We finally went to see 'The Hunger Games.' I'm bummed since I wasn't finished reading the book. Good movie, though.
My reading has been lame lately. Do any of you notice that when you have a book in your left hand and your iPhone in your right, your right hand wins? I play Scramble and Baker's Dozen Solitaire. I check the Weather Channel. I look up facts on Safari. Today, I looked up the side effects for Advair and I found out that Nick had five of them, including slowed growth. Bummer. It sucks not being able to breathe though, so I guess we'll keep him on it if his doctor doesn't have an alternative. I look at YouTube or Facebook. They're both entertaining. My friends on Facebook are very funny in print. Today, I asked what kind of dishwasher I should get and someone said 'one that looks like Brad Pitt.' Good one. I check out my totals on RunKeeper. I'm up to 162 miles walked with Teddy. Over the summer, our weekly average dropped. Teddy just had to go to puppy camp too many times and we went on vacation a lot. When the stars are out, I even use Starmap to see what's up in the sky. I like that.
I'd probably choose the book more often, but I'm reading a very slow book. I have to admit that I don't understand part of it, but I'm working my way through anyway. The old editor in me suspects it would be more widely read if the author worked to make it more clear. That's not a well-known fact about editing a book: when your mind wanders or is fuzzy about details as you read, something needs to be edited. Oh, we all know about split infinitives and matching verbs, but reading something in perfect grammar that bores or loses us still needs some work. My favorite example of this is 'Moby Dick.' Herman Melville needed a good editor. I haven't yet read 'War and Peace' or anything by Umberto Eco. Haven't these people ever heard of 'The Elements of Style' by Strunk and White? Okay, that was a joke.
Plus, my book on tape is pissing me off. Here's the thing. I totally don't agree with the politics of this book and have decided that, though I'm listening through to the end, I'm not even going to grace this post with its title. Hey author dude, do you feel slighted?
See, this book is a novel, but it's fear-mongering novel. The author is acting like he's reporting on what could happen while portraying himself has the big damn hero because he knows so much. Can you tell that I really want to talk enough about the details, to argue points, to complain about the book's hype and bad writing? I really, really want to, but I'm not going to because with any book, movie, product of any kind, even negative attention is still attention. I don't want to spark a debate, or worse, additional interest in this book.
I can do that.
I'm not a reporter. Suffice it to say that I find it hard to listen to the opposition when they're spouting off this kind of crap, though Mike keeps telling me it's important to know what they're saying. It's worse when part of the crap sounds logical and the rest is supposition made out to look like fact.
Oh crap, I really want to tell you about this awful book that I'm finishing.
....BLEEP....
I've deleted the details. You can return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Thank you for listening, jb
My reading has been lame lately. Do any of you notice that when you have a book in your left hand and your iPhone in your right, your right hand wins? I play Scramble and Baker's Dozen Solitaire. I check the Weather Channel. I look up facts on Safari. Today, I looked up the side effects for Advair and I found out that Nick had five of them, including slowed growth. Bummer. It sucks not being able to breathe though, so I guess we'll keep him on it if his doctor doesn't have an alternative. I look at YouTube or Facebook. They're both entertaining. My friends on Facebook are very funny in print. Today, I asked what kind of dishwasher I should get and someone said 'one that looks like Brad Pitt.' Good one. I check out my totals on RunKeeper. I'm up to 162 miles walked with Teddy. Over the summer, our weekly average dropped. Teddy just had to go to puppy camp too many times and we went on vacation a lot. When the stars are out, I even use Starmap to see what's up in the sky. I like that.
I'd probably choose the book more often, but I'm reading a very slow book. I have to admit that I don't understand part of it, but I'm working my way through anyway. The old editor in me suspects it would be more widely read if the author worked to make it more clear. That's not a well-known fact about editing a book: when your mind wanders or is fuzzy about details as you read, something needs to be edited. Oh, we all know about split infinitives and matching verbs, but reading something in perfect grammar that bores or loses us still needs some work. My favorite example of this is 'Moby Dick.' Herman Melville needed a good editor. I haven't yet read 'War and Peace' or anything by Umberto Eco. Haven't these people ever heard of 'The Elements of Style' by Strunk and White? Okay, that was a joke.
Plus, my book on tape is pissing me off. Here's the thing. I totally don't agree with the politics of this book and have decided that, though I'm listening through to the end, I'm not even going to grace this post with its title. Hey author dude, do you feel slighted?
See, this book is a novel, but it's fear-mongering novel. The author is acting like he's reporting on what could happen while portraying himself has the big damn hero because he knows so much. Can you tell that I really want to talk enough about the details, to argue points, to complain about the book's hype and bad writing? I really, really want to, but I'm not going to because with any book, movie, product of any kind, even negative attention is still attention. I don't want to spark a debate, or worse, additional interest in this book.
I can do that.
I'm not a reporter. Suffice it to say that I find it hard to listen to the opposition when they're spouting off this kind of crap, though Mike keeps telling me it's important to know what they're saying. It's worse when part of the crap sounds logical and the rest is supposition made out to look like fact.
Oh crap, I really want to tell you about this awful book that I'm finishing.
....BLEEP....
I've deleted the details. You can return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Thank you for listening, jb
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