No, I'm not writing today...I'm reading.
There is sometimes a downside to fostering avid reading amongst one's offspring.
Someone gave The Actor Eragon for Christmas several years ago; he read it and pronounced it marvelous...I read it and laughed all the way through at the blatant use of ideas, themes, even names from classic science fiction/fantasy. It became kind of a challenge to identify what elements were borrowed from Star Wars,The Lord of the Rings, The Dragonriders of Pern, The Earthsea Trilogy , etc. The Actor purchased the second book of the trilogy...excuse me, series...when it came out and read it in a hurry, then wanted me to read it. We've discussed various plot possibilities while he waited with baited breath for the third book (now NOT the last book), which was released over the weekend. He raced through it in a couple of days, crowed with glory that he had correctly predicted some plot developments, and urged me to read it because he wanted to discuss it. However, as these things go, I was too busy to do any reading yesterday. The Flute Player nabbed it the moment she came in from school, though, and began reading.
The Actor hopped in the car when I picked him up from his bus stop last night, the question coming before he had his seat belt fastened. "So, Mom, how much did you read?" and his face fell when I said I had not touched the book all day. Then he noticed his sister was reading it.
And, yes, I had to intervene on her behalf to get him to grudgingly agree to let her read it when I wasn't. We agreed that she can't take it to school, so I sat down and read today...instead of sewing, which was my intention. Hopefully I've gotten far enough that he can talk about some of the things that are stirring around in his thoughts.
The sacrifices parents make for their kids. (lol)
I think it would probably have been a fairly good book with some true editing. As it is, I'm finding myself fretting over the excesses and fighting the urge to just skim through it. Even The Actor commented on the true cheesieness of it in places. I don't often roll my eyes when reading fiction and that's happened several times here.
Maybe I'll get some sewing done when The Flute Player gets home and grabs the book.
Thanks for the heads up. My daughter has been waiting for the third book, and I have yet to read any of them. Maybe I don't need to now.
ReplyDeleteOh, it's kind of fun reading...in a way. I remember a song we played in high school band called 'Instant Concert' that had snatches of something like 81 different pieces of classical music in it; our director always asked the audience to see how many they could pick out. This is sorta like that...LOL...
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