Sunday 22 July 2012

Sunday Sundries- A Few (more) Words About Books

Caitlin Moran being awesome. For more pictures, see here.
Sunday greetings lovely ones! Note my exclamation point and hearty manner, which is surely the result of having sat in the garden for a full, ooh, half an hour yesterday, and also of mum having felt much better this week, which maketh my heart glad. Having said that, I am writing this on Saturday afternoon, so I'm probably the grumpiest bitch ever today. Oh well, let's just pretend I'm not.

Let's see, the week... It went SO slowly. I think I need to do more outside things (easier said than done to find the motivation for that when it's raining all. The. Freaking. Time) to make the week go faster, because I swear on Wednesday it felt like Friday, so now we're just on like the NINTH day of the week, which really shouldn't be allowed. At least Friday, when it did actually come, ended up being really fun, cause me and my cousin went out to dinner, which we NEVER do (we see each other at least once a week, but dinner? Basically never) and then couldn't be bothered to go home so we drove around for a bit and ended up at our nan's house having hot chocolate (well, Horlicks, which I then decided I didn't like...). I know, you're so jealous of my wild, party animal life, but it was really really fun! I like fun!

Just the one hospital visit this week too, for my dad for a change (*siiiiigh*) but this week coming, as long as her white blood cells are being good, mum should be having her last lot of chemo! *does a happy dance, gets some booze/cupcakes ready* Which is obviously a very very big good thing and I'm hoping that it'll take a bit of a load off of these poor old shoulders of mine (mentally, I obviously mean- not complaining about doing houseworky things). And then we can watch the Olympic opening ceremony that evening. Yay? I don't know. I'm trying to muster up some kind of enthusiasm for the Olympics, but the best I can do is 'I like... the gymnastics?' But mostly I'm just like 'you spent HOW MUCH on this?!' and I can't really get over that, so... Yeah.

In other news, can we talk about books for a minute? I mean, another minute, extra to the many many minutes we've spent doing that already! Cause I feel like I've got a little bit of reading mojo back this week, possibly just because I've finished Vanity Fair (which is AMAZING by the way, and which I'm trying to muster up enough words than mean good to write a review of, but I feel like it was slightly holding me back, reading-wise? I dunno), but maybe just because I really feel like reading a lot at the moment! And so, a big cheer for reading mojo, but that's not even what I wanted to talk about. *Attempts to re-establish the subject, lays down and dies a little*

SO! One of the things I'm reading at the moment is Needful Things by Stephen King, and on the back there's a quote about him that I don't think I've ever read before, and it goes thusly: "An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing... is so fluid that you often forget that you're reading." (Guardian). And I'm  like really impressed by this (some might say overly impressed...) because firstly I think it's a really nice thing to say about someone's writing, and secondly, I enjoy the fact that, out of all the things that have been written about Stephen King, someone thought this was worthy to go on the back cover of one of his books. And I agree with them! Because I think it's the kind of thing you look for books that you love to have- to sort of go beyond looking at words and taking them in, and beyond that thing where you basically have a movie going in your head, to where it just is- this is what's happening, and it's happening to you (well, hopefully if you're reading Stephen King it's not literally happening to you, but you know... metaphorically).

Which obviously isn't to say that books that maybe are a bit more of a struggle to read aren't worth it, or that this same effect can't be achieved with books that are harder to read (I definitely found Vanity Fair pretty challenging, but still forgot I was reading at quite a few points), but just that I think that to really love a book, for me, I kind of have to forget that what I've been doing with that book is reading it. This is starting to make no sense, so I'm just going to have to leave it! But let's just say I like that thing that that person said, ok?

