reading books in the trenches
A couple of book notes.
When I did a warranty swap on my iPad a week ago, I carefully backed it up, but I wasn't aware that books were NOT backed up, so I may have lost all of my book and PDF files that I didn't buy in the iTunes store. This is not a problem in terms of money, because they were all either freebies or files from places like Project Gutenberg; the issue is that I lost all my bookmarks and notes. My copy of Belinda in particular I had heavily marked up. The Husband is still going to try to fix it but I'm not sure when he's going to have time to do so, much less if he will be able to succeed. :(
In the meantime it's hard on me because I usually read books on my iPad before going to sleep. I've been winding down with solitaire but it's not the same. Also I have been instructed not to hook up my iPad to my computer, so I can't get any music, so I'm limited to, again, the music that I've directly purchased from iTunes, which is less then 20 songs.
Anyway if any of you have non-iTunes books on your iOS device, learn from my example and back them up manually before doing a restore.
But there is still the library etc for books, so here are some thoughts.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. dimethirwen recommended this to me, and I was leery, not because of her rec, but because it's a book about Nazi Germany, and as I mentioned in an earlier book post, I am not into intense and upsetting right now, and "intense and upsetting" is... kind of what you have to expect with Nazis. But actually, considering the setting and the events, it's actually a pretty uplifting book. Part of this is that the narrator, Death, lends a certain detachment that is helpful without actually distancing you from the events, and while the book doesn't go into where Death takes the souls that he takes, there is some vague sense that they are being taken somewhere that is at least better than a gas chamber or a burning bomb shelter. It's about as upsetting/uplifting as Life Is Beautiful.
The biggest weakness I found in the book was actually the title conceit; I felt like the book tried too hard to show that the title character was "the book thief" as a defining element of her character but it didn't really gel. She steals other things as well as fruit, and she reads books she doesn't steal, so "stolen books" didn't at all seem to be her raison d'être. I think her role in story creation (both hers and Max's) was more important to who she was as a character and to the plot. But that's a minor quibble.
Overall I really liked it and would recommend it.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Ok, James is literally 92 years old and not only alive but still writing books, so you have to respect that, but this book is just... not that great. I've read MUCH better Jane Austen fanfiction for free online. The book suffers from a shocking lack of period research, often on matters that merely watching period drama on TV would tell you about. For example, she gives a supposedly stylish young man long hair tied in the back--a hairstyle that had been out of fashion for over a decade. There's also the confusing business about the year--she claims the book is set in 1803 yet also claims it's set six years after Pride and Prejudice which is generally assumed to be set contemporary to its publication date of 1813.
The biggest crimes go beyond that: the murder mystery isn't interesting, and is solved by a deus ex machina; Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom I've always liked, morphs into a uptight, snobby jerk; and worst of all, Lizzie and Darcy have no sparkle at all. Why write about the Darcys if you're not going to give us more of the dazzling wit and passion that draws people to them in the first place?
If you don't mind being spoiled for all the major plot points of the book, this Guardian review is deliciously brutal and spot on.
Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen. This is a super simple and super charming bedtime book, which consists solely of baby animals who ask the child-being-read-to to tuck them in. The child does this by turning the "blanket" flap to tuck them in, like so:
Pippa is juuuuuust getting old enough to appreciate this kind of thing. When I first read it to her, she was only interested in it in the same way as any other lift the flap book. But after we had had it out from the library for a week or so, and read it several times, she actually began to get into it. It was sooooo cute the first time she tenderly brought the "blanket" across and said "Night night!"
---
It's been a stressful week here for sure. Pippa has a really bad cold, so bad she actually vomited twice yesterday, and since her nose is so clogged up it's really affecting her sleep, and thus MY sleep. For some reason I got really bad edema in my legs on Thursday and Friday and had to have my feet up. I'm treading water with laundry, whereas when it comes to the dishes, I'm pretty much drowned, and don't even talk to me about sweeping and tidying.
I'm also struggling with my emotions, just reacting really pissed off to everything all the time. I'm worried that Pippa is taking the brunt of it. I apologize when I snap at her (for doing something like spilling her water or whatever) but I shouldn't be snapping. I'm just super irritable.
I need more sleep primarily but I don't know when I"m going to get it. I need to arrange for one of my cousins-in-law to come over and be mother's helper for a while, take Pippa to the playground even just for an hour so that I can clean up or nap.
Why is it that keeping up a basically clean house doesn't get that much dirtier from day to day and you can keep up with it, but if you let it get dirty, the dirt becomes like an avalanche and within a few days you're looking at seemingly hours of work? This is one reason I hate housekeeping. It doesn't add up. Why does night time tidy take only ten minutes when you do it every night, but let it go for four nights because of illness etc, and suddenly it takes you ninety minutes to get it back to normal?
