reading the shortest books on my tbr: a weekend adventure

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Well, hello friends! How are you?

So I just wanted to update you all that I think my schedule for blog posts giong forward is going to be Wednesday evenings and Sunday evenings…if that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know! I hope that’s okay with everyone!

I did a similar post to this a few months ago, where I read some short books and let you know my thoughts about them. And I wanted to do that again! But these are legitimately the shortest books on my physical tbr – I went to goodreads and made sure. As a result, these are not what I would call novels, but a short story, a collection of letters and a play. But they are books!

The three books are 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒕, 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒆𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒀𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒑𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔-𝑮𝒊𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒏. Quite an eclectic collection, I have to say.

I started my weekend journey of reading on Friday night (IT STILL COUNTS) by beginning 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒆𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆. I have only read one other 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆 work and that was Letters to a Young Poet which were so incredibly beautiful and inspiring that I’m planning on rereading them soon. 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆 is the kind of writer that I wish I could have a conversation with. His mind was truly on another level – the term genius would be an understatement. 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒆𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆 is a collection of letters…on Paul Cezanne, written to 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆’s wife, Clara. Yes, 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆 does talk about Cezanne and the impact the man’s art has on him. But for me, it was the pure love that emanated from the letters from 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆 to his wife. Even though we only have his replies to Clara’s letters, the love that he has for her. Oh my god, it was so beautiful to read. You can tell that in his mind, Clara is his equal in everything. There has to be a collection of letters or 𝑹𝒊𝒍𝒌𝒆’s own writings on love and his family! What a mind.

After I finished 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒆𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆, I then moved to 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅𝒐𝒕. Now this is a play written by 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒕 and I’m going to be honest with all of you. This play went over my head. I feel like a superficial reading of it would connect it to the idea of the ‘absurd’ – of waiting for something to happen but it in all probablity it will never happen. So…the senselessness of living? I don’t know. It is definitely conveying a deep philosophical message that I can appreciate but I don’t think will ever fully understand.

The last little story I read is literally a short story. I finally read 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒀𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒑𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔-𝑮𝒊𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒏. What a story! And the writing?! I need to read more from this author because I was literally blown away. My copy of this was 20 pages, so when I say short story I am not even exaggerating. This was absolutely fascinating and I wish that I read this for a uni class just to see the varying interpretations and analyses. I feel as though this book can provide various interpretations – a feminist gothic horror story, a story about post-natal depression and the treatment of women, women feeling suffocated and trapped as a result of the societal expectations and norms that limit them, the way husband’s can confine their wives, the lack of agency and autonomy a woman has in a marriage – all of these interpretations are but a drop in the ocean!

From what I gathered, 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔-𝑮𝒊𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒏 wrote this story in the aftermath of her own experience at a ‘resting house’ with a doctor who claimed to cure women of hysteria after she had her child – in what we would refer to as post-natal depression. I think that element of the author’s own experiences adds a very different, slightly more claustrophobic element to 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒀𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒑𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓. I seriously wish that I had studied this story at uni – I still cannot stop thinking about it!

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Wow, that was quick! I hope you liked my little post about reading my little books on my tbr! I’m hoping that my post for this weekend with either be a Middlemarch love-fest or something about the books ive recently read that i haven’t talked about yet. If you have a preference, let me know! I’m leaning towards the latter purely because I want to work on my Middlemarch post a little bit more…

Until next time, happy reading!

All the love,

allie

xx

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𝓽𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻

𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓶

𝓰𝓸𝓸𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓼

𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓹𝓱

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