Ireadthereforeiam: Into the bottomless depths of academic readings

Because when is it not a good time for a psychedelic cat!!?

BOOKS READ 2015 (the second half of)

OCTOBER
49. State Ward by Alan Duff (129p, tally 11,158p)
50. Writing for Social Scientists by Howard Becker NF
51. The Lost Dove: A Story for all Time by Eliane Wilson

SEPTEMBER
42. Analyzing Social Settings by John Lofland NF (240p, tally 9,701p)
43. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (314p, tally 10,015p)
44. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich (131p, tally 10,146p)
45. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (147p, tally 10,293p)
46. Everything in this Country Must by Colum McCann (143p, tally 10,436p)
47. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (250p, tally 10,680p)
48. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (349p, tally 11,029p)

AUGUST
38. The Ghost Road by Pat Barker (276p, tally 9,085p)
39. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman (reread, 110p, tally 9,190p)
40. Starting Fieldwork by Martin Tolich and Carl Davidson NF (187p, tally 9,377p)
41. Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner (184p, tally 9,461p)

JULY
34. Fair Warning by Robert Olen Butler (DNF, I read to 123/225p, tally 8,060)
35. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (229p, tally 8,289p)
36. A Plague of Caterpillars by Nigel Barley (159p, tally 8,448)
37. The Human Stain by Philip Roth (361p, tally 8.809)

BOOKS READ 2015 (the first half of)

JUNE
27. Ghettoside by Jill Leovy NF (319p, tally 6,468)
28. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (188p, tally 6,656)
29. The First Bad Man by Miranda July (274p, tally 6,930)
30. Housekeeping By Marilynne Robinson (218p, tally 7,148)
31. Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (277p, tally 7,425 + missed book from May 168p, 7,593)
32. Knulp by Herman Hesse (125p, tally 7,718)
33. Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut (219p, tally 7,937)

MAY
21. a missed one! Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz
22. Native Son by Richard Wright (560p, tally 5,216)
23. ERST601 course reader! NF (421p, tally 5,637)
24. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (215p, tally 5,652)
25. Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo (224p, tally 5,876)
26. The Free by Willy Vlautin (273p, tally 6,149)

APRIL
16. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (350p, tally 3,884p)
17. Earth Democracy by Vandana Shiva NF (186p, tally 4,070p)
18. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (162p, tally 4,232)
19. The Industry of Souls by Martin Booth (250p, tally 4,482)
20. The Tenants by Bernard Malamud (174p, tally 4,656)

MARCH
13. Film in Five Seconds by Gianmarco Milesi
14. Pursuing Social Justice in New Zealand edited by Ruth Porter NF (161p, tally 3,296)
15. The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie (238p, tally 3,534)

FEBRUARY:
6. The End of Faith by Sam Harris NF (227p, tally 1,616)
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry (197p, tally 1,813)
8. The Mermaid and the Drunks by Ben Richards (DNF, I read to page 171/247, tally 1,984)
9. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande NF (263p, tally 2,247)
10. July's People by Nadine Gordimer (160p, tally 2,407)
11. Children of the Poor: How Poverty Could Destroy New Zealand's Future by Mike Moore NF (220p, tally 2,627)
12. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twang Eng (508p, tally 3,135)

January:
1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (303p)
2. The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman NF (396p, tally 699)
3. The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (320p, tally 719)
4. Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink NF (486p, tally 1,205)
5. To Sir with Love by E. R. Braithwaite (184p, tally 1,389)

At the Movies:
Wild
The Theory of Everything
Annie
The Book of Life
2001: A Space Odyssey
Tangerines (Estonian)
Inside Out
Inherent Vice
The Wolfpack

CURRENTLY (mainly) READING:



Sad but true, no fiction pleasure reading on my horizon til next week. (NEXT WEEK??!! I hear you howl? Yes, next week)

Books purchased:
1. The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow (NF, pop psych) $1
2. Everything in this Country Must by Colum McCann $2
3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe $1 (a 5 star read from 2014, I immediately gave it to my dad to read and he loved it too)
4. The Pearl by John Steinbeck $2
5. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline $2
6. Music for Torching by A.M. Homes $2
7. To Sir with Love by E R Braithwaite $2
8. Shame by Slaman Rushdie $3
9. The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo $5
10. The Kites are Flying by Michael Morpurgo $5
11. This Morning I met a Whale by Michael Morpurgo $5
12. My Antonia by Willa Cather $8

FEBRUARY
13. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli $1
14. Children of the Poor by Mike Moore (paperback swap)
15. Cathedral by Raymond Carver $2
16. Hotel World by Ali Smith $2
17. The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie $2

MARCH
18. Film in Five Seconds by Gianmarco Milesi $24 (NEW)

APRIL
19. The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir $3
20. The Tenants by Bernand Malamud $3
21. Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz $3
22. Grimus by Salman Rushdie $3
23. Representative Men: Seven Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson $3
24. Knulp by Herman Hesse $3
25. The Sun Between Their Feet by Dorris Lessing $3
26. What Maisie Knew by Henry James $3
27. The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster $3

MAY
28. A Pagan Place by Edna O'Brien $1.75
29. Girls in their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien $1.75
30. Sam Hunt: Collected Poems by Sam Hunt (iconic NZ poet) $1.75
31. A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul $1.75
32. An Area of Darkness by VS Naipaul $1.75
33. Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas $1.75
34. The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis $1.75
35. The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger $1.75

JUNE
36. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill $5
37. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami $4
38. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain $4

JULY
39.The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster $15.99 (new)

AUGUST
40. Isaiah Berlin by Michael Ignatieff $1
41. The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago $1
42. You Shall Know our Velocity! by Dave Eggers $1
43. Prague by Arthur Phillips $1
44. Bite the Hand that Feeds You essays by Henry Fairlie $1.50
45. The Solace of Open Spaces, essays on nature by Gretel Ehrlich $6

SEPTEMBER
46. Pincher Martin by William Golding $15.99 (new!)
47. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (with b'day voucher)CURRENTLY READING
48. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (b'day voucher)

OCTOBER
49. Seeing by Jose Saramago $2
50. Atonement by Ian McKewan $2
51. What Maisie Knew by Henry James $2 (again, a better copy this time)
52. HHhH by Laurent Binet $2
53. Let me be Frank With You by Richard Ford (what a find!!) $2
54. The Discomfort Zone by Jonathat Franzen $14
55. List of the Lost by Morrissey $26 (new)

Am I first? Cool. *smug grin*

Love love love love "psychedelic cat"!!

>7 nittnut: oooh, you are first. It's fun, isn't it? Why...no one knows. But it is a coveted spot :)

>8 roundballnz: I was thinking about the band Love, who have psychedelic album covers...it got me googling ;)

Happy New Thread, Megan!

Ah, rats. I'm fourth. :)

>1 LovingLit: Ha! So true!

Congrats on the new thread, Megan! Five is my lucky number, so being fifth is A-OK. :-)

I'm number 6, and proud to be in the top 10!

Cool cat!

>10 scaifea: hi Amber! Thought it was time to wrap up the old one.

>11 drneutron: 4th is commendable....you don't get 4th without some effort and training ;)

>12 jnwelch: is five also your favourite number? I don't have a lucky number, but my favourite is 3 and then 9. Even numbers...no way, for some reason I have no love for evens

>13 kidzdoc: thanks for being an early arrival here, Darryl :)

Last night we had snow! It froze overnight into a hard crust, but the kids are planning to get out amongst it soon no doubt. I am off to "work" (I love saying that!). I have today to mark the rest of the first assignments I am marking this semester. The first half are done...and I am getting them right according to 'the examiner', who checked my work yesterday. Yay!

>14 LovingLit: Yes, five is my favourite number, Megan. It always feels good when it shows up. No even numbers for me, either.

Hi Megan, nice new thread my dear and I just love the psychedelic cat. Hope everything is well with you and your family and am sending love and hugs from the Northern Hemisphere.

Happy New Thread, Megan. I love your opening.

Happy New Thread, Megan! Love the Psychedelic Cat topper! Hope you have a nice weekend planned.

>15 jnwelch: yay, you and me ust be peas on a pod...evens numbers are not our things ;) Although, just so I am giving full dosclosure...I count 7 as an event I dislike it that much ;)

>16 johnsimpson: all well with us! I have my niece and nephew staying tonight so at present they are watching "wipeout" (a family treat for a Saturday evening), and then it wil be bedtime for them all.

>17 Ameise1: hi, and thanks. I am not a full-blown cat lover, but I love that image

>18 msf59: hi Mark! I'm still here, plodding along with my reading and my uni reading (I swear, there is over 100 pages to read for this weeks class, plus what I need to do for my project).
I have spent the day at uni doing marking, it was fun at the start but earner the bottom of the ile it was getting a tad repetitive. I liked the essays that took a distinctive take on the topic!

>14 LovingLit: You can have all the snow. Lol

Megan, I just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear of your friend's suicide (from your prior thread). Doing the work that I do, I know the anguish and deep sadness the survivors experience. Take good care of yourself (and lovely other).

And, clearly, I'm in the camp of "it is always a good time for a psychedelic cat!"

>20 nittnut: it snowed again overnight! Just a bit, and it has already melted (it's 10am). But, cool! For us...

>21 EBT1002: thanks Ellen :)
I know of one mutual friend who is not feeling great at present (NZers are good at the understatement). Regrets come back to haunt you after someone has died, especially by suicide. I feel for his family who were so surprised by it. And m lovely other is good at talking to me about things, which is really good.

..and as I write...it is snowing right now!! Yay. I'm off to play ;)

Snow. In August. That is just so wrong.

Happy new thread, Megan and YAY! for snow!

>23 kidzdoc: I got a great pic of my kids with their cousins lined up in the snow...I'll have to get my a into g and get it on to the computer so I can share.
I can scarcely get my head around hot July/Augusts! And I near freaked out when I had a white Christmas while overseas one year!! What the?

