The Sunday Salon – This and That

Hello Sunday Saloners (and non-Sunday Saloners too, of course). How was your reading week? Mine wasn’t bad, but I was hoping to get more reading done than I actually did. I had this past week off (and the next too), so ideally I’d have spent it reading to my heart’s content. But I’ll be moving house over the next couple of weeks, so part of my time had to be devoted to preparing to move. I’m also mentioning this so you know what’s going on if I disappear for a while in the near future. Hopefully I won’t, but I’m still not sure how long it will take to get the internet up and running at the new place. One thing I’ll be doing for sure is carrying box after box of books up the stairs. Wish me luck! At least the exercise will be good for me.

This week I finished East by Edith Pattou, which I’ll be reviewing along with Kailana later today, and Ratha’s Creature and Clan Ground by Clare Bell, which I’ll post about later in the week. I also started Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, and so far it’s SO good. It’s sci-fi and possibly horror, and it’s full of fascinating real scientific facts. Did you know about tremadota and what it does to snails? Toxoplasma? Dicrocoelium dendriticum and grass-climbing ants? I sure didn’t.

Another book I’ve been reading is The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee. Susan and I agreed to read it together and comment on the several essays as we go along. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is a book about books, but in a different way than most. Buzbee is a bookseller, and judging by the first essay and the book description, he seems to write more about bookshops and books as physical objects, as well as the history of book selling and publishing, than specific titles. Which is fine by me, because I love those things too. I don’t have much to comment on yet. Susan said the first essay brought her great memories of her own years as a bookseller, but sadly my own brief time working at a bookstore was not a very happy one. So I’ll just leave you with three great passages:

When I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, first thing in the morning, I’m flushed with a sense of hushed excitement.

I know that sense of hushed excitement so well.

This rainy afternoon my wife and daughter are out of the house, and I’ve got a few hours to kill. An odd phrase that, time to kill, when we almost always mean to bring back time, increase time, re-animate time, actually hold it more tightly. What better place to enjoy the stretched hours than a bookstore.

I had to smile when I read this passage...I was telling my friend Debi something along those lines just the other day.

The habit of book-snooping is, I admit, an annoying one, peering over the shoulder of the person on the bus, or at a café trying to decipher the cover of an open book someone’s busy reading. There’s no judgement in the titles I uncover, it’s mere curiosity, for the most part, with a bit of selfishness to it. I might find what I’m looking for in the arms of a passing pedestrian.

Haha, book-snooping. I must confess I have a tendency to do that. But I do it discreetly (I hope).

You can read some of Susan’s comments here.

And now for something completely different: Zacarias update!


He’s growing so fast. Have a great Sunday, everyone.