Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris

It’s not uncommon for me to have more than one book on the go. Different moods call for different reading material. Unless of course, I start reading an amazing novel and am unable to put it down. In those cases, I invest all my attention to that book. 

I find it really difficult to go to sleep without having read at least a few pages of a book. But lately I have been finding myself heading to bed at obscenely late times, and I’m lucky if my husband will let me read a quick page or two before insisting “lights out!” The last thing I want to do is read “a page or two” of a really good book, especially when most chapters are many pages long. (I have issues where I can't stop reading mid-chapter.) Therefore, I always like to have an “easy” read on the go, a book that you can pick up and be satisfied in only reading a few pages. 

Enter: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (DYFCD).  A compilation of personal essays, this is the perfect book for quick bed time reading, where you don’t want to be sucked into the story and end up staying up all night reading. I also have a tendency for reading well past the point of being tired, which ultimately results in my having to backtrack several pages in the book the following night to re-read what I already read, but can’t actually recall. With DYFCD, each chapter (essay) stands alone which makes this the perfect book to just pick up whenever you have a few extra minutes. No recalling necessary! 

This particular book I picked up last fall at a charity book sale a friend was having. Naturally, I couldn’t walk away empty handed and it seemed I had read everything else that was for sale. I’ve never before read anything by David Sedaris, so I cannot compare this piece of work to any of his others and I went in with no expectations. 

That being said, I did expect to laugh more. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud laugh, but at least a little chuckle here and there. If anything, most of the stories made me slightly uncomfortable out of shear embarrassment for Sedaris and his siblings. I also couldn’t stop thinking how if Sedaris were my brother and was writing some of these stories about me, I’d probably never speak to him again! (And maybe they don’t...) The book started out promising. The best (and funniest) story was the first one, in which Sedaris recalls a Halloween from his childhood. On this particular Halloween, one of the families on his block missed it and

proceeded to trick-or-treat on November 1^st, oblivious to their error. Sedaris’s mother, not wanting to embarrass these children, hurriedly tells Sedaris and his siblings to go and get some of their own candy. Sedaris is horrified that his own mother would even suggest such a thing:

“...Had I been thinking straight, I would have hidden the most valuable items in my dresser drawer, but instead, panicked by the thought of her hand on my doorknob, I tore off the wrappers and began cramming the candy bars into my mouth, desperately, like someone in a contest. Most were miniature, which made them easier to accommodate, but still there was only so much room, and it was hard to chew and fit more in at the same time. The headache began immediately, and I chalked it up to tension.”

Okay, So I did laugh-out-loud at this point.   In my opinion, some of the best humour and best comedians out there are the ones where we can relate to their jokes/anecdotes. While this was true in the first essay, I quickly found myself unable to find any relevancy in the rest. Had this book been classified more as a memoir as opposed to humour, I may have felt differently about it. People’s lives and often, misfortunes, can be fascinating to read about (think: Glass Castle), but I kept waiting to laugh or come across a part I wanted to read out loud to my husband... it never happened.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick has been in my TBR (to be read) pile for a few months now. Which is silly, because although it is a large book spanning more than 500 pages, it only takes a few hours to read. This book first called to me from the shelves because it’s beautiful to look at. Remove the dust jacket, and you will be further amazed at its beauty, the smooth, black cover with white detail.

(Side note: I can’t help but think how lovely this book would look on this guy’s ‘black, white and grey books only’ book shelf: Mr. Waterbury)

Inside, you will find an amazing story about a 12-year old orphan boy, Hugo, who lives in the walls of a Parisian train station. (Why are all good stories about orphan children?) Hugo, having learnt everything there is to know about clocks from his now absent uncle, secretly maintains all 27 of the station’s clocks. Having nowhere else to go, Hugo has another reason for living this life of secrecy: his deceased father has left behind a broken automaton and Hugo is determined to fix it, positive that it holds a secret message from his father.  Throw in a secret notebook, a cranky old toy store salesman (with a secret of his own!) and a young girl named Isabelle, and you’ve got yourself a mystery you won’t be able to put down.

The first 50 or so pages of the book is entirely pictures; beautiful black and white pencil sketches and Brian Selznick literally paints us a story with his art work which is used throughout the book. While Hugo feels like part picture-book, part graphic novel, part still film, this book is one of a kind. While there are only around 2700 words in this book, Mr. Selznick proves a picture is worth a thousand words.

This book was worth reading for this one quote alone:

“I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for a reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.” (page 378)

I ate this book up, and it’s one I dream about reading to my own children one day. I’m proud to give it a home on my bookshelf. 

(Now I just have to force convince the husband to go see the movie!)

Bookaholic

Hi, my name is Brie, and I`m a bookaholic.

I love spending an hour at a big Chapters bookstore and just browsing the shelves and bargain section. It`s peaceful and relaxing (especially on a day like today where it`s -30 degrees outside), and you`re bound to come across some great finds.  Even though my TBR (to be read) pile is constantly growing, I can never turn down a great find. And I do believe one can never have too many books :)

I have heard stories from my friend`s where they hide shopping bags in their cars, and cut tags off of clothes immediately, to try and fool their significant other`s from their spending sprees. I do this, but with books. Books are my guilty pleasure. I often sneak books into the house, remove any stickers, destroy receipts and hide the books in my bookshelf. I`m sure my husband is on to me, but sometimes the sneaking just feels bad-ass ;)

Here`s what I snuck into the house tonight:

From left to right, clockwise: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green; The Eat Clean Diet for Family & Kids by Tosca Reno; The Bride`s Farewell by Meg Rosoff; The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O`Farrell on audio book. 

These three books, plus one audio book cost me $14.73! (All bargain books). John Green is a well-known young-adult author and just had a new book released, The Fault In Our Stars, which I plan to review on the blog in the next few weeks. I have most of Tosca Reno`s Eat-Clean cookbooks and I was excited to add this one to my clean-eating collection. Meg Rosoff is not an author I am familiar with, but the cover caught my eye and the summary on the inside flap sealed the deal (taking place in the 19th century, a young bride-to-be, taking only her horse, flees from her home the morning of her wedding, seeking answers to the untold story of her past).

And last, but not least: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox on audio book. I have never listened to an audio book. At first I felt like it was cheating because you aren't really reading, but after reading other book blogs, I have accepted it is reading, just in a different form. So I decided that I want to start listening to books when I`m driving to work and back. But audio books are EXPENSIVE if bought in the store. And I don`t have an Edmonton library card yet. And I lost my iPod so I can`t download anything onto it either. (Excuses, excuses, excuses!) But then I stumbled across this one at Chapters and it was marked down to five bucks! I wouldn't have given it a second glance if it had not been for a conversation I recently had on Twitter with someone who recommended this book to me. Yay for Twitter!

So there you go! My successful shopping trip to Chapters. These trips make me happy. Books make me happy. So do new shoes. Tell me, what`s your guilty pleasure?