Dear Jenny,
A friend gave me this back in college. Yup, I've been dragging this puppy around for over 20 years. And I'll tell ya... every time I move, I flip through it with an eye to boot it and yet... it's made the cut again and again. I'm interested! I think I just haven't picked it up because it's long (almost 700 pages) and it's short stories (which, as I mentioned earlier this year, I'm just not sure I am really into) (but 2015 is the year I will find out for sure, with nearly half of my TBR books being collections!)
One of my favorite books as a kid was James and the Giant Peach. I loved that book so much that I brought it to college with me, which is saying something. (In fact, now that I think about it, that may be one of the oldest books I own -- it was a gift to me when I was... 6 or 7?) Anywhoo... The person who gave me this book had never read it, so I lent it to her and she loved it. She saw this collection one day (one of those Barnes & Noble straight-to-the-sale-shelf deals, looks like) and bought it for me as thanks.
Other than JatGP, I have only read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I have not read any of Dahl's adult works at all, so I'm going into this sort of blind. Based on what little I know, I think that these stories are going to be dark. And maybe a little kooky. Which is why I've kept this book for all of these years, of course. Heh.
love,
kelly
PS -- This is great: In the UK, they celebrate Roald Dahl Day on September 13. Love me a literary holiday!
PPS -- Note the big, fat, red spine on this bad boy. As I have been going on and on about my bookcase re-arranging in the comments of this post, know that I am looking forward to adding this one to the red shelf when I am done! /dork
Sounds kind of interesting! And you have to keep it and read it to put it with the other red books!
ReplyDeleteHave you flipped through the table of contents? Are the stories on the long or short side? I bet there's a mix of stuff in there.
Is this the oldest TBR book we've ever TBR'd? Or would that be Tess?
Yes, I have flipped through the TOC... that's basically what has kept this book on my shelf all these years...they look fun. Three of them are from a previous book called Switch Bitch. Super curious about those! There are a ton of them -- they seem pretty short -- around 20 pages each. (Except for the SB ones... those look to be about 40 pages, so a little longer.)
ReplyDeleteI have now read 2 of the stories. The first one looked like it was going to be spooky, but kind of missed. The 2nd one was a doozy, though -- murder by leg of lamb. And then... the cops eat the evidence! Mwahaha!
Tess wasn't actually *on* my shelf for a very long time, because I didn't get it until my grandfather died, which was just a few years before we started this project. (Side note because this is AWESOME -- I just thought to myself, "Hey -- I don't remember seeing Tess during my bookshelf re-org... where is that book?" And then I thought, "Well, the spine is blue, sooo..." and I walked *straight* up to it on the shelf! Jenny! The color-organizing! IT'S WOOOORRRRKING!!) (Pardon my excitement -- that was my very first "But can I find them later...?" test. Heh.)
Okay... funny stuff here... first, I went back to see when I read Tess. It was my 2nd book and when I decided to pick it, I wrote: "I just lined my 13 remaining books up in the order that I usually line books up (by height first, then by color) (not kidding)." So maybe that's what has held me back from my full-on color organizing all these years -- the height restriction. That's out the window now and I'm lovin' it!
But while I was looking at the 2011 books, I spotted The Richest Man in Babylon, which I have had since the summer before college. So that would put that at 1991. I had previously stated that the longest book "by far" to sit on my TBR pile was Presumed Innocent and pegged that thing at 1996, but I was wrong. The Roald Dahl is older at 1993/94. And TRMiB was older still at 1991. But it's pretty close. And... scanning what is left on my actual TBR shelf... I spot two others from the college years. I should hit those soon and be caught up to this century. (And if I don't read them on my own this year, I will definitely add them to the TBR list next year!)
Whew. That was long. I am in the final push of re-orging my shelves and I needed a break. ;)