Anybody who reads me frequently will know that this news has been a looong time coming:
I started Middlemarch today.
Excitement doesn't even come CLOSE to what I feel right now. Anticipation? Sure, but what a tepid word.
I can't WAIT. I've read 3 pages, and I feel such a mixture of exhilaration and despair that it's nearly unbearable. The despair comes from the feeling: Jaysus, I will never ever be able to write like that. HOW DOES SHE DO THAT????
Still. It's all good.
Anne? It's funny: I bought the book today, and walked to the subway through the rain, running my hand over the smooth cover with the Monet painting, wanting to crack it open THEN AND THERE, even though it was raining. I wanted to step into a doorway, hide from the wet, and read a couple of pages. This is the type of anticipation I feel. And just wanted you to know, Anne, that I couldn't wait to tell you that. I've never met Anne. It's one of those blog friendships, one of the things that can happen in this medium. A miracle, a weird thing really: That I would buy that book today, and not be able to wait to tell YOU!
Posted by sheilaI'm reading "The Invisible Man" right now and I have that same thing of grabbing a few minutes to knock back a couple of pages as I go. I have a ton of stuff going on this week, but I keep sneaking a minute to read the book.
And red, completely unrelated... but I saw the rep shows this weekend. (b/c somebody did "Cowboy Mouth")
I was depressed by the space, but I was also struck by fresh gratitude for Gershberg's good direction.
Posted by: popskull at March 21, 2005 8:23 AM:)
I'm excited for you. I remember reading Middlemarch for the first time. What a great book. It's on my list of "five desert island books."
Posted by: ricki at March 21, 2005 8:34 AMDearest: I haven't got to Middlemarch yet, but Adam Bede is [by far] my favorite 19th century novel. A wonderful writer. love, dad
Posted by: dad at March 21, 2005 9:36 AMI have "Middlemarch" sitting on a shelf in one of my bookcases since, I don't know, 1991? I just bought it on impulse, not knowing ANYTHING about the author or the story. I still don't know anything, since I never read the book.
Now this post has certainly triggered my curiosity... Please keep us posted on your impressions, Sheila!
I know what you mean! I am slightly self-conscious of how hugely excited I am that you are reading her!
And maybe I'll come to the Hitchhiker's thing and we can finally meet. Although, you know, I'm a bit shy about meeting bloggers, because they know some things about me that even people who have known me for years don't know.
For example, the story I'm getting ready to tell - about something that just happened to me earlier this morning - I will tell that on my blog. No one in my office, however, is going to have any idea what just happened to me. (Check back later for details.)
Posted by: Anne at March 21, 2005 10:07 AMI started reading Middlemarch the very same week I started dating my now-husband. Our early courtship had a serious e-mail component, and that book was a frequent topic in those first days: Dorothea's charming earnestness, etc. But I put it down, for some reason (probably because I had started dating my now-husband!!) about 200 pages into it, and six years, a wedding, two babies and about a thousand other books later, I still haven't picked it back up, in spite of many noisy declarations to do so. This is a source of tremendous guilt for me (how often is the greatness of Middlemarch mentioned out there?!), as well as a bit of a joke in my marriage. But I am inspired anew to return to it after reading your post. I think I need to do it soon, before, in my insanity, I decide to attach some sort of weird superstition to NOT finishing it.
Posted by: Another Sheila at March 21, 2005 10:08 AMDad ... she's a wonderful writer. I love the tiny flashes of wit. One of the characters, talking about a particularly intellectual gentleman, says that if you looked closely at his blood, you would see it was "all made up of semi-colons and parentheses".
I'll post a couple excerpts later.
Posted by: red at March 21, 2005 1:11 PMLucky you! Middlemarch is a wonderful book and Dorothea is one of my favorite heroines, though I sometimes wanted to hit her (you'll see why when you get to her husband)... keep us posted on your progress!
Margaret at Bookish Marginalia
http://www.bookishmarginalia.blogspot.com