Category: Books

Teaser Tuesday: Atonement

Where has the week gone? I spent most of the week since last Tuesday binge watching House of Cards, Parks and Recreation, and Supernatural on Netflix doing profitable things like housework and talking to my parents and cleaning up my home computer.

I also spent some time reading, so once again the wheel of time has landed on:

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share a few sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

This week I’m reading Atonement by Ian McEwan. Although I’ve had this book for over a year, this is my first attempt at reading it. One motivator to finish my current at-home TBR is my personal vow to avoid the library until I’ve finished the books already taking up space.

I use the Truly Random Number Generator to pick the page number for my Teaser Tuesday post; today we go to page 186.

The men came a couple of steps closer and raised 
what was in their hands. Shotguns, surely. 

Turner released his safety catch. 
He heard Mace and Nettle do the same. 

"Easy," he murmured.

Atonement Cover

In Retrospect

I finished reading 1916: The Easter Rising by Tim Pat Coogan and gave it four stars. It would have been five, but the first 25 pages or so were so uncompelling that I almost gave it up. Once I made it to page 30 or so, things picked up and I finished it easily, especially the last fifty pages or so.

What have you been reading?

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Choose Your Own [Instagram] Adventure!

I delight in finding quotes and sharing them with others.

You already know this if you follow me on Instagram, where I routinely use the hashtags

Terry Pratchett Tuesday

and

Philosophy Friday

click to embiggen

However, that’s not enough.

There are five other days of the week.

I dabbled with Theology Thursday and Philosophy Thursday;

rolled them both into Philosophy Friday.

Here’s where you come in:

I need help filling up the week.

Give me your suggestions in the comments!

 

Emerson Book Quotation Quote

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Teaser Tuesday: 1916: The Easter Rising (3.0)

Yesterday I cut down the brush encroaching my house.

Last night a piece aluminum siding broke free, blowing in the wind.

This morning I fixed it, and

I had actual, honest-to-goodness wired internet installed.

That’s right:

No more relying on my phone as a hot spot.

No more mooching off my in-laws to download/upload large files.

But let’s be honest, I’ll still spend quite a bit of time there.

Family

Good Food

On the Water

No more using the work WiFi to blog.

Unless I want to, of course.

Disclaimer: I didn’t use it during work hours;

I come in early and stay late.

They don’t mind.

And so, thanks to the packet-switching that drives the internet, SuddenLink Communications, and the wheel of time, it is my pleasure to bring you my first post via my own cabled internet:

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

This week I’m reading 1916: The Easter Rising by Tim Pat Coogan.

Actually, this marks the third time I’ve tried to read it. This should not be a reflection on Mr. Coogan, time and life simply stalled out the other attempts. Thus far, it’s quite readable and enjoyable.

I used the Truly Random Number Generator to pick the page number; it chose page 35.

I must admit, it isn’t the most riveting of passages, but that’s what you get when you leave things to fate/chance.

The British system was based on:

 (a) The grasp of human weakness and vanity.

 (b) A correct appreciation of the value and use 
       of duplicity and Pecksniffianism.

 (c) A clear conception of the truth that success in 
       governing depends on well-contrived 
       antagonisms in the economic and social 
       structure of the state.

1916 The Easter Rising Tim Pat Coogan Cover

In Retrospect

I finished two books since the last Teaser Tuesday:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré socred 4/5 stars. It was a fairly decent mystery story, but the pace may be a little slow for those accustomed to modern thrillers. After reading, I also understand why people complained the movie was incredibly slow [I haven’t seen it; I wonder if it’s on Netflix?]. However, I loved the story for the story’s sake – even if I did figure out whodunnit about a quarter of the way through – and am thankful my library has more of le Carré’s works.

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie scored 2/5 stars. I found the plot slightly less than intriguing, the characters flat, and the resolution bordering on Deus ex machina. I also new whodunnit by the time Miss Marple made her appearance – it wasn’t that hard to figure it out. On the plus side, my edition didn’t yet exist on Goodreads, so I got to add it to the list!

What have you been reading?

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Sunday Snapshots

So, what did I do this week – apart from editing PowerPoints, creating projects, and working on next school year in general? Well, I . . .

Attended the North Carolina Symphony:

 

Sadly, they skipped Sibelius’ Valse Triste, Op. 44.

Which made me sad.

My wife says angry.

I say sad.

