49-50

Oh man. Ever since I joined a book club earlier this spring, I've been trying to branch out with my reading. I walk into a bookstore and try to find books that I think are book club worthy...or at least out of my normal range of reading. I bought myself a little book case which I keep next to my room and anything that might be interesting goes there on my To Read pile.

A few months ago I picked up 39 Steps. The book is a little Jeeves and Woosterish in that it's the story of a rich young man who is bored with life. He's returned to England after working in mining in South Africa and is finding British society life just a little tedious. He decides that if nothing exciting comes his way within the next few days he will return to South Africa.

That's when adventure comes into his life in a big way. You can read more about the novel and the author here. Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed this book and this style (the author himself calls it a Shocker novel, popular in the early 20th Century.)

Another book I picked up on a whim was I Capture the Castle. The cover of the book was gorgeous and the tag on the front said, "The acclaimed novel is now the most romantic novel of the year." I'd never heard of it, but that intrigued me. Here's what the back of the book says, "I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen - year old Cassandra and her family, who live in not so genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives over six turbulent months to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny, yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry she has "captured the castle" - and the heart of the reader - in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments."

Even though this book is set in the early 20th Century, I thought it had been written recently. I'm not sure why. And while this book reminded me of Pride and Prejudice (Cassandra and her sister joke that they are Brontesque Austen characters), the story is original and charming and I was really sad to finish it. Oh. And it was written in 1948. In case you're wondering. And here's something else that shocked me. Dodie Smith (the author) wrote the novel, The Hundred and One Dalmations. I didn't even know it was a book!