Of Pigeons and Lightning

I had been sunk in short story/poetry land for so long that I forgot how glorious it is to read a novel. It's strange how it could take me a month to read a 250-page book of short stories, but I can read a 250-page novel in two days.

Just finished The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt. Three days of pretty intense reading sessions. I usually don't read hardbacks (since I'm cheap), but I got this as a free review copy from my dubious job as a book reviewer, so I was all too happy to eat it up. Perhaps I was partly so enthralled by it because of my new obsession with science ... but the characters were also very compelling. I want to read all about Nikola Tesla now. I think that's what good fiction does for you - makes you more interested in real life.

Favorite quotes:

A thought Tesla has about humans - "I've forgotten the way their emotions leak out of them, muddying the air with sorrow, anger, joy."

"Love does destroy, over and over again. So it is always the greatest surprise to find how stubborn hope can be."

There was also a lot about Tristram Shandy, which I found interesting, and this reflection on the most famous aspect of that book: "Yes, I know there are many years in between then and now. But they were bad ones. I thought, if you have to, you could record the years that followed by simply inserting a black page, a solid black square of ink. It would be the best way to describe the darkness that came next - a page of black ink, printed on both sides."

Yes, I liked this book. I have to write something coherent about it at some point.

Things With Which Ray Bradbury Is Obsessed*

*Determined by reaching p. 458 in the massive red book of his stories.

1) Sneakers/tennis shoes
2) Laurel & Hardy
3) Wind
4) Ireland
5) Charles Dickens
6) Men who go kind of crazy and shoot people
7) Boys with active imaginations

Question

Jesus, why am I so absolutely terrible at keeping a blog?

If this were Fail Dogs, I know what would be written across my picture right now.