Hmmm, two more books you are reading and neither one of them is "Another Roadside Attraction". I think I will be getting that one back in about 5 years ;)
3 more actually, and I'm about 2/3 done with all of them. Roadside Attraction sits approximately two in on the bicycling shelf of books, a very long shelf that I can reach from my training stand, so it will get read in the not too distant future (although the schedule gets interrupted if I throw a Bicycling or New Yorker in the mix). It does sit before Erik's copy of "White Noise" which I've had since he went to China.
Hey, I know this comment is late in coming, but I couldn't resist. MY sister gave me that same birthday card for my birthday last year! (Which was appropriate and also funny, because I am, in fact, adopted.) And I read 'Ten Thousand Sorrows' as well, after which I got down on my knees and thanked my heathen gods that I was adopted by a very nice, unabusive Midwestern Lutheran family -- the good Lutherans, not the stuffy kind.
12:36 PM
So I'm reading two books at the moment: Ten Thousand Sorrows, by a Korean adoptee, Elizabeth Kim, and The Liar by Stephen Fry, whom you may remember from the BBC series BlackAdder (he had various parts - most notably, Darling's superior). The former is about a biracial adoptee whose mother is murdered in front of her and who is later shipped to America to live with a Christian family. The later is a sort of homosexual-bisexual Catcher in the Rye that takes place in a British boarding school. Together, the two are a very odd mixture - but at least when one gets too depressing, I can switch to the other for a while or, vice-versa, when I'm feeling chipper, I can switch to something more sobering. On a mildly ironic note, I noticed this morning that the bookmark I'm using in Ten Thousand Sorrows is actually a birthday card I had meant to give my sister that shows several large people bent over with a little girl looking on and the words, "Dear God. Let me be adopted." I'm sure in some way I'm being very un-PC.
My favorite part from either book so far is from Ten Thousand Sorrows. It seems that Elizabeth's parents were a bit upset with her for desiring nice clothes and to teach her a lesson during her high school years, when everyone wants to be popular, made her choose only a single dress to wear each week. The lesson she was to learn from this: "If other kids make fun of you, you should consider it a blessing. You're being crucified with Christ so that you can share in his eternal glory." (p. 92). I bet they made her Christ-centered meals as well (come to think of it, they did make her eat eggs every day - that's certainly a religious symbol).
"Ten Thousand Sorrows"
3 Comments -
Hmmm, two more books you are reading and neither one of them is "Another Roadside Attraction". I think I will be getting that one back in about 5 years ;)
10:22 AM
3 more actually, and I'm about 2/3 done with all of them. Roadside Attraction sits approximately two in on the bicycling shelf of books, a very long shelf that I can reach from my training stand, so it will get read in the not too distant future (although the schedule gets interrupted if I throw a Bicycling or New Yorker in the mix). It does sit before Erik's copy of "White Noise" which I've had since he went to China.
10:57 AM
Hey, I know this comment is late in coming, but I couldn't resist. MY sister gave me that same birthday card for my birthday last year! (Which was appropriate and also funny, because I am, in fact, adopted.) And I read 'Ten Thousand Sorrows' as well, after which I got down on my knees and thanked my heathen gods that I was adopted by a very nice, unabusive Midwestern Lutheran family -- the good Lutherans, not the stuffy kind.
12:36 PM