Never enough

[muckefuck]

Whenever I strike out for lunch in town, I always tell myself Don't fixate on anything, because that's how you end up making bad decisions. I started with visions of a caesar salad pita, but awoke to the tempting possibility of chapchae once I realised I'd be passing less than a block from Joy Yee. However, when I got there, not only was the place closed, but it had been since early December! Shows how often I break routine. (They claim a "Spring 2008" reopening after "expansion", but I don't see a lot of activity going on behind those papered up windows.) So it was a pita after all, with a side of Here Come the Warm Jets. Not half bad.

I stopped by Amaranth in search of novels by Brian Moore and Seán Ó Faoláin, but returned to work with nothing more than a copy of The complete stories of Flannery O'Connor. Shiny as a new penny and only $8! Last week, I bought The collected stories of Katherine Anne Porter and last year I picked up Collected stories of Katherine Mansfield on the mistaken assumption that she was Katherine Anne Porter. (I realised my mistake when I failed to uncover Noon Wine in the table of contents.) In total, that's about 1,800 pages of short fiction. When do I think I'm going to read all these? I sent Ponder Heart to my sister a little while ago in the vain hope of getting her hooked on some other writer than Jane Austen. (Nothing wrong with Miss Jane, of course, but she's been very derelict in producing new works and I feel compelled to do all I can to keep my sister from falling prey to any fanfic.) No word on whether sees even received it, much less cracked the cover.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I have no good advice, only a warning that Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is Jane Austen fanfic of the most glutinous kind. I'm still struggling through it cuz of the wizards, but if she's an Austen head and not an old fantasy junkie she'll probably feel even more turned off by it.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I've probably already said, but I think Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Taylor are pretty good Jane Austen substitutes.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You have, but I can never remember their names when I'm actually in a book store. If only I had a whooziwhatsit I could bring with me that I could put them into...

[lhn.livejournal.com]

"Notebook"?

(Actually, I'd bet better-than-even odds that your cell phone has a "notepad" or similar feature somewhere in its Tools menu, along with the tip calculator, alarm clock, and other widgets that get thrown in for the heck of it.)

[bunj.livejournal.com]

I was going to say "crumpled bit of paper shoved into my wallet". "Notebook" sounds too fancy.