>24 lkernagh: yeah, yay for snow! It certainly got the kids out of the house fast...it was nearing cabin fever pitch in here at that point , so was great timing :)

O.K. Here's the deal. I was really here first, but I was so close in time to your last post that I was afraid to speak for fear of messing up your thread decorating. So if I'm 27th, I'm really not. Happy New Thread, Megan!
GOOD for your grading!!!
SNOW!!!! What a strange world this is!
I have to do my shout-out for even numbers - they're so much friendlier than the odds. 8 is my favorite.

>27 LizzieD: shout-out for even numbers
There was always going to be someone out there...:)
They do seem friendly, but they just miss out on the edginess that I like in my numbers. Particular? Me? Ha ha.
You can be awarded honorary first!

>25 LovingLit: Yes. White Christmas. It's so normal that a famous song was written about it 75 years ago by Irving Berlin, which was made famous by Bing Crosby.



*searches Google for songs titled "White August"*

*still searching*

There was even snow in the North island .... some (use your favourite descriptive ...) people decided it was a great idea to go up Ruapehu while it was snowing & forecast to get more & then throw tantrums, when shock horror the road is closed & so they are caught up there ...... the stupid it burns!

sorry had to say that ...... Hope everyone else down under enjoyed the snow but was not stupid enough to get stuck

>29 kidzdoc: try googling Pohutukawa Christmas song...that might get you somewhere ;) Somewhere antipodean, where Christmas is a sunny affair.
Funnily enough I have had 3 white Christmases. Japan, the good ole USA, and I am certain there were at least 6 snowflakes in London on one of the 2 Christmasses I spent there. Each one was...I won't say wrong...but it certainly didnt feel right.

>30 roundballnz: that sounds crazy like going to the beach to check out the tsunami.....some people huh? And was there really snow in Auckland!? Or was it a hoax! :)

Bah! It's half past 11 in the pm. I have just spent nearly 4 hours transcribing a 45 minute interview.
Double bah. Now I am so tired that I am wired...wired with a side order of blurry-eyed and delirious - I must to bed!

>31 LovingLit: I did as you said, and found the song Pohutukawa Christmas Tree on YouTube, with photos of beaches, barbecues, and New Zealand Christmas trees. Those trees grow here in San Francisco, especially in the neighborhoods located close to the Pacific Ocean (the city's western border is the ocean), so I should see some of them later today, if I go to the beach as planned.

I only saw a few White Christmases until I moved to Pittsburgh to attend medical school, as the Mid-Atlantic (NYC, Philadelphia) doesn't reliably get snow that early in the year. The ground was covered with snow in at least three of the four years that I lived there, and when I visit my friends in Madison, Wisconsin for the holidays there is always at least some snow on the ground. It would be possible to have a White Christmas in Atlanta, but that would be extraordinarily unusual, and it certainly hasn't happened since I moved there in 1997.

I wish it would snow here today. But then we'd all know that the world really is ending. LOL

Snow. Blergh. 10 years in Colorado satisfied any latent desire I may have had for snow on a regular basis. We had some in the hills yesterday morning and that was close enough for me. I grew up in Southern California so a sunny, green Christmas wasn't too hard for me to get my head around. My Colorado kids miss the white Christmas though.

And now I have the Pohutakawa Christmas song stuck in my head, so thanks for that. Lol

I think I watched a QI episode that said snow and Christmas was a Dickensian thing.

Just saying....

I'm a bit late but I wish you 'Happy New thread', Megan.

Snow!!!

>33 kidzdoc: Darryl, here is the version I hoped you'd find....or maybe it is the same? This one has the crooner crooning "I'm dreaming of a Whiiiite Chriiistmas...." and then a couple of gunshots (directed at the words rather than the singer, I am sure!), before settling in to the Pohutukawa Christmas song.....It seemed to fit the conversation ;)
The Pohutukawa tree flowers in summer, at Christmas time! I love seeing it and remember summer driving holidays as a kid, seeing them in full flower.

>34 EBT1002: yes, that might be just a tad too odd for my delicate sensibilities to handle ;)

>35 nittnut: your "Colorado" kids are getting quite a travel backstory created for them now! I bet it will come back in dividends for them as they grow. A well-travelled kid is a well-rounded kid, as my (insert wise relative title here) used to say.

>36 charl08: Dickensian!? I wish RD were here to see this kind of talk. haha.

>37 connie53: thanks Connie. I am enjoying it so far!

*********************************************************

I have just finished my marking of the first round of essays, and logged in the data for discussion with lecturer tomorrow. I had my best sharpened pencil out (pen is too confronting, apparently....), and made some constructive comments. Whether they are read or not by the students, ah well....I can only give it my personal best. I just hope no one sends in a complaint about their grade!!!

Now, to do some course reading for my own self! Then, sleep in the weekend. Maybe.

>38 LovingLit: That little whippersnapper shot the Great American Singer Bing Crosby? Heresy!

I did go to Ocean Beach and saw a few New Zealand Christmas trees on my way back to downtown San Francisco. I was going to take a photo of one, but the tram ulled away before I could get my cell phone out. Here's a photo from the Internet of a typical one, which I assume is far less impressive than the ones you have there.

Here is a nice link of a NZ Pohutakawa, Have to admit I agree, despite being an import, that Summer , pohutakawa & Xmas & BBQ's just go together .....

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Oceania/New_Zealand/North_Island/Auckland/Murra...

>31 LovingLit: No snow but plenty of soft & Hard Hail ...... Never believe an Aucklander who tells there was snow in Auckland ....

>39 kidzdoc: That little whippersnapper shot the Great American Singer Bing Crosby?
It was the words! Not the man! (surely??)
That little whippersnapper is actually a year older than me, which must make him at least 40 by now....he acutally went to the same high school as me, although his name was different back then :) He's a local hard-working musician, and made a great film about a NZ tour he did with his dog one year. Not all his music speaks to me, but I do love it that he is one (a musician), and that he can be...as it were.

And yes! That does look like the trees! They thrive in a more northern climate than here, but, yes.

>40 roundballnz: that is an impressive photo, Alex. Although it looks like she has had vaseline on the lens or something...it looks smudgey? Haha, maybe the snow was severley localised!!?

>41 LovingLit: Noooooo do not encourage them .... unless the earth stops spinning you don't get snow at sea level this far north .... no matter how much you want it to be :)

Never, ever, ever seen a white Christmas. Neither has my mother who is 93! She got very excited when it tried to snow on Christmas Eve a few years ago.

>42 roundballnz: it did seem rather odd....

>43 SandDune: well, one of my three was in London (1998 or 1999?), and the snow definitely fell....although I'm not sure it landed. It certainly didn't stick around. So that particular white Christmas was debatable.
Christmas eve snow would have been lovely! It is a. Magical experience seeing snow fall, like slow-motion....we still have snow on the hills close to town, so it's cold enough for it to be hanging about.

Glad to hear, you are wrapping up your school work, for the term. R & R is in order. I know, you could use it.

I stand corrected: Atlanta had a White Christmas in 2010, with 2 inches of snowfall that day, which was the first WC since 1881. I must have been out of town, in Madison, Wisconsin or Philadelphia, because I don't remember that at all!

>43 SandDune: Come to Madison, Wisconsin in late December, Rhian! I can all but guarantee you a White Christmas, along with the coldest weather you've probably ever experienced.

I miss those white winters in Wisconsin. It may be the only thing I miss about that town I lived in, but I loved the snow. Having grown up in Florida and then moved to the midwest for grad school, I've never gotten over my love of snow. I suppose it helps that I now live in a place that only occasionally gets snow. Otherwise, I'm sure I would get tired of the work associated with it.

Several years ago Seattle got 15" in about 30 hours. It was awesome! It completely shut the city down and the mayor promptly got voted out for inadequate preparation and response (I oversimplify). So "we" spent about a million dollars on snow removal equipment. It hasn't snowed another flake since.

>40 roundballnz: That tree is absolutely gorgeous - and red and green are certainly Christmas colors!
I've known 4 or 5 white Christmases here, and that seems a pretty nice portion. Don't love the cold, and my Reynaud's makes living anywhere colder than here a problem. It's good that DH says, "I have everything I want right here. Why would I go somewhere else?"

>45 msf59: yup, and as luck (or good planning would have it) I have a few R&R things already scheduled: tomorrow evening a dumpling and wine tasting night at a winery local to my sisters place. I love both those things, so that is great. And Sunday evening I am seeing the film (for free! Good to have friends who get comps) Inherent Vice. Should be good. I got prior permission from my lovely other to go on a date with another man, and he was cool ;) I had invited him along, of course, but when he declined...

>46 kidzdoc: there is just so much in this world that I want to see! Snow in Wisconsin, the East coast of Canada (and northern USA), Lake Baikal, Tasmania, parts of NZ that I still want to go or go back to, the deep south (US), Chile...how on earth will I find the time and money to do all this? $19 per hour doing casual marking is not going ot get me there, clearly I need to rethink my plans. (and stop spening my earnings!)

>47 EBT1002: So "we" spent about a million dollars on snow removal equipment. It hasn't snowed another flake since.
Reactionary?? I think so. It's always the way when that great glob of "the goverened" coalesce and move as one...

>48 LizzieD: how nice to be pleased with your circumstances. I think there are few who accept that what they have is actually quite good. I had to look up "Reynauds", and now I see why too cool a climate would not work for you. My lecturer last semester had this too, and one day she came to class with wtite fingers and had to keep tapping them to try and get the blood flowing. It sounds a right pain.

Crap day today....felt all of a sudden overwhelmed with sadness on the way to university so, even though I pulled myself together, ended up feeling self-conscious with my red eyes for class. This because of it being a week ago today since the funeral of my partner's friend. I figure I have spent this week so caught up in and distracted by assessment and marking, that I neglected grieving...and once the pressure was off, it call came out. All normal stages I guess. Moving on...

Kudos to Ellen here for doing the hard yards typing ;)

The Booker list has been on my TBR since before LT- in fact it was my TBR!

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize)
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea (On my shelf)
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark (On my shelf)
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K (On my shelf)
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils (On my shelf)
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (On my shelf)
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (On my shelf)
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance (On my shelf)
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road (On my shelf)
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (On my shelf)
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders (On my shelf)
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (On my shelf)
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little (On my shelf)
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty (On my shelf)
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss CURRENTLY READING
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering (On my shelf)
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (On my shelf)
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (On my shelf)
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (On my shelf)

I loved the Inheritance of Loss (although this is all I can remember about the book) so hopefully will have the neurons fired by your comments.

