I decided awhile ago that I wanted to read stories from the series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Of course there was the recent blockbuster in theaters starring Robert Downey Jr., but also because I’ve been watching some of the Jeremy Brett adaptations from the 80s on PBS.
So my first foray into Doyle’s work was A Study In Scarlet. Overall, it was a fun and simple read. Holmes and Watson meet up and become roommates and informal colleagues. Watson is amazed by Holmes’s eccentricities and brilliance, and Holmes is depicted just as I expected him to be from watching all the adaptations. The work is broken into two parts, and that confused me for a long time. The first part was how the criminal was caught, and then the second…well that turned out to be the back story of the criminal. I didn’t get that at first. I felt like perhaps I was in an entirely different book. The motive and back story was completely unexpected. I was surprised and somewhat impressed that Doyle went so cross continental, when I expected something more local.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more, but that will come later. Next up is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
The weekend after a three day weekend is always so shockingly short. I swear, I just got off work and here I am preparing for tomorrow.
This one was a good one though. It started on Friday when I took Callie to the Vet and they put another bandage on her tail. They said she could wear it for two weeks this time and then she might not have to wear the cone when she goes bandage-free!
Well this blissful state ended a little abruptly for both her and I when I came home tonight to find her Jets-colored bandage on the floor completely in tact, as if she slipped it off disgusted with their loss. She herself was just chilling on her favorite blanket. She started to lick at it pretty good, so I was forced to put the cone on her…
She gets bummed out wearing the cone, and that bums me out pretty bad. But this could be for the best. I’m thinking that it’s somehow meant to be, because this is really what the Vets wanted to do in the first place. I’m wondering if they put her bandage on in such a manner so that it would slip off easily and we’d be forced to do the truly right thing! The tail needs air, and we’ll just have to deal with our sweet little girl living in her Elizabethian cone.
After the Vet, I went to Best Buy in an effort to get NetFlix streaming on my TV. I had lots of options. Could run a DVI->HDMI cable from my laptop. Could get a PS3. Could get a capable Blu-Ray player. Best Buy did not have the cable, so it was between the PS3 or Blu-Ray. After lots of internal debate, I ended up getting the Blu-Ray. It was half the price, didn’t require a disc from NetFlix to do initial setup, and I just don’t really play games that much.
You may be asking yourself, why not wait for the Wii NetFlix option that is coming soon? Well, there’s a bit of an urgency since I’m trying to catch up a friend on Lost before the new season starts. And the Wii version won’t have HD capabilities. Plus, I’m a bit excited for Blu-Ray. I bought Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu-Ray, and I can’t wait to watch it!
So overall I’m glad I got it. It was really easy to setup, and now I have a whole new gigantic option of viewing options whenever I want.
On Saturday I did a ton of cleaning (again), including some de-cluttering that I had planned on doing ever since last week’s big clean up.
Today, my dad and Cathy came up for a visit. The three of us, along with Marissa and Johnny, went over to the Great Indoors, which was a little bit like torture (I’m a renter and I have no real money to speak of), and then had a fun lunch at Panera (yum!).
We talked about how I love to teach people lessons. Okay, more like my family made fun of me for that. They called me George Bluth from Arrested Development.
If you’ve never seen Arrested Development, it’s the episode called “Pier Pressures.” I wish I could show you a clip, but alas, I couldn’t find one.
Anyway, I came home and did computer-y things, and plan to curl up with my Kindle tonight. I never did share my Kindle skin experience. I do love it so! It was really easy to apply and I think it looks so cute!
I got a Kindle for Christmas and I absolutely love it! I actually got it toward the beginning of December, so I could take it with me to Phoenix.
Now, I am patiently (not really) waiting for an adorable Kindle skin to come by mail.
How cute is that?
Much like with any new toy, I am obsessed with it. But to be perfectly honest it has helped me get back into reading and it helps me read books faster and truthfully, lets me get lost in the book so much more. I’m really focusing when I read. I’m not sure why that is exactly, but I feel like it has something to do with the configuration. The way that my body rests as I hold the single unit keeps me from shifting and moving like I do when I read regular books. And sadly, I think the font size plays a big part too. I don’t have to move the unit further or closer, making me uncomfortable, to see the text. I can simply adjust the text size.
