Thought for a Sunday
One of many insights from my recent vacation:
There will ALWAYS be too much to do.
Choose not to. Instead, be. Spend a day a week (why not Sunday?) trying NOT to do tasks. Instead, read, rest, nap, play, think, laugh, love.
The to-do stuff will be there on Monday, and I’ll be more willing to wade into the fray if I’ve given myself a break.
(With a nod of thanks to M. at Mental Multivitamin, who often expresses this sentiment in different ways.)
June 28th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
If you are looking for a good read, I’d recommend “Farthing,” by Jo Walton. An alternative history “what if” mixed with a murder mystery. It’s set in 1948, eight years after England came to peace with Germany. It’s a quick read (I did it in four days, and I had to work on two of them and take care of my boy on four of them. The short chapters alternate between a woman married to a Jew who is the daughter of the ultraconservative pro-Germany faction and the detective. And, it’s being turned into a triology.
Now I’m charged up to go get “Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” because of another what-if murder mystery — and the fact that I managed to finish a book.
(And kudos to the new look and the return of comments!)
July 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Ooh, that sounds great, and I’ve added it to the ever-growing to-read list. I really enjoyed YPU, and also remember liking another WWII alternate history, Fatherland by Robert Harris.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Yeeah, Fatherland is great. I think Farthing really takes off at the end. The writer, she has a blog. Talks about the writing process a lot, too. http://papersky.livejournal.com/
July 25th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for the link. Did you finish Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and if so, what did you think? I just finished Chabon’s Final Solution, and liked it a lot.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I just got “Yiddish Policemen” in the mail a week ago and just got caught up with the magazine reading. I think I may steer clear of Chabon until a vacation in a month. I might read that new adventure about the boy wizard — or read No. 6 again to be prepared for No. 7.
I liked “Final Solution” until the chapter from the parrot’s perspective.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I HIGHLY recommend reading #6 again. I wished I had several times during the reading of HP7.
I didn’t mind the chapter from the parrot’s perspective. They’re very intelligent and verbal, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch for me.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:35 pm
I indeed did re-read 6 and I finished No. 7 Thursday afternoon. Then went out to see the movie of No. 5. So I’ve gone a bit potty over Potter. I haven’t read 1,400 to 1,500 pages like that in a long time.
I don’t think there are any spoilers here, but if any other readers fear any information about No. 7, I guess I’d stop here.
It’s weird because you need a lot of 5 and 6 before reading 7. Since I remembered so little about the horcruxes, I knew I really needed to read 6.
You think the Hallows might have come up a little earlier in the series, considering Harry has had the cloak since the beginning. And some of the Dumbledore material, too.
How are they going to make a movie of that? While perhaps you can consolidate some of the camping around Britain, almost every blip action directly leads to something of consequence at the end. Would they consider two movies, like “Kill Bill”?
August 7th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Harry Potter spoilers ahead:
#7 will be a tough movie to make, esp. as I’ve heard that the stuff about Neville being an alternate for Harry in the prophecy was removed from film #5, and that is linked to the end of the book. I agree that there was too much crammed in at the end of the cloak and Dumbledore, and I’d add Snape to that list. I think the book will be hard to film because of some odd dramatic choices she made in the narrative–Harry just runs off during the final battle and spends a bunch of time watching the pensieve and Snape’s redemption? Talk about taking you out of the moment. I forget if Yates is the director for the upcoming HP films, but perhaps he’ll find a good way to make that work better than JK did. But if Yates could condense the hugest book into the shortest film, and the film does well, then I don’t think there would be a need for a 2-film ending.