But first, the random Bob thought. I went to bed a few nights ago, started to doze off; sleepily looked at the clock and thought "it's getting really late - Bob must have gotten hung up somewhere." Then of course had to sit up and read and calm down a bit before I could try getting to sleep again.
I've been meaning to write about reading. I've possibly mentioned before that I admire Margo and her Excel sheets where she keeps track of things like books she's read and movies she's watched. I'm just not that organized and instead let things drift in and out of my head.
I've always been a reader, as long as I can remember. *Loved* book fair days at school. Read the backs of cereal boxes and peanut butter jars and cans [side story - when I was little, I used to love it when Mom made fried scrapple - sort of a meat thing that came in a can. Then one day I read the ingredients: it used all the parts of the pig after all the edible parts had been used elsewhere. I'm not sure I ever ate it again]. Bob also was a reader; our house is filled with books. Books make me feel comfortable - I'm happy in bookstores and libraries. These days I have embraced the e-book. You don't have to find bookshelf space and I can carry them on my phone if I get some random time. But I still love the feel (and the smell) of "real" books.
But all that ended for awhile after I lost Bob. It was likely the shock and the trauma. I couldn't focus enough to even read a magazine article, much less a book. If I tried, and I found an interesting passage, I would start to say "sorry to interrupt" and realize that there was no one to interrupt and share it with. I loved watching Bob read, especially if he let his hair down and looked like some scholarly druid.
Not reading felt weird. A reader who didn't read. Like being a hugger who didn't hug. Something that I identified as Being Ann was missing (I also haven't knitted anything in two years but that's another post). But one day, on the Ramin Karimloo fan page, I posted that I was impressed that when he was preparing for his role as Jean ValJean, Ramin had actually read "Les Miserables." My question was "has anyone tried reading this - not easy. Well, a couple of people had, including Ebaida (I think this is when we started becoming friends). Ebaida formed a short-lived reading group in January 2021, but she and I still read together, and I'm back to reading daily. Often twice daily; I try to stop for a coffee break in the afternoon and read something I have to focus on. Before bed reading is something lighter.
And I'm just going to list what I've read between that January 2021 and now, simply because I'm curious. No annotations because I'd be up the rest of the night - just a list, in no particular order. I won't remember some of them - but another advantage of e-books is that I can just check my library on there and get a bunch of them. So, without further ado: What I'm Reading
Currently - appears to be four books. (or six)
1) Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religions, 700-1100 by Max Dashu
2) A Short History of the World According to Sheep (an audio books. I rarely listen to audiobooks because I don't like them as much as I wish I did. But I do use my rowing machine and that's a perfect time to listen)
3) Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan
4) Dracula by Bram Stoker. I'll be starting this tomorrow. The book is written as a series of diaries and letters over the course of about six months, starting May 3. Someone sent me a link to where the book will be emailed to you one day at a time, with that days entries - so it will take six months or so to read it in real time. Sounds interesting.
5) 365 Days of Rumi (which will take to the end of the year to read)
6) Rumi's Sun, the Teachings of Shams i-Tabrizi (it's a slog. I have a feeling that's it's not a very good translation
7) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This was the first one that our little group read, and the blessed book that kick started my reading
8) Why Peacocks?: An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird by Sean Flynn. I started this last year but had to stop when one by one my peacocks were killed. But I finally finished it yesterday. And I do have one ridiculously beautiful bird left. As the author says - a bird that should be purchased with magic beans or secret spells, something unworldly and mystical. But basically a fancy chicken
9) Faerie Knitting by Alice Hoffman and Lisa Hoffman. Fun little book - a collection of short fairy tales, each one about a garment, with a knitting pattern for that garment (thought I said I wasn't going to annotate, but here I am)
10) The Twice Drowned Prince, by Lindsay Morrison
11) The Quiet American, by Graham Green
12) Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett
13) Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
14) Demon Warden, by Selend Kallan
15) Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
16) Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
17) His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik
18) Some H.P Lovecraft short stories
19) Some ghost stories by M. R. James
20) Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
21) My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier
22) The House On the Strand by Daphne DuMaurier
23) some British murder mysteries by R. Austin Freeman
24) The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman (about the problem with toxic positivity)
25) The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan
26) Relic, by Preston and Child
27) Flatland by Edwin Abbott
28) The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett
29) The Flavor of Wood by Artur Cisar-Erlach
30) The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair, and Alpaca by Mary Egbert
31) The Forty Rules of Love by Elaf Shatak (this about Rumi and Shams, which lead to the abovementioned Rumi and Shams books)
32) Your Inner Fish by Neil Shuman
33) Camino Wandering by Tara Marlow
34) A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
35) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (annual reading)
36) Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
37) Circle of Magic by Tamara Pierce
That's all I can come up with this evening, but for what? 15 months, that's not bad. I can still identify as being A Reader
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