We All Make Mistakes...

Don't bother with the children's books I blogged about, last time. They're repetitive (I have a hunch they were serialized, and reading them once every month spaced far apart wouldn't be so awful, but back-to-back... repetitive) and the moralizing starts getting a bit heavy-handed after a few chapters.

I was reading Five Children and It and gave up after the sixth chapter because I could pretty well get the gist of the plot line: the children keep making wishes that keep going wrong, blah blah blah, and don't learn their lesson until you're ready to give them all a good swift kick in the pants.

I hoped The Enchanted Castle would be better, but again, it turned out to be a treacly bit of fluff that was all moralizing and very little entertainment. Ms. Nesbit reserves all her rapier wit for the first two chapters, and then leaps into the chasm of teaching us how to behave ourselves properly for the next ten or so chapters. I know how to behave myself, thank you very much. Okay, I know how to behave myself most of the time, but that applies to everyone, right?

So now I'm reading a novel by Pearl S. Buck (quite a switch, I know) and it's fascinating. I'm enjoying it immensely, even though it's written in a very reserved tone, and it makes me want chicken lo mein all the time. I rarely eat Chinese food (or Japanese, or Korean, for that matter), and I most likely won't indulge my craving, because Pei Wei doesn't have booths.

Yes, I'm serious. Booths are a requirement.

But still, something noodle-y sounds pretty good, right now...

Curse you, Pearl S. Buck.