Last night I was doing a bit of blog-surfing and I landed upon some interesting Blog-ponderment, over at Pages Turned.There, Susan presented the following:
Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.
What do you read?
For some reason, I thought about it a lot today.
Even though the scenario is filled with tragedy I still find myself wishing it would HAPPEN to me!
Well, not the part about the pet dying.
Plus, I hate being sick. And I don’t want to be dumped.
Let’s face it → it’s the GETTING FIRED that appeals to me!
All of that Free Time! And I like rainy weather!
But the funny thing is this. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I would not really want a book that was “warm and comforting” at such a time.
I think I would prefer something sort of dark and brooding!
Or “somber” or something.
So, here is my choice of four things I want stacked around me, as I hibernate in bed!
The Gormenghast Trilogy, by Mervyn Peake.
Things don’t get any more dark and brooding than this! Eerie. A wildly diverse panoply of extremely weird characters. No one is normal, really.
I’ve read it before, and I want it in My Hibernation Library©.
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens.
Or anything by Dickens. Something huge, preferably. Like Bleak House or something. But, I’ve read Copperfield and loved it, and I will read it gladly, during my hibernation.
Anything by Shakespeare.
What bliss it would be to lay in bed, hibernating, and reading through the Shakespeare stuff I have not yet gotten to in my life.
The Poetry of Thomas Hardy.
My favorite poet, well, besides William, above. I could read and re-read Thomas Hardy’s poetry and just live on my inner storehouse of burger-lard, like a Grizzly in his winter den!
Tell me. What would you want stocked in your Hibernation Library?
Tell me. And then, TELL SUSAN, TOO!
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8 comments:
Oh no, I couldn't read dark stuff in a situation like that. It would definitely have to be some good comfort reading – P.J. James, Minette Walters, Barbara Vine and Josephine Tey. Mind you, these writers don't exactly write about light-hearted stuff, but the style of writing and and the atmosphere of all these books I find very comforting. And then I'd throw in some James Herriot for good measure.
By the way Cippy, on a completely different topic, will you be entering my 'Good Granny/Bad Granny' writing contest? Pleeeeeaaaasee? With sugar and Starbucks coffee on top? (She said batting her lovely long lashes).
Hi, Patricia.
Yep.
I saw your contest info., and I have a "Bad" Granny story for you. I mean, I will write it.... just a paragraph or two.
But quite bad. Oh yes. Bad.
All the best to you!
"I will arise and go now / And go to Innisfree. . ."
Neat post, Cipriano.
I would want poetry, reams of it. And maybe Salinger to take some of the edge off. But I want these things regardless of whether I am hibernating or not.
For me though, if I were in that dire situation you name, brooding would be good.
Millay, I think. Definitely Yeats. Throw in a Billy Collins and some William Stafford...
A certain amount of wallowing in despair before letting it go...this is the way to mental health, you know!
And when I tire of reading, how about some Johnny Depp films. Dark and brooding stuff like that. Oh yeah. I am warming to this idea now.
Depp...to help me - you know - get over things...
I do find that if I plan a hibernation, I don't make use of it the way I do when I have to steal the time or it is awarded to me by the Gods of Free Time.
Probably the most comfort would be derived from coming here and reading you.
Nice diverse and diversionary stuff in a safe, warm cyber world. To hear a familiar voice - one I recognize and can identify with - this, to me, is comfort.
Innisfree for the 21st century.
Sadly it takes much less then that to confine me to bed without even the will to watch television. If I could read anything in the world though it would be Within a Budding Grove because that is the book I am currently reading and, ironically, even though I am currently unemployed, I am finding less time then ever to sit down and read. Whats the deal with that anyway?
Shark,
The unemployed, I think, live in another cosmos.
Maybe it has something to do with the book you are currently reading.
By the time you get to the end of the Proust you might find your time "regained..." Time that is now "lost..."
I envy your reading of Proust. Always thought I would read him - but have never waded in.
Forever Shakespeare.
It's good read for all occasions. :)
I really don't know what I would want to read - it might be even some sort of fluff magazine!
Stephanie
www.thewrittenword.wordpress.com
Dark and brooding books. Hmmm. I'll have to think up my own list of dark and broody books now.
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