So I was going along at a good clip last month, having read eight books by the time the middle of the month rolled around. And then I hit a wall. And that wall was Inkspell. I’ve had a copy checked out since mid-December and it’s been sitting on my nightstand, waiting for my mind to be in the right mood. That mood never really came but I figured since I was getting to the end of my borrowing time I needed to give it a go. Well, it was not to be. I picked it up and put it down several times over the course of about 10 days, and am still only about 80 pages in. I also couldn’t seem to find the time to write any reviews, so this is one of those catch-up posts so I can start with a clean slate for February. Here are the remaining books I read last month.

First up was Nick Hornby’s Housekeeping vs. The Dirt, the second collection of essays from his monthly Believer articles. I thought the title referred to the dilemma faced by readers – as in, “Should I dust or finish reading this chapter?” so I had a good laugh at myself when I finally realized what the title actually meant. I really enjoyed his first collection, The Polysyllabic Spree, and this followup was just as good. I didn’t add as many books to my wishlist, partially since I am trying to be more judicious about what I put on there, but mainly because I already knew about most of the books he mentions. I did, however, go out and buy the latest issue of Believer, even though I am a terrible magazine reader and have yet to crack the cover.

Which brings me to what I particularly enjoyed reading about, which was his commentary on the nature of being a reader and lover of books. For example, how you start certain books off on the nightstand with the best of intentions and slowly but surely they make their way to the permanent bookshelf where the chances of them being picked up again are slim, unless you chance upon some serendipitous discovery later on down the road. Or how some books just immediately get put to the permanent bookshelf as soon as you bring them home. I know I’ve done experienced both of those scenarios plenty of times and it was things like that, told in a humorous and self-deprecating manner, that really endeared me to Hornby and his writing. I’m looking forward to reading the third installment, Shakespeare Wrote For Money, which I got as a Christmas present.

Next was a novel by Howard Norman called The Museum Guard. This was again an author whose previous book I’d read was a favorite of mine last year, and so I was eagerly anticipating my second foray into his writing. The book tells the story of Defoe Russet, a young man in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1930s, who follows in his uncle’s footsteps by becoming a museum guard at the Glace Museum. Defoe becomes involved with a woman, Imogen, the local Jewish cemetery caretaker, who becomes infatuated and later obsessed with a painting of a Dutch woman on display at the Glace Museum. While I enjoyed reading about a city I lived in for several year, and picturing familiar places like the historic Lord Nelson Hotel, where Defoe and his uncle live, and I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. The characters were not just unlikeable, they didn’t seem authentic to me, and acted in ways that seemed unrealistic or contrived for the sake of the novel. So, a disappointment for me, but I have another of his novels on my bookshelf, Northern Lights, and I’m going to give him another try at some point in the future, and hope my reaction to this book was just an anomaly.

Last was another novel with a Canadian setting, a book called Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark, which takes place primarily in Newfoundland. One April night in 1912, a baby girl is found floating on an ice floe by a fisherman off the coast of Newfoundland. It is assumed she is a survivor of the Titanic disaster, but no one turns up to claim her and so the fisherman and his wife raise her as part of their family. The book tells the story of four generations of Aurora’s family – hers, her parents, her children and her grandchild, set against the backdrop of the Eastern outports along Newfoundland’s Avalon peninsula. I grew up partly in one such outport, where my grandfather still lives, and Clark’s fondness for these remote fishing villages is obvious, yet never patronizing or sentimental. The history and transformation of that part of Newfoundland is woven into the family’s history, so that we have a sense of the impact each have on the other. Aurora’s story, and the stories of her family, is as genuine as it is magical, and one that I will enjoy reading again.

All three of these books contributed to reading challenge goals: Housekeeping vs. The Dirt counts as both an Essay Reading Challenge selection and the ‘free’ slot in the 9 for 2009 TBR Challenge (the book was a birthday present from one of my nieces).  The Museum Guard counts as one of the Canadian Book Challenge selections, the ‘used’ slot in the 9 for 2009 TBR Challenge (I bought the book at a library donations book sale), and the ‘profession’ slot in the What’s in a Name? Challenge. And finally, Latitudes of Melt counts as another Canadian Book Challenge selection.

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