Geminis are always doing two things at a time. And double Geminis like me are often doing four. Thus it is with the books I’m reading at the present moment.
I finished my last book, Life on the Color Line, by UC’s new president, and found it was still having a major effect on me – running around in my brain, so that I wasn’t ready just to pick up another big book. So I searched my stack for other possibilities. I found Feminist Fairy Tales, by Barbara G. Walker, who has written a lot of spiritual stuff, including the I Ching of the Goddess, and The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, both excellent and already on my shelves. These Fairy Tales are wonderful! What a treat! I could easily think they were hundreds of years old and steeped in other cultures, rather than being published in 1996 here in America. The Frog Princess is already a personal favorite. But I cannot read a whole book of fairy tales in one sitting – they must be savored.
So I needed something else to read. I had bought a book about one of my favorite Goddesses / heroines several years ago: Inanna, from the Myths of Ancient Sumer, by Kim Echlin. This is a ‘moving, sensitive and knowledgable translation’ of these myths (if myths they are : > ) from 4,000 years ago. Just reading the cover and intro, wandering through the striking illustrations, and reading a few pages (very sexy, these Sumerians) at random started a whole other set of ideas going in my brain .
Therefore, I decided to read the book, Tempest Tales, by Walter Mosley, which he has turned into his first play – Fall from Heaven – which I’m going to see tomorrow at the Playhouse. But a big part of me didn’t want to read it before seeing the play – I did take just a taste of a few pages – wonderful writing. I’ve read his mysteries, which are also great.
Then last night, I was ready for something big again. I had bought Teddy Kennedy’s book True Compass, for just such an emergency, but had loaned it to son Brian. Upon inquiry, I found that he was also reading other stuff, and was not focused on Teddy’s Compass. So now I’m happily immersed in Hyannis Port, taking frequent sails into Nantucket Sound. He is a born Irish storyteller.
So I am the world’s happiest camper, prepared for any book emergency which might arise!