do you ever jealously guard a book because you fear it reveals just a little too much?

for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 4. ~ The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden: Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine Psychology by Robert A. Johnson. the story about why i read this book is prolly more interesting than what the book is about. during one of my bouts of protracted unemployment, i spent a lot of time browsing at half price books and just standing in the aisles reading. for some reason, this was a book i visited multiple times and wanted to buy (but didn't have the $7 for it). there was something really compelling about the images of the fisher king and the handless maiden, perhaps especially since i was going through a period of personal helplessness. anyway, long story short: working on my current project, i was reminded of a lot of things out of this book which went into this story, so i picked it up at the library to reread it.

it'll take a whole nother post to discuss in detail all the cool ideas in this little book (and what a strangely huge impact it had on me then in terms of influencing my writing), but revisiting it was refreshing and encouraging on a lot of levels. a good read for anyone interested in storytelling, the subconscious, and healing.

this is not a touchy-feely Sark book. it's more of a scholarly discourse, but a quick, easy read. and now, having said so much about it, i wonder if anyone might happen to pick it up and wonder what sort of crack i was smoking when i wrote this.

anyone who knows me will recognize the symbols on this:
the fish, the sword, and the pear.
All three are recurring themes in my own work
the other book is less noteworthy:

no. 5. ~ The Affair at Honey Hill by Berry Fleming. i read this book and couldn't tell you what sort of crack this author mainlined. fleming takes "faulkneresque" to new heights in this morass of verbiage that suffers from unending gerundal conjunctivitis (i.e.: And he was sitting by the parlor door and thinking about going to do the plowing. And breathing deep, he remembered...[but imagine these sentences to go on for whole paragraphs!]). the story, near as i could tell, is about a man who deserts his unit for homesickness and the love of his new bride and is arrested for desertion. meanwhile, his wife is in the sack with every soldier in the county (and then some). she even gets knocked up and has an abortion. at the end, the two have an encounter as he's being dragged off to prison. the wife propositions him to spend the night, not realizing it's her own husband. end of story.

frankly, it's an interesting story. just as frankly, the writing sucks so bad, you can scarce dig the story out of it. in fact, i'm not even entirely sure this is the plot. there you have it.

currently i am reading another novel i feel not terribly sanguine about. will prolly go back to reading research stuff after this. for a while.

: D