role in the denoumont than I was expecting. Perhaps I missed the signs it would end the way it did because of my own similarity to Charles in the religion department. My reaction was sort of like, "Well, that came out of nowhere. Ah, well, I didn't much like Julia anyway; who cares if she and Charles don't stay together?" (I kind of thought Waugh was setting Charles up with Cordelia at one point, although I suppose she would be awfully young for him. He seemed younger and she older, though.) Although of course, now I look at the Wikipedia article and see that the book was actually all about Catholocism. *headdesk* Well, if Waugh was trying to talk about faith and conversion very obliquely, he certainly succeeded; everything up until the very end was hidden so well that it flew right over my head. I thought it was much more about the ties of family and place than religion, not to mention about class differences. Bah. Maybe I'm a bad English major.
Although at first I was thrown by the large time jump between books one and two and wondered where the early thirties had gone, I really liked how the spiraling out of control in Charles' personal life mirrored the European spiral towards war. It was more fun reading about hijinks at Oxford with Sebastian Flyte, certainly, but the second part isn't so different that it feels like an entirely different novel.
I definitely need to get my own copy of this book if only for the beautiful descriptions of Charles's travels: first Oxford, of course, and Venice, and various places in Asia Minor...also the Marquis's long soliloquy right before he dies about Brideshead itself. Also, I love the poignancy of much of the dialogue. This, for example, from the very end of Book I, Chapter 4:
My father greeted me with his usual air of mild regret.
"Here to-day," he said; "gone to-morrow. I seem to see very little of you. Perhaps it is dull for you here. How could it be otherwise? You have enjoyed yourself?"
"Very much. I went to Venice."
"Yes. Yes. I suppose so. The weather was fine?"
When he went to bed after an evening of silent study, he paused to ask: "The friend you were so much concerned about, did he die?"
"No."
"I am very thankful. You should have written to tell me. I worried about him so much."
Wouldn't have minded seeing more of Charles's father at the end. Ah, well.
*
All the underclassmen have to be out by tomorrow at noon. Campus is definitely quieting down; some of that may be the rain, but gradually it's returning to the state it was in for the first days of orientation at the beginning of freshman year. Whitney's off campus, Ellen's recovering from her last all-nighter, Chandra's holed up in her room on the phone, and all the lamps are off in the common room, so I kind of feel like my single is the one bastion of light and life in the flat, or possibly the world. Hmm. Perhaps I should go poke people and see what they're up to..
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-13 03:34 pm (UTC)Just remember that anything you read about my Doctor being a manipulative little git, or Ace being a slutty laser-blasting toting terminator type...it's all libel I tell you! Libel! :?P
no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 12:25 am (UTC)Just remember that anything you read about my Doctor being a manipulative little git, or Ace being a slutty laser-blasting toting terminator type...it's all libel I tell you! Libel! :?P
Heh.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 07:52 am (UTC)Virgin did go on publishing Benny solo books for a while, under a 'New Adventures' logo, but with no Doctor Who on the cover, and no direct reference to the Doc anymore. (Just vague mentions of that alien bloke what Benny used to run around with.)
More than you ever cared to know, huh? :?P