Something I saw today

Here is a sweater I knitted for my mum's dog. #t

Books, re-reading, and finding something to be anxious about

books, by Pimthida.

I am an avid reader, if not always particularly discerning. Voracious might be the best term. I’ll consume pretty much anything, especially if I’m over-anxious, sitting in the sun, or sick.

This year, I’ve set myself the goal of reading fifty books. So far I’ve read 12 and they run the gamut - from the sublimely silly to the truly fabulous.

Recently I read a piece in the Guardian about choosing your books carefully - the theory being, that there is a limit to how many books you can possibly read in your life so you'd better make them Worth Your While (insert panic here). The conclusion being: life is too short - too short to read Ayn Rand (agreed), Infinite Jest, and maybe anything by Virginia Woolf. The writer doesn’t pan the Lite and Silly outright, doesn’t condemn reading YA books as an adult - and the commenters appear mostly concerned with defending Virginia Woolf, rather than making their own lists of unworthy books.

This made me think Many Things - or rather, worry about things. Worry that I was wasting my time re-reading books (too many books in the world!), or reading infinitely disposable books. I mean - I just completed some research into the Zeitgeist (ahem) by reading all three of the Fifty Shades books. I probably could have finished Middlemarch by now.

But the thing is, I think that I mostly read books for atmosphere. For the feeling that a book gives me while I dip in and out on the bus or at lunchtime, or the feeling I get when I read a book in one sitting, fully immersed and outside on a summer’s day. So does it matter if I’m not sublimely well-read in terms of 'high literature' or the canon? I don’t think it does terribly much - especially given that essential reading changes from place to place, and person to person. I have my own categories of books good, bad and indifferent, and I guess you do to.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I wrote some of my categories down:

• The kind that is best to read when you're sick with glandular fever. The protagonist will be southern and the prose will be badly written; you'll discover that you're deliriously desperate for all characters to get married, no matter how minor.
  Examples: any Sookie Stackhouse book, The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch.
• The kind that you initially read as a child or a teenager and really enjoyed, especially for their portrayal of historical times. Later re-reading will destroy your earlier opinions as the books prove to be horribly full of violence against women and otherwise deeply problematic.
  Example: The Sonne in Splendour by Sharon Penman.
• The kind described as "cult" that was recommended to you by an apparently well-read but overbearing man while you were drunk and insecure at a party aged 25. Sex will be described in ways that will recur to you in flashbacks throughout the rest of your life, all the female characters are hollow and hateful projections.
  Examples: anything by Henry Miller, Last Exit to Brooklyn, On the Road.
• The kind you know are very clever, and possibly too clever for you - so you claim you will read them twice, the first time for the plot and the second time for the cleverness. You never read them the second time.
  Examples: anything by Umberto Eco, The Luminaries.

Conclusions? I have none. I just have a head filled with irritating Anastasia Steele lines, and bookshelf of good intentions.

 

But, you - do you have categories? What are they? Does the thought you can only read, say 2500 books in your life, freak you out as much as it does me?

Sunday Film Fest: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Have you seen this whimsical guy? I am awfully fond of him. And part three is a recent(ish) release!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Wednesday List: six delicious smug lunches

Lately I've been doing this basically quite ridic thing where I smugly take a picture of my lunch and post it on a dedicated Twitter account.

I tried to come up with some reasons but really it's just silliness that allows me to humblebrag about my lunch. Here are some best ones:

Something I saw today

Ridiculous breakfast macaron.

Something I saw today

Taupō.

What is making me happy: Christmas week and summer holidays

Two Christmas trees are not enough. Also, please note my artful(!) use of vignette: I should not be allowed to play with filters.

I am on holiday now - three weeks of glorious me-time; cooking and sewing and knitting, and planning for Christmas and next year’s projects. Yesterday I put up our beautiful tree, I’ve made some simple mincemeat and we have a fancy free-range ham in the fridge for Christmas Day.

After New Year, Shannon and I are going on holiday for a week with the ever-lovely Nat and Mark - Taupō and then maybe Tauranga. Sunshine is nigh! Exciting because until very recently, Wellington has been proving itself true-to-type in the weather department. *Sighs as though her heart would break* *looks wistfully out the rain-smeared window at the rain with chin in hand*

Related to Christmas planning: I’m also enjoying planting succulents in teacups/stoneware goblets/dessert glasses.

READING:

• Naked by David Sedaris - I bought a copy of this for Nat for her birthday and then borrowed it off her - only to discover three essays-in that I had definitely read it before. I had a look on Good Reads in the vague hope that I’d actually made a note of it and it turns out I'd totally read it in August last year! How about that.
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - long conversation with Mon after I’d read this about loving everything that Margaret Atwood represents but then not really loving the books themselves. There was so much I liked about this book, but I did feel it was a bit laboured.
• The Portable Dorothy Parker - dipping in and out of the short stories, and skipping over most of the poetry. Not keen on poetry, even the comedic rhyming couplet type.
• Always sitting in my reader and making me feel dismayed with my lack of commitment to Serious Reading - Middlemarch and Peter Ackroyd’s London: The Biography.

