Musing Mondays - reading Neil Gaiman & favourite time of day to read

Musing Monday, April 17, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…

• Up next I think I’ll read…

• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…

• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…

• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…

• I can’t wait to get a copy of…

• I wish I could read ___, but…

• I blogged about ____ this past week…

I’m currently reading…

Stardust
by Neil Gaiman

I'm still working on The Gunseller but I needed a genre shift over the weekend. So I picked up Stardust from where it sat on my to be read shelves. It's been calling to me for a couple of weeks now on its own, but when my coworker Melanie was over one night she commented on it and said I should read it because it's good and it reads quickly. This is exactly the kind of book I was looking for this weekend, so it got started on Friday and I've been reading it in fits and starts.

I've been wanting to read it for several years now, either since 2009 or 2013, or maybe 2014. I can't remember which trip for sure it was that Angie and I watched Stardust but that was what made me want to read the book, her showing me the film. The only previous experience I had had with Neil Gaiman at that point was with Coraline because I'd had to read/watch it for a class. I really enjoyed Coraline and the film version of Stardust, so I have high hopes for the novel.

I tried Sandman in the past but couldn't get into it, although I now regret not trying that harder so I may try it again sometime this year, we have most if not all of it at work I think. Here's the summary of Stardust just in case you don't already know what it's about:

Stardust is an utterly charming fairy tale in the tradition of The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story. Neil Gaiman, creator of the darkly elegant Sandman comics and author of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, tells the story of young Tristran Thorn and his adventures in the land of Faerie. One fateful night, Tristran promises his beloved that he will retrieve a fallen star for her from beyond the Wall that stands between their rural English town (called, appropriately, Wall) and the Faerie realm. No one ever ventures beyond the Wall except to attend an enchanted flea market that is held every nine years (and during which, unbeknownst to him, Tristran was conceived). But Tristran bravely sets out to fetch the fallen star and thus win the hand of his love.-- via Goodreads

I'm up to page 154 and so far the pace seems slower than the movie, and I don't remember Tristran being this doltish in the film. It has been several years since I saw the film though so I'll have to rewatch it when I finish the book for an accurate comparison.

        THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you have a favourite time of day to read?

I'll read any time of the day or night, happily! That being said the time of day that makes me happiest to read is first thing in the morning. A lot of people use coffee as their tool of choice for waking up and starting a day off right. For me, it's 15-30 minutes of reading - or about 1-2 chapters if they're long chapters! This wakes up my brain and primes me for the rest of the day. On days where I can't work reading in first thing in the morning I find myself feeling sluggish and tired throughout the rest of the day. Reading anywhere from 2-5 chapters first thing, depending on their length, has the added benefit of letting me start off my day feeling accomplished which I think really helps my morning productivity. Second favourite time is about 8-10pm after I get home from work and hang out with Angie but before I'm ready for bed.