Hi again,
As I said yesterday, I posted two pictures. I know, there is one you cannot see. Well, I can't find it either... I'm still learning how to handle a blog and feel very ashamed of myself. Teens just come and handle the whole thing in ten minutes -it looks perfect with them. I've spent two hours trying to get what I wanted and am still very far from the expected results... Talk about being smart!
You can notice though, bu the way my cat looks at the computer screen that he is fascinated. Is that how we felt when beginning to read? I believe it. I remember buying one of my first books just before my sixth birthday, and feeling as proud as a peacock -maybe it was he first time I was allowed to go in a bookstore and pick up what I wanted. I'm sure I chose a book by the countess of Ségur, whose complete name was much too difficult to pronounce (all her books were by the countess of Ségur, née Rostopchine. Not a name for an almost 6 year old!). I can't remember though if it was Sophie's Misfortunes, or Good Little Girls. A few months later, for Christmas maybe, I decided for Little Women. Quite classical tastes in my young days, no?
Oh, before I forget, you find "née" and "fiancée" in English or American books regularly. I want to scream because at least 50% of the times, it is misspelled. You read: "She gave her fiancée a long kiss", which would only be possible if the girl was gay. Fiancée is always feminine. A man can only be a fiancé, one é, no other e following. Not so easy to write in an other language...
Yesterday, too frustrated not to manage to obtain what I wanted here to do any serious reading, I went through two old books picked somewhere in the garage. The garage has become a storage place for many books, because it has perfect shelves and enough of them. I grabbed "If looks could kill" by Heather Graham Pozzessere, which was probably bought at a book fair. I must have read it years ago, did not remember much of it, but it did not evoke the lousy memories a bad book can leave me with. When I started reading it again (we are talking about a 15 years gap), I was soon amazed by the general complete lack of quality. A killer in Southern Florida is going after young women, who are all red headed. The heroine (who, how surprising, has red hair!) slowly comes to terms with her crush about her stepbrother. He loves her, she loves him, and there is this amazing attraction between them, which would be enough to make them explode if they could not sleep together (verbatim). As they are easily able to satisfy their mutual craving, they remain in one piece and the murders will be stopped, the criminal prevented from causing any more damage and the hero and heroine are heading for a happy togetherness. The author wrote many books and sold more than 10,000,000 of them. The amazing part is he amount of clichés she managed to stuff in 360 pages. For instance, a young and pretty woman has been feeling neglected by her husband. He claimed he worked too much. She thought he was having an affair. He took a day out of work, and went back to his 14 hours daily load, but now, although she is as much alone as before, she is fine, because she knows he loves her. I would think the only way to improve their relationship would be to change heir daily routine, but no, just one day together is enough. You notice too that girls have kids very early, although they wen to college. They manage yo pop out a couple of little one before being legally allowed to drink. How did they do it? hat is the magical side of romantic suspense of the nineties. Nothing was impossible for a strong willed woman. Not even to leave a party and fly unexpectedly to Martinique -because I reckon she always has hr passport tucked in her clutch...
I'll find a better book tomorrow, though the first thing should be to get noticed by a few people. I must google how to get found on google.