"Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you." Carl Sandburg

Help, we've fallen and we can't get up! I honestly don't know what's become of us. Other people are spending my coin (and I'm pretty sure Rachel's too). I'm outta change people! But I've got a pocket full of resolutions, some revolving around our fabulously floundering blog. Not to worry, we're still reading. And we have plenty of good books to rave about. I've just finished my first William Golding novel. (Yep, I'm still doing the English major thing.)

I didn't read Lord of the Flies, Golding's most famous work that has been praised as "one of the most important novels of the 20th century." It wasn't my choice for the same reason I failed to read it decades ago for high school English—because funny guy and close friend of mine, Dave Rucci, wrote "Piggy dies by a rock" on the title page of my book. It still makes me laugh out loud to this day to think of it. Besides, Benedict Cumberbatch narrated The Spire. Can we just pause and have a moment of silence for Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch please? He could read legal briefs out loud and I'd probably swoon.

I guess it goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed Cumberbatch's reading of "William Golding's 1964 novel about the building of a spire...a study of bringing the near-impossible into being. [Golding's] writing is no less miraculous." If you like literary books that are rich with metaphor and require analysis to gain greater insight and understanding, this will be a fantastic listen for you. As for me, I'll commit to any novel read by Mr. Heart-me-snatch. I have yet to discover a finer audiobook narrator. (That's your cue to say, No Sheet Sherlock!)

Posted by Tracy