We recently rediscovered the goodness of buying used books over buying new. We have since been stockpiling enough books to get us through 2005. Ever since we cut off cable television we've experienced a return to reading. I especially have seen a return to novels. And Davin, who we used to affectionally refer to as "post-literate" (his degree was Fine Art/English) has plowed through a few novels as well.

Last night I finished "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Now I know people will hate me for saying this, but I had to kind of force myself to get through it. I know, Nobel Prize Winner, Oprah's legions, fucking everyone else on the face of the earth who thinks this is the best novel ever written... As I was dozing off last night it suddenly occured to me that the plot, which seemed to focus a lot on themes of fate, destiny, and repeating mistakes generation after generation bugged me. I just can't get behind the concept of fate. The end.

Now I've moved onto "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold which is much, much better suited to me.

What I've got on tap:

-Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
-Orchid Fever by Eric Hansen
-Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison (I've been trying to find "Trash" cause I'm into short stories lately but have been unsuccessful.)
-The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (I am ashamed to say that I was supposed to read a Toni Morrison book in university but my thing then was to take 20 books out of the library at a time, none of which were assigned reading. Plus I was intoxicated by the sheer number of books available to me and hated the fact that I had to purchase copies of assigned books because they were always out. I don't even know how I made it through my first two years of university I was so damn poor.)
-The Farm by Clarence Cooper Jr. (Davin chose this one)
-The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 133/4 by Sue Townsend (I've read this one a million times. Best kids'/preteen novel.)
-The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor (Never heard of it but it's a series of stories about various women and sounded good.)
-Feminist Theory from margin to center by bell hooks (I gotta have my nonfiction)
-The Great Longing by Marcel Moring (Davin picked it. We both read "Smilla's Sense of Snow" by the same author while on vacation years ago. The hotel had some books in the lobby that had been left behind. I enjoyed it but the movie adaptation stank.)