And that's about all I have for you folks! Tonight (Saturday) I think I'm going to watch either one or two Nora Ephron films (Noraaaaaa! :( ) (Sleepless in Seattle and/or You've Got Mail, thanks for asking) because they are from LoveFilm and I should probably watch them, and also because I've never seen them (ok, I might have seen a bit of You've Got Mail, but definitely not Sleepless in Seattle) even though their descriptions make them kind of sound the same, so maybe if I watch 2 Ephrons I'll watch Julie and Julia instead of one of those... but what am I telling you for, I will have done it by the time I post this! (DUH!) But anyway you can possibly expect an Ephron movie review this coming week, along with a review of a collection of Alice Walker short stories and hopefully Vanity Fair, assuming I can get my arse into gear. And as well as enjoying such wondrous things, I hope you also have magical weeks!
And in this lovely old spirit... This weeks new-favourite-blog is actually an old favourite: Your Move, Dickens, but Darlyn took a bit of a break from blogging recently so I figure, this counts! So anyway, on her blog she's reading through some classics and saying things about them (like a blogger does) and she's usually very amusing/heartfelt/inspiring, and always always honest and forthcoming. And I really really like her writing voice. So, go! Read her blog! Tell her she's awesome! You'll be glad you did!

12 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that your mom is doing better this week! I hope everything goes well and she's done with chemo soon :)

    Also, I'm really excited to read your review of Vanity Fair, since I remember being bored/baffled by the Reese Witherspoon film adaptation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you my dear! So so hoping she has the chemo this week, because then that's all over and done with! :)

      And yay for your excitement! I've totally been putting it off because I don't even know where to start (it's kind of epic) but I'll try and trap some thoughts down and post them and stuff. You know, the usual.

      Delete
  2. Yay for your mom feeling better! I really hope that this week goes well and that it'll be the last bout of chemo for her!

    I totally agree with you about the Olympics... I really don't understand the excitement, it costs a shit ton of money, and it seems to promote competition / fighting with other countries, and not always in the happy, friendly way. Oh well.

    Hope you have a lovely week!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thankkkk you! I really hope so too! (obviously haha)

      I can't really deal with the Olympics, but I know when it's on I'll be like, 'ooh, gymnastics! Oooh, athletics!' and watch it alllll so I shouldn't really complain.

      I hope YOU have a lovely week too :D

      Delete
  3. I ADORE Vanity Fair!! Even though I still have a third of it to read. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe, oh you and your saving of books! I did take a bit of a leaf out of your book with Vanity Fair though, and kind of savoured it, only it freaked me out! I was like 'why is this taking so long..?' and the answer, I guess, was because I always wanted there to be more! :)

      Delete
  4. I think dinner and hot chocolate sounds like a FANTASTIC way to spend an evening! Though I can't imagine drinking hot chocolate in July. Unlike the UK, the US is suffering from a severe drought and it's about 100 degrees here every day. So not great hot chocolate weather, but I love the idea of hot chocolate in a big bulky sweater curled up by a fireplace.

    I've not read Vanity Fair but it sounds like one I might enjoy on audiobook - just about to finish The Woman in White, so maybe after getting through a few from the library, I'll give Becky Sharp a go!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know what, it was totally chilly on Friday night and it was laaaame. It was still possibly not cold enough for hot chocolate, but my cousin wanted it and I had no objections so we had some! Fairly random, but also awesome.

      THE WOMAN IN WHITE IS THE GREATEST! Ooh, I'll be really excited to see what you think about it! Vanity Fair is pretty awesome, so I'd definitely recommend it, on audiobook or any format at all!

      Delete
  5. Yay for your mom doing better AND hopefully almost being done with chemo! Break out the booze and cupcakes and booze-cupcakes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Booze cupcakes! Interesting! And yay indeed- thank you!

      Also, boooooze. Mmmmm...

      Delete
  6. YAYYY YOU LIKED VANITY FAIR! AND YAYYYY YOUR MOM!

    Also, You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle are NOTHING alike! Nothing! And SiS is vastly superior. Just fyi. My friend and I rewatched it last week and it almost killed us with its amazingness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ALL THE YAY!

      I have seen them both now (they're totally nothing alike. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks don't even LOOK the same as they do 5 years later) but actually I preferred You've Got Mail... It felt more Ephron-y to me! But Sleepless in Seattle was way good too. Basically Nora is the greatest. Now to watch When Harry Met Sally and Julie and Julia...

      Delete