Just the other day FD finished the most recent of the V.I. Warshawski mystery novels. It was an interesting project, to read all of the novels in order and without intervening other mystery novels, and made easy thanks to a dear friend who owned many of the novels in nice hard cover editions. For the ones FD’s friend couldn’t lend, there was the great local library which came through completely, including only a tiny wait for the newest book.
Now, this is not the way the books are usually read, probably. And while it was good to have the characters and recent events in that made-up world securely in short-term memory, there was a downside to reading the books at such a quick pace: especially since in doing so one sees how much of a template Paretsky uses for each novel. The most recent novel, which had a much-fun Glenn Beck-esque character (FD admits to being very shallow, it was hugely enjoyable to read Paretsky’s satire on that unpleasant persona!) was both enjoyable and had a totally unbelievable ending, so FD is ready for something different.
So, as a move toward the sublime from the (alas) basically ridiculous, FD is more determined than ever to plow through an annotated edition of Walden. FD is reading an old print version (from 1970); the Thoreau Society keeps an annotated set of all Thoreau’s writings on line here. This is a really nice site overall, and includes a link to an article about how to read large documents on line. However, as long as printed and bound books are available, FD will probably choose that format for large documents on line.
BUT, reading Walden feels more like eating dinner, not dessert. For “dessert” reading, FD is planning to ask the great local library for the new Hilary Mantel novel, Bring Up the Bodies. FD very much enjoyed the first of what is said to be a trilogy about Cromwell, Wolf Hall, and the reviews for the new novel have been very good, so FD is expecting to enjoy this one, too.