What we're reading now

Faith has just begun the first chapter of my old copy of A Bear Called Paddington (and that's the cover, too!). One of her first comments when I handed it to her was, "This book looks old!" When I told her it had been mine when I was little, she was even more amazed at its age, going on for some time about how old it must be and how careful she'll have to be with it. I'm a bit amazed myself when I look at the price tag still on the cover and realize that it was bought -- new! -- at Target for 50 cents (discounted from an original MSRP of 65).

I just posted a list of all the books I read in 2009 over at Amazon. I'm on my fourth of 2010 now, The Pyrates, a sort of spoof on old Errol Flynn-esque action movies. The prose tends a bit thick, but the wit is rapier-sharp, as witnessed in this description of the characters' shipborne travels which opens chapter 4: The ship "followed the course charted by movie art directors since time immemorial, in which the image of a tiny galleon is seen gliding gently across an Olde Worlde map with whales spouting bottom right ... at which point the map dissolves into a long shot of the actual galleon cruising briskly across a sunlit sea. Then we get a quick shot of life on board -- first, the captain with a telescope on the quarter-deck, just to let you know that everything's under control, possibly a long shot of filling sails in case you've forgotten how the ship is actually propelled, and lastly to the matter in hand, whatever it may be."