Posts Tagged ‘Reading’

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Review

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

I’m contributing to a “Fill in the Gaps” project, where a group of bloggers commit to “filling in” their reading gaps, reading books that they think constitute a gap; for some, it’s a list of classics, for some it’s all writers that they’ve never read, and for others, it’s going deep into the lists of favorite or famous authors. For most, like me, it’s  a mix. I loved The Handmaid’s Tale, so I’m reading more Atwood; I’ve always enjoyed Mark Twain, so I’m taking the opportunity to hit up his major works. I’m also reading books friends have raved about for years but I’ve never picked up, and, of course, War and Peace, Ulysses, and Moby Dick.

I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, and the review is here. I’m currently reading Atmostpheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen, and I’m also participating in “Middlemay,” a community project to read all of George Eliot’s Middlemarch.  You can expect some classic Double-Oh Pisces waffling over many books, because I hate to give a book a bad review, but for now, at least, I can only sing the praises of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.  I may be a few years behind on this book, but I sincerely did love it, and highly recommend it.

Hoof: The Preakness

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The launch really is coming soon, people–I swear. We’re working on some lay-out issues. heSaid is a genius with PHP, but he hasn’t ever worked with my blog tool of choice (WordPress) so he’s taking it slow. Measure twice, cut once and all that. Ok, maybe no physical cutting, but the principle applies, I think.

How does this relate to the Preakness, you ask? Very simple.

Launch=heSaid=nice way to blame it on him=Measure twice=Dad=talked to Dad today on the phone because . . .

Went to the Preakness. Forgot to take pictures because, 292 photos of Hawaiian fish, food, fauna, and ferocious waves aside (and coming soon), I’m not that eager a photographer, especially not when snapping pictures means having a distorted view of the action. This is my excuse for not inserting a photo into this blog post, the way a modern blogger is supposed to–I’m so 1999.

In the eleventh race, I bet $4 on Just as Well to win. Bugger finished second. Called Dad to whine. He tsked and told me to always bet to show. Called him again to brag about winning $11.20 on Rachel Alexandra, which was more than I would have won if I’d listened to him and only bet to show (yay girl power and all that) but he harumphed and asked how much I lost over the course of the day. While it’s true that I have a net loss from my betting endeavors, I think that the day is a net profit because:

1) Black Eyed Susans are tasty, tasty drinks that I even got a commemorative glass for drinking, so I can go ONE MORE DAY without doing dishes

2) Managed to get home from Baltimore without missing my exit, which almost never happens

3) Discovered that watching horse-racing really is as much fun as I expected it to be, and feel vindicated for having read the Thoroughbred YA series EVEN AS A COLLEGE STUDENT. Alas, it also makes me want to re-read all of the Black Stallion series, which is sad because it is squirreled away somewhere in Dad’s attic. Dad lives in Michigan, and I don’t have time to read it, anyway. Although if I’d read the whole series only once instead of three times, maybe I wouldn’t need The Fill in the Gaps 100 Project now.

I hope that my cousin and I make Preakness attendance a tradition for the two of us. I love spending time with her, and it’s heart-melting how quickly she went from being the baby cousin that I want to look out for to a woman that I can count on. Yep, that’s two prepositions in the wrong spot!