Wild Moon Swings

Sunday, April 02, 2006

The Last Romance Novel

This week has been pretty traumatic for me, but I usually have the energy to do things like ... write in my blog, so that's what I'm going to do with my precious time out of bed. Not to go into detail or anything, but I'm sorta ... unwell.

Actually, that's how the story of my post started. I was rushed to the hospital with and hung out there for a few days. Now I'm back at home and on some beauty pain killers. So, I was lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, when I decided to go get my ultimate favourite romance novel of ALL TIME and give it a read. It's called The Year at Yattabilla. It was published in 1970, cost 60 cents at the time, the first 25 pages are disconnected from the spine (because I've read it so much), and the page edges are a nasty red. It belonged to my mother and I found it in the basement of our house when I was 13 and started reading it. When I was 13 - it was THE BEST THING I'D EVER READ. No exaggeration. I didn't want to be seen reading it at school so I made a white cover for it, so that I could read it in the library without anyone knowing what I was reading. That way, I could also read it as many times as I wanted without comment. That's how much I loved this book.

In a nutshell: it's about a sheltered English girl who goes to live in Australia in order to inherit her father's ranch.

Anyway, I hadn't read it much since I was a teenager. I'd been busy reading things I hadn't read before, but this weekend I'd been feeling crappy and I wanted to read something that was going to make me feel good. And MUCH TO MY DISAPPOINTMENT - it didn't make me feel good. Instead, it just aggravated the heck out of me. One of my biggest pet peeves since I've been an adult is when a person talks like they understand the business angle of something when really they don't understand a friggen word I'm saying. And the little girl in this book is awful. If I ever caught myself being this willfully ignorant, I don't know what I'd do. I HATE IT when people are too proud to ask questions and become informed.

Granted, I seem to be expecting a lot from a book that would never be taken by a pawn shop in two million years. I think I've just outgrown romance novels ... or at least that kind of romance novel. I don't like charishing things that don't love me back, so I'm gonna tie that book back up with it's rubber band and give it back to my mom (if she wants it). I wouldn't want to my child to read something THAT stupid, and if I left it around the house, she might find it. I want my little girl to know the difference between assets, liabilities, and capital before she's eight.

2 Comments:

  • lol when I was also about 13 I used to look into my mom's old stuff and read really really REALLY old books. The pages all separated, yellow, with humidity stains and all. lol but I loved it! I still remember a lot of them I've read. And for about 4 years now I've searched for one which I've misplaced. It was so sweet! :(

    Anyways. I don't know exactly what I love about a book... sometimes it's romance, other times is action or something.
    For example: I like "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Captains of the Sand" by Jorge Amado, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and for some reason "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. They have nothing to do with each other but I've apreciated them (although I admit that Lolita is kinda sick, but read it anyway).

    I've read since I was a child. I suppose it was like a refuge to me. Escaping my problems by reading. Yes, I do it still. LOL.
    Right now I'm going to look for "The Phantom of the Opera" books, which I supose it's not so easy in this stupid country. lol but I have hope!

    I'm happy! I'm in Easter Vacation! Yes!! Well, be good!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:15 p.m.  

  • You read 'Lolita'? Brave girl! But I don't think that qualifies as a lame paperback. I think that might actually be literature, if you know what I mean. The movie for that was banned in the U.S. because it was too racy, but as I'm not an American, you can rent it anywhere. I haven't seen it though. Not because I wouldn't, but because it's never come up.

    And yeah, phantom of the opera is big right now. I was interested in that when I was a little teenager, but now ... I haven't even seen the new movie. Imagine that! I know. I'm awful. Oh, well, enjoy it!

    By Blogger Sapphirefly, at 8:56 p.m.  

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