Jack says hi

Happy Halloween, everybody!

A minor (for me) explosion of booklove

There has been so much reading in the last two weeks! In addition to the driving, and the sending out résumés and whatnot. Like I said, unemployment tends to have that effect on things. It also leads to more of me playing those hour-long game trials you can download. I must have played fifty of them last summer while I was killing time before moving to San Diego. And today it started again. I do better with structure in my life. I'm honestly kind of looking forward to finding a job.

But the reading. I finished Unweaving the Rainbow! Finally. It is very good, I can say that. I think it just takes me longer because I'm not used to reading things written the way scientific writing is done. There were parts when I would start comparing it in my mind to how I wrote research papers in high school and college. (Nerd confession: I secretly loved writing research papers. I had a really good system worked out, thanks in large part to my high school junior year English teacher, whom we sometimes referred to as the Burrismonster. It was a term of endearment, I swear. She's one of the much better English teachers I've had over the years. Thanks again, Mrs. Burris, and excellent English teachers everywhere!) There were other parts of Unweaving..., though, where I was racing along because it was all so interesting, and written in a way that was almost thrilling. I'm looking forward to reading a lot more of Dawkins' writing.

I had said that the next book I read would be Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. And then I said it would be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. But it was neither. We stopped in at my favorite Half Price Books in Dallas (as well as my second favorite Half Price Books in Arlington) and I bought some books. And a Rasputina CD (Ohmygod, why did I not start listening to Rasputina sooner?!). One of the books I got was David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day. I've listened to "This American Life" for ages, so I was already a fan of his work. I even recognized some of the essays in the book that he's read. It's a fantastic book. He's so marvelously strange and funny. I can't imagine anyone that couldn't find something to like in all his writings. He's another one that I want to read more of, and soon.

But I finished the Sedaris in about two days. So now I actually am reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and it's wonderful. I bought this book, I think, last summer (if not even earlier), and now that I'm finally reading it, I've been kicking myself for putting it off so long. I'm racing through it and gobbling up every word. My copy is over 1000 pages long, and I'm already two hundred pages in, after only two days, and I expect to read some more tonight. The story is so engaging, and the language is enchanting and thrilling. I'm getting completely sucked into this book. It's fantastic. I can't wait to read more.

I suppose there is one other booklove-related bit of news, but it's still something I'm mulling over. It's still pretty much just in the planning stages at this point, and I'm not entirely certain I'll go through with it yet (although I'm leaning towards a joyful and resounding YES!). So I'll hold off on announcing that, and see how the brainstorming goes this week.

My brain has atrophied in my period of unemployment, and I can't think of a title.

Being unemployed isn't so terrible, although I suspect I only feel that way because I already have an interview set up for this week, and I'm not too close to running out of money yet.

But other than occasionally being a little bored, it's ok. I've gotten a lot of reading and knitting done. And spent a lot of time on the internet. Both finding and applying for jobs, and killing time. I have read a whole lot of blogs the last couple of days.

A bunch of them have been blogs about one thing. Just cookies, or just cute food, or just art, or just soap, or just letters. (It was one of the chocolate blogs that gave me an immense craving for dessert yesterday, and led to us going to Copeland's, which was kind of terrible. The craving lives on.) I always love reading those kind of specialized blogs, and it always makes me think about starting one myself. But I can never manage to pick one thing I would want to blog about. I can't even come close.

Yes, I love chocolate, but do I love it this much? I actually don't think I love chocolate more than I love knitting. But I probably love books more than that. I have too many loves to only write about one in one place. My mind is too scattered to stick to one thing. So I suppose I should just keep reading other people's blogs, and keep blathering about whatever on my own.

Speaking of, sorry about the missed booklove post last week. Moving is exhausting. But like I said, being unemployed makes for a lot of free time for reading. Booklove update tomorrow, my lovelies!

Making a list

So there was no booklove post on Sunday because we're mired in the midst of moving cross-country. And we're kind of taking our time about it, seeing friends and going places we've missed. So I was a little busy on Sunday. And then we spent all day Monday in the car, and I didn't feel like it once we got here. And then we've been playing tug-of-war with my laptop since we got here, because Boy-Creature's is packed away somewhere.

Ironically, Sunday was a good day for booklove. Not that I'm reading anything new. Still just Dawkins. I haven't had the mental energy for much else, and some days I don't even have enough just for that. It seems like the majority of the reading I've done for the last two weeks was oogling knitblogs. It still freaks me out that I've gone this long without reading any fiction. I don't think I've gone this long since I learned how to read. It's weird. But I think I'm swinging back that direction, and Sunday helped.

We had breakfast with a good friend of mine who's about to graduate from our alma mater. While I was a creative writing major and dance minor, she's a theater major and an English lit minor, so we have a lot to talk about. And it almost always comes back to books. She mentioned that she had recently finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and that she loved it. Awhile back I started a list of books that I definitely want to read, because it seems like every time I'm actually looking for something new in a bookstore or library, I can't remember what I want. As soon as my friend mentioned it, I knew it needed to go on the list. And the more she talked about it, the more I wanted to read it. So it's on the list.

But later that day, we were in one of my favorite little indie bookstores in Santa Fe. I was looking at the modern firsts, and I found a first edition of Kavalier and Clay. Unfortunately, it was the only copy in that store, and it was a hundred and twenty five bucks. And given that I've been trying not to spend money on books, even when they only cost ten or twelve bucks, I don't think that would be a good idea. Especially since I had already bought yarn that day. (I got my first Koigu! Squee!)

So I expect that while we're back in Texas, we'll be going to my favorite Half Price Books in Dallas. I'll look for it there.

Cette fin de semaine

Still only reading Dawkins. I am very happy that I don't have to go back to work tomorrow, I must say. So it's been a nice, relaxing weekend of repacking things, packing more things, and knitting.

I finished my first sock today. Kitchenering the toe and all. And I cast on for the second one. Progress! I also cast on another project this week. A certain project for a certain Christmas present for a certain Someone-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

The other event of the weekend was that we saw "Coco Before Chanel," which was lovely, and very well done. And it made me want to pick up learning French again. I didn't get very far with it when I took it in college, mostly because I hated the way the teacher taught it. But I've always had it in the back of my mind to try again sometime, and I've been thinking about it more and more lately. So maybe after the move (only a few days now!) will be a good time to start. New town, new language. New-ish, anyway. To both the town and the language.

Update!

So as of Wednesday, with a half-day at work and much, much cleaning, we are out of the apartment.

And as of today, the job is no more.

I'm exhausted.

Here is something I was thinking about today at work, instead of thinking about work:

I was listening to a slightly older episode of Lime & Violet, in which there was much talk about Neil Gaiman, and then talk about books, and how much they appreciate the Kindle, which is much lighter than books. Miss Violet was talking about the fact that she finally has shelf space, having gotten rid of some books, and about how happy that made her.

It does not work that way with me.

If I have shelf space, I think, "I must fill that up with more books. I shall go buy some now."

Which made me think of this bit of gloriousness. Ever since I saw that, I have been coveting that library. So I was thinking today about how for now, while I am young, and prone to restlessness and moving about trying to find where I want to plant myself, I try to at least somewhat restrain my book buying.

But once I settle into my life, where I want to be settled, I want my personal library to look something like that.