Simon, my beloved MINI, turns two today! Yay! As soon as the sun comes up and it gets a little warmer outside, I'm going to give him a long, hot bath and shine him up like a new penny.
Hard to believe that I bought Simon two whole years ago. Seems like he's been a part of my family for much longer. I remember the day I brought him home. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, so my mom had to drive him off the lot. Pretty funny. She gave me driving lessons in the Target parking lot near my house. Took about a month before I stopped getting adrenaline dumps into my system because of the rush of fear I got everytime I got behind the wheel. I was totally terrified for a whole month. After that, I felt confident enough that I took out the "Keep Back" and "New Stick Driver" warning signs from Simon's back window. And now, he and I zip around corners like madmen. I get a little smile when I walk toward Simon in the parking lot. And I sometimes pat the steering wheel and whisper, "I love you" to him when we're alone together. I don't care if that's crazy. Simon is the most fun I've ever had with a car. If you haven't been behind the wheel of a MINI, I highly recommend the experience. Although if you can't drive a stick, I suggest you get behind the wheel of an automatic MINI. That would make it more fun for you. Now if I can just figure out a present for Simon, everything will be perfect.
On a book note, I finished Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone." It was good,but I still like "The Woman in White" much better. The ladies in the book group enjoyed "The Moonstone." A lot of them had never read it before. It's a perfectly structured book, and it took Collins a long time to plot it out. Each part of the story is told in first person narrative from a character's viewpoint. So you get different voices from the different characters and different perspectives. Some people get the wrong idea, and the reader is taken down that false path with that character. It's really quite clever. But as I said earlier, "The Woman in White" had such a strong female character in Marian Halcombe, that I really enjoyed that book much more than "The Moonstone." But they are both great books.
After I finished Collins's two novels, I went to a bookstore and stumbled upon a new author. Elizabeth Bear. She writes fantasy and science fiction. I read "Carnival" first which is about another galaxy and there's a planet run by women. Yay. But the evil galactic empire is coming to quash them or simply envelop them in its net of planets. It sounds hokey, but it was really good. Because two male emissaries come from the evil empire, but the men have plans to undermine the evil empire.
What I love about science fiction is the fact that good authors incorporate actual cutting edge science that exists today, and they give it a little nudge with their imagination to push the technology into a realm of possibility that just doesn't exist today, but which we can imagine will exist someday. It totally fascinates me to read older sci fi novels where they've actually been pretty close to how some technologies have evolved. In "Carnival," the people of the evil empire have "wardrobes" created by nanotechnology implanted under their skin. This means they have holographic projections of different outfits. Their wardrobe also can act as a shield. One particular scene had bullets stuck in one character's wardrobe shield, and the bullets were stuck in the shield and hovering like angry bees. How cool is that? That's what I like about sci fi. And good sci fi, like "Carnival" doesnt' explain the technology. The reader just has to figure it out. Use the ol' noggin'.
I liked "Carnival" so much that I picked up more of Elizabeth Bear's novels. These are fantasy novels set in modern day, but where Faerie actually exists. The Fae, from Celtic myth. Fascinating. Anyway, this series of books is really good. Already read "Blood and Iron" which is about the start of a potential war between Faerie and the human world. I don't know why, but fantasy novels are my favorite genre. Must be all the medieval castles and velvet dresses and kings and queens. So much potential for intrigue, too. I'm reading the sequel, "Whiskey and Water" right now. I love getting sucked into whole trilogies at one time. So much more fun than getting hooked on a trilogy but having to wait for months and even years before the next book comes out. Yes, George R. R. Martin, I'm talking about you. Just finish the fifth book already!!!!
You may have noticed that one book has stayed in my "What I'm Reading" column for quite some time. That would be "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" by Thomas Cahill. I've loved his other history books, but this one is quite jarring. He keeps using the "f" word over and over. And then he'll use very crude words for particular sex acts. I'm a prude. I don't think a history book should use such language. It's so unusual that it pulls me out of my reading hypnosis. I just pop out of the book and shake my head. And there's no reason for it. I dunno. I think they should save such cussing for a Martin Scorsese movie. Call me whatever you like. And anyway, the book is not as coherent as his other books. It just feels like he cobbled together some tidbits, but there are no overarching themes or reasons why he's going down a certain path. Too bad, too, because the Greeks really did give us the foundation for Western Civilization. I'll keep trying to finish it, but I'll be relieved when I finally get to put it back on the bookshelf.
Guess that's all for now. Still too cold out outside to wash Simon, but my kitties think they're dying because they haven't had second breakfast yet. I call them my little hobbits. They must have first breakfast, then shortly thereafter they have to have second breakfast. I don't know how I fell into that trap, but they have completely embraced their roles as hobbits, so I'm stuck with it.
