Book snippets:
I’m not an author, but I totally dig this idea of plucking five books randomly from your shelves, just because. I wasn’t so random; I had Primo do it. But still. I notice he didn’t even touch the fiction collection.
Five books picked randomly from my shelves:
- The Girlfriend’s Guide to Getting Your Groove Back - Vicki Iovine
- The Essays – Francis Bacon
- Scientific Progress Goes “Boink” – Bill Watterston
- The Elizabethan World Picture – EMW Tillyard
- The Formation of the Irish Economy – edited by LM Cullen
Go on, you try it.
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A student came looking for Albert Camus’ The Plague today at work. I can’t believe this book slipped under my bubonic plague/infectious disease radar. Must go read it IMMEDIATELY. Unfortunately, she checked out the only copy. At home we own The Stranger in French but no Plague. Thank God, I just emailed Andrea, and she has a copy she is going to bring when we go out to gorge on buffalo bites this evening. I know, I am a freak.
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As soon as I am done Speed of Dark, I will move on to The Plague and then my freebie copy of a book called The Bowl is Already Broken by Mary Kay Zuravleff. An editor from Picador Press emailed me, through the blog, to see if I wanted a review copy of this book that is “…somewhere between I Don't Know How She Does It, an homage to Rumi, and a vivid reimagining of the real-life antics that often go on behind closed museum doors…”. What’s that? A free book? Bring it on! I hope it’s good.
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Primo and I have been reading and detecting in Graeme Base’s The Eleventh Hour. Do you know it? It’s a picture book about an elephant named Horace who prepares a great birthday feast and invites a ton of his animal friends. But while they are all playing games and having fun, someone eats all the food for the feast. And you have to figure out who, using clues hidden throughout Base’s gorgeous and detailed illustrations. The solution is in a sealed page at the back of the book, but I’ve owned this book for close to twenty years and refuse to peek. I’ve never really tried to solve the mystery before; we are having a blast. I need to look up Morse code to translate one of the puzzles. Primo is working on the pictograph puzzle right now.
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Snippets:
Tomorrow is Take Your Bowie Knife to Work Day.
I know where I am doing ALL my Christmas shopping next year, thanks to Mimi Smartypants. I made the mistake of looking at this while at work, and laughed so freaking hard I nearly peed myself. Just a word to the wise.
Primo has been drumming all day. Not content with the drum set Santa brought him two years ago, he has augmented it with a pair of bongos, a big plastic drum that originally contained all sorts of plastic musical instruments, and an overturned sand bucket. Favorite song of the moment: Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” It could be worse, it could be a thumping bass. Or Guns ‘n’ Roses.
The right side of my face is greatly paining me. Either it’s the ear infection I am sure is brewing, or one of my wisdom teeth is coming in. If it’s the wisdom teeth, I will have the choice of 1) having it removed, thereby jeopardizing feeling in my lower jaw possibly for the rest of my life as the roots are wrapped around the nerves in my jaw, which is why I didn’t have them removed before I got braces, OR 2) leaving it be, thereby jeopardizing thousands of dollars worth of orthodontal work AND my liver – due to the huge amounts of Tylenol I have been forced to consume over the past week.
Isn't today the third day of spring? (I always thought spring was March 21? Was it the 20th this year because it's a leap year? *Is* it a leap year?) At any rate - it's grey, it's cold (34 degrees last I checked), it's SNOWING. In other words, it's NOT SPRING. Grrrrrrrr.
16 comments:
Dammit, I KNOW I've read Camus but none of his titles look familiar. Maybe it was a short story/essay. That's going to bug me now. Stupid English lit minor!
Ouch on the wisdom tooth. Sorry to hear that.
I would like an episiotomy practice repair kit. Put me on your Christmas list.
yah.
you don't want Guns n Roses.
this I know, for a fact.
Hate me: my 4 wisdom teeth came in perfectly. My dentist was very pyst about it...I think he already spent the money.
-J.
Hate me more; I only ever had one wisdom tooth. The other three just weren't there. And still aren't. The doc said it was genetic. Thank God I got ONE good gene.
i hate you BOTH because my mouth fucking HURTS. a lot. as in, a whole freaking bunch.
According to my calendar, the first day of spring was the 20th. It isn't a leap year.
Your book emergency sounds like something I'd do. And then the book would sit on my shelf for a month before I actually read it. Have you read "An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793"? Childrens, but excellent.
You won't hate me because my wisdom teeth gave me years of grief between 17 when they started coming in, and 30 when I finally got them out. Under general.
And still? today? Their evil ghosts continue to haunt me because they had grown into my sinuses on both sides.
I had never had any problems with sinuses.
Until.
Guess.
But good for you for having kids and STILL reading LI.T.E.R.A.T.U.R.E.
Oh, and the freebie about the museum. But good for you for letting whatsername feel like she's got at least one reader.
Good for Picador Press on their grassroots marketing. Hope they read your blog enough to know that if it sucks you will freely share that information as much as if you think it's a fun read.
Plague themed books? How about "The White Death: A History of Tuburculosis," by Thomas Dormandy, which, swear to God, is on my bookshelf right now. One of the eight books on my request list that came in all at one time. My dad's father died when my dad was three from this disease and I know nothing about it whatsoever. This is supposed to be a really interesting book.
Um, and that's supposed to be "Tuberculosis."
March is the absolute worst month of the year. So close to Spring, and yet so far. 31 days of cold wind.
That Avi! I knew you shouldn't have taught him to open the fridge!
I was actually busy at work today--imagine that.
It is impossible to me to pull five book at random. Even if I close my eyes and do it, I'm still sort of vaguely sure what I'll grab based on which room I'm in/bookshelf I'm at.
Maybe Primo can come over and choose for me.
And I only own The Stranger. In ENGLISH. Sometimes your husband penchant for languages fill me with a jealous rage!
Oh, and that turtle soup business at Ben & Jerry's? Meh. I think I'm over them . . maybe.
The only Ben and Jerry flavor I like is Chubby Hubby. Everything else is just too...complicated.
Have Ted do the random thing. If you want.
I am in absolute awe that you have not opened the flap in 20 years to discover the identity of the villain. And I am slapping my fingers so hard to stop them from typing in the answer .... aarrgghhhh ... (And Graeme Base is a Melbourne author , she said proudly.)
And I know every second comment of mine is about Geraldine Brooks, but if you are on a plague-themed literature roll, please tell me if you have read 'Year of Wonders'?? One of the bestest best books in my opinion.
I have read Year of Wonders, and really really liked it. But then I tried to read March - and not so much. Severe disappointment.
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