Yesterday was so wonderful; I went into Jerusalem with a friends young daughter; age 14, so it wasn't like I was babysitting; more accompanying her because her mom didn't want her in Jerusalem alone.
Aside from Bazaar Strauss, where I purchased 4 shirts, 2 for each daughter, the only places we went were bookstores.
I could have stayed the whole day doing that!
When I came home my little ones were with friends, and my son was handling dinner (baked ziti, quite delicious!) I ignored all housework and dug into to my new purchases.
For 103 shek (which comes out to be about $25) I brought home 12 books, one of which was new, and a crossword puzzle magazine. Whee! Talk about striking gold! I'm in 7th heaven.
I bought
1. Rose Madder; by Stephen King (which I'm almost through already)
2 Mistress of Mistresses; by E.R. Eddison
3. Little Deaths; edited by Ellen Datlow
4. A Whisper of Blood; edited by Ellen Datlow
5. Death Dream; by Graham Masterton
6 Stephanie; by Winston Graham (no idea what this author is like)
7. Buried Secrets; Trish Macdonald Skillman (another unknown)
8. Barchester Towers; by Anthony Trollope
9. Under the Volcano; by Malcolm Lowry (again, whe? But looks interesting.)
10.Nectar in a Sieve; by Kamala Markandaya (started reading this. WOW!!)
11. A child's novel in Hebrew, hoping to imporve my Hebrew.
12. A book for The Artist, a Madeline L'engle book.
But what has really tugged at my interest, what I really think I'm going to fall in love with (as I have already dipped my fingers into her text and the taste is exquisite!) is Nectar in a Sieve.
It is a novel, written by a woman from So. India in the 1950's. It was her first novel published, third written. She died just this past May.
I love old books; I love the feel, the yellowing paper, the quaint pictures on the cover; but all that is dressing. Open the book of an unknown author and one is invited to take a tour of an unknown land. What will one find? Dull, uninspired gardens, dead trees and stagnant waters, with nothing but the scent of dust , rotting fish and dead flies? Or beautiful bays, mysterious grottos, a path through the woods that leads to a secret lake, fed by a glimmering waterfall, the air crisp, clean and fragrant flowers?
Here are a couple of quotes from Nectar in a Sieve; I leave it up to you to decide
the landscape.
My mother in the doorway, no tears in her eyes but her face bloated with their weight.
I had seen the slow, calm beauty of our village wilt in the blast from town, and I grieved no more;.....
The memories of that night are hard and bright within me like a diamond, and the fires that flash from it have strange powers.
I just skimmed through the book and found the quotes above; I'm certain there are better examples. I don't know whether I want to save this book for last or read it a bit at a time, or just read it in one gulp and then again and again. I do know that whatever else she wrote, I want to read!
Anyway, I"m going back to my reading; housework be damned! I'm extending my "vacation" as long as I can!
Posted by Rachel Ann at August 11, 2004 11:18 AM