Book completed

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner. I'd expected to finish reading this book to J. on Friday, as I had 75 pages to go, but after reading 32 of them, he wanted the rest. And I was looking forward to having him experience the ending, so I managed to do it. My throat is so sore, ha! I usually finish reading to J. by about 12:50 a.m., but this time it was 2:25 a.m. I hope he won't mind the brain-fog during a full day of work.

This was a reread, my second time reading it. The first was five or six years ago. The book is especially fun to reread, and I was excited about doing so, because the author is very skilled... ( Read more... )

Book completed

Also last night I finished Pamela, by Samuel Richardson, his 1740 novel that's considered both one of the first novels in the English language and the first "romance" novel. I'd learned from Lucy Worsley's recent TV show that the book was extremely popular at the time and helped change British conceptions of marriage to a more romantic and less economic institution. She also said that unlike other romance novels that tend to end with the marriage, this one has the marriage in the middle. The male spends the first half of the book trying to seduce (or rather rape) the heroine (a poor girl from a virtuous family that would rather have her dead than "ruined," and who was the servant of the man's late mother, who had trained her in the arts of upper-class life), Then he reads her journal and letters and decides that she really is as virtuous as she claims to be and thus reforms himself and marries her.

So here's my experience. The part of the book where he repeatedly tries to rape her, even kidnapping her so she's on his other estate with a more wicked housekeeper, who actually pins her down at one point so he can have his way with her (fortunately she keeps fainting, and fortunately he wants her conscious and won't rape her if she's not) - that part of the book was tedious to read. It took me weeks to get through it. It just felt to me like the author was manipulating the reader by figuring out how many ways he could contrive to put Pamela's "honesty" (that is, virginity) at risk.

Then, when the man essentially has a religious conversion and now respects and values her inner life, and tells her about it - to my surprise I couldn't put it down, however implausible it may have been. And then I read the last 200+ pages in just three days. And I enjoyed it, even though the bulk of it was Pamela's repeated self-abdegnation and the husband's exposition of the rules he expected her to live by. Why did I like that part so much? Maybe it's because in, say, Jane Austen novels, I've always found it frustrating that at the end she just wraps it all up and tells us the couple lives more or less happily ever after, whereas I'd like to spend that time with them and actually see the transition take place and have them resolve the other issues that are surely still there. (I'm sure that's why Austen fan fiction is so popular - I'm not the only one!)

I see that I'd checked the book out from the library in August (and it's not going back for, I guess, months at this point). I wonder if I'll ever want to read it again, or if once will have been enough.

Day 47: Kitchen experiment

Today D. did a dry run of his Korean video production, also known as making his own lunch. I watched, curious about the flavors of these Korean ramen products. Rather than follow the ramen instructions, which involved a broth, he made both ramens together in a pot of boiling water, then strained them, then added a bit of vegetable oil, two packets of "flakes" (one bean-ish and one seaweed-ish), and two flavor pouches (one with "black beans" that smelled like chocolate, and one with hot spices - he only used half that packet). The end result was a bunch of brown, coated, spaghetti-looking noodles. I'd been hanging out answering questions about procedures and got to be the guinea pig to take the first taste. It was fine! I doubt I'd be happy eating a full serving, since I bet some of the many highly processed seasoning ingredients could be migraine triggers, but I did like the taste. D. did too. I think he's planning to skip the "steak" part of the video, which is just as well, as his cooking experience is so minimal.

Later in the day I joined a Zoom meeting to meet one of our city council candidates. One of my friends from the youth orchestra board has recently moved here from Oakland, where they would have house parties for candidates, and she wanted to replicate that there, but alas we have only Zoom. I helped publicize the event, inviting about 25 people. One of them showed up - a friend and supporter of today's candidate - and we also had another person, and myself, with J. in the background, and our hostess's husband on another Zoom link. Our hostess and our candidate did most of the talking. I think I still prefer the other candidate, although this one is probably a fine person.

It was great to have an evening nap, after last night's late reading. I also sat outside reading a fantasy novel today and eating tortilla chips and my nice green salsa. D's having fun doing voice acting of the Danganronpa 2 game for his friends. J. also napped, and I think we're about to do sword exercises together.