Classics Considered

Medvedeva's Anna Karenina , f rom an earlier competition. I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but that changes as soon as the Winter Olympics comes around.  It feels like the world is just a little (tiny) bit saner when the Olympics goes well, and, of course, I get a thrill out of watching skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding, which are all pretty close to flying. But figure skating has that extra special piece to it - the story.  This evening we watched the intense, final showdown between the top two skaters, both hailing from Russia and studying under the same coach.  Oh - and they both skated to music with a classic literature connection!  Alina Zagitova, who won gold, skated to the ballet based on Don Quixote , by composer Leon Minkus.  Evgenia Medvedeva came in a very close second place with her performance to the Anna Karenina soundtrack by Dario Marianelli.  [Marianelli is more famous for his Pride & Prejudice (2005) score.]   There w...

(What I really need to do: go outside.) For better or worse, I'm one of those people that doesn't procrastinate much on things I have to do - work, chores, running errands - but when the end of the day comes around, very often I don't feel like doing what I really want to do (deep down): that is, improve my mind with reading.  My brain says it's too tired to be improved and deserves a break.  I don't really buy it, but I usually end up doing something else anyway, such as: Play solitaire.   Currently obsessed with Scorpion. Watch YouTube videos (sometimes while playing Scorpion.) Watch a TV show with the family. Find more books to read, on Goodreads (ha ha). "Window shop" online.  (And occasional real shopping.) Work from home.  Those pesky emails... Take a nap.  I have, at various times, experimented with a more rigorous schedule.  Last January (2017), I made myself do a lot of study reading, which was nice in retrospect but a bit wearisome at the ...

Sneak-peek at an upcoming review... Recently I found these wonderful page/line markers at the local Daiso.  For those unfamiliar with Daiso, it's a Japanese $1.50 store (only in a few U.S. states, unfortunately).  They're just the right amount of sticky to be reusable but not damaging to paper.  I've found these work great for marking lines in a book that I want to return to later. This method of line-marking has been my habit for quite a few years now, but sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out on something by being so careful.  Is it important to keep books looking pristine, or is part of the reading experience lost by not writing notes in books? When I was a kid, I grew up on library books and family books, so being careful was ingrained in me.  I remember one particular horror story (to my perceptions, anyway) of my mom lending a book to someone and the book being returned in, shall we say, lesser condition.  I really intended all my own books to last ...

If you're reading this, it's probably Saturday already.  Being on the West Coast, I have a couple of hours of Friday left, so... "Friday Thoughts" it is. There has been so much sad news lately.  The Puget Sound area lost a police officer last week , and this week was his memorial.  Through my job, I help and have met many emergency responders, so the loss feels personal.  There's also the fatalities of the flu season...I can't help but worry for the health of my family and friends.  Even the Hawaiian "missile alert" last Saturday was sobering (though joked about), because people believed it.  As usual, I'm very excited for the Winter Olympics - it's one of my favorite TV events - but I'm also uneasy; is something political going to happen, like last time ? To combat these morbid thoughts, I'm striving to appreciate what I have right now and not get hung up on trivialities. One thing I want very much to do is maintain the bridges in my...

It was a big deal, getting my first library card.  I was about seven and could just sign my name, sort of.  My ugly scrawl wasn't good enough for the library card, and embarrassed, I knew it.  I treasured the card anyway. Dad took me to the little library every week on Tuesday or Wednesday for many, many years.  I always had a stack of things to pick up.  Some of them were icky, smelly books, but I saw stories inside them.  I had to go the library every week.  And when a closer branch opened up, I said I'd never go to that library because it wasn't my library... Fast-forward to the present.  I only go to the library if I absolutely have to (late materials and items to pick up), and I just stop by the closest branch (yeah, that one I said I'd never go to).  One reason is the local libraries are very small, and I read far fewer books per month than I used to.  Also, Overdrive and Project Gutenberg now cover most of the books I read, plus t...

Friday Thoughts... a new weekly feature where I talk about stuff.  Excited yet? I don't know exactly where this series will take us.  Per my blogging goals for this year , I want to share more candid thoughts about reading - reading as an experience and as a part of life.  Friday, as the week winds down, seems like a good time to reflect. This week I have been reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, as well as listening to The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.  Both of these are new authors and new books to me, perhaps an over-ambitious start to the year. As I get further and further into The Sound , I seem to be learning more about myself than Faulkner, which was not at all the intent.  For example, more than ever do I dislike reading dismal fiction, a la Thomas Hardy and, in a certain sense, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (though the latter wins me over every time).  The real world is gloomy enough; why should I read novels that hit me over the head wit...