I'm obsessed again with reading. Or listening. I can hardly read in the winter because I get too drowsy and go to sleep. For some reason, in the spring and summer, I get a lot of pleasure in sitting outside holding a book. Just my little quirks.
I ended up spending the $3 and rented Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I think it's the first time I've ever read a book and then watched the movie the same or next day. I loved both of them. The book was more detailed, of course, and took a completely different path with one of the main characters. The movie was more forgiving of the mother, who seemed a little distant in the book. I loved the city scenes described in the book come to life. While I don't think I would enjoy living in the middle of a big city, I am fascinated by it and love knowing about it. The book made me sad. The movie made me cry. I guess that's a good enough review.
I started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm about a quarter of the way in, and I'm guessing it takes place in the future where these characters are destined to be "donors," and not just blood donors - vital organ donors. Spooky.
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.
Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.
I watched for my planner to arrive all day yesterday and found it's delayed another day. Usually I have everything all ready for at least January by now. I also watched and willed all the snow to melt. It rained all day long and did make a dent in the piles. The wind was fierce, and it's still raining at 2:40 a.m. I have hopes of getting out and walking by myself to the mailbox and to get a haircut. I won't know how to dress with temps in the high 40s.
Since I broke my wrist the day before my last 6-month dental appointment, I had to cancel it and had just not made another one. Then the holiday, then the snow. Then came the tooth sensitivity which sent me straight to the phone. I have to have my hot and cold drinks and hot soup. It would also be nice to crunch on some solid food too here and there. I took some Tylenol and went to bed early, not that my tooth hurt so badly but because I was hungry and didn't want to risk bothering it. I had a lovely 6 hours of sleep and am now awake, as usual, in the middle of the night. Bowie came over and lay down against my pillow and stared at me awhile, but he's back asleep now.
Elise made me a cup of a really good herbal tea. I'll have to find out what it was. I had to laugh at how she "steeped" it. People do their own things, but this is funny.
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