Today just feels like a poetry kind of day. So here is a poem that made me smile and made me think of my own reading of Don Quixote (not that DQ is dull but it is slow going).

Four years ago I started reading Proust.
Although I’m past the halfway point, I still
Have seven hundred pages of reduced
Type left before I reach the end. I will
Slog through. It can’t get much more dull than what
Is happening now: he’s buying crepe-de-chine
Wraps and a real, well-documented hat
For his imaginary Albertine.
Oh.. what a slimy sort he must have been —
So weak, so sweetly poisonous, so fey!
Four years ago, by God! — and even then
How I was looking forward to the day
I would be able to forgive, at last,
And, to forget Rememberance of Things Past.

A Bookmark by Tom Disch, from Good Poems.

I love this poetry collection and turn to it all the time. Today I lucked out and found Good Poems for Hard Times in the bargain section on Amazon. I ordered it and can’t wait to get it.

I was just one book away from finishing the Once Upon a Time Challenge. Darn. Anyway, a big thank you to Carl V. for giving us bookworms a great challenge, and the best part for me was delving into a new genre. Now after this challenge I think I’ll have to check out the sci-fi bookshelves in the library or bookstore as I really enjoyed the books I read by Octavia Butler, Connie Willis and Jim Butcher and would like to read more of their books.

Moving on to another challenge, I still haven’t started a book for the Southern Reading Challenge but I think I’ll have to do that soon. The two mystery/thriller books I mentioned yesterday are quite intense and I need something a bit different to balance those out.
I’ve also decided to take the plunge and join Lesley’s The Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge. I love to travel and I love books so that sounds like a perfect match. The challenge starts in July and goes through the end of December and requires you to read six books in which location is integral to the story. Best of all, at least for me because I tend to change my mind a lot, you can switch out books throughout the challenge.

For now here are my choices, and yes they are all from my stacks:

• A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
• Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald
• Duende by Jason Webster
• Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller
• A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson
• The Hacienda by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

Don’t even ask about Don Quixote. I’m still at page 100 or so. Well, there is always the weekend to try and catch up on reading right? That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Hope you have a great weekend!