Sunday Salon

My brother has uncovered more of the books he read for his Gothic Literature course last semester. He has found the following:



I've been wanting to read The Castle of Otranto for a while now, so that's probably the book I'll start next, after Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.

I am loving Dracula. Dracula can kick Edward Cullen's sorry sparkly butt any day of the week with both hands tied behind his back. Really, it's only from reading Dracula that I can truly appreciate how badly Twilight has ruined and wussified vampires.

So I did only one post this week other than the Teaser Tuesday. (From now on, I plan on only doing Wordless Wednesday if I have a really great image to share.) Oryx and Crake took me several days to write, mostly because I had so much to say about it and had to get everything organized. Reading the book itself was an interesting experience. I do a lot of my reading during my lunch break at work. Atwood's vivid descriptions of the wasteland left behind by a collapsed civilization made me weirdly appreciate actual real-life civilization. After about fifteen minutes of Oryx and Crake, I got up and walked around downtown, where the office is located. I did this during several lunchbreaks. We're located in a rather run-down Detroit-like city in New York's "rust belt," and right off of Main Street are all the ghetto neighborhoods full of beautiful old homes that have since been broken up into cheap apartments and their porches crammed with junk. If I had the courage, I probably would have walked down that way. That architectural entropy is probably way more in line with Atwood's post-apocalyptic vision than Main Street's desperate attempts to stave off urban blight.

On a lighter note: yesterday was our area's big annual antique fair! I usually just go to look at things and maybe add to my vintage shot glass collection. Here are some cell phone pics of some of the glasses I already have:


Unfortunately, I can't transfer photos from my cell phone to my computer anymore ever since my plan was changed; plus, I still haven't bothered trying to figure out how to use that pesky new digital camera. Since yesterday, I have added two new shot glasses to my collection. They are a 1930s Art Deco pair from Czechoslovakia. They are dark amber in color with red and gold splotches.

Now this photo I found online:

I have a couple like the two in front, but I don't have anything like that middle one! Way cool!

I also love vintage jewelry. I have found many great pieces at this particular antique fair in the past, and this year did not disappoint. I got two bracelets handmade out of old buttons! Once I get that camera working, I will have to post photos of my jewelry collection (in addition to that new bookcase I talked about several weeks ago).

Happy reading and a happy weekend to everyone!