WATCHING: A lot (SO MUCH) of Nigella Lawson. On Saturday I watched two series of Nigella's Christmas Kitchen in a row, six episodes in all. I am totally Christmassy right now. I want Poinsettias.

Also! Last night: Home Alone which was better than I remembered.

FAVOURITE PODCAST EPISODE: Fugitive Waves (the Kitchen Sisters) - the Nights of Edith Piaf. SO.GOOD.

The Kitchen Sisters are amaze, also I am fascinated by Edith Piaf's life story. I love a mostly non-narrative/non-editorialising podcast with lots of oral history and primary sources - so: A+++.

KNITTING: I bound off a pocket of my tunic dress and have put it away until next year.

Finally, I began swatching for my Featherweight in Madeline Tosh Lace and the tiny stitches are basically quite terrifying.

SEWING: I have many plans, lots of patterns and a fairly hefty stash - but an empty cutting table. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LISTENING: Michael Buble’s Christmas album is on high-rotation at the moment. I enjoy his unabashed cheesiness mightily at this time of year.

Something I saw today

Good use of a stoneware goblet.

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Dinner: three salads feat. carrot and tahini slaw, and slowcooked beetroot and goat feta. Smug much? (yes)

Something I saw today

Cannelloni and asparagus from my Shaggy.

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Pie and salad.

Something I saw today

This tui, hanging out by the campervan park on the waterfront #t

Something I saw today

New cook book and a glass of rosé: how I roll on a Friday night. 🍷📖

Something I saw today

Hey there beauties.

Something I saw today

On my lunch break I like to pretend I'm somewhat avant-garde

Wednesday List: books on my bedside table

• The Portable Dorothy Parker - Her Nibs. I bought this mostly because it’s on the Rory Gilmore reading list. I am awfully fond of the idea of Dorothy Parker, but I’ve never read much by her (with the exception of that poem). So far, much as expected. Very zeitgeisty, not so sure how well it’s travelled. But still, think of the Algonquin.
• Katherine Mansfield - biography by Kathleen Jones. This was lent to me by Mon, after an exhibition opening at Katherine Mansfield Birthplace where she volunteers. A veritable tome, I am yet to crack open the covers. Again, I’m fond of the idea of KM, if not so much her actual work.
• Learned Optimism - Martin E. Seligman. Not really bed time reading, this book has been sitting idle by my bedside for some time now. Eventually I need to return it to the work library so I guess I should get on to finishing it. *thumb twiddle*

On the reader

• Middlemarch - George Eliot. This is not a great book for dipping in and out of at lunch times, because I need to become accustomed to the style before I’m really enjoying myself. I should probably read this in the evening and read something lighter at lunch time. Anything by Philippa Gregory? Or Jilly Cooper?

Recently completed

• Postcards - E. Annie Proulx. Bleak, Americana, A++.

Something I saw today

Petone beach. #t

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A waffle in the sun.

Wednesday List: alternative future professions

Here is a list.

A list of future professions.

Future professions I could possibly undertake in my next career-life.

In no particular order:

• Archaeologist. Slight difficulty in pursuing this in New Zealand given that I'm not really that enthusiastic about either MIDDENS or VICTORIAN RUBBISH PILES. In my hypothetical future career as an archaeologist I am also basically one the cast members from Time Team, so have more access to things like Medieval Castles and Tudor Gardens.*
• Related: Food historian. Because food and history are two of my favourite things, and food history is another of my favourite things. And you can tell the history of nearly everything and everyone through food. *nods sagely*
• Rare breed pig farmer. My love of pigs is well documented, and have only increased since I saw this documentary on YouTube about pork and rare breed pigs. It's presented by Clarissa Dickson Wright; I watched it after I went on a Two Fat Ladies journey of discovery after her recent death.
• Cider maker. I like my cider DRY and tasting a bit like FEET. Sadly in New Zealand the "cider revival" has concentrated on very sweet, RTD-style ciders and I am out with those poor excuses for a beverage. If you need something done properly you'd best do it yourself.
• Own my own online/local fabric shop. I really like fabric, especially some of the super-gorgeous Japanese fabric that I keep seeing online. And Petone clearly needs a fabric shop to complement the yarn shop, two sewing machine repair places and haberdashery.
• Make artisan mustard. Yum. Mustard.

*Related: everywhere I have mentioned Time Team on this blog.

Something I saw today

This weekend I knitted so much I strained something in my hand. Ridiculous.