We changed our clocks over the weekend and this daylight savings malarky has me all discombobulated! I didn’t sleep all that well last night thanks to the cats not sleeping all that well — they walk on me, lay on me, lick exposed parts like arm, hand, face in the hope that this will somehow induce me be want to pet and cuddle with them in the wee hours and it has not worked yet but they keep trying anyway — and just as I dozed off this morning I jolted awake with the horror that it was getting light outside and my alarm had not gone off and I was going to be late for work. Now this evening while I am eating dinner and it is suddenly full dark I have a panic that it is much later than I thought and how long having I been eating? I was reading while I ate and you know, sometimes time can get away from one, but when I looked at the clock it wasn’t late at all.
I will get used to it all within a few days, but really, this whole thing is unnecessary. I don’t know anyone who says yay daylight savings! My favorite time of year! Except kids who get excited over the illusion of having an extra hour to sleep.
And here it is November already. Does anyone else feel like the year is barreling to a close? Stores have Christmas decorations up already and I am sure in a day or two I will start hearing Christmas songs mixed in with the regular pop music while walking through Macy’s to and from work. It’s sickening really.
There is nothing sickening on the book front though, far from it. There are so many good books to read and so many that I am waiting my turn for ever so patiently at the library. One of those I am waiting for is Ancillary Mercy, the conclusion to Ann Leckie’s Imperial Raadch trilogy. I am number sixteen on the holds list at the moment. It seems like a long wait, but it might not be, you never know. So if I suddenly disappear, it is because the book arrived and I am reading it and can’t be bothered with the rest of the world.
In the meantime I have plenty of other books to occupy myself. The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky is so far a wonderful tribute to his grandfather who seemed to know everyone and everything and managed to create one heck of a private library. There is also The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf. If you guessed it is about Humboldt you get a gold star! He was quite an interesting man and brilliant in so many ways, kind of manic too. A manic genius. Good book so far.
I am still reading Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi. I am in the final third of the book and enjoying it. I suspect I will be done in the next week or two. Also nearing the end of Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. It started off slow but it is turning out to be a good book. Not one of those lush with images and description sorts of books, nor is it a plot-driven page turner. Not exactly a character-driven book either. It’s kind of an odd duck in many ways, but it works and I keep reading and am getting a bit nervous as to how it all might come out in the end.
I am about to start reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Danielle and I are reading it together. We’ve both been meaning to read it for ages so we decided to stop saying we mean to read it and actually read it. And tomorrow into my paws will come from the library Lumberjanes volume 2 and a book called Poetry is Useless by Anders Nilsen. Both are graphic novels. I know exactly what to expect from Lumberjanes, no idea what to expect from Poetry is Useless. Guess I will find out soon!
I have a long four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend to look forward to in a couple weeks. Will it be cold by then? Will I be able to spend the holiday curled up under a quilt reading and eating pumpkin pie? I will find out all too soon!
Well… I’m a ‘yay! daylight savings!’ person – I do like having those extra hours of daylight in the evening to do things after dinner – a walk, a swim, BBQs last a little longer.
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Kate, I hope you are enjoying the change then! For me it means that very soon I will not seen the sun for a few months as it will be dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home.
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I have the same feeling as you do about ‘gaining’ one hour. Seems like every time I’d lose sleep, it’s because the idea of ‘gaining’ makes me want to spend it right away. So I end up getting to bed really late. Back to books. I hope you’ll like Gilead. It’s quite a different kind of read than what we get nowadays.
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Arti, yes! I was up early according to the clock and went to bed late according to my body! I am looking forward to Gilead, I have heard so many wonderful things about it.
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We have no daylight savings and only wet and dry seasons in Ths Philippines. I have read The House of Twenty Thousand Books. If is also a good history of Leftist Jewish plotical thought.
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yodcha, lucky you to not have to deal with daylight savings! Yes, I am beginning to see what you mean about history of Leftist Jewish political thought! Not was I was expecting but still really interesting!
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Maybe we could start a petition to get rid of daylight savings time. Now, instead of waking up every morning at 5:30 for no reason, I wake up at 4:30. I don’t want that extra hour to be awake, I want to be asleep!
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I don’t think anything can stop November being a pretty depressing month! The book juggling remains a very impressive readerly feat! Recent reads of my own have included an interesting book of essays on Scottish culture and literature first published in 1970 which gave me some very interesting insights and I am currently reading Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves which is rather intriguing.
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Ian, heh, I think you are right. November is my least favorite month in spite of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie! Ooh those essays sound like they were pretty interesting. I have heard mixed things about Fowler’s book. Let me know what you ultimately think of it!
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Joan, yes! We could put up one of those petitions at the We the People website! If clocks and time didn’t rule our lives like they do it wouldn’t be such a big deal. 🙂
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The worst thing about the winter for me, whether there is daylight saving or not is the fact that it is dark both when I go out and when I come back. But, short of having a few words with the sun and getting him to alter his position vis-a-vie the UK there really isn’t anything I can do about this. Moving to the equator really isn’t an option.
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Alex, oh yes! I have that same grumble. I rarely get to see the sun except on weekends. That’s why January/February are such hard months, the days are obviously longer and we get lots of sun during the day usually but they are also our coldest months so I rarely want to be outdoors enjoying the sun!
