Forgotten Treasures
It's always a treat to find something I completely forgot I owned just in time for it to make my life a little better. For example, I'm reading a book right now that I bought at least a year ago and thought I read, but on page 35 I'm just starting to realize that I don't remember it at all. Also, none of the corner folds present in every single paperback I own are there, which is what really convinced me that I had not in fact read it before. This is a nice surprise because the book is exactly what I'm in the mood to read and it's the only book I own that has a completely new story between its covers. Good stuff.
Now that I think about it I remember what happened. It was a new book in the Redwall series out on paperback, the latest one back then, which means it was considerably more than a year ago. At the time I was reading the second book of a six book series in a totally different genre and it wasn't until a week ago that I read any of the Redwall books again. I usually read books in big clumps: I'll sit down and read an entire lineup by a favored author, for example, and buy the books out on paperback since the last time I ran through his books. In the last week I've read nine Redwall books, skipping the hardcovers that I didn't bring with me to Thanksgiving. When I'm done with these--including the two paperbacks I haven't bought yet--I'm going to buy a batch of books from a new author, or possibly I'll expand my Heinlein library. I'm not sure if I'm in the mood for Charles de Lint's 'urban fantasy' right now, but given how much I love
The Little Country, I might give the rest of his writing a shot (I read
Someplace to be Flying and it was a little strange, but that was four years ago at least and I haven't seen the book recently so I haven't re-read it. It's the only other de Lint book I've read from his 54 published
works to date.)
By the way, I'd highly recommend reading
The Little Country to anyone that reads this; it's one of the most beautifully constructed stories I've read. Ever. Maybe I'm particularly susceptible to its charm, but every time I read it--probably every four months--I fall in love with it all over again. It's one of those books that makes me feel like grabbing a keyboard by the throat and choking a story of my own out of it. To me, inspiration shows a good story, and great inspiration shows a great story.
