“……. six impossible things before breakfast.”

Discours de la méthode by Descartes; Medieval poetry in the original Occitan; Course in General Linguistics by Saussure – Phew!!! These are the books I am currently reading: or more accurately, am attempting to read. I can feel my brain stretching in hitherto unimagined ways to wrap itself around so many new ideas and concepts. Rather like a piece of well-chewed gum.

By the end of the day, I simply can’t think anymore. My brain just gives in and shrivels up. And that’s when I get to the good stuff. Comfort food for the brain. Junk-food equivalent. No, not reality TV. I mean light reading, books that don’t demand anything of you, other than a suspension of disbelief, a willingness to be sit back and be entertained, and logic and reason be damned. Plain, good, undemanding fun.

Here are my picks for the week:

Finger lickin’ Fifteen, Janet Evanovich – Queen of the absurd and the ridiculous. The book is funny, gross, and manages to entertain. You do need a bit of a gap between reading her books. If not, the grossness factor hits you harder.

Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews. Murder with Peacocks, Cockatiels at Seven, and others in the series are all good books to read and relax by. The zaniest is Crouching buzzard, leaping loon. The heroine is a blacksmith, her husband is a hunk who teaches college and acts on TV sometimes, and the family is extremely large and terribly dysfunctional.  Tripping over dead bodies is what they routinely do, pretty much every week. I wait for the next book in the series to come out – it feels like getting news of relatives who live far enough away to be interesting.

Million-Dollar throw, Mike Lupica. Yes, it is a kids’ book found in the juvenile section. I just started reading it, and liked it. I think children’s fiction is a lot more interesting these days – they are not just school stories with midnight feasts and amusing French teachers.

Also read recently – Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb. Nothing like a gruesome murder set in the future to make you appreciate the “good old days” right now. Hint: I always skip over the gory descriptions, in order to keep my dinner down.

Other authors I like are Hilari Bell (found in the Juvenile and the Young Adult section), and of course, Meg Cabot.

Hey, I do read serious stuff when I have to!

For other times, there is http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/lewis_carroll.html !

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