what I'm reading now, and what I need to read.

The book stack is piling up again. I've got to get through the library books first:

• The Lacuna/Barbara Kingsolver: a rich, dense read. I'm going through it at a slower pace than usual because it's meant to be read at a leisurely place. Not speed reading beach fare at all. 

• Chronic City/Jonathan Lethem: several years ago I read 'The Fortress of Solitude' and dug it. It was my Chicago brown line reading for a while. I like his characters. I like that NYC is his setting. 

• Remarkable Creatures/Tracy Chevalier: on a whim. She's the author of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', which was a perfect little novel, even though I usually don't like the 'mix fiction with reality' genre too often.

• Solar/Ian McEwan: I love his stuff and this one's on the hold shelf waiting for me. Picking it up is on the weekend to-do list.

and then the books that I need to read next that are hanging out in a reproachful manner on the bookshelf:

• The Lonely Polygamist/Brady Udall: the title says it all.

• The Wild Things/Dave Eggers: I'm willing to give this a shot. It's Dave Eggers, after all.

• The City & The City/China Mieville: interesting sci-fi more in the vein of Philip K. Dick than the robots run amuck stuff.

I'm hoping to wrap this all up by July. For the 4th of July Tahoe trip, it's going to be the new Anthony Bourdain book, which I've pre-ordered. Natch.

best moment of the day

Because D-Money is home for the holidays and can wrangle O, Z and I had a luxurious half hour of mama-daughter time, which we spent reading. We like Richard Scarry's books for his nearly OCD attention-to-detail illustrations and spend more time talking about the pictures than actually reading. 

I like these impromptu moments. Some nights we don't even get to reading, unfortunately. And I wonder if the kids will remember these positive times or the times when I have had it and lose my temper. 

it is done.

I finished the last Harry Potter last night. I am sure I'm not saying anything new here when I say that it's a fitting finale to the series. Now I have an urge to reread all seven books to pick up on everything that I missed the first one or two times.

The best "children's" books - and I don't even want to call them that because it's a limiting label - are the ones you have on your bookshelves when you're well into adulthood. I for one have the "Wrinkle in Time" trilogy and the Narnia books from my youth and the "His Dark Material" trilogy [Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel - nice bit of casting in the upcoming movie version of "The Golden Compass"] and Harry Potter from the recent past. And as I'm typing, it hits me that these books deal with alternate worlds and realities inhabited by very human characters. All are variations on the classic hero's quest construct as popularized by Joseph Campbell.

Reading is an immersive experience. We expect to take something away, be it raw knowledge, escape or a different perspective. Phrases stay with you. Visuals inhabit your waking life. You reference the book in everyday conversation. I'm not expecting to call anyone a Muggle anytime soon, but I do love the "Voldemort Votes Republican" bumper sticker I saw on a beater of a car recently.

brb

Like practically everyone else, I'm reading the new Harry Potter. I expect to finish it in a week. Smell ya later.