10.14.2008

I'm tired this morning and I don't feel like blogging. But I know that if I don't then I'll get out of the habit.
The last few days have been spent reading The Borrowed House again. And watching Dr. Who re-runs (that's D's fault). Anyway, re-reading TBH has been good for me. I thought I was completely ready for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not. For instance, last night I noticed that Otto is an Alsatian. When did that happen? I've read TBH over a dozen times and never realized that before. At least it's helpful to my plot and not an impediment! Sequels are a lot of work. I would have never believed that had I not tried it myself. I went through and made notes on everybody's physical characteristics and significant conversations/events. Forcing myself to pay attention to each and every character. I've almost got my timeline pegged down. Anne Frank's diary has been very helpful for that because her entries are dated. I'm almost positive that Hilda had AF's diary in mind when she wrote TBH. The more I read both of them together I'm convinced. I also have more admiration for Hilda after dissecting TBH. She really did an awesome job of making it a young adult novel but not 'dumbing it down' too much.
I thought I was completely through with reading WWII books but LibraryThing recommended another one to me this morning. I've added it to my reserve list at the library but I'm not certain I'll receive it before November. I never knew there was so much WWII fiction out there. It's like a rabbit hole that just keeps going further and further down. At first I had a hard time getting into the genre. War and Europe and the 1940s each are so far from my experience. I had nothing to relate to. Now that I've read so much of the genre the new books become much more alive. I fill in the gaps on the things the authors didn't write because other authors I've already read wrote about similar instances too. It's different than accumulative knowledge when reading a complete series by one author. Of course you understand more as you go along, but it's one person's knowledge, one flavor. It's very interesting to me to read all different authors writing about the same event and getting 'the bigger picture'. I've enjoyed my year of WWII but I'm not sure it's something I will continue with.