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I have been wanting to read the Abramsky book ever since I read about it …where? NY Times Review of Books? I don’t recall. But I have such a stack of my own to read I think I’ll wait to put a hold on it at the library. It will be my turn and I won’t be ready. So now I’ll wait to hear what you have to say about it. I need to finish All The Kings Men and a couple of Agatha Raisin mysteries I started. Such fun those are! Everyone I know in Savannah is grumbling about the weather. We get so few seasonal changes as it is we don’t like it when we are begrudged Autumn. What the heck?
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Grad, we probably read about the book in the same place and I can’t remember where that might be either! Sounds like everyone is having unseasonably warm weather. It will cool off eventually and then we will all be complaining about the cold 😉
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P.S. When I’m in charge I will abolish daylight savings time.
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I will support you! It stinks!
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Sounds like there might actually be a chance to abolish it!
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Ahahaha, I admit that I get excited as soon as Christmas decorations appear in stores. I just love Christmas so much! It’s so festive! I buy so many presents for my loved ones! CHRISTMASSSSSS.
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Jenny, you and one of my coworkers would get along swimmingly. After we took down the library’s Halloween decorations on Monday she was wondering when we could begin decorating for Christmas! 🙂
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You are so wrong, Ms Stefanie. I adore daylight savings. I’m always sad when it comes to an end. I’m happy to swap dark mornings for light evenings. Also in the weeks before daylight savings starts I hate the fact that the birds are waking me at 5am or so. I’m a morning person, but not THAT much.
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whisperinggums, you just have to be contrary don’t you? 😉 In summer I am so far north that the sun starts coming up a little after 5 so the birds generally start singing around 4:30. I am a morning person too and while some days before work I am not pleased to wake up quite that early, most of the time I don’t mind. I much prefer the twittering birds as an alarm clock! And since in summer sunset is after 9, I wouldn’t mind a shorter evening so I could feel like I could go to bed at night instead of while the sun is still up 🙂
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My Mum always said I was contrary! Clearly I am.
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Ha! It’s easy to say your Mum was wrong but when the evidence begins to mount… 😉
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You’re supposed to say, “Oh, never, WG, not you!” Where’s your blogger loyalty, I ask
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I’m sure that’s what I meant to say someone must have hacked into my account and typed that other response! 😉
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Haha, because I ‘m a generous person, I believe you!
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Forgot to say, Gilead … A book I started and then lost for months before finishing it. It was too late then, but I plan to read it as I was loving it.
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Glad to hear you were loving it. Feel free to pick it up again and join in with me and Danielle if you feel inclined 🙂
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I would if I could …
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I know how that goes! 🙂
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There are always people in the UK complaining about the change in the clocks, but it’s always people in the south of England who have so much more daylight in winter compared with folks in Scotland and the north. If they don’t change the clocks here it’s still dark after 10 am and pitch black when kids are going home from school, no fun at all. I look forward to the winter solstice when it begins to get light again.
The shops here are all decorated for Christmas!
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piningforthewest, We are in a similar situation here. It is dark in the morning when kids catch the bus for school and the sun sets around 4:30. It’s dark when I go to work and dark when I go home. Very depressing. I very much look forward to winter solstice too even though I know I won’t be able to actually notice more daylight for about another month after that, just knowing the days are getting longer is a morale boost! Your shops are already decorated? I like holiday decorations but when they start so early I get sick of them before the holidays even get here 🙂
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I am SO ready for a long weekend and it cannot come fast enough–of course I am not trying to rush through the month (too much to do and I hate that feeling of being overwhelmed) but it will rush along anyway. I think I need to read one of the recommendations you gave me for my library’s pop fic collection–I have noticed that the sci fi titles are almost always circulating and when talking to a student in my yoga class he said the last book he read was one by Patrick Rothfuss! I am getting into Gilead and think it will be a good read–slow but in a good way–thoughtful. I like the narrator’s voice. Thanks for the little nudge to pick it up, Finally! (How many more books do I own like that….).
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Danielle, I am in the same boat, I want the long weekend to hurry up and get here but I don’t want the month to rush by! I am glad to hear the SF titles are so popular! Ah, Rothfuss is good! Which reminds me, I need to read the second book in his series sometime. Perhaps I will be able to fit it in before the end of the year, or given he writes doorstoppers, at least start it. I’ve not started Gilead yet, am saving it for Friday night or the weekend when I can devote a length of time to getting into it. I am glad it has begun well for you!
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I loathe daylight savings with a vengeance, and have been doing that exact same thing of noticing with a start how dark it is and thinking, my god, it’s the middle of the night! And it’s like, quarter to five. I am so glad you have some wonderful books to accompany you into the dreary season. It’s the best comfort available!
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litlove, glad I have someone to commiserate with! Most definitely correct, books are the best comfort available! 🙂
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I don’t really mind November; bare trees and heaps of yellow leaves are still a novelty and the dark evenings an excuse to be lazy and read indoors on the days I’m not teaching. It’s January that’s the real killer fr me – all the fun bits of winter are now over and the cold, dark days have ceased to be a novelty and are just depressing – especially in Belgium, which specialises in grey weather. 😦
As a precaution, I had better start stocking up on Cheering Reads right now…
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