Enjoyed reading in the hammock by the water at my in-laws:

 

Treated myself to a few inexpensive indulgences:

 

I got my donut on National Donut Day; did you?

Assuming, of course, that you live in a country where it’s observed.

I know the United States and Australia do,

does anyone else?

 

That calzone cost less than $5

The ingredients are bought fresh and the dough is made in-house.

Add a sweet tea, and there’s lunch for under $6

So much better than fast food!

Practiced my night photography:

 

Right after I photographed the spider, a small insect flew into the net. I tried taking a picture of the spider as it attacked its prey, but it didn’t turn out at all. If I hadn’t seen it happening, I wouldn’t know what I was looking at.

I actually took one more night shot, but I’m holding off on sharing it; it may show up for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Vivid.

What did you do this week?

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

The Worst Day of My Life

Meredith Broadside

via www.hmscavalier.org.uk
via http://www.hmscavalier.org.uk

My adopted grandfather, Mr. Tom (USN 1938-1957), remembers D-Day:

Mr Tom Enters the Navy 1938I was assigned to the Meredith*, an American destroyer out of Plymouth England. She was new – so new parts were still wet with paint. As at Pearl, my duty was the engine room. The Meredith wasn’t transport, she was a destroyer; we shelled the shore to soften it up for the landing. We stayed there in the [English] Channel for the entire day and the next, that’d make it June 7 when we were ordered to change position. I don’t recall where we were going; regardless, we struck a mine. That brand-new ship struck a mine and threatened to break in half. We ended up abandoning ship and I spent the night in the English Channel tied to my buddies so we wouldn’t drift. There was fuel all over, some of it ignited. One of my buddies [name redacted] was burned so badly he knew he was dying. He gave me some effects to pass on to his girl and some of the others started accusing me of robbing the dead. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say? Well, we were picked up in the morning and I was shipped on to Scotland for recovery before being sent back to the States for a spell. I really can’t describe it. D-day was the worst day of my life. Worse than Pearl. Worse than the day my wife died. It was the absolute worst day of my life.

USS Meredith – navalwarfare.blogspot.com
USS Meredith – navsource.org
USS Meredith – wikimapia.org

*You can read the official Commander’s Narrative here.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Thoughts Brought On by Reading Old Books

First, a shout out to Erik Kwakkel for opening my mind to the possibilities of marginalia.

Working through my summer reading list, I’ve encountered a few old books, namely

Old Books Summer Reading 2015

From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, printed 1966

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré, printed 1975

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie, printed 1953

                   Thoughts on Old Books
                          by Jay E. 

Books are like wines and cheeses: 
  they’re better aged.
    
    Like certain furniture styles, 
      not just aged, but distressed.

Well-worn covers, falling apart at the seams, 
  held together by hope and scraps 
    of binding tape or hardened bits 
      of glue.

Not-quite-blank first pages, left empty by the publisher,
  filled in by a succession of owners, 
    give glimpses - small hints and clues – 
      to the history of those pages.

With luck, exquisite ex libris plates 
  bearing the name of one long passed 
    whose legacy yet lives on; what better legacy 
      than the power of the written word?

Title pages with weight and meaning, 
  some fantastic works of art, 
    others equally fantastic for their simplicity – 
      the end result of dedicated typographers 
        and skilled typesetters.

The quirks of printing: 
  typefaces not seen in decades,
    pages printed at a slant,
      chapter headings and divisions 
        once the norm now oddities.

Above all, the smell: 
  that heady mix of dust and must 
    and decaying paper and 
      ageing ink. 
  
  It almost hurts to breathe it in, 
    yet like an addict we return 
      again and again, 
        imbibing in our drug of choice.

Consider these pages from my copy of A Pocket Full of Rye:

Pocket Full of Rye First Page

Pocket Full of Rye Page 54 Robert Willis
 
At one point, the book belonged to New Bern High.

I theorize this was its first home.

How long did it stay there?

Was it bought or stolen or did someone simply forget to return it?

 
How long did each owner keep it?

How many owners did it have?

 
Who, exactly, is . . .

B.B.

“me”

Sheila, and

is that her phone number, or someone else’s?

Did she own the book and give the number in case it was lost?

Did she write her number for an admirer on the only paper available?

Robert Willis, and

how does he fit in to all this?

To me, his name seems like a young lady’s doodling.

Especially since his name appears on multiple pages.

 

Sometimes the best questions are those to which there are no answers.

 

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

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