The twenty below temperature on Saturday killed our car battery which kept my Bookman from dropping me at the train station which kept me from getting downtown for my volunteer shift at the library. I could have taken the bus to the train station but I was going to have to wait 20 minutes in the frigid outdoors for a train and my husband said, absolutely not, and I didn’t contradict him. Since we only have one car, we had it towed to the mechanic who had a gazillion other cars waiting their turn. We are not so unmechanical we can’t install a new battery ourselves, but we wanted to make certain it was just the battery and we couldn’t do that ourselves. All that to say I was forced to stay in Saturday read. Terrible, huh?
I spent most of the day reading Murakami’s Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World. By last night I had two short chapters left but didn’t want to rush through them so somehow managed to close the book and save them for this morning. Wow! What trip! I will do a proper post about it tomorrow after I’ve had time to let it sink in a bit.
At lunch today I began reading Somerset Maugham’s Razor’s Edge. It felt like a good next book to start because at the very end of the Murakami, the main character mentions Razor’s Edge. I’m not sure what to think of the book yet, I didn’t manage to get far because the coworkers who was in the lunchroom while I was doesn’t understand that you are not supposed to talk to someone who is trying to read. But what is interesting about the two pages I have read is that chapter one is more like an introduction than a chapter. Maugham chose to make it part of the text of the story though, so I am curious to get farther on to see what he’s up to.
I have to go work on school assignments this evening so I will leave to to cringe and/or laugh at Read It! (4:41)
It’s no wonder the non-bookish think we are so weird.
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Ow. My ears hurt.
That’s funny, but I couldn’t even finish it – the singing-speaking is soooo horrendous.
Looking forward to the Murakami review!
I really must read Murakami. Must. I have read that Somerset Maugham novel, however, and I liked it very much. I love the elegance of his style, and its laid-back-ness. As for the video I did’t listen to the singing much as I was too busy trying to read the titles of the books on the shelves….
They dance and sing like a bunch of bookworms.
“…you are not supposed to talk to someone who is trying to read.” I thought it was the other way around, “If you are trying to read you aren’t supposed to talk to anyone.”
I’m sure if your coworker was talking to you and you totally ignored them, they would go away. Perhaps there might be undesirable long-term effects though…
and once again tea has been spit out onto my screen due to excessive laughter.
Ouch! That’s pretty terrible
I’ve got The Razor’s Edge; I’ll be curious to see what you think of it.
Hee hee the dancing at the end was the best part. Ugh, they really can’t sing but it was funny.
(My car battery died last week in the cold & we’re a one-car family too, it was miserable for a day)
I’m curious what you would make of “The Razor’s Edge”. I read it last year, was trying to write something about it, but found I couldn’t.
It was interesting in some places, but rather dry in a few parts of the book — Larry’s character felt somewhat flat to me. His “saintliness” felt two-dimensional. I guess I had some pretty rigid ideas about the spiritual quest and the book didn’t quite give me what I expected.
But I find his portrayal of Isabel vivid in her selfishness. Sophie, too with her self-destructive ways, felt real.
Personally I thought “The Moon and Sixpence” was more powerful. And again, like “Razor’s Edge”, a Maugham-like first-person narrator pieces together the story of a man driven by an inner desire not understood by those around him.
Glad you all enjoyed the video
Bikkuri, I tried to indicate to my coworker by my short gruff responses that I had no interest in talking to her but she couldn’t take a hint.
Dark Orpheus, now you’ve really made me want to dig into the Maugham to discover if my experience differs from yours!
Since we are renovating there is no break room now. At first I was peeved–no microwave and no more hot lunches. But now I take my sandwich out to a quiet area in the library and get lots of reading done! Sorry to hear about the car battery. And you’re right it is no fun waiting for buses in really cold weather! brrrr.
That video was hilarious! I wonder if they are Borders employees? Now they need to do a follow up at B&N
Glad you didn’t wait in the cold after all and hopefully the battery is all good now.
The weirdest things about that video are the Elmo sweatshirt and …. there is a Borders that actually sells books????
Oh the singing was bad.