Current reading matter
Selected Stories of O. Henry. Minor quibble first: Editorial notes were overdone and repetitive. C’mon, is there really a need to spell out what the words satyr and thistle-down mean, for each story in which they appear? Or to explain, ad nauseam, the author’s references to Shakespeare, Omar Khayyam, and Coney Island?
I realize that such notes are probably useful for children, if there are any who would choose O. Henry over J.K. Rowling, and students other than Literature majors, but please. Please, please, for the love of God, do not insult readers or detract from their enjoyment through over-explaining fairly common ideas. Satyr, forsooth. I’d take a definition of caravansary, any day.
Each featured story, on its own, was a gem of characterization and wit, particularly “The Caballero’s Way” and “Hygeia at the Solito,” neither of which I’d read back in 1984 when I first came across O. Henry’s work. Unfortunately, the man’s reliance on surprise endings ended up deflating my enthusiasm for the book as a whole. Too many stones in a piece of jewelry can make it look overdone; likewise, too much O. Henry can make you say “oh, ffs!”
Best read in small doses, and with a quantity of salt on hand.
Aesop’s Fables. I thought Daren would need this book sometime soon for her English classes. If memory serves, we took up the study of fables, short stories and other prose forms in the middle years of grade school.
My mistake was getting the Barnes & Noble edition to match the O. Henry book described above. Quantity over quality, the old trap — “nearly 300″ fables included, but most no more than half a page in length, no deeper than the jug-water before the crow started dropping stones in it. I’ve seen children’s editions with better dialogue, pithier morals, and more entertaining illustrations. One word, repeated for emphasis: Dull, dull, dull.
Get Off the Unicorn (Anne McCaffrey). A steal at PhP 20 (thank you, Booksale!). This was a fine introduction to the worlds beyond Pern. Though “Thorns of Barevi” WAS a bit of a shocker compared to the other child-safe stories. LOL.
Wizards of Odd (edited by Peter Haining). The subtitle “Comic Tales of Fantasy” is decidedly at variance with some of the featured stories. Still, if your taste in comedy leans toward the black, you’ll see the humor in “2 B R O 2 B,” Kurt Vonnegut’s take on futuristic population control.
Knights of Madness (edited by Peter Haining). See the preceding, particularly the Wikipedia link.
The Book of the Dun Cow (Walter Wangerin, Jr.). After all these years, the line Sum Wyrm, sub terra! still sends a chill down my spine. Nothing like ultimate evil to shake up your day, as Chauntecleer can attest. Next stop: Swallowing the Golden Stone.
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