I’m writing this a bit earlier than normal because I will be heading out for a book club dinner tonight and I am sure that I won’t have energy to write before I come back. So before I go out, let me tell you about what I’ve been reading.

I started the weekend with The Classic Ten by Nancy McDonald Smith – I think I first read this over a decade ago, when I was still a young teen. Reading Dress Code made me want to reread this and I found it a fun trip down memory lane. Unlike more recent books on fashion, The Classic Ten is light on the analysis of current fashion and society. It’s more focused on the history of several classic pieces of clothing and I remember that this book made me convinced I needed a cashmere sweater and trench coat, neither of which I ever got because I live in Singapore and there’s only summer.

The Classic Ten references The Age of Innocence twice and I wanted to read it, but apparently I only own The House of Mirth. Goodreads did say that I read the book in 2012 (when I started using the site) but never rated the book so it sounds like I will have to borrow an ecopy and reread it next! Then again, my plans to review books I reread has not come to fruition so far, so there may not be a review.

So anyway, because I didn’t have a physical copy of The Age of Innocence, I went for another light read: Cryptids, Creatures, and Critters. This is a Kickstarter book and so much fun – lots of beautiful drawings and interesting descriptions of various creatures that may or may not exist.

As I was putting back my copy of Cryptids, Creatures, and Critters, I saw my old copy of The Graveyard Book and couldn’t resist pulling it out. I actually thought I would take the whole of today to read it but I couldn’t stop once I started reading and finished it quite quickly. This is the book that introduced me to Neil Gaiman and probably my favourite book of his so far. Plus, it has such an arresting first line:

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife”

Plus the Chris Riddell illustrations are fantastic!

I did think, during this reread, that the central mystery of the murder of Bod’s family isn’t as fully addressed as I would like, but I have to admit that this is not a mystery book so I shouldn’t expect it to end like one. I’ve always found the ending bittersweet, as Gaiman implies that to grow up, we have to leave our childhood behind. I don’t know if I believe that – I think we can always come back to childhood pleasures, like what Lewis says:

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

And that’s about it! I can’t believe this coming week is the last week of rereading – it feels like this project has gone by in a flash and I’ve not reread as many books as I want to!