Anyway, I’m not here to sell you a Kindle (although I highly recommend one), I’m here to tell you about what I’ve read since I got it.
The first thing I read was…
Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
I’ve got TWO of those chunky Charles Dickens anthologies. For the past several years, I’ve sworn to myself that I would read my favorite tale, since I had never before. Each year, I started, but didn’t complete it. So I spent all of $0.00 on the Kindle edition and went to town. Before I knew it, I was entrenched. Then for the last Stave, I decided to read it out of my favorite anthology.
But besides just bragging about how the Kindle worked out so nicely, I have to tell you how pleasantly surprised I was at the story itself and the writing.
Obviously—Charles Dickens is a great writer and spins a great yarn, but I had no idea how fun it was to read. I think his writing is completely brilliant. Here’s how he describes the dancing at Fezziwig’s party….
It’s so poetic in a way, and I can’t help but love, “In came the three Misses Fezziwig, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke.”
And then I changed pace completely, and read…
Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol
I also own this book in print and tried a few times to start reading it. Struggled and was then able to get it on the Kindle and finish it.
Ugh…what to say about this. It eventually became fun to read and you can’t help but call it a page turner because of the way he writes and divides his chapters. It’s such a trick though, and therefore frustrates me. For the first half of the book, I spent the majority of my time rolling my eyes.
I hate his characters. They are people I would never want to know in real life. They are so perfect and intelligent and they certainly know it. They have stupid flaws that don’t make them more human, but simply more contrived.
To diversify his characters, he gives them silly physical characteristics that he is constantly reminding the reader about. The Solomons have grey eyes. Who has grey eyes? Trish, Katherine’s assitant, is apparently overweight. We are constantly reminded that she is chubby. And guess what?? Dan Brown thought it wise to actually have more than white people in his book. So he modeled a character after Barack Obama. He repeatedly refers to Bellamy (rolls eyes) as the “tall and elegant African-American” man. I get it. He’s black. Must I be reminded every time he says something, does something, or Robert Langdon observes him. Seriously.
And his villian is too ridiculous and contrived to even relate to you.
About half way through, I realized that Dan Brown and his peeps (publisher, editor), must have realized that if they make the “mystery” somewhat easy to figure out as a reader, that we’ll feel good about ourselves and keep reading his work. I was legitimately pissed when I figured out one of the core “gotchas” the second a particular character was introduced.
Then there was the ridiculous use of technology. As a semi-technologist, who sort of understands her way around Interwebs and what it takes to code something, program, hack, etc., the “spider” that Trish the chubby assistant creates is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard. And it’s not even her spider that goes and searches every online source ever! But the task given to her is the most ridiculous thing ever.
Find out if a particular theory (a set of keywords), has ever been corrobarated in ANY LANGUAGE, EVER!
And Trish is all like, “Yeah, no prob. Should only take about 15 minutes.”
Yeah.
I wonder if Dan Brown’s character Robert Langdon could interpret this ancient symbol….
Now, I don’t know if it was just love for my shiny new Kindle, or because it actually got better, but I did end up planted in my big chair not wanting to put the device down for several hours.
At the end of the experience, I felt slightly satisfied and would describe it as a “fun read.” And by fun read, I mean fun to make fun of and slightly fun to read.
And most recently, I finished reading…
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
Another book I happen to own in print, I got this for just $.50 on the Kindle. When I was in high school I took a couple of Honors English classes, which always required summer reading. I believe it was for sophmore year, we had the choice of what to read, and Wuthering Heights was on the list. I didn’t end up reading it, but ever since then have been slightly fascinated with the tale, and truly wanting to understand what it’s all about. I had always heard it was a dark tale of tragic romance, which is pretty much up my alley.
So, 15 years later, I finally put myself to the task. I think it came about at the right time.
They say that people fall into two camps….those that LOVE it and those that HATE it. There’s not a whole lot of in between. I fell into the loving it category.
I’m in awe of Bronte’s gumption to take on such a dark tale with such horribly flawed (in a good way, not a Dan Brown way) characters, which she somehow makes half of her readers sympathize and identify. Truly excellent, particularly for it’s time.
This was a true pleasure to read and quite a diversion. She’s like the anti-Jane Austen. I appreciate and love Jane Austen so much, because she gives her characters what they want and that’s what I try to do for my characters. But Bronte got me thinking a little bit about how to make relationships more intense and not as easy.