I think my favourite from that list that I've read is Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha but then I'm a big Doyle fan so I'd recommend most of his.

>52 charl08: I have been reluctant to pick up Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha for some reason! I got the feeling from the title that it was light-weight. I'm so judgemental :)

*sigh* I own so many on that list that I haven't read. I see that I have read 16, but I liked (and in most cases REALLY liked) only 9 of them. Actually, that's a pretty decent percentage, isn't it? I'd say that you need to read Sacred Hunger next! Oh!!! You didn't ask, did you?
Hope you ended your day feeling better than when you began. ((((Megan))))

>51 LovingLit: I love reading the short lists, in recent years have mostly acquired one or two from the list, but often I find the winner doesn't do it for me, but there are great delights in the also rans ..... maybe its me being quirky again

With that grieving thing, best not to bottle it up, but process it in the best way for you .....

>49 LovingLit: Wiconsin is beautiful in the wintertime, especially when there is a fresh set of snow on the ground.

>50 LovingLit: Good for you in being able to grieve for your friend, even though the timing may not have been the most ideal.

>51 LovingLit: I think I'll steal Ellen's Booker winner list, too! My favorite from that list is probably Wolf Hall, followed by Troubles and The Remains of the Day.

>54 LizzieD: well, I should read that next as the other winner from 1992 ctainly didn't do it for me. Strictly speaking I haven't even finished The English Patient... But I have stopped reading it.

>55 roundballnz: the short lists provide a great tbr pile! I have read some and found out later they were short listers...

>56 kidzdoc: oooh, my favourites from the winners that I have read are: Life of Pi, The Bone People, How Late it was, How Late and probably The Luminaries and Sense of an Ending as well.

>57 LovingLit: I liked Life of Pi and loved The Luminaries and The Sense of an Ending, although I don't remember much about the latter book. I own The Bone People and How Late It Was, How Late but haven't read either book yet.

Happy Weekend, Megan. Hope you are getting plenty of R & R in.

Thanks for supplying the Booker list. I have read 7 of the last nine. I still want to get to The Finkler Question, (I own it) and The Gathering, (I do not).
I also have The Line of Beauty on shelf too.

How do we ever keep up, eh?

>58 kidzdoc: I also have great memories of sessions spent reading Midnight's Children one winter by the fire -backwhen Lenny was still having days sleeps. I think I have that 4.5 stars too, like all bar the first two I listed, which got 5.

>59 msf59: r & r is sorely needed after last weeks stressy week, Mark. I will have (hopefully) only one more stressy week this year, and that will be when I have marking due on top of my own class essay due (which is worth 70% of the final grade so is a biggie), all that is not til October though. And I will make sure to have done the groundwork well in advance! I hate stress.
Also in October I am going to see The Fall in Wellington! And then in November....Courtney Barnett! I am really excited about that one, I wonder if she'd be pleased to know that she inspired my newish haircut?! Haha.

Lovely news though....a little A for my latest effort. Just a 10%er, but I am happiness-filled as usual :)

August book haul! (about time)

Isaiah Berlin by Michael Ignatieff $1
The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago $1
You Shall Know our Velocity! by Dave Eggers $1
Prague by Arthur Phillips $1
Bite the Hand that Feeds You essays by Henry Fairlie $1.50

The last one is in great condition and still has the $45 price tag on the back....Yuss! It looks really interesting too, and it reminds me (literally, on the front cover) that I need to read George Orwell's essays (get in line, George!).

When I see your book hauls it reminds me I really shd get out & try to find more good seconds in Auckland ....

^ I love a bargain, Alex. And plus, who can afford to buy 5 books when they are potentially $45 each!!? I am pretty pleased with my haul. And my A.

Good book haul. I'm also scrounging through a few op shops in my area. My latest best find was Poet of the Appetites, a biography of MFK Fisher, a renown food writer.

>51 LovingLit: I've read about 19 on that list, I do tend to go for reading from the short list rather than the winner though, as many times the winner is a compromise between judges' favourites.
Congrats on the 'A'

>62 LovingLit: What a great August book haul. And, you got quite a bargain as well.

Nice book haul! Also nice work on the A. Just what we expect, of course. lol

Definitely get George in line. I think my favorites are "Politics and the English Language" and "Shooting and Elephant". And then there is "The Decline of the English Murder". :)

>64 LovingLit: Well done on the A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hear you on $$$ of new books down here, this is why me & BD are very good friends :)

>62 LovingLit: Nice book haul. I'm listening to George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia on and off. The narrator's good (Jeremy Northam) but can't help thinking it could have been a much shorter book.

Megan, that psychedelic cat that opens your thread reminds me of the adult coloring books that are "in" right now. In fact, I own one! I got two for my oldest granddaughter for Christmas and discovered that she already had one so I kept it for me. I stocked up on fine-tip markers and colored pencils during the recent back-to-school sales, but still haven't done any coloring!

It sounds like school is still ringing your bell! I almost looked into another literature class at the local uni but decided I didn't want to give up any of my other extracurricular (outside of housewifery) duties. Right now, playing Grandma is still my favorite thing to do.

I've liked many of the Booker winners. Midnight's Children might be my favorite, followed closely by The Bone People. As you know, they are both deep books and could easily be read again and again. In fact, I have read TBP several times and still have questions in my mind about it. The sign of a good book imo.

Hug those big boys for me. Waiting for a picture in the snow...

The snow kids a few weekends ago. The middle two are mine, the outer two my niece and nephew.

>70 Donna828: there you go, Donna :)
I gave my friend a dot to dot book, it is large and has 1000 dots per page minimum. She is getting right into it, so that present worked! For my 'mindfulness' I have been enlarging a tiny sticker that used to feature on 2nd hand CDs that everyone in my town who bought used, had plenty of exposure to. It was fun!

>69 charl08: (working backwards here)
I still love my haul, I just keep it close and glance at it from time to time.

>68 roundballnz: thank you for the enthusiasm! *finally* ;)
I know it is hard to work up much excitement around here for an A, but I still feel like it was hard-earned enough to crow about it.

>67 nittnut: expectations can ruin an experience...please from now on, just expect B-'s from me and act accordingly should I exceed that. In fact, maybe I need to do that too!

>66 Whisper1: My August list was very lacking...which reminds me. ONe arrived in the post today, one I have wanted to read for an age (and a half): The Solace of Open Spaces, essays on nature by Gretel Ehrlich. $6...free postage, via a new one for me, Good world books...something like that (Ill get back to you on that as my memory is shot right now).

Love the photo. Super cute stripy anoraks :-)

I LOVE the snow kids! And congrats on the A!! You work hard and it shows!

Great photo, Megan!

>72 charl08: they are so matchey! I don't generally buy the kids their clothes, my lovely other does, and I have to say he did a great job with those jackets, they are great for winter.

>73 msf59: thanks Mark! Sometimes I wonder if I have to work too hard to get the A... But they are addictive...so ;)

>74 kidzdoc: thanks Darryl! It was a fun day, that's for sure it even settled later, after that was taken. We had heaps of fun.

W has reinjured an old strain by *sitting on the mat* at school....hard core sitting apparently.
Anyway, he was barely able to put weight on it so off to he a/h surgery we went for a lookie, where he was rewarded with his first ever blood test. Poor W :( He felt a bit sick and got very pale very fast. And now he dislikes me muchly on account of the fact that I "told the doctor he was allowed to" (ie. gave my consent). I may not be invited to his birthday party as punishment, which was the biggest insult to me he could think of at the time.
Aaw ;)

>76 LovingLit: Now that is cute .....

Poor W. Getting poked with a needle is a grave insult. Hopefully it turns out to be not serious.

Eli is nearly 9 and he's just forgiven me the yearly flu shot. It took over half his class going down with flu last week to bring him to this concession.

Happy Weekend, Megan.

>76 LovingLit: Bad mum! How dare you side with the doctor over W!

>77 roundballnz: I have a friend who is just so lovely that when she was at the angriest I have ever seen her, the most she could manage was to say "well, that's just not very nice, is it!". We still talk about that as evidence of her awesomeness :)

>78 nittnut: haha, I still get fearful conversations about flu shots from 3 years ago, it was that darned 2nd booster shot that sealed his opinion on them. Insult upon insult!
I'll have to take him with me to donate blood a few times, that might chill him out about it.

>79 Ameise1: thanks B! I am off for a long walk with my lovely other today. I am really excited about it as we always want to do it, but this time I arranged it so that we could do it. Hoping to walk for 3 hours, and tie it in with the gondola somehow, seeing as the cafe at the top is along the route (across the tops of the Port Hills).

>80 kidzdoc: I know! I mean, who cares about a bone infection anyway, right!?
*um-ME, that's who!*
Anyway, results back, and no infection, so that's good. So it's probably just his thigh strain revisiting.

>81 LovingLit: Good news about W! Has he forgiven you for your transgression?

^ well, Darryl, I have not heard any more drama about the blood test, so am assuming I am invited to the birthday party again. This year I delegated part plans to his father and he's gone and organised a doozie! W and 6 friends are going to go boating on the Avon River, which winds it's way around Christchurch. Then they are going to get the bus back to our place and have afternoon tea.
I will be walking alongside the river as a safety monitor...lifeguard is the term I used to Wilb. He asked would I be wearing togs. And the answer to that would be an unequivocal no! (togs =swimsuit)

>83 LovingLit: Just try and match that party! Sounds like fun. Good thing you are reinstated.

>84 nittnut: I know...and to think I had such low hopes for his party planning. I should know better :)
I bet I will be making all the afternoon tea, and the cake though!

>83 LovingLit: That sounds like a great party you have planned for Wilbur, Megan!

I think you'll earn huge points with W and his friends if you did indeed wear togs while patrolling the riverbank as safety monitor. Ok, you may wear a woolen hat as well if you insist.

The picture was worth waiting for...and the funny Wilbur story. I think that party sounds great! The boys will surely be exhausted when they arrive home for tea. Wtg, Dad...Good planning!

