Hi veer! Sorry for the lack of explanation - the RP discussion selection for March is Cloud Atlas, and March is only a few days away (but really, I often don't have the book finished in time and its often just fine. Just being silly) And the number of books I read in a month depends on the time of year. Right now things at school are moving along splendidly. After Spring Break in March, all hell breaks lose - I'll be in the middle of transition conferences for kids going to Kindergarten, as well as evaluation for preschoolers coming in next year. So its a whirl wind till the end of school. And then I once again have lots of time. >the place was full of loggers, trappers and huskies Hee, sort of like visitors from 1950 said Arizona was nothing but cowboys - and the sterotype stuck! :) Actually it is filled with excellent high quality museums, plus some little places to explore (tho we are really going to do that in Quebec City) Thanks for the suggestion - I know some people did mention a few ideas, and think dynomutt was one.

Vee -- Good question. What MAKES a work a novel? Is it length? Content? Lack of illustrations? Lack of "words" (shall we call them "pseudo-words"?) such as "splat" or "aarrgghh"? Are we to constrain the term "novel" to merely works that are predominantly comprised of text? What if a work had one or two illustrations? Shall we consign such works to the bonfires of the "non-novel"? Of course, if a work had equal parts illustration and text, what shall we call those? Picture books? Half-novels? Literature for the illiterate? Yes vee, graphic novels are just picture books with few or no words. And you are correct -- those of us who purchase such works are lookers and not readers. You see, we don't really know how to read anything other than large, stylized but emotive printed text like "yeek" or "aargh" or "splat". These terms, by the way, follow a unique canon of agreed upon words, conventions, pictures, exclamations, and sock colors that all graphic novels MUST abide by. If they don't abide by them, then they can't be called graphic novels. It is put out by the Graphic Novel Code Authority and all graphic novel purchasers are REQUIRED to buy a copy otherwise they won't understand what's going on (after all, the medium and the paucity of words does not lend itself to expression). A select and secret committee of graphic novel artists and writers get together every full moon to discuss the entries in the canon and they burn their notes afterwards. If the smoke arising from the fire is purple, it means that they have a new definition but if the smoke is colored green, it means that they couldn't agree on a definition or whether to order subs or wraps for lunch. As a sampling of such terms and their agreed upon definitions, here are a few : yeek - a codeword for something icky -- as in when someone sees a mouse, you see the term "yeek" with the character pointing at the offending item/creature aargh - in graphic novels, this is placed in a panel with a stricken character as a form of extreme unction signifying that the character is about to shuffle off this mortal coil (or is in the process of shuffling off but can't seem to figure out where he left his house keys especially when the cabbie's waiting at the door) splat - a very old and respected brand of cushion that used to buy hidden advertising space in comic books. It is used to signify mushy things suddenly decelerating against a non-yielding surface. The term has migrated to the graphic novel space in honor of the company's previous support of the graphic arts. Unfortunately, the financial support that they provided stopped when the company went bankrupt following a bank run in Honduras after a bizarre banking scandal. The company's employees had discovered that when the company said it was investing their 401k into CDs, the company really WAS investing in compact disks manufactured in Honduras. The company CEO subsequently disappeared but is...

Just today, with the rain coming down in buckets, the kids in school, and me with the day off, I sat down and watched 84 Charing Cross Road. I've read it many a time but never knew it was made into a movie. It was quite old for a movie, and starred Anthony Hopkins, Dame Judi Dench and Anne Bankcroft as Helene Hanff. I thought it was very well done. And a perfect movie for the weather and my mood. I confess, however, that after watching the movie, I am very much annoyed at my computer. Yes, the internet allows me to sit in my living room and make friends, through RP, with all of you all around the globe. But the magic of a letter! The warmth of the words, the bits of smeared ink, seeing my name on an envelope written by the hand of a friend... what computer can compare with that? Sorry... went completely off topic. But I was excited to share this movie with all of you. PAM

Yesterday I re-read Ford's The Good Soldier. The last time I read it was in graduate school, many years ago. What an absolutely fascinating case of an unreliable narrator! And a good study of the stolid English upper class that so intrigues the American. I had forgotten the mad Nancy's single and utterly appropriate word toward the end: "shuttlecocks"!