IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

This week I am not doing Mailbox Monday as no books came into my house this week as well. Reading has been going on apace though not as much as I would have liked.

I have one review of The Grave Digger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates still to be done. This was a very sad book and now I am beginning to realize that such books depress me. Episodes of sadness are part of the reality of a story (and of life in general) but continuous, heavy sadness can be quite heavy.

This week after a very, very long time I did not finish a book. Underground by Tobias Hill. I did read over seventy pages but found the story to be almost disjointed. Maybe it would have come together later on but it was too abrupt for me. It was almost like a translation where some of the actual meanings get lost. Maybe just me.

I also am re-reading Rosmunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice. Almost three quarters of the way through. Set in England and Scotland and very much about relationships. Written in an easy, very descriptive style its relaxed reading. 

The book I am a 100 pages in and enjoying the very old fashioned prose is A Thousand Miles Up the Nile by Amelia Edwards. I like very much the footnotes and explanations on various Egyptian terms and the small illustrations and pen drawings make the journey sound very vivid. It also makes me realize  how lovely it must be to spend three months in a country and not rush through a trip in ten to fourteen days. We expect to see, absorb and understand a new culture in a short time whereas how much more you could appreciate this when you do it slowly.

Also reading Alison Weir's Isabella. I thought this biography would be very startling but it is slow. It may be more interesting later on as I am still reading about Isabella's very early life as a queen.

Today is Poya day (a full moon day) which is a public holiday and one of religious significance to Buddhists. It is significant that it was on this day that two important disciples were appointed and also the formation of the first ever Buddhist council. So this week becomes a short week of just four days.

This is a photograph of the Navam Perahera celebrated at the Gangaramaya in Colombo. An annual event, the photography is courtesy of a site dedicated to this procession. The elephants are all dressed and walk with their mahouts along with drummers and dancers representative of all regions in Sri Lanka.