When May rolled around and my second semester of graduate school terminated, I realized my reading diet had consisted almost wholly of poetry and/or poetic philosophies, interviews with poets, etc, for 15 weeks. A rich diet, though I equate it with eating an assortment of desserts at breakfast, lunch and dinner all those 15 weeks and—yes, I had a bit of tummy ache. The best remedy for reading fatigue is—no, not to stop reading, though do play some tennis and plant a few snapdragons too—“go a little nuts.” If you’re a student studying a specific subject, or are by nature a genre reader, be adventurous and reach for something completely different. It’s just like tasting a new food, and I’ve found it a great remedy for jolting those tired readerly taste buds awake again. Here is a sampling of my eclectic media consumption since May. I say “media,” since I’ll be including a movie here as well.

Season of the Body: Essays, by Brenda Miller. As a poet interested in writing non-fiction, I found this book very helpful structurally. Almost no two essays are alike. This is a fairly quick read, and I’d recommend reading it quickly because the subject matter does become a bit tedious: a lot of meditation, sex and spirituality rolled into a ball about relationships, culture, and a sense of purpose, belonging. If you’re interested in reading/writing nonfiction and haven’t read this—it’s a worthwhile read.

Orlando, by Virginia Woolf. “To give a truthful account of London society at that or indeed any other time [mid to late Victorian, I believe], is beyond the powers of the biographer or historian. Only those who have little need of the truth, and no respect for it—the poets and the novelists—can be trusted to do it, for this is one of the cases truth does not exist. Nothing exists. The whole thing is a miasma—a mirage” (192). This is a mere sample of the whit and hilarious commentary Woolf employs in telling the story of Orlando, a young nobleman in Queen Elizabeth’s court whom we get to follow through eight chapters and three centuries of society and change until, yes—I jest not, Orlando has finally been transformed into a modern woman. For those, who, like me, have encountered Woolf’s brilliance, but also her austerity in better-known works such as Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own, and her treatise on narrative theory, this is a wonderful, funny, engaging read.

The Cat Who Brought Down the House, by Lillian Jackson Braun, performed by George Guidall. Books on CD are a rare treat for me. I’ve “rediscovered” them this summer, however, as I’ve traveled back and forth from West Virginia to Ohio, and also as I’ve worked in the kitchen, needing something to simply engage and entertain without requiring a lot of effort on my part. Jackson Braun does a charming job of giving us a lively “slice of American life,” with characters believable and funny. As the title may suggest, these characters are not limited to humans. Cat-lovers will appreciate the authenticity of “Cocoa” and “Yum-Yum’s” foibles/abilities. And the good news—these are part of an extended series, so if you like this one, there are more to be had!

Lost in Austen (2009). According to Amazon, only 3% of those who purchase this movie also purchase the dreadful new (book) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance—now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! I cannot tell you how comforted I am by this. Though I must say, there is a twinge of something—reprehension, perhaps?—lingering at the back of my mind when I see that these two are linked in any way at all. But I digress. When I picked this movie up at my local library, I had no idea what I was getting into. Sure, it looked corny, but it said “Austen,” and as a diehard Austen fan I could not resist. Less than an hour into the movie I balked, but thankfully I persevered and finished the 3-hours-and-something mayhem. Let me be clear here by saying that the sheer ludicrousness treatment of this classic is what makes this movie hilarious. What heightened the entertainment value for me, however, was also tracking some of the interesting projections of modern society onto Austen’s much-loved love story. “Old-fashioned” love is revered, longed for, romanticized. Darcy is scalded nearly beyond recognition. I found the continuous harping on his character particularly tiring. But watch it. If nothing else, it will make you appreciate the original story all the more. Oh—and be sure to write and tell me what you think!

Copyright © 2009 by Charity Gingerich Share