10/10/00: On Reading Too Many Sue Grafton Books
Lately I've been reading these silly detective novels by Sue Grafton. Those are the alphabet ones -- A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, etc., up to O is for Outlaw. I buy them used and read them on the subway.
They're a lot of fun and always a good read. I can never figure out whodunnit, ever. It's always a surprise. Sometimes I stop and put down the book and write down the suspects and think about it, and still, I never can get close. It's cool.
The books are written in first person singular, that is, they are narrated by one Kinsey Millhone, the tough female P.I. And now that I've been reading them pretty much straight for about two weeks (I average 3 books a week), my mind has fallen into step with Kinsey's. I am thinking like her. It's kind of disturbing, really.
Case in point -- I got off the subway the other day and actually thought these words in my head. "I looked at my watch and saw that I still had half an hour before Buffy came on. If I walked home fast, I could probably start dinner and put my laundry in before the show started." I'm completely serious. I thought in the past tense and in the style of Kinsey. I realized it at once and laughed at myself, but then I caught myself doing it again a few hours later. "Having finished dinner, I took a pass on washing my dishes and opted instead to practice guitar for a little while." Argh.
I was a little disturbed at first, but over time I came to see it as evidence of the power of writing, and chalked it up in my mind as further proof that I should write a book of my own someday. And once I finished reading them all, the effect would surely go away.
(Stop it!)