>86 kidzdoc: that's the beauty of it, is that I didn't have to organisse it. :)
I can see father-planned-parties catching on around here

>87 cameling: haha...the river is ...central. As in through the city. Can't you just imagine a tog-clad lady wandering the river bank in the middle of winter in the city? I'd get a few looks, I'm sure.

>88 Donna828: way to go dad, indeed. Oh me of little faith ;)

>89 LovingLit: Given the number of crazy people I see in Boston during winter who wear all manner of clothing or lack of, I can very much imagine that. :-)

^ haha, my favourite memories of NYC are of the odd people I saw there. The best one was the old lady on the subway, who looked over at a young woman wearing a long dress made of t shirt material, with thin straps, and casual shoes....the lady looked back to me and said with a shake of her head "It's a bawwwwl dress wit sneeeekers". As if to despair at the fate of the world....I don't think I will ever fortget that, it was so funny.

See now I have an image of you wandering down beside the river in togs, tea cosy hat, boots with book in hand .....

>92 roundballnz: ha ha! I don't think Wilbur would really want me to be that mum. He's not at the "embarrassed by parents" stage yet, but that would fast-track the process I think!

I am going to have to shelve (literally!) The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai...Booker winner 1996(?). I am over half way through, but it is a slog and a half. The story line is barely there and the journey to find it is not worth it for now.
I realised this when I started Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and immediately thought to myself how can I clear my schedule to keep reading this!? So life being too short and all that, I have decided to put a hold on the former and dive into the latter. :)

>91 LovingLit: This was one of the things I loved about London: completely surreal outfits and noone turned a hair.

Ooh I loved Hotel du Lac. Isn't that a treat to read, Megan? Sorry you don't like The Inheritance of Loss though. It was a bit of a slog at first but I did like it and managed to finish it. Not sure how it could have won the Booker that year though because although I remember liking it, I don't think I liked it THAT much. Perhaps there weren't that many good contenders that year.

>95 charl08: yes, in rural NZ at least, any outfits outside the accepted norm would be commented on to say the least. It's one aspect of rural life that I don't like.

>96 cameling: I will try and finish The Inheritance of Loss at some point in the not too distant future...but for now my book of choice to fall asleep holding is Hotel du Lac ;)

I was drawn to a tiny tent of goodness today in the ReStart Mall (temporary shops are all the rage here STILL after the earthquakes). The bookshop had a little overflow sale area, and I came away with 2x half priced books. Both intended as gifts.
The Night Manager by John le Carre and What are you Doing Here? by Janet Wainscott, a dementia memoir. One for dad for Father's Day, and one for my book club friend whose father is showing the signs of dementia. Buying books- too easy!

Buying books- too easy!

Except when you are in a bookstore, basket of books in your hand and you realize you've left your wallet at home.

>97 LovingLit: From personal experience the only places you can get away with unusual dress is Wellington/Auckland city centres .... even less so than when I was young, as they become gentrified .....

>99 cameling: yeah, I'd say not having money is a huge impediment to purchasing...anything ;) It's long been my problem anyway!

>100 roundballnz: cos there's always A holes out there who just want to be mean, and who try to make their meagre selves feel important by putting someone else down. sheesh.

>71 LovingLit: What a wonderful photo!

Happy Sunday, Megan. Is there any hope of spring coming soon at your part of the world?

Aargh....sick kids. Count 'em: one + one = two sick kids. Fevers, headaches, palefaced sleepyheads. No uni no school no kindy.
See you all soon!

Oh no! Hope they get better soon.

Poor little guys (and mum)! I hope that they improve soon, and that you don't catch what they have.

Howdy, Megan! Sorry to hear about the sick boys. Hope the little fellas are feeling better.

It has been awhile but I remember really enjoying The Inheritance of Loss. Hope you give it another go.

Oh d3ar, I hope they get better soon.

>103 Ameise1: >108 Ameise1: spring is trying :) Daffodils and other bulbs are making their way up, and the Magnolias are nearly there. I love the Magnolia trees....so short lived but so lovely.

>105 charl08: hah! Me too. Today was all of the above plus more vomit and grouchy-pantsiness and less sleepiness. I'm about ready for a 3 week holiday to a deserted island after 2 days of this.

>106 kidzdoc: I already have a sore throat...but that doesn't appear to be one of the symptoms that the kids have. Vomit I certainly don't need!

>107 msf59: hi Mark, I'm staring down the barrel of day three of two sick kids in one relatively small house. Send help! ;)
I preferred Hotel du Lac to The Inheritance of Loss, but in fairness to the latter I have only read half of it. I do intend to finish it, but not before I read Paul Asters NY trilogy. Which, so far, is great.

Oh dang! I'm sorry about the sick munchkins! I hope they're all ready feeling better.

^ I am sending some assistance, Megan. I hope this helps a little.

Wow. That's pretty impressive.

Sorry to hear about the sick kids and you also being under the weather, Megan. I hope you all kick the bugs soon.

>111 msf59: I think that would help Megan for the first 1 hour. Now where is the server with the supply for the rest of the day?

>110 scaifea: hi Amber, unfortunately no betterness here yet. Although, my sore throat has gone/morphed into just a snotty nose. *seeing the positive side*

>111 msf59: woah! Thanks...I think? Not sure how that lot will affect my immune system, but it will at least help me to forget my woes :)
Also aiding and abetting my feelings of goodness is the fact that I am seeing The Bats on Thirsday night at a local intimate bar. Yay! It's always a good day when The Bats are on the radar...so to speak.

>112 drneutron: that's at least ten steins...carried by one very capable Frau!

>113 cameling: bugs be gone alright. Last night would have been a good time for it, I was woken at 10:40pm, 1:30am and 4:45am by various children for various things, including vomit. Fever induced rather than a pure vomit-fest, which made it mildly easier to deal with.
They are handling it rather well consigning how bad they must feel. Ibam beginning to wonder if this is the flu...there has been a strain about lately that is apparently different to the one they were not inoculated against. Making my oops not so significant (in not getting them jabs).

Hooray, for The Bats! Have a great time. It sounds like you could use it.

^ Thanks, the Bats are like the Smiths in that their jingle jangle sound makes them seem like a happy band, but they have lyrics that are a tad more pessimistic realistic! I like that.

Ewwww. Darnit. Sick kids = No. Good. Eli's class had 15 kids out with the flu 2 weeks ago. We didn't catch whatever it was, so I suppose it was the one covered by the vaccine. Could there be that many parents who don't get the flu jab for their kiddos?

>116 LovingLit: "The Bats" now that makes me feel a tad old ...... The Smiths, Morrissey, The Bats, Straightjacket fits, Dimmer all shd be listened too.

>117 nittnut: we got word from the school that the flu that is going around is a different strain to the one vaccinated against. I got my jab but the kids didn't...and I have yet to go down with flu-like symptoms. So I have no idea what the story is.
We have had so many teachers off school in the last month that some classes have had to double up as the relievers are all used up too.

>118 roundballnz: Don't feel old, the Bats are still cool ;)
My lovely other would agree with you on all your music choices, he loves all thoses Flying Nun bands.

Ugh... sounds like you and the boys had a rough night, Megan. I hope a few days at home resting will clear their wee bodies of the virus. Are they able to be distracted with cartoons or are they still feverish and miserable?

Argh, from thing to thing today. Collect car from mechanic ($86 for no faults found), fill up on petrol $95, rest stop at cafe/playground with Lenny, doctors visit for Wilbur again for thigh...on to x-ray to eliminate something or other ($45, something or other successfully eliminated), drop W back at school, then to hair appointment just in time. Phew.
Good old Lenny handled all the to-ing and fro-ing very well and then flopped onto a carelessly filed blanket (on the floor) and promptly fell asleep.
It was then that I then took the time to consider why my leg had been itchy all day and discovered that my leg is coved in itchy bites! About 50 in total!!! What the? The leggings I was wearing had been draped over something for a week or so, and the lower 1/4 was on the floor, where the cat sometimes sits. I think- is this even possible?- that the cat had deposited some fleas on my leggings and then me. Ew.

>120 cameling: thanks for dropping by Caro, kids sort of better but not really, we are getting there though :)

Sounds like a flu bug. Super awesome bonus with the flea bites. What a bummer. I think you need to go buy a book or two just for therapy. :)

Fleas! Awful! I hope you can get something for the itching. And two sick kids!
You should do what >123 nittnut: suggested. You have deserved them!

>123 nittnut: I agree. Hope the bites are gone quickly.

>123 nittnut: ew ew ew flea bites. Yuck. They are barely there today thank goodness. I tried to run a deep hot bath last night but the hot water tank had been drained by the kids bath, a hot wash in the washing machine (to rid clothes of fleas) and then me accidentally letting the hot tap run in the sink :( So my half deep, luke warm bath did nothing but infuriate me. To remedy this I went to bed early to read, and fell asleep at 8pm!

>124 connie53: gross huh? Luckily today I can hardly feel the itchy, and the clothes have been out in the frost and then today in the sun. That'll get 'em!

>125 charl08: thanks! They seem to be :)
And I have excessively cleaned the area whe my clothes were. Because ew. Fleas=ew ew ew.

>121 LovingLit: I am scratching just reading your news! Hope the boys are better soon and that you'll have a great weekend once your nails have been filed. xx

>121 LovingLit: >126 LovingLit: Fleas can jump incredible distances ..... antihistamines are your friends against itching & maybe the pet needs some *ahem* treatment before they jump on the kidlets

>127 PaulCranswick: hey Paul! Long time no see:)
Thanks for the solidarity, I am scratching for no reason too. The mind is a funny thing. When nits were going around school I was convinced I was writhing with them...but I wasn't.

>128 roundballnz: yes. Flea the cat. Good advice. Will take that on board. Is it fleas that are indestructible? I remember catching one once and it had such a hard surface on its back that it couldnt be pinched between my fingernails at all, it just jumped right off once the pressure was gone. I clearly need to know m vermin better....

Paul Auster's New York Trilogy is looking like it is unable to be broken into 3 separate books (novellas) for my stats. Even though I assume they are actually separate books....publication wise (maybe I need to check on this)... they feel too bizarre as stand-alone novellas. So I am going to read the lot and count it all as one book. I am half way through the third, so am nearly there. And boy am I hoping for some sort of wrap-up that will tie the three together, as I have no clue as yet.
*exciting*

#130 Crazy read isn't it!

