I just finished reading Here, a collection of poems by Wislawa Szymborska. I’m not going to give it a grade, because I don’t feel like I understand poetry well enough to, but I will say that I liked it. I have several more collections of her poetry on my nightstand. They have different translators. I’m curious to see how the different translations will affect my feelings about Szymborska’s poetry, and I will be reading more of her work soon.
I needed a break from poetry, so I started reading The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors by David George Haskell, but I put it down almost immediately. The first few pages were tediously overwritten, and I didn’t have enough patience at that moment to continue. I will probably give it another shot later. The subtitle (Tales from Nature’s Great Connectors) is what drew me to the book, because the connectivity of trees is a big theme in my novel. I had hoped this book might offer some insight or support for my ideas, but I’m not going to throw away weeks or months of reading time trying to wade through dense, unappealing text. If it doesn’t get better ASAP, it’s going back to the library unread.
After I put down the tree book, I picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. When this novel first came out, I thought it sounded interesting, but the reviews were mixed. I wasn’t willing to pay full price for it. When I saw it at the library’s used book store a couple of weeks ago, I bought it because I was in the mood for something humorous. I’m only eleven pages in, but it’s good so far. It seems to be mostly Jane Austen’s work, but with bits about a mysterious plague and fighting woven in. I’m curious to see how it will turn out. Many reviewers say that it was a great premise poorly executed. I hope that will not be the case, but I am prepared to abandon the book if it seems to be headed in the wrong direction.