October 13, 2018

I picked my first book!

• OUTLANDER
• by Diana Gabaldon
• [rated by PBS readers as #2]
•  (a series)
• 627 pages

BEFORE READING –

Sounds exciting. I think I saw a film about this years ago. Beyond that, I’m happy to start with something that sounds like a swashbuckler of a tale, rather than something long and cerebral.

All for now.

120 PAGES IN –

I’m so excited that this is my first book! It is a fun, adventurous yarn, pure and simple! Gabaldon is a fine storyteller and her descriptions at the beginning of the book amazed me with their succinct detail. I thought – if this is a book that is constantly moving to different times, etc, she is the perfect author for it. So far, so good!

10/23/18 –

Holy crap! My maiden voyage book here made #2 on the nation’s PBS list! I feel so lucky to be reading it!

11/10/18 –

I am almost to page 400, so well over half. You can tell by the date that I’m not moving all that fast. So many feelings…

This is a long book and it isn’t based on nonstop adventure. Don’t get me wrong – I’m thrilled to start off the list with it as I try to build up my childhood ability to read something this long. If it had been purely cerebral, I think I might have been sunk before I even got started. There is no bridge to gap to be at one with this book and that is a really good thing.

I have been interested in the story the whole way. I have never had the thought that I didn’t want to see what happens with them (although, admittedly, probably not curious enough for seven books worth).

But it isn’t really a page turner. It is almost a bit sudsy. He looks at her; she looks at him. There is nature all around. They have sex again.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a girl so I like the thought of a big burly, scarred Scottish warrior giving head. Sure. Fun! Though I do question the 20^th time she writes it in a book that is over 600 pages. And yeah, rollicking adventure is massively preferable to a treatise on man’s inhumanity to man or a description of an English parlor. Shit like that.

So on I go. Nothing compels me turn the page but I’m happy to and I like all the characters and the writing. She is amazing in creating so many different yet easily definable characters in this castle, but then, that’s why she is so right for this job.

And if you are delighted to your core to fantasize about being transported back in time to this time and place, then I’m sure you are salivating so much by the page I’m on that your friends are suggesting you get a checkup. But they can’t find you because you have already bought a one way ticket to that little town where they dress up like Outlander all the time and have parties.

Me? I don’t know what happens next. But I kinda hope it happens soon…

11/26/18

I have to admit it – I’m slogging my way through the end of this with about 100 pages to go.

I’m also dodging all the endless ads for the very popular TV show of the same name. I have this thing about wanting to visualize my own characters. I’m piss poor at visualizing to begin with, so it is more of a feeling of who each person is.

I wrote a series of books and had this knockdown drag out with the cover designer (a good friend and fun to argue with) about how I didn’t want to see the main character on the cover. I only wanted to see her blonde hair flying by. I wanted to let anyone imagine whoever they saw her to be. So I don’t want to see their Claire and Jamie. I have my own.

Wouldn’t even watch Lonesome Dove, possibly the most widely acclaimed mini series of all time other than Roots. Lonesome Dove is my favorite book, after all. I love both Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, but they simply weren’t my Gus and Call and I wasn’t willing to change.

I like these characters but great honk. This is long and dense and at times sudsy…

I used to have this thing I did when I was doing film reviews back in the day. I would write the review and then wait for a couple of days to see how and whether the film stayed with me or not. The result was often fairly surprising, in both directions.

So Outlander may stay with me. Time and finishing the damn thing will tell!

12/8/18 –

Okay, finished it! Did I like it? Yeah, on the whole, it was really enjoyable. I don’t think I would sew costumes to wear or attend conventions for it. I think I would feel immediately out of synch with anyone who loved it.

But the climactic final scene between them was really well written and engrossing. And you have to applaud her scope, taking you intimately into scenes that play true and feel real.

The two lead characters have a lot of love between them that feels beautiful – surprisingly, not incredibly hot, but romantic, to be sure. Then it goes along too long and here come the suds. But then, to the writer’s credit, it affects you again, when you didn’t think it would.

I’m interested in how this holds up after I’ve read some of the others. I also really feel that my judgment could be a bit jaundiced with regards to this and many of the books, due to people calling it their favorites ever. Nobody wants to go with the crowd. But I’ll stay open. Time and a few more books will tell.

I’m one down and still hoping, after this opus totaling out at over 600 pages, that I get something a bit easier next time. But who knows…. Well, we will, in a second! I’m off to get my box of titles…