Sorry to hear about the sick kids/fleas/general cruddiness. Fingers crossed that's it and the next week will be a good one :)

Oh dear, here is hope that your household turns back to normal soon.

>131 BekkaJo: it is a crazy read, and I am really enjoying it. I don't think it really sits in the crime genre though, well. Not neatly anyway.

>132 Ameise1: I'm not sure what normal is any more! A whole week of illness has fried me. And now I am convinced that Lenny did a vomit on purpose to get out of dinner. What the? He has been off his food lately so has been excused from eating what we are having, but last night he was to have the meal with the family, and he kicked up a huge stink, threatening to vomit if he had to eat it. And then, he actually did. I couldn't believe it. He was smiling a devilish smile straight afterwards, and I was not happy about the whole performance. I just plainly stated that seeing as he was sick, he really ought to go straight to bed.Ha. I won my half of that little battle...

Oh dear, kids can be sometimes such little devils. Luckily, we adults know our tricks, too.

Hi, Megan! Sorry to hear about all the illness, in the household. I hope things are beginning to look up. I've been wanting to read the The New York Trilogy for years. I have several unread Auster books on shelf.

Sometimes, it just takes the right LTer, to give me a kick in the pants.

Fleas AND sick kids?! Not good - Poor you! :-(

>134 Ameise1: Haha, I know! I get tested a lot from my lot, I swear. The smart ones are always trouble.

>135 msf59:

>136 lkernagh: Well, they just have coughs and colds now, small ones. And I got a whole nights sleep last night. So I guess I can stop complaining ;)

Thank goodness for sleep. Hope the recovery continues.

^ also thank goodness for a quiet patch at university. I am able catch up on a few things having done a whole heap of data collection for my project in the teaching break. So I am using the free evenings to do cool stuff like going to the readers and writers festival to see Peter Singer talking about his new book on altruism.
He was fascinating to hear. Partly on account of his clear, ordered yet complex speaking. And partly because what he was talking about was right up my alley. I will borrow the book off my friend as soon as she is finished.

Oh. How wonderful to learn of the new book on altruism. I hope the children are much better

>140 Whisper1: the children are now much better, thanks for mentioning it (I guess you know how much your child's health impacts on family life). The virus (or whatever it was) quite knocked them around. But then, I get some perspective when a friend calls and mentions that her little one was down for 8 days with some sort of inflammation of the stomach lining, and he was in great pain through the night, in and out of a/h doctor surgeries for the duration. The little ones just can't understand why it hurts, and as a parent it is so awful to bear witness to. So, my lot wasn't s bad after all!

I'm glad the kids are better. Now you probably need a day or two...

^that is what university is for! ;)
I am here now, having just attended a small 'do' for a fellow adult student who is leaving after 5 years here. Just one of the perks of me now having 'colleagues'....my lovely other gets to go to leaving 'do's' all the time, so this evening was my turn.

Yay for the little ones feeling better, Megan!

Glad to hear the children are doing much better, Megan. And that it's now your turn for the leaving do's. :-)

>144 scaifea: good health is good. And makes life so much easier :)

>145 jnwelch: hehe, I liked being able to say I had a leaving do to go to.

BOOK 43.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (314p, tally 10,015p)

I wanted to count this as three books, but seeing as the middle novella is only about 80 pages long, I couldn't really justify that. Plus, they are all bound in the same edition (which is so pretty).
Anyhow, the stories themselves. They are oddball, which I like. Intriguing, which I like. A tad difficult to make sense of, which I like. And they left me thinking, which I love. The only difficulty I had was wondering what actually happened....and if I had made sense of it the way that was intended by the author. Which I didn't like. When this happens in my reading, I always assume it is me that is to dumb to make sense of it, or that I am too lazy to read it thoroughly enough to be sure of what is happening. But in this case, I think it was deliberately obscure, and this is perhaps why it has its 'post-modern' label...
The writing was plain and straight up and the stories unfolded beautifully. I wont go into the plot(s) as confusion will abound, and I don't want to spoil the pleasure for other readers. (you're welcome).


This book broke the 10,000 page mark. Woohoo!

>51 LovingLit: I'm so glad you borrowed from me! You know, imitation and flattery and all that. :-)

>147 LovingLit: In 2016, I'm going to count pages.

I really want to read me some Auster, too!

Fleas and flu. Totally. not. fair.

^ page counting is fun, imo. It probably gives a fairer representation of how much you read...given that a book can be 80 pages or 500 and still count as 'a book'. Not that it really matters apart from for ourselves, but you know what I mean :)
Now my lovely other has a gurgly tummy. I didn't want to complain too much given it was him that was ill, but the noise of it kept me awake last night! My fingers are so super duper crossed that I don't get it (or anything for that matter), call me crazy, but I'm just not in the mood for being ill.

>149 LovingLit: Does seem to make more sense when books vary in length so much. Although some of the hardbacks I've picked up are so widely spaced on the page perhaps pages are an over generous description?

I've loved the one Auster book I read, and then had no luck with the others I've begun. Hmm.

>149 LovingLit: am sure it's scientically proven if you walk in anti-clockwise circles while reading Green eggs & ham backwards you are immune from any household bugs ... Worth a try!

"I'm just not in the mood for being ill." Go Megan! Go Megan!

Glad you liked the Auster. I NEED to put one of his books in the rotation.

>150 charl08: I think I will try another Auster book, soon ish. I liked his style. Currently, off the back of three little books (NY Trilogy) I am reading another littlie, Breakfast at Tiffany's! It is entirely manageable in size, and pleasurable as well :)

>151 roundballnz: That's funny, I have heard that too ;) *doing it now*

>152 msf59: well, Mark, and Alex...the plan didnt work. I am sick. But not with what the lovely other had...or with what the kids had! Inexplicable. I have a head cold, with snot snot and more snot. I have decided to soldier on and coldrex my way through it. Oh boy, are those hard drugs effective! *high on cold meds*

Finished The Solace of Open Spaces and Breakfast at Tiffany's, both short and wonderful. Passed one on to my dad's partner, who has been staying here with him the last few days. Always happy to lend a book to a receptive audience ;)
Dad *stole* The Snow Geese blatantly, so I decided to let him read it...seeing as he is letting me house sit his house by the sea this Christmas. A good deal I think :)

>153 LovingLit: I hope you are "soldiering" on at home with kiddie care etc not outside & "sharing the love" ... take care of yourself seems to have been a few nasty cold bugs doing the rounds this year, somehow missed them all despite best efforts from all the new parents at work "sharing"

BTW I personally think Codral /coldrex is evil but seems to work for others ....

Hope you're well, Megan....

Sigh. Head colds are the worst. Hope you've had a nice restful weekend though.

>147 LovingLit: It wasn't a favourite of mine I must admit, Megan. Stories seemed as disconnected as he managed to make me. Still I do want to try something else of his to see if the problem was me or him?

I am not overly keen on being ill either. xx

Hi, Megan! I hope you are feeling better now, my friend. Squeezing any reading in?

>155 roundballnz: re: evil cold meds. I get you. I tried to soldier on with the aid of natural remedies last year (or the year before)....let me interrupt myself here already. I don't even like the idea of soldiering on. I like the idea of resting when you are ill, so that you get better. But kids, unfortunately don't subscribe to this method. A resting mother is an invitation to either be jumped on (repeatedly) or for mischief. Anyway, the natural cold meds I bought (saline spray for congestion, honey lozenges , licourice and chicory cough syrup...) cost me damn near $40 all up and didn't make me feel much better. So this year I decided to ditch my ideals and just go straight to being able to function. I felt *naughty*!! But it works, and it means the kids get fed. Which some people say is important ;)

>156 EBT1002: Hi Ellen. I am well, apart from being unwell :)
I have a head cold (and I only call it that because I think that is what North Americans call it- we usually just describe the symptoms here in NZ and people know what you mean). Basically a lot of snot and some headaches is what it amounts to. You get the picture. Apart from that I am well :) The daffodils are beautiful, and the nights are lighter and I am feeling very positive about Srping.

>157 nittnut: I had a great weekend, my dad and his partner were staying, but going out for meals both nights, so I had the pleasure of their company without the drama and stress of having to cook for them, us and the kids. Sweet!

>158 PaulCranswick: They were very disconnected, weren't they?! I thought of them more all sharing a common theme, a dark twisted detectivey theme. Think of it as a triptych and it might be remembered more fondly than it was as a trilogy.
Illness is a pain....but at least a cold is not terminal (if I had to look for a silver lining....)

>159 msf59: Reading the little ones, Mark. To keep my spirits up :) The Solace of Open Spaces and Breakfast at Tiffany's, both knocked off in the last week. Lovely reads the both of them, the Capote one a tad more enjoyable. I want to see the film again now as I can barely remember it.

>160 LovingLit: I'm with you. For someone who has the leisure to sit quietly and get well (I don't actually know any of those people, but they may exist) the natural remedies are just dandy. For working/studying mums, it's functional that wins. Every time. I had a beastly sinus thing last week. Went to the doctor and was told not to poison my body with antibiotics. Right. I've had antibiotics once this year. Not worried about it. I said OK, why don't I take the script just in case. *angelic grin*. Filled it, took them. All better.

How nice to have people visit and then take them selves out for a meal! Love it. :)

So people in NZ say to one another "I'm full of snot and sneezing and my head hurts"??

Hmmm I meant evil in that they cause me to get 100X worse, they really don't work for everyone :P

alongside those drugs (which yes any mother needs as its a known fact being sick is not allowed till they are 21) try getting some Euculyptus oil few drops on tissue (or bath) & breath in - will help keep the sinuses clear - till the drugs do their thing .....

> 162 when not complaining about the weather .....

>161 nittnut: I long for hate days when I could lie in bed on a sick day and rest. I swear, the reason that bugs go around and around isn't just that working parents don't keep themselves or their kids home when ill, but mothers just get used to carrying on when unwell. There just isn't normally another option.
I thought this when I had morning sickness, if anyone else had those symptoms they'd be in bed for the day, but as it is an ongoing 'condition' you just have to carry on. It prepares you for motherhood in that sense.

