red bull in a green field

I've had little energy or drive to write about the books I've recently read or acquired because the new job takes a lot out of me. I work 9 hours with little smoke breaks, carrying heavy plates to fussy customers during dinner hours and then, when the restaurant closes and the club opens, I take orders from fussy customers who can't spare an ounce of courtesy or a penny in tips. It's really quite depressing to see how unforgiving the world has gotten in the past two years.

Wuthering Heights was fantastic, I enjoyed it so very much. I've also completed Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop which somewhat turned out to fulfill certain expectations and then some. Interesting Gothic elements; Carter, it seems, has a preoccupation with Biblical characters - Melanie, the story's protagonist, is compared through several allusions to Eve. One particularly striking image occurs early in the novel; she is naked and sitting on an apple tree, a budding prepubescent body, just about to enter womanhood yet just not, in a middle of a dark, ominous garden with the nighttime closing in. A powerful image it was, a fallen Eve seeking redemption in a fallen garden, between heaven and earth. When Aunt Margaret appeared, she was described as being surrounded by a yellow, shinning light - an obvious Jesus figure. I like how the images were obvious yet not corny. Carter has an eloquence with striking images that she delivers fluidly.

I've started, just only, on Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I've never read any Gaiman before so this shall be my first foray into contemporary literature after a while. I got Gaiman because I've recently been infected, thanks to Jammi and Debbie, with the graphic novel virus, which I am gullible enough to carry around but, unfortunately, too poor to do anything about it. The job pays in another 2 weeks.

I recently traded my brand new copy of Porno (Irvine Welsh), which I never got around to reading, for two books: Salman Rushdie's Shame and Rudyard Kipling's Kim. The first because, apparently, it is comparable to Midnight's Children - and in my opinion automatically gives the novel massive potential. The second because I've always wanted to read it after watching the MGM film adaptation with my father as a child.

Anil offered to buy me the entire Sandman series which I turned down. I've realized the errors of my ways, I've paid my dues, and I think the offer still stands for next month. I want to get Fables as well, especially 1001 Nights of Snowfall. I like it when characters from public domains are taken out of their roles and put into another story. I've seen this before but it was always lousily done (like in school plays, prose, etc); Fables, however, looks wonderful. Plus, I've also heard many other wonderful things about it.