Reading : Beauty and the Werewolf

I am reading so many books right now it is insane. I have not read like this for YEARS.
WHY?
Because I have been in school. Am I done school you ask?
HELL TO THE NO!
I am procrastinating and I have retreated from the world in the evenings after the boys are in bed and I am reading up a storm. I am not even watching television I am reading so much - and that says SOMETHING about my reading fo sho.
I just finished a book called Beauty and the Werewolf and I LOVED this book, probably because I like a good fairytale. It was part Little Red Riding Hood, part Beauty and the Beast. The female protagonist was smart, hardworking, kind and all around the kind of woman I like to read about. The woodsman and the Wolf were not at all what you would expect from the typical fairytale which was a nice, but predictable departure from the norm. The only thing in the book that was a bit of a distraction was that I figured out the plot early on and knew who was responsible for the spell cast on the Wolf - it bothers me that I am smarter than sorcerers, wise women and others with abilities beyond my own. If I can figure it out, why can't they? This seemed to me more of an adolescent read than an adult one but I really liked it just the same.


I read to "escape" from reality. I have in the past year begun to read science fiction and fantasy books which I had never read before because I was bored with the predictability of the mysteries I had previously devoured. I am enjoying my foray into these new (for me) genres, but there are some things which I have noticed which bother me.

I have yet to read ANY book in which a female character dresses herself in "male" clothing for comfort and functionality but in the process offends some of those she encounters. Compass directions are ALWAYS north, south, east and west which makes sense from the perspective that it gives the reader some frame of reference, but in other ways it is strange that in other worlds, in other times, there would be these exact same directions by the same name.

Another thing I have noticed is that when characters in books undertake any kind of travel, they ALWAYS have jerky and cheese. REALLY? I have read about dragons, witches, boggarts, gurgi, and all manner of other kinds of creatures, but there are ALWAYS cows and cheese - and jerky!