On Books (Part Ten)

I know everyone read my post about meeting Gary Schmidt, so I won't go into that again, but I just finished reading Okay For Now. It was joyous.

Well, mostly. I can't say I don't have reservations about the ending, but overall it was wonderful. You know, that kind of wonderful that makes you laugh out loud (ask D, she heard me over the course of several days) and cry sudden tears.

How the diddly does an author manage to weave Jane Eyre into a story about a teenage boy from a dysfunctional family during the Vietnam Era? I'm not even kidding. I recognized that familiar feeling of angst that you feel when you start reading Jane Eyre—the angst that comes from hearing an intimate first-person account of an abused child who has no-one to turn to and no-one to trust—at the beginning of the book. Little did I know that he was actually going to start quoting Jane Eyre, and that the parallels would spring up multitudinously from that point on.

This is the reason I love Gary Schmidt. He did it with The Wednesday Wars, and he did it again with this one. Great, unpretentious beauty.

That, and the little, ironic jokes he cracks that you might miss if you're not paying attention—so that when you don't miss them, you totally feel like it's an inside joke that very few people even care about—just like my Shakespeare prof used to do back in the college days. And also, even though everything is a little too contrived in these books, I still really enjoy his depiction of kids who don't care about a whole lot finding sudden inspiration and renewed love of life by devoting themselves to unexpected talent in one of the art forms. In The Wednesday Wars it was theatre, and in Okay for Now, it's drawing—which goes right back to Jane Eyre! Doug learns how to draw from one of the public librarians' guidance, combined with his fascination with the works of Audobon. And, because this is Gary Schmidt writing, everything he looks at in the pictures, and everything he draws, has meaning elsewhere in Doug's life—and that's a good thing, because Doug's life was pretty crappy for the most part.

The title of this post leads one to believe that it is about more than one book, which it is. Right about the time I started reading Okay for Now, I also started a new job, which in and of itself is rather wonderful, but I'm not going into that here. The point is that even when you're gainfully employed, finding the time to read isn't that difficult. However, finding the time to read entire books at once sure is.

I can't remember the last time I started reading a book that short (only 360 pages), that I liked that much, and that I was also willing to put down when it came to doing other stuff. It reminds me of when I read The View From Saturday, and around the middle I thought, "Wow, I want to stop reading after this chapter, because I like this book so much I want it to last as many days as I can make it last."

As opposed to, "Wow, this book is so good I'm not going to do anything else until I finish it!"

Do you have those types of thoughts?

Yes, yes. We established a long time ago that I read too many books. But maybe I'll read fewer books now that I edit accounting manuals all day (which is much, much more fun than it sounds—trust me).

Texas Library Association Annual Conference!

What could be more fun than going to Austin to meet up with 6,000 other librarians? It's a great place for meeting up with people and networking, not to mention going to super-fun sessions on various topics such as "Powerpoint on Steroids," helping teachers with research projects, helping students get ready for college, and arranging library programs to encourage kids to read more books. The last one, which I actually attended first, is always a learning experience because even after all these years it still doesn't make sense to me that anyone would need encouragement to read more books—I've been trying to convince myself for years that I need to read fewer books.

The best part is always the book signing. Last year Janeheiress stalked Shannon Hale in order to get her autograph, but I didn't have to resort to author stalking. My awesome friend D and I were wandering around, collecting as many free books as we could get ahold of, when I passed a booth where the attendant was holding up a copy of Gary Schmidt's newest book, Okay For Now.

I said, "Oh, I love Gary Schmidt!"

She said, "He's sitting right there."

Sure enough, he was. Sitting right there. What else was there to do but buy the book and tell him while he signed it how much I (and some of my 8th graders) loved The Wednesday Wars. And as he was handing me back my book, Richard Peck walked up and cracked a joke. It took me a few seconds too long to process that it was Richard Peck, because authors look like normal people and he has a voice like a car salesman, exactly the sort of voice you would expect from a writer of such side-splitting comedies as A Long Way From Chicago and The Teacher's Funeral—if I had realized sooner who it was I would have shook his hand. As it was, I just stared with my mouth open while he walked away, presumably to get some lunch in the crowded and overpriced Exhibition Café (yeah, I bought a vegan wrap and 2 pieces of fruit for $10.75—yummy food, yucky prices).

Another highlight of the week was eating dinner at The Oasis, with a lovely, peaceful view of Lake Travis at sunset. The fish tacos were pretty good, but not as good as the ones I make at home (and where the heck did my modesty and humility run off to?).

I didn't mean this post to feature food so much, but I have to admit that a large portion of how much fun I think I have on a trip out of town is due to how good the food is. What's the point of going to a different city if you can't splurge on stuff you never get at home? So on the last day of the conference, we walked to the crèpe place a few blocks from the conference center. I ordered the Norwegian, and the waitress was so great she let me get rid of the tomato and replace it with asparagus. It was quite wonderful to eat a smoked salmon and asparagus crèpe while sitting outside in the April sunshine.

And finally, what is better than a Belgian waffle maker in your hotel lobby? Well, a Texas-shaped Belgian waffle maker, of course.

Austin is a lovely place. I think I'll go back sometime soon.

Rage

The only way to curb it is to spend a little time at the book store. Who stays mad after browsing the titles of Robert Jordan? Knife of Dreams!