>162 EBT1002: uuuuuum. Yes. Pretty much. Or they say I'm sick with a coldy flu-ey thing with headaches and I'm blocked up. Haha, sounds crazy now that I mention it.

>163 roundballnz: worse!? Is it the paracetamol or the codeine that makes you worse? ;) I find them pretty effective so when I am sick enough head straight for them.
Today I have got by without, but am still 'blocked up' (with snot, just to clarify).

>164 roundballnz: I know...can you imagine what we would talk about if it weren't for colds and the weather? I'd have to go directly to feelings....not a NZ thing to talk about :)

Best wishes for good weather and no more colds!! Hang in there. : )

>165 LovingLit: No using the "f" word, just look at the fuss cause by Hanson (All Blacks coach - very important) because he used the "L" word in a interview on the weekend :) Now about that weather ......

corral not sure why? but maybe because i go from beginnings of a cold to full on bronchitis in 24 hours .... keeping breathing airways open is I understand a bottom line to carrying on living not an optional add on :)

>166 Berly: hi Kim! Hanging' in here :)
Have lit the fire mainly for ambience tonight and am about to indulge in a rare moment of TV. Unless the ads get to me and I bail..and make a pact with myself again that I will *never* watch tv...

>167 roundballnz: what was the 'L' word Hanson (glad you specified that he is All Blacks coach or i would have been baffled) used? Was it leisure? Lament? Love?! (surely not)

>168 LovingLit: Yes used the 'love' word ...... think the world may have stopped spinning in NZ for a moment there

I hope you are feeling better now!

>169 roundballnz: haha, I reckon the kiwi public would go ok with it if he told us he loved Richie McCaw, not so much if he loved his wife....

>170 connie53: hi Connie. Still soldiering on...with head cold symptoms. Just not the headaches now, so that is one thing.

And for now...I read Everything in this Country Must. Two short stories and a novella, by Colum McCann. Lovely so far, reminding me of how great Transatlantic was....and the shortness of the stories is good for my head-cold-shortened attention span.

Book 44
The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

I have been waiting to come across this book for years....eventually I came across it on the internet and just bought it. It is a collection of essays, or chapters, all dealing with rural life in Wyoming. The author has moved there initially as part of a work project to video document the area, and eventually as a resident on her own ranch. There is some repetition in the essays, description of events or people do come up more than once, but generally they form a cohesive body of work on being alone in nature.



BOOK 45
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (147p, tally 10,293p)

I saw this film years ago, and barely remember it. The book gave me little reminder of the film, so was well worth a read (I will see the film this week to refresh my memory). Plus, it is little, at 100p, so I felt able to tackle it knowing it wouldn't expect too much of me. It's my first proper Capote novel! And he is good. He cleverly revels Holly's foibles through the eyes of a sedate neighbor (is that the author?) and their brief friendship. Holly Golightly is such an interesting character, so self-centered and righteous. She makes for great reading. Even is you have seen the film, read this little book as it is so much more than a visual. Plus there are 3 totally unrelated short stories in my edition, so I got more of Capote in a different context.



BOOK 46
Everything in this Country Must by Colum McCann (143p, tally 10,436p)

This little number was at the right place at the right time and caught my eye as I wandered past the bookshelf the other day. A quick glance at the pages told me that the font size and line spacing was just right to read in the not-very-well-lit bath....and that is how a book gets to the top of my TBR! The first two are novellas, one about a horse stuck in a creek in aid of which the Irish farmer employs some British soldiers....*awkward*...this conflict is what the story centers on. He needs their help but hates them still. It is very clever.
The novella "Hunger Strike" is about just that, but from the perspective of his family who are on the outside. As with the short stories, it takes place in Ireland during "the Troubles", so the Irish prisoner is incarcerated as a criminal, but is fighting for rights due him as a political prisoner. His hunger strike is felt keenly by his adolescent nephew, who is struggling to deal with his anger at the situation. Through his eyes we see the personal and harrowing experience of expected grief and how that plays out in the mind of a child who is becoming a man. A beautifully played out piece.

*Wave

>174 nittnut: haha, or is that *half* a wave?!
:)

Dang, you've had a rough time with a head cold, sick kids, and itchy legs! Hope all is better by now. I love how a book shoots to the top of your TBR list, Megan!. Reading in the bath sounds lovely. So far, they haven't invented a shower book unless I grab one of those vinyl baby books I still keep around here…just in case another little grandchild wants to enter the fold.

>173 LovingLit: Very tempted by the McCann. I loved Transatlantic, beautiful book.

Thanks for the recommendation, Megan. I've only ever watched Breakfast at Tiffany's about 100 times and never read the book. *hangs head in shame.* I should remedy that.

>176 Donna828: reading in the bath is amazing. It's my favourite place to read. It's a problem though, when you are sleepy, as the book can get dangerously close to water level...I have dunked a few corners before!

>177 charl08: it's a good tempter. nice and short, and just lovely. Go on!

>178 cameling: only a hundred! Psht, get back to me when you've seen it a nd red and two times ;) And I'll get back to you when Ive seen it once!*

*and stayed awake!

Hi Megan! Hope all is well. Glad you liked the McCann. I have not heard of that one. I love this guy's work and NEED to read more of it. I have 2 or 3 more on shelf.

According to >6 LovingLit: I have now purchad just one book short of exactly what I have read this year. What better excuse do I need to buy one more, so that I can be evens!?

>180 msf59: hi Mark, I picked that McCann one up second hand for $2 in January. We googled him at book club the other night and discovered he is quite the dashing gent. (ie: is a bit phwoar ;) Not that important, but interesting to note (and view).

>175 LovingLit: haha! Really short attention span? Lol. Wishing you great weather for the birthday party this weekend. :)

>182 nittnut: :
Thanks! It isn't looking good, actually..... I am not going to stress about it til tomorrow. Which reminds me, today I have to stress about making a cake. Am attempting a canoe , which my sister tells me I have to be careful with as it has phallic potential. I had a problem with my rocket cake a few years ago....although not in my mind. Just in the minds of those more puerile!!

>183 LovingLit: *snork!* Best of luck with the canoe...

Happy weekend, Megan.

>184 scaifea: hehe, the cake (square) is done and iced in blue 'water' icing, and the red icing is chilling ready for rolling and shaping into the canoe.

>185 Ameise1: thanks B! Currently it's raining so the birthday canoe trip is looking unpromising....we'll see though.

I hope the weather will improve.

Hmmm canoe shaped cakes are always a risk .... good to see you went to a square cake :)

Does seem to still be wintery down there ... cross fingers for a break in the weather

Eagerly awaiting a picture of said canoe cake....!

It's been wintry at our house. I don't suppose you had a nice enough day for a paddle down the river? Hopefully at least the cake was a hit.

>187 Ameise1: weather did improve but it was still bitterly cold so we postponed the canoeing til next weekdend and just had the party around here. The kids had a blast running about...my photos are all blurry because they really were running about!

>188 roundballnz: playing it safe cake-wise as didn't want a repeat of the all-wrong-rocket cake ;) I was assured my canoe cake was thoroughly decent

>189 Berly: I will get around to it soon! Although, soon may ref to some time in the next 6 weeks. Don't rush me...I'm turning 40 soon, I need all the support I can get ;)

>190 nittnut: paddling will take place next weekend, when hopefully the sun will be shining. Yee ha! The kids are going to love it.

Meanwhile in reading land...I watched the DVD of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I feel good for having seen it now, and although her apartment party scene is one I remember, I can't recall seeing the film in its entirety. And I liked it!

I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Tme Indian the other day, it was fab, but other than that I seem to be in a small book funk. Yikes. Maybe I am prepping too hard for my presentation on Thursday....it is taking up my head space.

^ha ha, less than 30 minutes after I wrote that I was in the bath with a new book in my hands.
Having looked at and then decided against the following books...A Million Little Pieces, Blood Meridian, and The Glass Room, I settled on a little lyrical fable called The Lost Dove-again because of the relatively large font and friendly-on-the-eyes spacing.
It's not that great but the pictures are pretty.

The trippy thread-topper cat is awesome, Megan! And it reminds me of a DVD I saw in a store earlier today.

You decided against Blood Meridian? Really? The nerve of some people. It is a dark, edgy, masterpiece.

Hi, Megan! Finally stopping by to look in on my pal. Hope all is well.

I have never mastered reading in the tub...it always has disastrous consequences for the poor book. ; ) Glad you thought The Absolute True Diary was Fab!! I agree.

>194 Ape: oh my eyes! Did you know that I have a clown phobia, ever since It. *shudder*

>195 msf59: I know! I was physically holding Blood Meridian when I thought ...uh oh, is this going to be scary and violent? I wasn't see I could cope...but I'll revisit that special author very soon, I'm sure.
This pal of your is doing fiiiiine thanks Mark, I did my presentation today and did very well in it. Yay! An A+. Can't complain about that. I am super stoked :)

>196 Berly: I love reading in the bath, just love it. I am totally in my happy place there. It's warm to my bones, and I am reading :)

I am very happy today, my 2 week cold is tailing off, I am done with my presentationand I got the results back already....an A+! Woohoo!

Congrats on your A+! You continue to be my favorite student.

And yes, you have to be in the right mood, for Blood Meridian. It's a bit challenging but worth every unsettling moment.

>197 LovingLit: Impressive stuff on the presentation, especially when you are feeling grotty.

I loved the Alexie, glad you've found something to follow it. He's so good I find it hard to just jump into another sometimes.

I quite often try reading the kindle in the bath. It's my version of extreme sports (!).

Sounds like you're just killing it in class, Megan. Way to go!

Another fan of Blood Meridian here. It is violent and scary, but it's also superb and has a powerful mythic depth to it. Top level book.

Ha! My sister's boyfriend is also afraid of clowns. They were with me, and I tried to get my sister to buy it for him for his birthday. :P

Hi Megan! is everyone recovered? Sounds like you've all been through a lot. And the bottomless depths of academic reading? Comrade, I've been there. Sounds like you're rocking it, though!

>199 msf59: right mood? Well, the boat has sailed already thanks to your lecture on the merits of Blood Meridian! I started it last night. So far so good!

