Corner of Bourbon & Division

Sorry about the feelings-vomit in the previous post. I will try to be more upbeat about things, as much as I can.

I was out and about a bit today, for the first time during my vacation (other than the jaunt to Montreal to see Captain America). I got up at a relatively decent hour, but then kind of procrastinated during the morning on getting anything done. Still, I saw that my basil plants were threatening to bolt again, so this time I went at them viciously with a pair of scissors. I'm hoping I was fast enough, but a few of the stems have turned woody, which tells me I may not get more leaves from them. I took some cuttings the other day in order to try to propagate the basil, but they are looking pretty wilted, so I'm not optimistic. I seem to have the darnedest time getting basil to keep growing. I don't suppose any of my gardening people have tips or tricks for me?
( More gardening stuff )

( Books, and a review of Marie Kondo's Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up )

It's June 10th, and I have a few minutes before I have to go to work here in Moncton, where I am replacing the operators who normally work here so they can attend the funeral of our fallen officers and get some much-needed time off to recover from last week.

hells_half_acre has asked me to talk about fantasy novels I have enjoyed, and I am almost at a loss where to start. While my reading habits have taken a major hit in the last few years, before that I used to read a lot. Like, hundreds of books a year. At my peak I was reading three to five books a week. I'm also a big fan of genre fiction, with a particular penchant for sci fi, fantasy, and mystery series. So to say that I have read a fair bit of good fantasy in my day would be putting it mildly.

( Books! )

I just got pointed in the direction of Neil Gaiman's personal library.

*makes sad mewling sounds*

I think he might just have more books than my father. Maybe. It doesn't give a number. Certainly he must have more books that suit my taste than my father does, though.

*siiigh*

Okay, I realized at WorldCon that I am Teh Ignorant. So much good stuff out there. Novels and such I can find on my own, I'm pretty sure. Short fiction? Not so much.

What's out there in terms of good magazines and good anthologies? Offhand I can think of two: OnSpec and Azimove.

Tell me what else I should be reading/subscribing to in terms of good S.F. PLEASE.

(Also, I miss the Nebula Book Club. One of my regrets concerning my current job. No time for book clubs anymore. *sigh*)

I'm taking Sharon Astyk's fall gardening class, since I figure learning how to extend my growing season can only be good for me. As a result, I ordered the books she recommended from Amazon, as well as a couple of others to make it all worthwhile. Because it was for a class, I even shelled out the extra cash for shipping rather than getting the "super-saver" shipping rates.

The result? One business day later and the books are in my hot little hands. The books I ordered ten days ago haven't even shipped yet. Maybe from now on I'll bite the bullet and pay for shipping, if it means I don't have to wait over a month each time for my books. Yes, I know, I'm not good when it comes to waiting.

Swag is as follows:

The Four Season Harvest (Eliot Coleman)
The Winter Harvest Handbook (Eliot Coleman)
Carrots Love Tomatoes (Louise Riotte)
The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It (John Seymour)

I've been hemming and hawing about that last one for something like three years now, because it was always stupidly expensive (upwards of $40 everywhere I looked), but this time it was on sale for pretty much half of that, so I pounced.

Wheeeeeeeee!

So once I had the hang of the first bookcase, I was able to put together the next one lickety=split, without assembling any of the bits backward, to boot.

I forgot that the BILLY bookcases are a few shelves short, though, so I guess I'll have to go back to IKEA and pick up a couple of extra shelves. I still have one left over from my previous shelf-buying spree, but it's not enough. Soon, soon I will have room enough for all my books. Actually, I have some spare room right now, but I foresee it won't last long.

After this, I'll have to start expanding my library into different rooms, because I've officially run out of wall space in this room. The room feels smaller, but much cozier now. There is something very reassuring about being surrounded by books.

I am very pleased, all in all, backward bookshelf notwithstanding. Having assembled all my furniture now means that I'll have plenty of time to do other, more important things next week.

In book news, I just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and dear God above is it depressing. Unrelentingly bleak. It makes Wuthering Heights seem cheerful. It starts bleak, and it ends bleak, and it's bleak in the middle. Bleak bleak bleak. I think I need to watch Anne of Green Gables or something, now, just to cleanse my palate. Read some Pratchett, or some P.G. Wodehouse.

Dear Self,

If you are overtired, it is NOT a good idea to read Bridge to Terabithia at work. Now you have to explain to your co-worker why you are tearing up over a book at your desk. :P

Think about this next time, okay?

Love,

Me

My sleep schedule is definitely wonky. I had this whole plan for getting up early, and that totally didn't work out.

