yesterday's reading

After I finished Harvey yesterday, I took a celebratory trip to the library. Trips to the library are not unusual for me--I read like a maniac and have done so since I learned to read at five (before that I was a "read me a story" maniac). I had books to return and one to pick up and then there's always browsing. I live two blocks from the local library (for the first time in my life, I live close enough to the library to walk without it being a chore).

Despite being an adult who reads adult books and has a university degree, I can't seem to get away from reading books in the children's and teens' sections. For example, yesterday I returned two Betsy-Tacy books and Marked (a teenage vampire novel). I also have checked out (not returned yet) Middlemarch, Madame Bovary, and The Complete Novels of Jane Austen. I tend to read slower when it comes to classics. Emma Bovary gets on my nerves, as do a few characters in Northanger Abbey. Middlemarch will be accompanying me on the bus tomorrow for my big-city adventure of going to a new doctor (I plan to stop by a yarn shop on my way home to make the trip more interesting). We're looking at about three and a half hours on public transit and possibly more time waiting at the doctor's, so between knitting, Middlemarch, and a couple podcasts from Cast-On, I should be good.

Anyway, back to the books. I wandered through the non-fiction section to see if there were any knitting books I hadn't read yet, and then went over to the teen section. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was sitting there on their display shelf. I used to work in a library and shelved this book fairly often. Margaret Atwood is one of those authors whose titles make me curious, but when I see what the book's about, I'm no longer interested. However, yesterday, I guess I was just in the mood for some dystopian society. It is an excellent book. It is well-written, gripping, and (my favourite part) holds some hope. I disliked 1984 because I felt horribly depressed afterwards. I didn't like Frankenstein for the same reason. The Handmaid's Tale is a well-drawn picture of a society that has changed far too swiftly and drastically but there is a way out. There are other avenues, other countries. It is not the only way. So I liked it. I picked it up, opened to the first chapter, and started reading. Suddenly I was hooked. I continued to read while walking home.

So I've read another "grown-up" book. I've read plenty but there are some days when I still feel more at home in the children's section. I haven't quite gotten over the feeling that I'm breaking some rule when I walk into the adult's section, like I'm sneaking into a part of the world where I don't belong.