>200 charl08: extreme sports! Ha ha, excellent. I read that out to my lovely other and we debated the likelihood of electrocution...we thought only if it was charging at the time ;)

>201 jnwelch: thanks Joe! I am putting in the time and it's paying dividends. So that is promising. I am wondering if I might be able to go on and do a masters on scholarship, so am trying to keep at it.

>202 Ape: ha. Real clowns are kind of odd, but scary clowns are downright freaky. how is it so easy to make a clown look so terrifying!

>203 AMQS: everyone recovered, thank goodness. I was even recovered enough to have a celebratory beer last night. Always a good sign :)
Actually, this semester there is not a lot of theoretical reading to do. That was last semester. This time it seems to be a lot of "how to" readings and exemplars. Still, it's many words PLUS 2 books worth of reading, so....no light feat.

AND my run of good luck is firmly established with winning 8th place in the school raffle! A portable DVD player, two high quality duffle bags, a leatherman tool, a torch (flashlight), a rugby ball, and voucher for a car wash and DVD hire.
Cool! I'm just glad we didn't win the Gordon Ramsay pasta set. That guy is rank.

Wow, impressive raffle win. I think the most I've ever won is a dodgy bottle of wine.

What would the masters be in? Will it let you focus on the good stuff?

>205 LovingLit: WooHoo!! That's fantastic!

(Aw, really? I think Gordon is adorable.)

#205 Wow - brilliant raffleing! Last one we were in we won 4th prize (out of 5) which was a pasta making machine. 5th was oven gloves...

Nice raffle prizes! Leatherman!

>206 charl08: I have no idea yet. Me continuing on to complete a Masters will depend on a scholarship, and an awesome topic and supervisor.
The topic I am looking at at the moment is great though...there might be something more in that. Currently for my class on research methods I am looking at the meanings that people attach to the Plunket rooms, which are local premises that house a dedicate baby/early childhood nurse. They are located in local neighbourhoods and provide a hub for community networking...possibly as a secondary function of their mandate, but also possibly the most impt part of their existence.

>207 scaifea: I don't like it when people yell :( I'm sensitive to that. Plus, he's a cheater. Apparently. But maybe that is his screen persona. Who would know.

>208 BekkaJo: wow, you missed out on the oven gloves so narrowly! Well done :)
I was pretty impressed with the haul from the school raffle, one of the benefits of buying most of the tickets yourselves is that you increase your chance of winning!

>209 nittnut: I know! I have won a few things in my career of competition entering, a book (yay!), tickets to the ballet (which on the way to, our car broke down, so we didn't get to go) and a movie poster/the book of Under the Mountain. Plus this raffle. Sweet!

Did someone use to words Gordon Ramsey & adorable together ???? must have shifted time/realities .....

Lenny's 4th (from July...)

Wilbur's 7th, from this and last weekend...

>211 roundballnz: I know! Is there anything friendly about that guy?

>211 roundballnz: I know, right?

>212 LovingLit:, >213 LovingLit: You are a supermom cake maker! Love the photo of the paddlers. Looks like a gorgeous day. We had a nice day too. I got three loads of laundry done, and, better still, brought them in exactly in time. Because it did rain a little this afternoon.

You do some pretty wonderful birthday cakes for the boys, Megan!

I am a fan of Colum McCann but did not know of Everything in this Country Must.... I will keep an eye out for that one.

I hope you're feeling better, by the way. No more blocked up with snot and all that.

>215 nittnut: we were very lucky with the weather yesterday for Wilbur's canoe trip. There were 6 double kayaks out on the river, and they did remarkably well considering all of the kids bar one had never kayaked. They thought it was fun!

>216 EBT1002: re cakes, the train one was a cheats version, lamingtons pre bought and cut out/ joined up. Easy peasy. The other cake was not very precisely done, hence the small phot from far enought away to hide the flaws. The kids don't care, as long as there is icing.
No more snot around here, thanks for asking ;)

Birthday book voucher: SPENT
:)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The House of Mirth. Done. I started the latter today on the bus home, and as W spent his birthday money too, he was able to keep busy looking at his Star Wars Nerf gun on the bus too. Double happy.

Tomorrow we head north for 2 nights for my 40th celebration! 5 bunks rooms, 20-odd people, good fun to be had!

Megan, your cakes are gorgeous! I saw the train one yesterday and wondered whether it was lamingtons, and ever since then I've been craving a lamington. Or two. Or that whole cake, if I'm honest. And I love the little canoeist and the blue icing too.

Happy Sunday, Megan.

Happy Sunday, Megan. I am a big fan of both of your birthday books. One classic, one future classic. Enjoy!!

Ohmygosh, that cake is amazing! Love it!

As far as Gordon goes, if you watch his actual British shows and not that crap he does for Fox in the states, he's not that bad a guy. Fox must push him to be a baddie. I dunno, I just like 'im.

Love the pics of your boys :)

With the Auz year are they 2 years apart or 3? My two are also 4 + 7 and three school years apart - but under our system your two would only be 2 school years apart because of the cut off being at the end of August... and I realise I am waffling here...

Birthday photos!! And love the canoe cake. As to Gordon Ramsey, I am a die-hard Master Chef fan, which has far less swearing and yelling than Hell's Kitchen (although I watched that, too). I think he is a hoot.

>219 susanj67: Iwhen I was pregnant with the older one, I had to have lamingtons one day and so I had my lovely other dash to the shopsfor some :) The joys of cravings!

>220 Ameise1: thanks Barbara. And it's already Monday now...tie flies!

>221 msf59: yes, can the Penguin colourful old classics are quite cheap so I liked the Edith Wharton one for that reason too.

>222 scaifea: I have never seen Ramsay being friendly. I do remember seeing Jamie Oliver on the telly once looking very forlorn and talking about how disappointing it is to have your hero running you down verbally in the media...I think they h ad some sort of bust up.

>223 BekkaJo: you know more than me about my school system! I suppose Lenny will be 3 years behind...poor fella still hoping to be in his big brother's class.

>224 Berly: the canoe cake turned into a moulding session rather than a building session, the icing flopped so I pretended it was plasticine and carried on.

*getting on with packing*
*see you when I'm 40*

>217 LovingLit: "The kids don't care, as long as there is icing."
Well, I totally agree with them on that.

Have a great birthday celebration! The 40s are an awesome decade.

>225 LovingLit: Yeah, Gordon has some sort of beef with Oliver (I don't blame him - what a ponce! Ha!). But he is sincerely nice on his BBC shows, which are much better than the US tripe.

Have a great birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Megan!!

>229 nittnut: Whelp, apparently it's official as of last month - I don't have to grow up! WooHoo!!

Yes, that is a warbler up there. B.A.G.

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Happy Birthday, Megan. Wishing you all the best and may all your wishes come true.

Happy Birthday Megan!

Happy birthday Megan, hope you have had a fabulous day my dear.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday! Hope you have had an awesome day & more to come on the weekend

Slightly late Megan as I am on one of my work induced absences. HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hope you had a great day!

Aaaaaw, thanks everyone!
I had a fantastic birthday time away, and the actual day (yesterday) was a top day as well. It was sunny, we went for a family walk up a hill, had a picnic by a river, I had a sleep in the car on the way home (!! must have been *tired*), the kids stayed with their auntie and I read my book, then went out for dinner with dad. What's not to like??! Dinner was Burmese and the best dish, imo, was the papaya salad. It had flavours in there that I can only dream about now....(unless I go back for more, which I might).

Be back later to respond individually.

When is your birthday? On the 29th or 30th. My one is on the 29th.

>242 Ameise1: I am the 30th! And so is my oldest friend, she was born on my 1st birthday and we have known each other since then :)
Its nice.

>226 EBT1002: I'm thinking the 40s ARE going to be awesome, they have started well. I mean, it's only my first whole day of being 40 so far, but I'll take that as a good sign.

>227 scaifea: Haha! Oliver a ponce! I know people who would have you slain for that. I am neither here nor there with either of them really. I find Oliver a bit samey and contrived, and Gordon, well, I haven't seen his 'nice' shows so what do I know!? I always thought it was weird that Oliver wasn't even naked when he cooked, I thought that was supposed to be his thing!!? ;)

>228 connie53: thanks Connie. I did! The 2 night holiday was lacking in sleep for most of us, thanks to young, sick, or just children being children children...

>229 nittnut: excellent! Well, that seals it then :)

>230 scaifea: did I miss a significant birthday of yours??! Yikes. Congratulations! I worried I might spontaneously combust what with being *40* and all, but I didn't (YAY!)

>231 msf59: thanks Mark, and thanks also for letting me in on the Courtney Barnett phenomenon. I love her music! I got both her CDs for my birthday and have had them on heavy rotation. And...her concert is coming up. My lovely other is a convert now too, he heard the guitar distortion at the start of 'Avant Gardener' and decided he would come to the concert too. Yay, I have a date.

>232 jnwelch: thanks Joe. I think I am handling it ok....it was turning 27 that freaked me out. I felt that was very grown up indeed and I wasn't sure I could fool people then. I know I can now ;)

>233 Ameise1: thanks B! That is a lovely birthday wish for me.

>234 BekkaJo: thanks Bekka Jo. I cannot complain.

>235 johnsimpson: thanks JS! I had one of the best days I've had. It was the peaceful snooze in the car and the calm and unhurried evening that sealed the deal.

>236 lkernagh: Lovely, thank you.

>237 avatiakh: why, thank you :)

>238 roundballnz: I may have exhausted my birthday celebrations already, what with my 3 day birthday bender having already been. (I like to call it that as there was very little sleep, but in reality most of us were stone cold sober, and it was our kids keeping us up....)

>239 PaulCranswick: not too late at all, Paul! 3am, carry the time difference...equals: birthday greetings warmly received.

>240 charl08: thanks, great day was had, and now memories locked in for eternal future reference.

Hooray for Courtney Barnett! Her cds make perfect gifts. You both will love her live. Enjoy!

>248 msf59: Ireckon she will crank up the volume live. I am so looking forward to it!

Woot! Belated happy birthday, Megan. Delighted you had a fabulous time! Papaya salad sounds delicious.

>243 LovingLit: I had a best friend through elementary and middle school who was born on my first birthday. We lost touch and have reconnected through FB (what a world).

