I feel like Obi-Wan Kenobi: “You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” :b

(Testing out the use of b instead of p for a sticking-out-tongue smiley. I think it still works!)

Whew. I did it! That was scary!

Hahaha, that’s definitely me. 🙂

Or maybe Rumer Godden had a bad experience with marzipan and went off it for life. She named an odious character after it. A really very wicked character.

I’d say, forget reading early work first! Give Carter a try! Or can you ILL her? General consensus seems to be that one should not be shy about using ILL to get books one wants. 😛

London has changed so much over the years, and I only know it for such a small segment of its history, and I only know the bits of it that I know; and for those reasons I never think, This author’s just got it completely wrong! There’s no one “London feeling” that writers are hitting or missing; it’s more like they’re all constantly writing pieces of an incomprehensibly enormous London puzzle.

But I do like it when they refer to things and places with which I’m familiar. Like when I read Neverwhere now, I like it that Richard comes from the same London I’ve been to. He’s indignant because Earls Court isn’t on the Central Line, and yes! Indeed! Earls Court truly is NOT on the Central Line! It’s on Piccadilly and District!

Oh good! I was concerned that you might think it was an unfair metaphor, and maybe your favorite thing was to read Angela Carter’s books all in a row back to back every year. Also, it’s good to know that an unequivocal fan of her work can still need a break between books. It gives me hope that she will become a favorite of mine too!

Palate cleansers, yes! There are a number of authors I feel this way about: Someone like Diana Wynne Jones, I can read five of her books in a row; but authors like Salman Rushdie and Mary Renault, I have to have space in between their books.