March Book Update: A Unicorn, a Mouse, and a Frog Walk Into a Bar…

“Who has choices need not choose./ We must, who have none./ We can love but what we lose–/ What is gone is gone.” – The Last Unicorn

Ah, March. Valentine’s is past. Summer is future. Spring is sort of peeking it’s head out of the soil. And I, un-shockingly, am reading.

The month begins unfolding with Anansi Boys–finished on March 3–which is not my favorite Gaiman book. I will give Neil that he’s good at treating his characters with a certain brutality that results in the reader feeling constantly upset and uncomfortable. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on how you like your characters (I prefer mine not served up on a platter for birds to eat. Just sayin’).

That same day, I skimmed through Rick Steve’s Europe Through the Back Door, adding places to my summertime list. Then I skimmed again through Sexually, I’m More of a Switzerland–a collection of personal ads by Brits that always puts me in a good mood.

After that, I quit trying to find the next great read and continued my trend of re-reading the tried-and-true, picking up The Last Unicorn in paper form and listening in the car to Me Talk Pretty One Day. Both are old favorites.

During March (and February), I also attempted Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. But, while it’s readable and British, both things I like, it also lost my attention about 100 pages in. So I gave up on it and made my way back to the bookshelf to browse.

After I polished off The Last Unicorn, I continued the trend of tried-and-true comfort books and dove into The Tale of Despereaux, a beautiful, true children’s book about love and bravery and vocabulary. If I had a child, this is what I would read it at night.

In the middle of all this, I also tried picking up Ruined By Reading, a memoir about books. Unfortunately, her first paragraph started to delve into some eastern spirituality nonsense, so I didn’t get past the first page. I have no patience for the idea that learning things from other people is bad and being an independent, free-thinking person without regard to any of the world’s knowledge base is good. Left to their own devices, people come up with crazy ideas. Not all ideas are created equal. And, sorry, but neither are all minds. Having respect and awe for a man who decided never to read again because he wanted to keep his own mind’s ideas pure and untainted by other people’s ideas is just ridiculous, people.

Next came Wildwood Dancing, another old favorite. It combines all the fairy tales of Transylvania into one delightfully unexpected story. Plus, it’s an easy read. Love it.

And while I was reading Wildwood Dancing, I polished off another book on CD: the David Sedaris classic, Naked.  It’s not quite as good as Me Talk Pretty One Day, mostly because the latter spends much of its time talking about Paris and New York, appealing to my strong get-me-out-of-here feelings. But still it’s quite good. Particularly the part about the towels.

And, speaking of David Sedaris, I also polished off Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and Live At Carnegie Hall while putting the finishing touches on my new blog design on the 18th.

Next: Graceling. Another book I’ve read before and enjoyed immensely. Another fantastical adventure.

And, finally, Graceling’s companion book, Fire, which I finished on the very last day of the month.