Reading List Update

I actually finished Ann Veronica over a week ago and haven't had a chance to sit down and put anything together about it. I feel no shame though: the point of this blog is to record my exploits, not hinder them. So if I'm actually out living, then that's kind of the point yes?

When I was putting together my reading list Ann Veronica was kind of a wild card, but it turned out to be the perfect book to start with. Considering the turbulence of the past few weeks it was somewhat comforting to follow the heroine's struggles to establish herself similarly in London. And to know that I can probably succeed in ways that she couldn't thanks to a little thing called women's suffrage. Ann Veronica solves her problems by running off with a married professor. I don't quite see that in the cards for me... oh but then who knows?

There's nothing that quite matches the experience of reading a scrap of fiction and going "yes! I know that exactly!" It's those moments that are the point of this reading experiment, so this book really solidified my resolve to continue in the hopes that the mostly random order of books I selected will somehow continue to parallel my real life experiences. Unfortunatly, the next book looks like it will speak somewhat to my current unemployed state. Down and Out in Paris in London by George Orwell. Suggested by my father and described by Amazon thusly:

This unusual fictional account, in good part autobiographical, narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-out of two great cities. In the tales of both cities we learn some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and society.

So between the late nights, the pub meets and the sight seeing (not to mention the arrival of one Mr. Jason Hirama-hooray), I ought to get through this slim volume in the next couple of weeks. After all that is what long tube rides are for!