ON BOOKS ~ As I Lay Dying...

Every Tuesday I have participated in Teaser Tuesdays, the great book meme hosted by MizB that encourages you to post 2 random spoiler-free consecutive sentences from the book you are reading. I wanted a place to play along and therefore The Bumbles Blog was created.

Last week, for I think the first time in our short blogging history, I skipped Teaser Tuesdays. Partly it was because I was busy with other things, but also because I was re-reading Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" and I figured people were probably more interested in discovering all the great new books out there competing for our attention as opposed to being reminded of the words in an old faded book. But as I read along, and got reaclimated with all the characters and reminded of the story, I got more and more of an itch to talk about it and all the tools that good old Faulkner used to tell his tale.

Faulkner is not for everyone. Some may consider him an acquired taste. I'm not sure that many stick with him long enough to acquire him actually. I wouldn't recommend starting off with "The Sound and the Fury," although that is my favorite book of all. He doesn't write about a lot of action, but he writes about the impact of the actions of his characters with great depth. He crawls into their minds and their souls and exposes them to us. Sometimes the words are nonsensical or intimidating. They go 'round and 'round and are often repetitive. If you've ever had a conversation with yourself, he writes it the way it probably took place. Disjointed, with thoughts coming out so fast sometimes you skip over words - or stop short at the realization of something. He likes conflict, torment and dilemmas. He writes about women who have a different take on things and are misunderstood because of it, but whom I always get behind, the way I think he does too. And he is also pretty funny when he wants to be.

I am not quite through with "As I Lay Dying" because I myself am not laying around and thankfully I am not dying - though I am dying to lie down and read some more. So I have decided that instead of every week, I will participate in Teaser Tuesdays whenever I have gotten around to finishing a book so that I can share a piece of it with all of you and give a little review to get your thoughts as well. Here's a Teaser from "As I Lay Dying" - even though I haven't finished it yet. Seems only fair since I have gone to all this trouble to get you interested in Faulkner again. This example is less stream of consciousness and more of a chuckle.

From pg. 70 of AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner (fiction)...

"I reckon if there's ere a man or woman anywhere that He could turn it all over to and go away with His mind at rest, it would be Cora. And I reckon she would make a few changes, no matter how He was running it."