2/20/13

cheater.

"..The thing about your heart's desire is that your heart doesn't even know what it desires until it turns up."


"The matches were a little he loves me, he loves me not, but then I saw right on the box that I had twenty-four, which would end the game at not, so I just let the small handful sparkle and puff for a bit, each one a thrill, a tiny delicious jolt for each part I remembered, until I burned my finger and went back in still thinking of all we did together."

It's just so much easier on my brain to read books that were written after the 1800's.  For a long time, I've been stuck in this thought that if a book I'm reading isn't a classic, I'm cheating somehow.  Cheating on the Bronte sisters and Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Cheating on their poetic language and extensive vocabularies I could never hope to attain.  If I can fully comprehend a paragraph the first time I read through it, something is wrong. 

Though I still say classics are my favorite, I decided to let all of my favorite dead authors turn in their graves.  I decided to cheat.  I bought a book last night.  A book whose copyright is year 2011.  I shamelessly bought this brand new book to the world and I am in love.  The kind of in love where I stayed up well past my bed time reading it.  And even when I turned out the lights I couldn't get to sleep for at least a half hour because I was still thinking about it. 

Classics are still my favorite.  But this book (sorry, Steinbeck, sorry, Austen).  It has me.

9 comments:

  1. ahh, I totally get what you mean!! I try and read as many classics as I can, but I don't let myself feel like I'm cheating or being a bad book worm by reading new books. :D
    The feeling of accomplishment one gets from finishing a Dicken's is like no other book feeling ever though.
    Classics are my favorite still too, but there are so many other great books out there besides the classics. :)
    What book is it that you're reading, btw?

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  2. I used to feel the same way until I just decided to accept it. Who says that good books can't have been written last year, or 100 years ago? Plus, I am way too attached to the young adult fiction section of the library. Happy reading :)

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  3. I am the same. I adore classics and didn't read anything but for a long time. I dunno how I stopped, because now I haven't read a classic in quite a long time. So watch out :p

    And yeah, what is the book??

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  4. "Cheating on the Bronte sisters and Nathaniel Hawthorne" haha
    I tried to read a Jane Austen book about a month ago, and oh, was it a struggle. I got 30 pages in and collapsed because my brain hurt. What book are you reading? :) Currently I'm reading The Fault in Our Stars and I love it :D

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  5. The book is called "Why We Broke Up." It was fantastic, but I ended up a little disappointed because there is a decent amount of profanity. So if you want to avoid that, avoid the book! Erin, what is your book about?? I want to get a "to-read" list together.

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    1. Oh is that the one by Daniel Handler? I think I saw that at the bookstore. It has a lot of gnifty little illustrations. Hmmm, The Fault in Our Stars is 2 parts romance and 1 part cancer story. But it's really good! It's both funny and sad.

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    2. Yes it is! That's the one. 2 parts romance and 1 part cancer story hahaha. I like the way you said that, it sounds like a good one. I'll have to give it a go.

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  6. Ooooh now you got me wanting to read that book!

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    1. No pressure, but it is good. I know you quit your book club and all!

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