My ASL test didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I'm pretty sure I passed. I have a LOT of trouble keeping track of what she's saying when she goes fast, and especially with finger spelling. Individual letters are fine, but spelling in my head to put them together into a word is hella tricky.

I started reading some Marion Zimmer Bradley, and realized that I am missing the middle book in the series. Bah! I am not one to be thwarted, so I ordered the middle book.

In the meantime, I am watching BSG 4.0, which arrived at my FLVS a while back (or so I assume), and so far it's interesting. Mostly I've watched Razor, which wasn't as awesome as I expected, but it's nice not to be a whole year behind in my viewing. No spoilers, folks! I'm not caught up yet. ;)

Everything is a bit disjointed in my head today. I think I may leave this entry alone before it comes apart at the seams. ;)

Have a nice day, all!

I'm trying to find a list of classic novels to give me a bit of inspiration about what to read next year on top of my list of usual suspects. I have no trouble finding s.f. and mysteries and such to read, but I have the keen suspicion that I haven't read as many classics as I think I have. Allow me to add that I know that many s.f. books and mysteries are considered classics, but I'm talking non-genre fiction, specifically.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not doing this out of some weird masochistic sense of elitist obligation. I usually enjoy classics when I read them, but these days they're not really on my radar, as it were. I've read very little by way of the "big" classics (Tolstoy, Hardy, Balzac, what have you), and as such I miss a lot of cultural references along the way. I'd like to correct this, and perhaps discover some treasures along the way.

The plan is to participate in 50bookchallenge again, starting January 1st. I am going to challenge myself to read 50 books of my own choosing (minimum) and 50 "classics" as well. Two books per week is eminently doable for me. :)

So, dear flist, help out a girl with weak Google Fu. Are there any really long lists out there with the Big Classics One Can't Avoid And Is Usually Made To Read In School?

I'm open to non-fiction, and I would LOVE suggestions in French, too. I haven't done nearly enough reading in my mother tongue lately.

Also: new icon love! I am slowly filling my shiny new icon slots, mostly with icons I snagged from iconsbycurtana. :)

iconsbycurtana is at it again. I love Madeleine L'Engle with much love, and so I snagged it. I appear to have misplaced my copy of Many Waters, and it turns out there's a fifth book in the series (featuring Meg's daughter, I believe), which means I may have to pick them up. Unfortunately, they have once again changed the look of the books, which means my shelves won't match. Again.

Have I mentioned how much I hate it when publishing houses change the look of their books? Especially when they do it mid-series (not the case this time, but still). There is a special place in hell, too, for the publishing houses that not only change the look of their books, but also change the size by a few millimetres (sometimes up to half a centimetre), because then the books no longer fit on the same shelf, damn them!

*pant pant*

So yes. Special hell.

In random news, I appear to have done something weird to my finger. The middle joint is stiff, and feels tight when I try to bend it too far. It doesn't hurt or anything, but it's uncomfortable.

The weekend was lovely, if far too short. Slept a bit on Saturday, got to see ashforestwalker briefly, and watched Persepolis with BorderCrossing. It's a really interesting film, about a girl growing up in Iran during the war, and the effect it had on her and her family. Interesting graphics, all hand-drawn animation (shenlo, rowen26 and karine, you might find it interesting, technique-wise), and a profoundly moving storyline. It's autobiographical, but the animation (based on the graphic novel) gives it a dreamlike quality which is quite mesmerizing.

In the evening I went to see owldaughter's concert, and sat with pasley and Devon, ashforestwalker and Liam, and had a very nice time indeed. The LCO has gained a lot in quality of sound with their new conductor, so all in all it was quite enjoyable.

On Sunday there was some mad scrambling to get out the door in time for Meeting, and I ended up being too late to attend, which sucked. I got some other stuff done, but not all my errands got run, and thus the morning was hectic and felt a bit wasted.

I was supposed to spend the afternoon cooking with luvenditti and toughlovemuse, but the latter was felled by a migraine right before, and had to cancel at the last minute, much to everyone's disappointment (including hers, I'm thinking). So luvenditti and I made soup, and cabbage rolls, and spaghetti sauce, and meatballs, and sausages, and homemade pasta.

I am SO psyched about the homemade pasta! I have my own pasta maker now (courtesy of one of my coworkers, who very generously gave me his old one when he got a new electronic one), and I can hardly wait to start making my own! The recipe for pasta we used was not a difficult one, so it should be pretty easy to remember.

I got to bed really late, and as a result I am a bit twitchy this morning.

It also turns out that the Alouettes lost. Boo.