Recursive Words

While tidying up in the hallway last night I discovered an envelope with my name on it tucked down the side of the window in the hallway. An undelivered birthday card from earlier in the week. Upon opening the card I discovered not one, but two Amazon vouchers.

Here’s the crazy thing – I have more than enough money in the bank to go and buy books whenever I want, but resist doing so because I have so many unread books on the shelves behind me already.

Give me a voucher though, and guess what I’m going to do?

The attraction of the Kindle book store is of course that you receive the books immediately, rather than waiting until tomorrow. Tomorrow is forever away, isn’t it?

I will unashamedly admit that I then spent an HOUR choosing a few books to download to my Kindle. After searching classics, and contemporary fiction, I ended up choosing the following:

• The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
• For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
• A Widow for One Year, by John Irving
• Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
• The Graduate, by Charles Webb

I’ve been on a bit of an Ernest Hemingway kick recently. I’ve always loved the way he writes, and after watching “Midnight in Paris”, ended up reading “A Moveable Feast”, and fell in love with it.

A small part of “A Widow for One Year” was made into a wonderful movie with Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges a few years ago called “The Door in the Floor”. I’ve always known it was from a much longer book, but never got around to getting a copy – until today.

I guess Wuthering Heights made it onto the list because of the recent movie. We didn’t make it to the cinema to watch it, but I’m still curious what all the fuss is about. I’m very much my own person when it comes to “the classics” – I would much rather read them and make my own mind up, rather than spout the received wisdom of others.

The same goes for “The Graduate”. I’ve never actually seen all of the movie with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft – of course I’ve seen the famous bits – and I’ve often wondered what it’s really about. Now I’ll get to find out.

So there you go. Several books to read in bed over the next few weeks.