The Last of the Pleasure Reading

I've been cruising through a few books and thought I'd relay my thoughts before they become entirely muddled with environmental history texts.

I picked up on a friend's recommendation The Golden Compass. I'm so far out of the loop, that I didn't even know there was a bunch of hub-bub over this series and that it was made into a film. Well, now that I read it, I can understand why there was a bunch of hub-bub. Such fun! It's vaguely Narnia-esque, with its talking animals and adjacent worlds. I would have loved this as a kid but I'm still really enjoying it now at my advanced age (ha ha). I raced through the first book, took a break to read A Moveable Feast and then dove right back in to read The Subtle Knife, the next installment. The last of the trilogy is sitting on my nightstand now, but it will need to wait.

So, as I mentioned a while back, I wanted to reread some Hemingway. I picked up A Moveable Feast, started it and then stopped for The Golden Compass. I picked up the Feast again and, eh. It was ok. I like the straightforward style of writing but I never was moved by any of the characters. I feel like a fool criticizing Hemingway but there you have it. I was indifferent. I'd like to give To Have or Have Not a reread over Christmas break just to see if something that was less of a memoir would be more enjoyable.

In my 'let's reread what we read when were a teen' vein, I've started The Great Gatsby. I can't remember what I thought of it the first go 'round (maybe I shouldn't have burnt all my journals at Burning Man after all? Just kidding, it was the best decision ever.) but I am liking it well enough so far. However, I'm only about 40 pages in and I'll be stalling out to read Children of the Sun for the enviro history class.

Speaking of class, off to the first one in three hours...