This is how I feel but maybe the reality is not as uncompromising as that sounds although the pleasure to be derived from titles, visibly in waiting, is one to hug to oneself. A couple of weeks ago my friend sent me a link to a Book Riot page, the
Read Harder Challenge 2016. It is simple enough: a list of 24 categories is given and the object is to read one book to fulfil the requirements of each of those categories. At the time I receive this challenge I am already underway. My current read is
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver: a 500+ page novel whose principle theme is climate change as manifested through the unexpected appearance of Monarch butterflies who attempt to overwinter on the wooded slopes above the rundown Appalachian farm where the Turnbow family lives.
Attempting to escape her empty marriage and the drudgery of life Dellarobia Turnbow heads for an assignation that accidentally transforms her life. En route to a tryst with a lover, she stumbles on the hillside covered with swathes of these orange butterflies that appear like fire on the landscape.
"The flames now appeared to lift from individual treetops in showers of orange sparks, exploding the way a pine log does in a campfire when it is poked. The sparks spiralled upward in swirls like funnel clouds. Twisters of brightness against grey sky."
As the story unfolds the mission of the scientists, led by Ovid Byron, who are studying this phenomenon, comes into conflict with the views and aims of the local community for whom the continuance of their every day and its routines is their only concern.
When I turn the final page I am one book down and 23 to go. In the meantime I have reviewed the 'serving suggestions' that accompany the table to work to and find I already have one of the recommended titles, but otherwise decide to go it alone. After much reflection and searching on the internet I come up with a first list of books which I would like to read on any terms:
Bedside companions all.
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