Needings and Readings

Finally, I’ve finally finished Airs Above the Ground. It was such a short little book, only 255 words, but OH, I just couldn’t get through it! I kept getting new books that I wanted to read so much more. So in the few months it took me to read 255 pages of my romantic mystery I read the newest Dune (The Winds of Dune), The Book of Lost Things, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and my aforementioned Straight on ‘Til Morning. None of which are terribly noteworthy. I had such high expectations for all of them. Dune (the original series) is in my most humble and unassuming opinion one of the greatest works of literature in history. Maybe after Hamlet. Or between Hamlet and Watership Down. Just a thought…

Anyway, so now the great Frank Herbert’s son What’shisname Herbert is writing prequels and sequels and biographies all from Frank Herbert's work. On one hand, I just love to see more more more of the greatest story ever written. On the other… they aren’t the same. He somehow changes the characters and I don’t love them so much. And he cheapens the story. I just feel he is trying to make money from his father’s legacy. They aren’t written at all like his father’s were, can never be as twisted, complex, and rich. But, I will keep buying and reading them, forever into eternity, because I love Dune so much. Oh the tangled web I’ve fallen into, I know it’s a trap but I just can’t seem to care.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly was actually quite good. It was darker than I thought it would be. It’s about a boy, David, whose mother taught him a profound love of books and stories. She dies (of course) and he follows her voice into another world that is filled with warped fairy tales. So, he must travel through the world to find the king who has a Book of Lost Things that might have a way for him to get home. Dancing about on the periphery is the Crooked Man whose motives we don’t know; just that he is evilly interested in David. It’s another coming of age type novel, a lot like Straight on ‘Til Morning. I just wonder why all the coming of age books for boys generally take them into battles and heroics and for girls into their blossoming sexuality? Maybe because boys never really grow up and will always dream about slaying the dragon. So boring.

Time Traveler’s Wife. Overrated. I thought I was getting into a deep scifi novel with time travel. Instead, it’s just a man with a hereditary condition that sends him (naked) to different parts of his timeline. He gets frostbitten and beaten up a lot. But of course, it’s really a touching, if heartbreaking, love story. I understand now why they called it the Time Traveler’s Wife. It is all about her love for him and how her life ended up revolving around his appearances and disappearances.

All right. Now I'm off to watch SciFi (Pfff on Syfy...) channel.