Revolutionary Road, etc.

So, reading this summer hasn't been what I hoped it'd be. I hate how *life* gets in the way of reading, it's just not fair. Anyway, I am currently reading The Pillars of the Earth. If you've never seen this book in person, just envision 3 or 4 inches. Got that? Ok, that's what the spine width is. It's 936 pages. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome and I certainly couldn't deal with that many pages of a book I wasn't loving. But sometimes I just get so physically TIRED of holding it. And I wonder if it's too heavy to set on my stomach? And if I can skip the gym that day bc of the arm workout I'm getting while reading. And then I have to reread that page bc I am daydreaming.



But my GOAL is to finish that book up in the coming week, and then revisit Time Traveler's Wife. And then go cry my eyes out at the movie. I get SO excited when I see a preview, and Scott makes fun of me so much because whenever it is on TV, I make him stop talking and I drop everything and watch. I don't even do that when the TV show we're watching comes back on. I have seriously unrealistic expectations for this movie adaptation.

Now... Revolutionary Road (by Richard Yates). I finished this about a month ago and have so many mixed feelings I don't know where to start. First off... a lot of messed up and just generally ugly people in this book. BUT, that's life, right? Not everyone is worth hanging out with. That said, Frank and April Wheeler? No thanks, I would not spend any amount of time w/ them.

I will say, I think my new favorite time period is the late 50's and the 60's. I think it is a totally interesting time period with all of the changes going on in the country culturally. And the generation of folks that were raising kids at the time are even more interesting to me (hi Nanny, Nana and Pop-Pop!) And this is the reason this book (and Mad Men - Season Premiere on Aug 16 - AMC! Woohoo) interested me so much. It was such a convergence of changing times and traditional expectations. And I like the clothes and hairstyles. And it's funny how they smoked like...everywhere.

So the book. Right. I can't honestly recommend it to anyone, bc when you recommend something , someone will think of you if they hate it. And I think a lot of ppl might not like this book. It's not *pleasant* at all. It's a dark, dark book about a couple (Leo & Kate) who are kind of jerks to each other. They are conniving and mean to one another and unrealistic in their expectations. But again, to my original point, some ppl are like that. And there's no reason not to write a book about them. The book takes off when April pitches the idea of them dropping everything in their traditional suburban lives and moving to Paris as a family. Drama ensues.

I have the movie in my Netflix cue. Scott, I know you don't read the blog, but you probably will hate it. :)