Day 8

Books left: 99
Current book: The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington

Finally the book is picking up a bit.  When George comes home from college the summer before his senior year, Aunt Fanny teases him by telling him there's a rumor that Lucy is engaged to Fred Kinney, a boy that George had a fight with in their younger days.  George is understandably upset at this.  At this point I actually feel sorry for George, and I hope the rumor isn't true.  He goes straight over to Lucy's house to ask her if she is engaged to Fred Kinney.  She tells him she's not, and so he asks her to marry him.  At first she says no, but eventually George convinces her to say she'll give him an answer the night before he leaves for his senior year.

Now, in among this, there's some mention about the expansion of the town and an automobile factory that is being erected.  I'm perfectly aware that these are supposed to be central themes of the book, but so far I don't really see how they come into play much.  Also, George's father is sick, but I'm not really concerned about it.  He's such a small character.  He's inconsequential.

George and Lucy write letters to each other while George is away at school.  Reading them really makes me wish people still wrote letters.  It's so much easier to say things in letters, than it is in a text or email, or in real life.  I thought about doing that thing where you write letters to people, but then don't actually mail them.  But then I thought, what's the point if you don't mail them?

Anyway, the night before George leaves for senior year, Lucy tells him she'll consent to being "almost engaged"  and that it's "too solemn to think about".  I don't really understand what she means by this.  My interpretation of it is that she doesn't like coming to terms with the fact that she's an adult now, and has to make adult decisions.  I like Lucy as a character, but it is kind of hard to believe that she's 20 or 21 at this point.  In my mind she seems about 17.

I'm about halfway through The Magnificent Ambersons now, so I've decided to start looking for the next book, The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy.  But it's not at the library!  I guess it's out of print, so I could order it from Borders.com or Amazon, but I really don't want to have to pay much more than $5 for any of these books, if I have to pay for them at all.  So I'm off to scour used book stores.  Hopefully I'll find it fast!