Welcome!
The most exciting thing this week is my purchase of books. With over 1,000 books in my personal library, I don’t need more books, but I still buy them. I went into Barnes & Noble to pass the time before my movie started. I am just looking, I thought. I will start with magazines. I can buy a literary magazine. And I found some intriguing magazines, but instead of buying one or two of them, I decided to look at books. Novels! I can buy one novel, I told myself.
And then: I can spend $50 on novels.
The final tab was $64. I regret nothing. In fact, I’m glad that I purchased the books. They are:
Alicia is in the Basement by the Spanish writer Santiago Eximeno. In this psychological horror, Santi and Maria’s daughter went missing. Months passed. Santi received a clue. I intend to read it next weekend in honor of Halloween.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. I had never heard of her before, but she was writing noir fiction after World War II. An ex-fighter pilot, Dix Steele, struggled to find a place in Los Angeles of the 1940s. Brub, an old buddy of his, was now a LAPD detective. They joined forces to hunt down a strangler. I might read it later in October, but if I don’t read it this month, I’ll read it early in November.
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy. Watching a YouTube channel, I heard about this novel and thought it sounded interesting. And I have been meaning to read Tolstoy. War and Peace and Anna Karenina, great books, I’m sure, are intimidating. I will read them one day, but in the meantime, I have The Kreutzer Sonata. It is the story of infidelity—suspected anyway—and a planned murder. I’ll read it in November.
Up to now, the books I’ve purchased are short novels, novellas, that I can read in a couple of days. I need to pick up my reading pace to reach my total of 30 books quota. You might know, I had a stroke on November 29, 2021, and it affected my reading. Even this year, up to April or May, I struggled with reading. It took me forever to finish a book. Then in May or June, my pace pick up, and I read with more understanding. I am proud of that. But I need to read more books if I’m going to meet my quota. The last book I had bought is a long novel, nearly 600 pages long.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I read it before, but that was 10 or 15 years ago. (How time flies!) Recently, I saw the movie, and it got me interested in reading the book again. Mikael Blomkvist was hired by an elderly man to investigate a forty-year-old murder. Needing help, he hired Lisbeth Salander—she with the tattoos. This is probably a book I will read next year.
Tomorrow, I will publish my review of Call It Sleep by Henry Roth. Next week, I will publish my review of The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan.
Take care.
