Somewhere last month or the month before I re-read Castle in the Sky, a Diana Wynne-Jones romp that works surprisingly well the second time through. This might even be the third. I had forgotten two of the major plot points (which I cannot now remember, but this note here says forgot two major plot points so I did forget them, and now have forgotten them again), which is usually a bad sign for me. I mean, sometimes it’s annoying to re-read the book while knowing what the Big Reveal will reveal bigly, but I find that if I have forgotten the Big Reveal entirely, it means that the Big Reveal was smallish and probably annoying. Still, I enjoyed going through this one again.
I think I have to put Diana Wynne Jones into the frequent-reread category, along with Lois McMaster Bujold, Dick Francis and Mary Renault. The books that, when I am standing in front of the bookcases complaining that I have nothing at all a-tall at all to read and why don’t we have any books in this house anyway, come easiest to hand. Perhaps I’ll add P.G. Wodehouse to that category, although in point of actual fact, I hardly ever pick one up. Because we don’t own very many, mostly—we have Leave it to Psmith, of course, and a couple of Jeeves books, and I think that’s it. And I tend to keep Psmith for occasions of dire need.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
Whenever I see the title of Leave it to Psmith, my mind immediately goes to the character of that name from Buck Godot. Sadly, I have some sort of mental block against taking the obvious step of reading the Wodehouse so as to see to what degree the Foglio character is an homage.
You don’t have all the Castle Blanding stories to keep for when the ol’ brain needs a good laff? 🙂 Now I know what to get you if we’re ever in a Secret Santa circle… Wodehouse is definitely in the re-read category. Even when you know every word, it’s still a hoot.
Indeed–Dan P, I would definitely advise reading Leave it to Psmith, which is a very nearly perfect novel. And I should pick up another Castle Blandings book (Leave it to Psmith is, of course, a Castle Blandings book as well—I was just mentioning how its perfection is due to being both a Psmith book and a Castle Blandings book) for my re-reading. Oddly enough, I don’t see P.G. Wodehouse books very often at library book sales and other places where I pick up my cheap used paperbacks. I know it’s worth the new paperback price, but somehow that’s a difficult thing for me.
Thanks,
-V.