“Read in order to live.”
The day is again lovely and warm, though not as warm as yesterday. From my window here I’ve been watching the birds at the feeders, and I just watched a red spawn fit through the mesh of the small feeder, the one the nuthatches like, and he’s having quite the picnic. I’m thinking a weapon of some sort, even a slingshot, would be useful right about now.
The two cats and the dog are asleep. I guess they had a tough morning moving from the bed to the couch though Gracie might be tired as she did have a play date earlier with her friend Cody from down the street. Cody is let out, he comes here and barks at the door to come in, and he and Gracie romp in the yard. When they’re done, Cody barks to come in, gets a biscuit from me then I let him out and he walks home. It’s a perfect arrangement.
Today I have no plans except to loll and read. I have just started the new Stephen King novel, and I’m unhappy about it. When I hold that giant book, over 800 pages, in my hands, I bemoan its length. The problem is that the novel grabbed my attention right away, but given the number of pages, it will be a long while until the end unless I do nothing else but read, not really unheard of for me. I realize I have to partake in a bit of life here and there, but I suspect I’ll resent it as time taken away from the book.
I have sometimes read until three or four in the morning totally unaware of the passage of time as I turn the pages of an engrossing novel. When I realize the time, I tell myself one more chapter then one more then one more again. Soon enough another hour or so has passed. When I was a kid, my mother swore I was totally ignoring her. “Didn’t you hear me screaming for you?” I hadn’t. I was so into my book nothing could intrude. I always suspected she never believed my no.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: books, Gracie, lovely day, reading, spawns of Satan, Stephen King
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November 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
It’s also a beautiful cool day here in North Texas since the cold front finally moved the clouds eastward. Today has begun as a lazy day. We had no out of town visitors to take to the airport, a small amount of food still remains to make that last turkey sandwich and I have no desire to fight any crowds in the mall. Relatives who come for the holidays are like fish. After three days they start to stink and should be thrown out. That’s why this holiday is so popular for family visits. They arrive on Wednesday night and leave on Sunday morning.
I have started reading Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It is also a very large tome which will require several long sessions to finish. Good authors can easily suck you into their world. That phenomena is called, the suspension of disbelief. While reading a good book, watching a movie or TV show your mind shuts out the entire real world and you are transported into a place or time that is a world unto your own mind. The best part of a book is that you get to form your own version of the sights and sounds that the author describes. You take ownership of the material and mesh their ideas with yours and with your experiences. It’s one of life’s great pleasures just under eating and sex. Radio is a similar medium. As Stan Freberg once answered the question in a radio commercial, “Doesn’t TV expand your mind? Yes, but only up to 21 inches”. Books, either the paper or the digital kind, have no limit to mind expansion.
November 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Bob,
I’m looking forward to turkey today too. I really never tire of it. It will be a sandwich this afternoon then a whole dinner tonight.
I use suspension of disbelief most often to friends who scoff at my old scifi movies. I tell them that is the only way to enjoy them. In books, I don’t often have the need-they are the authors’ worlds, and I always believe.
My friend just finished the Steve Jobs’ biography. She said she had to take it in increments instead of straight through as she generally does with biographies. She found him fascinating in a weird sort of way.
I have several old radio plays, and I love to turn the lights down low and listen. It’s like being transported back in time. When I was around 9, we spent a vacation on a small island in Maine. There was only a radio, and there was still a station there which played The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston. We laid on the kitchen floor near the radio and listened every early evening. I was there with all of them, back in the old west and in the Yukon.
November 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm
My favorite is Orson Wells “War of The World”. It’s hard to believe today that people in 1938 actually thought that martians had invaded just by listening to a radio show. Could we be fooled today in our cable TV and internet connected world?
November 27, 2011 at 12:47 pm
The winds have been strong all day but the forest takes most of the wind and my cottage is placed in a slope so I don’t notice it that much here. Every now and again a gust hits the cottage hard though. So it has been a day for relaxation mostly.