When I did a warranty swap on my iPad a week ago, I carefully backed it up, but I wasn't aware that books were NOT backed up, so I may have lost all of my book and PDF files that I didn't buy in the iTunes store. This is not a problem in terms of money, because they were all either freebies or files from places like Project Gutenberg; the issue is that I lost all my bookmarks and notes. My copy of Belinda in particular I had heavily marked up. The Husband is still going to try to fix it but I'm not sure when he's going to have time to do so, much less if he will be able to succeed. :(
In the meantime it's hard on me because I usually read books on my iPad before going to sleep. I've been winding down with solitaire but it's not the same. Also I have been instructed not to hook up my iPad to my computer, so I can't get any music, so I'm limited to, again, the music that I've directly purchased from iTunes, which is less then 20 songs.
Anyway if any of you have non-iTunes books on your iOS device, learn from my example and back them up manually before doing a restore.
But there is still the library etc for books, so here are some thoughts.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. dimethirwen recommended this to me, and I was leery, not because of her rec, but because it's a book about Nazi Germany, and as I mentioned in an earlier book post, I am not into intense and upsetting right now, and "intense and upsetting" is... kind of what you have to expect with Nazis. But actually, considering the setting and the events, it's actually a pretty uplifting book. Part of this is that the narrator, Death, lends a certain detachment that is helpful without actually distancing you from the events, and while the book doesn't go into where Death takes the souls that he takes, there is some vague sense that they are being taken somewhere that is at least better than a gas chamber or a burning bomb shelter. It's about as upsetting/uplifting as Life Is Beautiful.
The biggest weakness I found in the book was actually the title conceit; I felt like the book tried too hard to show that the title character was "the book thief" as a defining element of her character but it didn't really gel. She steals other things as well as fruit, and she reads books she doesn't steal, so "stolen books" didn't at all seem to be her raison d'être. I think her role in story creation (both hers and Max's) was more important to who she was as a character and to the plot. But that's a minor quibble.
Overall I really liked it and would recommend it.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Ok, James is literally 92 years old and not only alive but still writing books, so you have to respect that, but this book is just... not that great. I've read MUCH better Jane Austen fanfiction for free online. The book suffers from a shocking lack of period research, often on matters that merely watching period drama on TV would tell you about. For example, she gives a supposedly stylish young man long hair tied in the back--a hairstyle that had been out of fashion for over a decade. There's also the confusing business about the year--she claims the book is set in 1803 yet also claims it's set six years after Pride and Prejudice which is generally assumed to be set contemporary to its publication date of 1813.
The biggest crimes go beyond that: the murder mystery isn't interesting, and is solved by a deus ex machina; Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom I've always liked, morphs into a uptight, snobby jerk; and worst of all, Lizzie and Darcy have no sparkle at all. Why write about the Darcys if you're not going to give us more of the dazzling wit and passion that draws people to them in the first place?
If you don't mind being spoiled for all the major plot points of the book, this Guardian review is deliciously brutal and spot on.
Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen. This is a super simple and super charming bedtime book, which consists solely of baby animals who ask the child-being-read-to to tuck them in. The child does this by turning the "blanket" flap to tuck them in, like so:
Pippa is juuuuuust getting old enough to appreciate this kind of thing. When I first read it to her, she was only interested in it in the same way as any other lift the flap book. But after we had had it out from the library for a week or so, and read it several times, she actually began to get into it. It was sooooo cute the first time she tenderly brought the "blanket" across and said "Night night!"
---
It's been a stressful week here for sure. Pippa has a really bad cold, so bad she actually vomited twice yesterday, and since her nose is so clogged up it's really affecting her sleep, and thus MY sleep. For some reason I got really bad edema in my legs on Thursday and Friday and had to have my feet up. I'm treading water with laundry, whereas when it comes to the dishes, I'm pretty much drowned, and don't even talk to me about sweeping and tidying.
I'm also struggling with my emotions, just reacting really pissed off to everything all the time. I'm worried that Pippa is taking the brunt of it. I apologize when I snap at her (for doing something like spilling her water or whatever) but I shouldn't be snapping. I'm just super irritable.
I need more sleep primarily but I don't know when I"m going to get it. I need to arrange for one of my cousins-in-law to come over and be mother's helper for a while, take Pippa to the playground even just for an hour so that I can clean up or nap.
Why is it that keeping up a basically clean house doesn't get that much dirtier from day to day and you can keep up with it, but if you let it get dirty, the dirt becomes like an avalanche and within a few days you're looking at seemingly hours of work? This is one reason I hate housekeeping. It doesn't add up. Why does night time tidy take only ten minutes when you do it every night, but let it go for four nights because of illness etc, and suddenly it takes you ninety minutes to get it back to normal?