Tuesday, May 21, 2013

68:120 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Actually a reread as it was my book club's pick for the month.  I read it just over a year ago and many of the finer points were gone so I read it again to refresh.  I remembered enjoying it so this wasn't a bad thing in the least.

Here's what I said before:
This is one that was recommended to me by my bookpusher, erm, local bookstore owner.  I had looked at it, picked it up, put it back, and walked away.  But something about it stayed with me and I ended up getting it for my kindle because I couldn't stop really thinking about it.

The book is simply like that.  It inserts itself into your brain, imprints itself there in it's folds, and just sits.  There are no loud bangs with this book.  No huge revelations, no explosions of action.  It simply is.  I can't tell you that I ever cared deeply about the main characters, except that's not the case.  I cared deeply about the circus itself.  It was it's own character and while it never spoke in words and was merely the venue, it was the most alive part of the book.  There were secondary characters that I cared about.

It's a quiet book but one that I found it easy to get lost inside of.  I would start reading and look up to find that my kids were done with their activity and it was an hour later and it seemed like mere moments.  And I would find myself trying to find more moments where I could read it because I wanted to escape into that quiet, beautiful, fascinating world.  I found the world itself rich and the language beautifully descriptive, hauntingly riveting.

This still stands.  I enjoyed it just as much with the second reading, all the little nuances, the rich descriptions, the quiet romance, the whimsical nature, all of it.  And again, I loved how quiet the book is.  I read so many fast-paced action adventure books that it's nice to have one that is just quiet and soft and doesn't have your heart racing but is more like a quiet summer's day, lovely and calm.

Page count: 401p/16,935p ytd/161,355p lifetime

No comments:

Post a Comment