Getting in the Spirit

I haven’t been much in the spirit this year.  Truthfully, 2009 has sucked and I can’t wait for it to be over.  So I’m much more interested in getting past New Year’s this year than the Christmas holidays.  

I never put up a tree in 2008 because I wasn’t much in the mood last year either, what with the total meltdown of the economy and everyone wondering if they were going to have a job in 2009 and all.   This year I went back and forth on the whole tree thing.  I wasn’t planning on having any holiday parties and my “big” tree is, well,  pretty big.  It takes a long time to put up (and take down).   It seemed like a lot of work for just me to see.

I almost ditched the whole idea but it has been such a downer of a year that I thought I ought to do something rather than nothing.  So I got out the little tree that I used to use before I moved into my current house and put it up in my study /tv room where I spend most of my time anyway.   

I found my holiday playlist and realized that most of my holiday music didn’t even get played in 2008.   So I’m playing some of it this year.   But it all sounds pretty much like this to me:

It’s supposed to snow tonight.  Maybe that will get me in the mood.

Update:   More fun from Andif:

Speed Reading

Booking Through Thursday asks:

What do you think of speed-reading? Is it a good way to get through a lot of books, or does the speed-reader miss depth and nuance? Do you speed-read? Is some material better suited to speed-reading than others?

I don’t have an issue with the concept of speed reading non-fiction.  I don’t speed read myself but I can read very fast when I want to and part of the reason is that I naturally do some of the things that they teach you in speed reading.  I skim through taking in key words. 

But I don’t think that works for fiction.  I can read fast, and I’ll skim parts of fiction, but I’m looking for the point where I can slow down again.   I agree with Evan Maloney who recently wrote in the Guardian:

Did the world's great novelists really spend years agonising over the pitch and rhythm of their sentences so some time-efficient post-modern reader could skim over the text like a political spin doctor searching for soundbites in the transcript of a ministerial speech? I don't think so. Speed reading might be an effective tool for office documents, textbooks, and letters of unrequited love, but the prose of great literature should be savoured, should it not? Part of the joy of reading comes from "hearing" our psychic palates pronouncing the words in the mind's ear; the imagined speech, "richly flavoured like a nut or an apple".

When I’m in the middle of a novel I’m loving, I want to slow down, not speed up.  

But let’s go back to the BTT question.   I really do think that some people want to get through a lot of books and the question I have is, why?   It’s a real question, not snark.   I really don’t understand the concept of getting through a lot of books as a goal in and of itself UNLESS it is for a class and is assigned reading.   I certainly wish I had more time to read.  And when I do (when I’m on vacation) I can go through a book a day easily.  But I don’t do it as a competition, I do it as a joy that I have time to read a pile of books I’ve been wanting to read.   And there is no way I could keep up that pace in non-vacation times, my life is too full of other things. 

Whereas, I sometimes suspect that there are readers who view reading in a competitive vein; who really want to be able to say that they’ve finished a lot of books.   Or, sometimes when I read book blogs I sense that there is a certain amount of peer pressure (which may be perceived and not real); a feeling that  one needs to keep up with everyone else.  Not that it is a competition but that a person can’t be taken seriously if she doesn’t get through a number of books on a regular basis.  

I question whether a reader really wins by pointing to the quantity of her reading rather than the quality.  

In any event, not much reading (speed or otherwise) going on these days in my life.  Too busy with other things.   But after the holidays …

Iceberg Ahead!

Have you been following the story of the huge iceberg that is headed toward Australia?  It’s really big.    Big as in 144 sq. kilometers big (that would be 54 square miles big).

If you’re not sure how big that is, then think on this: Manhattan is 88 sq km. It would fit comfortably inside that iceberg.

Wow. 

And the worst thing about it?  I now have that Celine Dion song from Titanic in my head and it won’t go away.   

What I’m Reading

I’ve never done the “Teaser Tuesday” meme before. Here’s how it works:

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

This is from the page I’m on:

Simultaneously the thought came to her that should her parents know of this it might not be possible for her to continue this relationship in any form, let alone to develop it or to enjoy it in the future. Yet regardless of this thought now, which arrested and stilled her for a moment, she continued to yearn toward him.

from: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, p. 380 (Signet Classic).

I've been enjoying this novel but haven't had much time to read so I'm not even half way through it yet.

Big Bang Theory

One of the science consultants for Big Bang Theory has a blog, appropriately named:  Big Blog Theory.   When I read it, I feel like Penny.

But, like Penny, I know the important stuff:

Sometimes You Just Need a Puppy Pic

I was going through some old photos and found this photo of Truman when he was a puppy and his toys were almost as big as him.   

That’s my dad’s foot next to him – which gives a bit of perspective.