Mad at myself?

Until a couple of days ago, I hadn’t written a word on my novel for two months. What? Yes, I’m mad at myself. I have been busy with work, but that is no excuse.

The good news is that I’ve been doing some reading–some good reading. Here is the fiction and non-fiction I’ve indulged in this summer so far:

• The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson
  The late Larson reveals Sweden’s issues with violence against women in this murder mystery. Protagonist Mikael Blomkvist witnesses his professional and personal life fall apart due to his integrity. The only way to restore everything is to find out what happened to a teenaged girl who vanished in 1964. The movie is coming out this winter and when I saw the trailor–and also hearing people talk about this book–I decided to try it –on my Kindle.
• This Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
  I’ve heard Wilde was kind of a weirdo, so I couldn’t resist downloading this play to my Kindle and reading it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Sort of reminds me of Shakespeare’s comedies with all the hijinks of an episode of Three’s Company. Did I just compare Shakespeare to Three’s Company?
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions by Brandon Toropov
  In high school, Mr. Gruen’s Humanities class discussed world religions and it was the first time I learned more about non-Christian belief systems. As a refresher course, I read this book to help me understand friends who are Muslim and Buddhists and such. Kindle read.
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
  Boy with Aspergers tries to find the answer to a key left behind by his father who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Some people accuse the writer of manipulating the heart strings in this book, but I say ‘Isn’t that a big part of fiction? Emotions?’ Yes, this is a three-hanky read, but you will endear youself to the protagonist. And by the way, this was not Kindle-read; I borrowed this from the good, old-fashioned library. Thank you.
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  If Foer uses the bittersweet to entice the reader, Collins uses suspense in this science-fiction/young adult thriller. No, she doesn’t just use suspense, she slathers it all through the story, chapter by chapter, word by word. I mean, you just know Katniss is going to end up in the government-run arena where kids kill kids, but you just. Can’t. Put. Down. This. Book. After hearing more than two socially-unrelated people mention The Hunger Games, I had to check it out. Kindle-read and movie-bound in 2012!