Anyway, I was really inspired by it and am so glad that I finally got around to it.
Also–there’s lots of film adaptations. I’d like to watch more of them, but I did watch the one that streams on NetFlix. It’s a BBC Masterpiece Classic attempt from 2009 and I think it’s quite good!
And just to prove that there’s a fan montage for EVERYTHING….here’s one for that:
So what I’m reading now….Sherlock Holmes! Only $.99 on the kindle for all of the Doyle’ s Holmes novels and short stories!
I never read as many books as I hope to each year. This year was rather dismal, since I spent way more time trying to write a book than reading any. Here’s what I did finish:
The Alienist, by Caleb Carr
Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
Love the One You’re With, by Emily Giffin
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris
All of which, I enjoyed, with the Harris books probably being my least favorite. Naturally, I started so many more books that I just haven’t been able to invest in quite yet.
Of those books, I’d have to say that Pride and Prejudice was the best. It was long overdue and a fun thing to read. Thankfully, I finished it just before I went to Bath, England and visited the Jane Austen Centre.
Before the year ends, I hope to have finished reading A Christmas Carol, because I say I’m going to do that each Christmas season. I started yesterday and will be reading more here shortly. It’s only 50 pages, so it shouldn’t be a problem. And then, I have it on good authority that I’m getting a Kindle for Christmas, and I’m hoping that will make reading even easier.
You should actually take that as a good sign though. It means that all of my writing energy has been poured into my NaNoWriMo book! Last weekend, I finally got the breakthrough I was looking for and I have seriously increased my word count. That being said, I am still massively behind, at only 19,000 words. But I’m not afraid anymore. I feel rather confident that I can get it done, and I’m quickly falling in love with my story.
Falling in love with my story makes me happy, but it makes me worry about the other novel I’ve been working on for a year. I have already invested 300 pages into it and I am still determined to finish it. I’m pretty good and splitting my attention, but I must be honest and say that I am currently obsessed with what I’m working on now and the influences that I’ve been accessing to motivate me. I have a whole new music collection that I’ve been listening to as I write that is completely different from my other book (Click here to see it). I’m not going to lie. A lot of these songs come from Grey’s Anatomy and I think that’s a great thing. There’s a reason why the show uses these songs, because it evokes emotions and allows scenes to play out very well.
So anyway, if you’re wondering what I will be doing the rest of the month, you can bet it’s writing. I’m attacking this NaNoWriMo challenge hardcore!
Speaking of hardcore…I have some other things to report.
As you may recall from 2008, I am a Twilight fan. I shouldn’t be so ashamed about this. I have a strong philosophy of “to each their own.” My hugest pet peeve is when people who have their own nerdy, fringe, or even super popular interest are critical of one of the things I like. This comes out like crazy in the workplace. I happen to work with a lot of lovable nerds that love Sci-Fi, etc., that have literally gone to conventions, and some that love playing WoW and spend a good chunk of their free time doing that. So you would think that I wouldn’t get grief when I mention Days of Our Lives right? I totally do. It’s the most fucking obnoxious thing in the world when people do that and the most hypocritical. Star Trek is not my thing. I barely tolerated the movie and thought it was only okay. I’ll never own it or go to a midnight show for the sequel (actually, I might, because I like going to midnight shows of things). But I have a friend who loves it and I would never try to bring him down. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to bring me down either and totally grasps the “to each their own” philosophy.
So if you’re about to roll your eyes at the next part of this post, because I talk about Twilight. Spare me. It takes so much more effort to hate something than to just accept that some people like it. And if you think that hating on something that is popular, especially amongst women (which I would argue is part of the problem), makes you somehow superior or cool, it doesn’t. It makes you seem insecure.
Life is hard, and so it should be celebrated when anyone can have a ton of fun loving something in the fictional/escapism realm. To-each-their-fucking-own.
Last night I went to the Twilight double feature with my sister and my friend Michelle. It was a blast! We saw Twilight at 9 and then New Moon at midnight. It was a great time and I’m going again tonight with a larger group of friends. Is New Moon the greatest movie ever? Hell no. Do I care? Not one bit. Because I have fun watching it and living in that world for two hours.