Hard to believe that I bought Simon two whole years ago. Seems like he's been a part of my family for much longer. I remember the day I brought him home. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, so my mom had to drive him off the lot. Pretty funny. She gave me driving lessons in the Target parking lot near my house. Took about a month before I stopped getting adrenaline dumps into my system because of the rush of fear I got everytime I got behind the wheel. I was totally terrified for a whole month. After that, I felt confident enough that I took out the "Keep Back" and "New Stick Driver" warning signs from Simon's back window. And now, he and I zip around corners like madmen. I get a little smile when I walk toward Simon in the parking lot. And I sometimes pat the steering wheel and whisper, "I love you" to him when we're alone together. I don't care if that's crazy. Simon is the most fun I've ever had with a car. If you haven't been behind the wheel of a MINI, I highly recommend the experience. Although if you can't drive a stick, I suggest you get behind the wheel of an automatic MINI. That would make it more fun for you. Now if I can just figure out a present for Simon, everything will be perfect.
On a book note, I finished Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone." It was good,but I still like "The Woman in White" much better. The ladies in the book group enjoyed "The Moonstone." A lot of them had never read it before. It's a perfectly structured book, and it took Collins a long time to plot it out. Each part of the story is told in first person narrative from a character's viewpoint. So you get different voices from the different characters and different perspectives. Some people get the wrong idea, and the reader is taken down that false path with that character. It's really quite clever. But as I said earlier, "The Woman in White" had such a strong female character in Marian Halcombe, that I really enjoyed that book much more than "The Moonstone." But they are both great books.
After I finished Collins's two novels, I went to a bookstore and stumbled upon a new author. Elizabeth Bear. She writes fantasy and science fiction. I read "Carnival" first which is about another galaxy and there's a planet run by women. Yay. But the evil galactic empire is coming to quash them or simply envelop them in its net of planets. It sounds hokey, but it was really good. Because two male emissaries come from the evil empire, but the men have plans to undermine the evil empire.
What I love about science fiction is the fact that good authors incorporate actual cutting edge science that exists today, and they give it a little nudge with their imagination to push the technology into a realm of possibility that just doesn't exist today, but which we can imagine will exist someday. It totally fascinates me to read older sci fi novels where they've actually been pretty close to how some technologies have evolved. In "Carnival," the people of the evil empire have "wardrobes" created by nanotechnology implanted under their skin. This means they have holographic projections of different outfits. Their wardrobe also can act as a shield. One particular scene had bullets stuck in one character's wardrobe shield, and the bullets were stuck in the shield and hovering like angry bees. How cool is that? That's what I like about sci fi. And good sci fi, like "Carnival" doesnt' explain the technology. The reader just has to figure it out. Use the ol' noggin'.
I liked "Carnival" so much that I picked up more of Elizabeth Bear's novels. These are fantasy novels set in modern day, but where Faerie actually exists. The Fae, from Celtic myth. Fascinating. Anyway, this series of books is really good. Already read "Blood and Iron" which is about the start of a potential war between Faerie and the human world. I don't know why, but fantasy novels are my favorite genre. Must be all the medieval castles and velvet dresses and kings and queens. So much potential for intrigue, too. I'm reading the sequel, "Whiskey and Water" right now. I love getting sucked into whole trilogies at one time. So much more fun than getting hooked on a trilogy but having to wait for months and even years before the next book comes out. Yes, George R. R. Martin, I'm talking about you. Just finish the fifth book already!!!!
You may have noticed that one book has stayed in my "What I'm Reading" column for quite some time. That would be "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" by Thomas Cahill. I've loved his other history books, but this one is quite jarring. He keeps using the "f" word over and over. And then he'll use very crude words for particular sex acts. I'm a prude. I don't think a history book should use such language. It's so unusual that it pulls me out of my reading hypnosis. I just pop out of the book and shake my head. And there's no reason for it. I dunno. I think they should save such cussing for a Martin Scorsese movie. Call me whatever you like. And anyway, the book is not as coherent as his other books. It just feels like he cobbled together some tidbits, but there are no overarching themes or reasons why he's going down a certain path. Too bad, too, because the Greeks really did give us the foundation for Western Civilization. I'll keep trying to finish it, but I'll be relieved when I finally get to put it back on the bookshelf.
Guess that's all for now. Still too cold out outside to wash Simon, but my kitties think they're dying because they haven't had second breakfast yet. I call them my little hobbits. They must have first breakfast, then shortly thereafter they have to have second breakfast. I don't know how I fell into that trap, but they have completely embraced their roles as hobbits, so I'm stuck with it.
