Getting ready for the Kootenays road trip
Posted by Meg Tilly
Hello BC BookTour Blog readers, Meg Tilly here. I’m afraid the blog postings from me, shall not be literary or clever, or well-crafted. The reason is not because I don’t admire the people who blog like that. It is because I know my own limitations and phobias and I know that if I felt I had to be those things, I would not blog at all.
I shall merely do as I do on my own personal blog. Log in, and post what-ever it is that decides to fly out of my fingertips.
I picked up David Jones: Baboon: A Novel this weekend. I intended to read a couple of pages every now and then, since we are going to be visiting and reading at a bunch of Kootenays Elementary Schools together. I figured this way, I could hold a reasonably intelligent conversatation about it, and he’d never need to know that I’d been unable to plow my way through.
Plow my way through? HA! It was anything but a “plow.” I love his book, couldn’t put it down. It was everything I believe a middle school book should be.
“So, what did you think?” My husband asked when I reluctantly finished Baboon and placed it with a sigh on our coffee table.
“It’s so good,” I said, still half lost in the world that David created.
“Not as good as yours though,” my husband said, not like a question. More a statement of fact.
“Maybe even better,” I said. “I don’t know. It’s hard to say. His book and mine are totally different. The only way I can describe it is that if David wins the prize, I wouldn’t feel bad, or like I was robbed or anything. I’d feel happy for him. It is a beautiful book.”
And here I am, two days later, images, sections of his book still dancing around me. I loved how he combined the mystery of the unknown with science. The harsh reality of life, nature woven into fiction, learning without the reader even being aware that they are, so caught up in the story. I think everybody would enjoy this book. Unless you’re a squimish sort. Then this book is not for you.
Heather Burt
Apr 16, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Hi, Meg — Thanks for the inspiring review! I’m really looking forward to reading both your novel and David’s, as well as Rita’s poetry ... and to travelling with all of you. I think our four book covers look mighty fine together on those groovy Kootenay Tour postcards!