At the moment I’m testing different mulled wine. I bought some small bottles with different spicing (low alchohol though, must work tomorrow 🙂 🙂 ) One had the taste of lime and wasn’t especially good but the one I test now with cognac in iut is rather nice 🙂 Mukked wine is a must around christmas here.
Like You I can get totally lost in books but it was a long time since I had a book that kept me up all night. I think it was the last Harry Potter book. I think it is time to see if they have any new Stephen king novels here, they usually keep me up during nights 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 27, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Christer,
The sun disappeared and the clouds rolled leaving a gray, white sky.
I’m not a big mulled wine person but I do love the aroma which poermeates the house. We’re an egg nog family, and I have a wonderful recipe for it using store bought.
It is 11/22/63, the new Stephen King I am reading.
November 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Hi Kat,
Two grey spawns have gone off with Squirrel Removal man but someone is trying to breach the one-way door. Squirrel Removal man comes again tomorrow so we shall see what we shall see.
It was very foggy this morning so Rocky and I went down to the lake. I took way too many pictures.
When it comes to 800 page books, Kindle is my friend. 🙂
November 27, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Hi Caryn,
They are the devil’s offspring I know it. Just as I know others will be back to take their places.
I lolled and napped. It was a most pleasant day.
I love my iPod for books but I also like holding a book and knowing the progress I’m making and how mmuch is left. I know I can see it on the screnn but seeing it just doesn’t have the same impact.
November 27, 2011 at 2:56 pm
It’s pouring with rain and..it’s pouring with rain. I spent the morning playing Quadrophenia at ear piercing level. The super deluxe edition showed up yesterday and I needed the space to give it a proper airing.
My reading tends to be somewhat dry, I am working on Dominic Sandbrook’s “State of Emergency,The Way we were Britain 1970-1974” which weighs in at a modest 645 pages without the footnotes.
Maggie and I rode out to Target to buy LED lights for the Christmas tree. A well deserved outing for the terrier as she took out about eight deer last night who were grazing on the neighbor’s lawn. that gal always gets the job done.
November 27, 2011 at 3:56 pm
My Dear Hedley,
My reading is seldom dry and I tend toward fiction though a good biography will keep me just as happy. On trips I go for mysteries; a good murder makes the time pass quickly.
I’m glad you gave Quadrophenia the airing it deserves!
Maggie earned that ride after dispelling all those deer!
November 27, 2011 at 7:22 pm
That Maggly dog gets the serious work done. Goes to three legs, stares and then scatters. far superior to the two spaniels next door who are reluctant to get involved..claiming some false neutrality.
Wonder how those BC Lions will do tonight
November 27, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Bob,
The world can still be fooled at times, but I doubt they’d fall for a Martian invasion. I love listening to that broadcast.
November 27, 2011 at 4:39 pm
WIth the upcoming Presidential election we will see how easily the American public can be fooled. This will be the first election were corporations can spend as much campaign money as they want since the US Supreme Court has ruled that a corporation is a person. I would love to invite General Motors, AMR and Mobile Exon to Thanks giving to share the turkey and dressing next year since they will have bought the election.
November 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Bob,
As if any of us would want to sit at the same table with them!
November 27, 2011 at 5:17 pm
So your “red” squirrels are back, eh? Well glad they made the trip up there safely this year. They will again keep you on your toes and young again. I used to read into the night as well. Made for dragging butt the next morning. Most often it was well worth it.
November 27, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Z&Me,
It’s a conspiracy-I know it. Maybe I should declare hunting season in my backyard.
Now I just sleep in!
November 27, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Of course we can’t be fooled …
1. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/af_database/permalink/the_left-handed_whopper/
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4
Cheers
November 27, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Minicapt,
I’m willing to believe that some people accepted the first as true but not the second.
November 27, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Lions beat Blue Bombers 34-23 for the Grey Cup.
Cheers
November 27, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Minicapt,
Then I’m hoping my congrats are in order!
November 28, 2011 at 8:15 am
BC Lions – Champions. Clearly they are Canada’s Team
Congratulations to all my chums in BC and family on the big island
SUH !