So I guess you could call me hardcore for Twlight.
But do you know what you should actually call me hardcore for….
Grey’s Anatomy.
Because even though I got home at 2:45 in the morning and I had to be at work by 9 this morning, I stayed up and watched the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy at 3 in the morning. HARDCORE.
Truthfully, I am not actually hardcore for any of these things. I personally know people that actually attend Days of Our Lives fan events, went to the New Moon premier in Los Angeles, and make montages of Grey’s. And while it’s unlikely that I’ll ever go that far, I could never discredit or mock those girls for being passionate about something they love.
So the next time you’re working hard at hating American Idol, soap operas, Nicholas Sparks, fan fiction, Star Wars, WoW, Lady Gaga, or High School Musical….remember, it’s all for fun and life is too short to stop the fun.
PS……
Grey’s turned out way better than I thought it would for Cristina and Owen last night! I hate that a love triangle is coming, but at least this episode made me pretty happy:
It was a Labor Day I’m sure to never forget. First the badgood memorable news. Brian came over today so we could fill out our divorce paperwork. It was a pretty harmless visit for the most part, and the task wasn’t too challenging. We had nothing together. It did cross my mind that I should make him responsible for the debt I incurred for when he was laid off from his job and from the wedding. I only entertained that thought for a moment.
After divorce-o-rama, I scored 87,000 points on Bejeweled, which was awesome. Then I went to pick up my sister to see The Time Traveler’s Wife. I had read the book back in 2005/6, and it’s been stuck in my memory ever since. I didn’t overly enjoy the book, and at times struggled to get through it. But I like the concept and the story a lot. So once again in my life, I enjoyed the movie a lot more than the book. I think I’m the only person that happens to. My sister sobbed through the whole thing, but I knew what was coming and so I held back pretty well. As a result of holding back my tears, I got a massive headache though.
After the movie we went to the mall, and that leads to today’s picture. I have been saving up and planning on getting a whole bunch of new clothes. I haven’t bought clothes all year, and so I was definitely due. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I bought so much. It definitely turned into a shopping spree and I went with it. I got plenty of clothes for my trip to London that will also be great for work.
Lots of blacks and greys, and a few bits of color.
I didn’t get a picture today, and on purpose. There wasn’t anything for me to really photograph that would mean as much as the picture below. I finished reading Pride and Prejudice this morning, and then watched the 2005 movie adaptation for the millionth time. Jane Austen is so incredible at capturing characters. She’s a true inspiration. After reading this, I also finished reading Living Dead in Dallas, which is a Sookie Stackhouse novel. It probably wasn’t the best idea to follow up Jane Austen with writing that I feel like is sub-par anyway, but overall I liked the book quite a bit. I love the on screen adaptation of True Blood so much better, but it was nice nonetheless.
My favorite scene from the 2005 adaptation. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy at dawn.
My plans on Saturday fell through, and so I ended up just sticking around home, which turned out to be splendid. I did laundry all day, like 13 loads of it. Everything that could be put in a washing machine was washed, except for my clean clothes, which there weren’t too many of. I also barely watched TV and read Pride and Prejudice all day long. I can always feel autumn coming because the crazy summer session ends and I’m free to get my life organized and not be so busy with work. Feels great!
My friend Nancy, who goes by the pen name E. Jamie, has a freebie Friday contest on Twitter where she awards a lucky winner one of her shorts or novellas. Last Friday night I won the contest and got to read her short story, Forbidden, which was some of the hottest 10 pages I’ve ever read. She’s an erotic writer, so her tales are super steamy, but it’s never just about sex. There’s always an incredible love story pulling it all together. So if you want to try and win your own free copy, follow @nancy777ca, and answer her trivia question on Friday nights to be entered in the drawing.
Since this season of True Blood has been pretty spectacular, particularly last night’s episode, I’m giving the books a second chance and trying to read them again. I’m in the midst of book two.
I'm reading "Living Dead in Dallas" which is not shown here.
Hi! I'm Rochelle. Welcome to my blog. This is a space that’s almost like a scrapbook, a little bit of a rant room, a gallery of creative work, and a dash of nonsense. My life is not terribly exciting but I have a lot of creative energy that’s got to be focused somewhere.
The Simple Sisters
Two silly sisters acting like grown ups. Check it out!