>250 lit_chick: oh the papaya salad was amazing, as was the tea salad which had freeze dried lentils in it that had an incredible crunch to them.

>251 EBT1002: Facebook is pretty cool really, I have found that it has facilitated more RL meetings than it has kept me house-bound.

Book haul! $2 each, all in fantastic condition. (what is wrong with people that they don't read these books? OR: what marvellous people for reading these books carefully and then passing them on for others to enjoy)


Seeing, Atonement, What Maisie Knew, HHhH, and Let me be Frank With You

Ooh, Atonement is one of my favourites,and HHhH was a good read. I've friends who don't even crease the spines when they read: always seems slightly odd to me...

>253 LovingLit: Good haul Megan.

Have a great weekend, my dear.

>254 charl08: I have heard that Atonement is a wonderful book....one of these days I'll be able to report back to you with my verdict

>255 PaulCranswick: this weekend rules. Yesterday I was a uni from 7:45am til lunchtime and I finished one small essay (just the 4000 word one to go now). Then to the playground with a friend and her kids then a book sale (my happy place always).
And last night I hauled my butt out of the house to go to a friends champagne party. She's a wine writer and tastes champagne annually, and the opened bottles must be drunk! *sigh* It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it!

Today off to Orana Park zoo and Steam Scene with the kiddos.

Nice book haul, Megan! I look forward to your comments about HHhH.

Darryl, I was pretty excited to find HHhH and Let Me be Frank With You plus a Martin Amis one for my dad, all in the same box. That was a haul in itself. As it was the afternoon of the last day of the sale it was slim pickin's :)

Another nice book haul, Megan. You sure can sniff out a good bargain. Hope you had a good weekend.

Belated happy birthday Megan, and congratulations on the book haul! I wish the second-hand stores and such around here would knock their prices down a little. I'd be swarming all over $2 books!

>259 msf59: I do love a bargain, Mark :)
I find scouring boxes of books easy these days as I don't search the small format ones, and not the large or hard back books either. My scanning for gold is now finely tuned!

>260 evilmoose: the second hand bookstores usually sell for $6 upwards, it's the annual Rotary book sales that have the bargains. And even then, they start at $3 and only end up cheaper at the dregs end of the weekend long sale. Op shops are generally best for real bargains, but there it is very patchy with what is there.

Nice book haul. I also did a little spending on books this weekend as I was in downtown both days. Auckland no longer has a big bookstore in the inner city, the multi storey Whitcoulls is becoming a Farmers department store (same ownership). I visited the rather compact but crammed Unity Books and Jason Books, a reseller of quality books.

^ I am hoping to check out Unity Books in Wellington in a few weekends time, I am slowly working on my concession card purchases.

I'm late, but happy birthday!!!

>264 katiekrug: thanks! The world has rewarded me with 2 days straight of very warm weather. 26deg C today again, the gusty nor'wester I can do without, but the heat I can handle :)

>263 LovingLit: Love UnityBooks Wellington, must find an excuse to be in Wellington again soon .....

Nice book haul. Very very nice.

Having some warm weather envy up here. We got all the way to 17. Which was nice, but not as nice as 26. Today it's chilly again. poo.

HI Megan, We share the same birthday and oops, i'm a wee bit late wishing you all the best for a very significant birthday. From where I sit you're a spring chicken (hopefully a pastured one!). Have you ever noticed all the birthdays around Sept 30th? (9 months after New Years......)

>268 mdoris: funny you shd mention Sept 30th - its probably the most popular day for those born in NZ .... not that I would be inferring anything :)

>267 nittnut: 17 sounds lovely from here and much better than 26. Try getting 32 +- 2 degrees for every bloody day of the year!

Have a lovely weekend Megan.

Happy weekend, Megan.

Ohmagoodness
I am swamped :)
I promise to return with tales of marking essays, writing my own, soaring Spring temperatures and even some reading. Thanks for visiting me in my absence!

I know about swamped. Hope things clear up for you a bit, and that you can breathe a little. Take care!

I don't envy you that marking, but did find reading 20 essays gave me a renewed focus on clarity in my own writing!

Hope something nice and relaxing is in the horizon to look forward to.

^Thinking of you...

:) hang in there - Cat Poster style.

Megan, I'm sorry to be so late for your 40th birthday. Our youngest son had his on Saturday which makes me feel old! Oh well, I'll get over it.

I'm sorry you're so swamped with no time to read those books you snagged. Our big library book sale is coming up soon. I must use restraint! I am supposed to be getting rid of books rather than acquiring them. Phooey!!

Missing your updates from South Island, Megan. Have a lovely Sunday my dear and don't work too hard.

Oh dear, swamped is not good. So sorry about that. Just know that we'll still be here when you return.

Coming up for air!!!
I handed in the marking I did...no complaints so far but the students have only had the grades 24 hours. And, I have very nearly finished my own assignment that is due next week and is worth 70% of the final grade. I just read it aloud to my lovely other and he thought it as pretty good.

In other news, I had a night away in Wellington to see one of my lovely other's favourite bands...the Fall. It was a flying trip and was super duper ÜBER fun. We sampled some craft beers, I bought some books, and he some CDs. We stayed in a cheap hotel and met up with friends. Initially we were hurriedly trying to relax, but that wasn't really working so we just went for coffee and chilled the heck out. So fun!

Books purchased, you ask? The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen, List of the Lost by master crooner Morrissey, and a modern fable for one of the kids, The Iron Man. I was restrained on account of just having paid for flights and concert tickets and beer and food and also for new seeing eye glasses for my now-old eyes. Phew. Haemorrhaging money this month!!

>280 LovingLit: I bought List of the Lost this week too! Share with us on the essay - what are you writing about? Craft beers and The Fall. I almost remember that from my own student days - only goes to show how long The Fall (Mark E Smith) and The Smiths themselves have been around - in my case though it was lsightly different; crap beers and The Fall.
Good luck with the essay. xx

>281 PaulCranswick: Sounds like a great break (and very busy). Hope you get some time to read the book haul. Is it summer yet over there?

>281 PaulCranswick: Crap beers were a thing of my past too, which is why I never liked the stuff!
My assignment was the writing up of a semester-long research project. I looked at the local Plunket rooms (where people take their young'uns to see the nurse, or go to playgroups, or just hang out). I wanted to find out what meaning the place has for people, if it is valued by the community etc. 5000 words, and a 4,6000 word appendix of interview transcripts and observation notes! I have loved the process, and can totally see myself doing more research one day. I am in talks at the moment about my future here at university. It's looking promising, so I am quite excited.

>282 charl08: summer over? It has just started ;) We have had a few great days, and now a little cooler. But we have not had the fire going for about a month, and no heating inside at all needed. So I am feeling like that transition has been made.
Ive been reading the autobiographical essays by Jonathan Franzen, some reviewers have criticized it for being too centered on him...um, isn't that what an autobio is!? I am loving his personal insights into adolescence so far, and am grabbing for the book whenever I can. A good sign!

>281 PaulCranswick: "crap beers and The Fall." ... very droll

Jonathan Franzen, life is too short - but don't let Richard know ..... or you might find it raining cats

Hi, Megan! Just checking in with my busy pal. We miss you! Hope all is well, my friend and Happy Summer!

>283 LovingLit: That does look promising, Megan.

Have a lovely weekend. How are the boys doing - missing their "isms"?

Happy weekend, Megan.

Jonathan Franzen?!

*faints*

>283 LovingLit: "I am in talks at the moment about my future here at university. It's looking promising, so I am quite excited."
Wonderful!

>288 kidzdoc: I agree with Darryl.

>284 roundballnz: The Fall are pretty droll to start with.

>285 msf59: Hi Mark! Summer is heating up here, and I am handing in my 5000 word essay tomorrow. Yee ha. Now comes the nail biting wait for the results...

>286 PaulCranswick: isms! My just-turned-8-year-old niece had a lovely ism the other day. She had a big day with breaking her wrist and taking 5 hours at hospital to get it cast etc. On the way home her mum asked her how she was feeling. She paused, and replied: "I think it might take me 2 days to explain that, mum". Being a fantastic mum, my sister replied "well, I've got enough time to hear about it all". And she got the full gamut of the feelings.....now it was happy to have a cool cast, at the hospital it was tired, sore, scared and overwhelmed, at the time of the incident it was so sore, and upset.....
It was very sweet to hear that story. And also nice to hear that she'd "prefer" me to look after her on Tuesday when her mum has work ;)

>287 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara! A long weekend here, and good weather too.

>288 kidzdoc: I would hate to have to rouse you with a slap, Darryl. So I hope you have recovered by now ;) (!!)
I finished The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen and, you guessed it, loved it. People think he's a prat, right? In which case I fear for myself in that his tales of his inner workings resonated with me. I might actually be neurotic!

>289 EBT1002: Wonderful, yes. But do I want to do a thesis is my question to myself (and to anyone else out there who has an opinion!).
Franzen? Yippee! :)

Ok, I really (really) need to start a new thread soon. Have been meaning to for a month!

So now I'm wondering what isms or ism stands for, Megan!

>290 LovingLit: Love that story about your niece! I hope she doing fine!

Hi Megan - I thought of you when leafing through a Chilean cookbook and came across a recipe for the Terremoto (earthquake) cocktail ... 'after the first drink you are left with shaky legs just like if there had been a tremor.'
I found a recipe here: http://www.elhoyo.cl/terremoto-eng

>292 connie53: hehe, I used to tell more stories about the fun and funny things my oldest said, and termed them collectively Wilburisms. Now that Lenny says them too, it's just isms.

>293 avatiakh: ha! I read the recipe, saw that it contained Pisco, and knew for sure it was Chilean. My parents had a bottle of Pisco from when we were there (1984) in their cupboard for my whole adolescence. Even my teenaged siblings didn't bother with it! I'd give that cocktail a go though :)

The recipe in the book called for dark rum rather than Pisco. I drank Pisco Sours in Lima many years ago and I also remember a hangover the next day.

>294 LovingLit:. Thanks, Megan.

>295 avatiakh: I seem to recall pisco being drunk with lemon or lime? Maybe that was the 'sour' part.

>296 connie53: no problemo ;)