Sunday Salon: Reading, Watching, Recuperating

 

As you may recall, I’ve been home for the last week recuperating from shoulder surgery. It’s been a decent week for reading, once the pain subsided and the stronger drugs wore off.

• Friday 1/21: Surgery Day: not much reading, which should surprise no one at all. I was in surgery itself for four hours, and given the pain meds and anesthesia still in my system, I wasn’t awake for all that much of the day.

• Saturday: Finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for the Indie Lit Awards nonfiction panel & wrote review (it’s on LibraryThing now, and scheduled to post here on February 7).

• Sunday: Tried to start Cleopatra: A Life for Indie Lit, but couldn’t focus - the opening is rather dense and academic, and my brain wasn’t up to it yet. Switched to Certain Women for the Faith and Fiction Roundtable. Good call.

• Monday 1/24: Continued Certain Women. Decided to double-team for Indie Lit with The Warmth of Other Suns instead of Cleopatra.

• Tuesday: Finished Certain Women & wrote review (on LibraryThing now, and scheduled to post here on February 9).

• Wednesday - Saturday: Continued The Warmth of Other Suns to completion - review is in the works.

I’ll be home on sick leave for at least another week, so I hope to keep up the good work reading!


Books aren’t the only place to find good storytelling, though. In between the books, the naps, and the online time, there’s been some TV on DVD, notably the third series of Doctor Who, which we watched in full. We are serious latecomers to the delights of the Doctor - we only started last spring, with the arrival of the 11th Doctor, but we’re truly enjoying catching up! The third series (season) is actually the second year of David Tennant’s turn as the (10th) Doctor...and I just may be re-evaluating my feelings about Matt Smith once we get back to the 11th Doctor, to be honest. But no matter who plays the Time Lord, he’s one of the most original, unusual characters ever written.

Question of the Week, if you didn’t already weigh in on it via Twitter or Facebook: "Do you ever read multiple reviews of A Book Everyone Loves just hoping to find ONE that says 'meh'?" This was inspired by a particular book - one that I DO want to read, for the record - but after awhile all the fawning over any book just makes me wish for another take - not necessarily a hater, but just not a lover. I admit I have a contrarian streak, but I also like to see different perspectives and balance them out, and I’m wondering when widespread praise crosses the line into hype. What do you think?