A quarterly look back: Q1 2016
April 5, 2016
In February, inspired by Cloud, I decided it was high time to get back to the business of being me. Life isn’t all about work, money, and family. Life is meant to be lived, and we are meant to grow.
What I read
Winter Men by Jesper Bugge Kold (Courtesy of the Amazon Prime First program where you get to buy one free book per month from their selection.)
The writing was compelling, and maybe that was the problem. The subject matter was too haunting so I had to stop halfway through. It’s rare for me not to finish a book but I just couldn’t do it.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Volumes 1-10, by Alexander McCall Smith
These were fun. I loved the look into Botswana culture, but there was a bit of character development that felt inconsistent and kept niggling at me.
She-Hulk.
I thought I liked Dan Slott’s writing but that must have been a mistake because this was hands down the worst run I’ve read, possibly ever. The flimsy stories were propped up story bits held together with misogyny glue. It felt like they were trying to ape Deadpool’s style but instead come off as a huge ass about women and particularly the titular character. Huge sigh of relief when I escaped to the Peter David run which wasn’t excellent but at least it didn’t reek.
Age of Ultron
I’m only about 2-6 years behind on reading Marvel stuff, so we managed to see the movie before reading the comics. That’s distinctly weird. But I liked it. Sort of. I don’t know what Marvel’s doing to my people, man.
Harry Potter: The Chamber Of Secrets and The Sorcerer’s Stone
Probably I should just give up and buy the series. I keep borrowing one per month from the Kindle Lending Library and end up frustrated 2.3 hours of reading later that the next book is a month away.
Miss MappĀ
No recollection of why this was in my Kindle to begin with. It was free? Someone recommended it? The writing itself was fine. Hated the story. Hated the characters, hated the small town gossip-as-a-weapon-and-lifestyle thing. Just hated the whole thing. Has that ever happened before? That the writing style and quality was fine but the book and all its characters roused so much antipathy? I don’t know why I bothered to finish except maybe to find one redeeming thing about the story. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen.
Little Women
This was a nostalgic re-read but it was just ok. The one thing that stood out was that I still loved Jo,Ā this time not because she was a tomboy, but because she knew that Laurie was not the right fit, was honest with him, he had a “but I’m a Nice Guy!” tantrum about it, she held firm, and he had to grow the hell up. That stood out to me. Laurie thought that he deserved his pick of the March girls, and of course it would be Jo his bestie, and tried to manipulate her into agreeing with him. It’s what Nice Guys do. Good guys may have hopes and be disappointed but they don’t do what Laurie did. And I like that Laurie did grow up.
The Queen’s Poisoner (Courtesy of the Amazon Prime First program where you get to buy one free book per month from their selection.)
A touch “Game of Thrones”ish but not too much so I was able to read all the way through and actually quite enjoyed it. I wish it were actually more about the Poisoner’s story, though, and not just hints at her story through the eyes of the protagonist. The writing itself was just average, and I was distracted by that.
Where I went
We visited family once this winter, nothing exciting since getting out at all was a major accomplishment, dogged as I’ve been by this Viral Thing.
PiC and I did daycare dropoff together a few times and the novelty of seeing LB get into hir school groove was fun and reassuring to see how well ze is integrated.
What I made or did
Welcome to Graphics City! I’ve been trying my hand at adding the essential pictorial element to these posts. I’d made it out to be such a big deal, all for nothing. It takes time but it’s also surprisingly fun and gratifying to turn out results quickly in a day full of long term projects.
What I learned
Thanks to blogging, I’m familiar with HTML and I tried my hand at a little bit more serious HTML with relatively decent results. Neat.
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How was your winter? Are you most grateful for the onset of spring? Do you have any fun / interesting reading suggestions?
Where I am winter is still in full force. Just had a snowstorm yesterday, power out and everything! I will be most grateful when spring does arrive though. I’m ready to get back outside again.
As for books, have you read Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi? BF introduced it to me recently and I found it to be a fun, well-written read.
Oh my, I saw that some places in the US and Canada were still getting snow, it’s time to move on, Winter!
Thanks for the recommendation, I haven’t yet read it!
We warned you there were no redeeming characters in the Lucia and Mapp saga!
Great article on Little Women– something I benefited from by reading it in 3rd grade was that I didn’t care who the characters ended up with because romance was boring.
Well now I feel like a right fool for wasting my time – how could I possibly have read “no redeeming characters” as a positive thing? Ugh.
Mostly romance is still boring to me now but if it’s really well written and not the only purpose of the story, I can enjoy it.
You’re quite a reader! That’s impressive. I am inspired to start reading more myself. š
Thanks š I just enjoy it. And I hope you do too!