behindtheax

reading list

I thought I should post something even though I have this head full of fog. Renewal time. Wakey, wakey. I've been rather absent minded lately. Almost forgot to walk the neighbour’s dog yesterday. Monica walks him every lunch hour but yesterday she had a field trip so I said I would do it for her. It was 1:30 when I remembered and I rushed over there to find him sitting on the middle of their kitchen table. He is a little Shih Tzu and a very likable little fellow and he has this skip that he does with his back leg when he walks that is quite funny. Trot-trot-trot-skip –trot- trot- trot- skip. Anyway, he now has me thinking about a new dog, although I did promise Greg we would go at least one year dog free! But it doesn’t hurt to check the shelters every once in awhile in case the perfect dog is sitting there waiting for us.
I was also checking out some writing courses. There is a week -long short story workshop at the end of July at one of the universities in town. It sounds pretty good. Acceptance is based on the written piece you wish to workshop. That in it self is scary and the one I would most like to workshop is still in my head. So, I should stop procrastinating and get that down in some form or other. I have been writing a little or trying too. I'm almost finished this light fantasy story. I have so much half completed stuff – got to organize myself.

Greg, who has this distinctive ear for the sound of hardware in crisis, says he doesn’t like the sound of my laptop. He thinks her days are numbered and so out of the kindness of his heart, he backed up all my files and synchronized my laptop with the hard drive in the office. He’s my Leonard. If only he would build me a printing press. However, he wasn’t impressed at all with my filing system and wondered how I could possibly find anything when I just have one major file called stories that has everything from screen plays to journal entries to half finished novels, query letters, short stories, scattered attempts at poetry and what not. It really is quite a mess. How does a person go about getting some discipline!

Everything has been returned that went out by mail. But, still I’m pleased. However slight, I feel I improved and I feel hopeful that I can improve a little more.

One thing I have organized is my reading list for this summer. these are some of the books i had bought during this winter which I didn't get around to and will definitely read this summer. They are as follows–
Stories by Anton Chekhov ,The Waves by Virginia Woolf, The Dharma bums by Jack Kerouac, The blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Spadework by Timothy Findley and at some point I want to finish Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder and read The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. And then there are the last two books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower I need to read at some point– however I gotta tell ya I wasn’t impressed with Wolves of the Calla. It was still readable though. Virginia Woolf to Stephen king. Well no one can say I don’t have a well-rounded appetite for books. I remember my father saying one time to me, regarding books. He said, “you know, there are really very few unreadable books out there, some just take more of a commitment to get into.” I think that is pretty well true. But like anything else; you do want to fill your head with the best ones. Anyway, i am so looking forward to reading on sunny days out back in my white plastic lawn chiar, at a picnic table under a growth of pine on our weekend camping trips, lying on a sandy blanket at the beach or sitting on a great smooth rock near the water - looking forward to some summer reading.

posted by mary j. @ 10:40 AM