A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
I need to face it: when I go on vacation or just away for a weekend, I don’t get to read. But every time a chance to “get away from it all” looms ahead, I get so excited about picking which books I’m going to bring, and I have this grand idea that I will have such a relaxing time and I’ll spend hours and hours just lounging around with a book.What really happens is that we go out to eat, go for walks, take pictures, visit shops, eat some more, drive around… and then the only time left for reading is in bed, but since we’ve done so much during the day, we’re too pooped out to read for very long. This happens every single time we go somewhere, even if it a resort on a beach or a spa in the wine country. Let’s not even mention our European or Asian trips, where every minute is filled with something to do and see and eat.
This past weekend, we decided to drive up to Lake Tahoe and not ski (because there isn’t very much snow up there this year and our friends said the slopes were pretty bad). Aha! If we’re not skiing, what are we going to do? That’s right. Not read. On the way up, we stopped to go sledding. Then we brought a backpack full of books to find a café, but instead ended up walking along the lakefront with our hot chocolate and coffee, watching the sunset and chatting with the Canadian geese.
We then went to the casinos along the Nevada border, had dinner and rolled some dice until I was too tired to stand. So we went back to the cabin we were sharing with our friends, and dammit, I was going to read. I got into bed at 12:30am and vowed I would finish reading The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.
My impression of the book was that while I could appreciate Snicket’s (Handler’s) gift with language, his wit, and his humor, I never really got into the story. I felt detached from it all, smiling at the jokes but not particularly moved one way or another. Was it that I was tired? Or maybe it was that my purpose for reading was more scientific and work-related (one cannot be a publisher or a bookseller without having read any Lemony Snicket, right?). Or was it that I’m just too old for this?
The next morning, sleep-deprived but triumphant, I accompanied E to try, of all things, ice fishing. I crunched and slid out on a wind-whipped reservoir near Lake Tahoe with E and another friend, took some pictures of them in the 25-degree cold, and headed back to the car to read the other book I brought for a solid hour while they stood out in the cold with their lines in a little hole in the ice.Maybe we should take more fishing trips.
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
posted by Renee at 8:44 PM
feed me
4 Comments:
You're not tired. You may be too old for it. I had the same reaction to the first book, and never got around to reading the other 12. People I know who love them say that the first one isn't the best. I say: it's for some people, and it's not for others.
I'm an other.
I must say I never liked this series. We read the first, and it was ok, but I've never had a desire for another one. I think the style is one you either love or dislike.
I'm a fan. I find the style playful and that's compensation enough, for me, for the sketch of a plot. I read it more as parody; it doesn't require the same level of meatiness I demand from other stories.
I agree with you on vacations — there's less time to red then than during real life.
I guess I'm an other, too - I started to read the first LS book and was just plain annoyed by it. The author was just too obviously going out of his way to be precocious and witty.
I used to ice fish with my Dad growing up during the Newfoundland winters - I much prefer summer fishing!
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