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Settling the Dust

46. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
47. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Since I last reviewed a book, I've had a lot going on (more on that in a moment). A friend left his copy of The Subtle Knife in my car, so I took the opportunity to reread it. I read His Dark Materials back in middle school, I picked up The Amber Spyglass the week it came out. Since then, I've reread the first book, The Golden Compass, a few times, but not the other two.

I hoped I'd have something profound to say, but while the hierarchy of angels and Pullman's objective in vilifying the Catholic Church appear more clear in a second reading, to say nothing of Lyra's "sexual" (I put quotes because it's more love than sex oriented) awakening, there's not quite as much going on as I remembered. Still, this mysterious Dust that surrounds adult sentient beings, this conscious matter, dark matter, angels, what is this? It feels like a forced collision of science and religion that has hope, but doesn't ultimately work. Or perhaps, very likely, I'm misunderstanding something.

In settling my own personal Dust, well, there seems no end in sight. I have a new part-time job, a slightly older internship, grad school applications, and I was studying for the GREs and GRE Subject Test in English Lit, but those are thankfully over. I recommend Princeton Review and beginning to study more than a few weeks in advance...

Don't know when I'm going to have time to read, but on the TBR shortlist:

And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life by Charles J. Shields

Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno

The last three are on loan from friends and thus higher priority than all the books I own that I have yet to read.

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