Wolf Hall

Yesterday evening, after working for a few hours at a coffee shop, I decided to swing by the bookstore before I headed home. I had a gift certificate burning a whole in my purse, and I wanted to look around. Specifically, I was thinking that maybe the time had come for me to pick up a copy of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

I know everyone else has already read it and that I'm late to the party. But I hadn't picked it up yet since it's so long, I have a dissertation to write, and my dissertation is about the c18, not the c16. But, for some reason, I started to feel as if it might be time. I think part of the impulse might have come from my recent reading of Heresy by S. J. Parris (it is billed as an "Elizabethan Thriller," but I thought of it more as a historical mystery). And I guess it got me in the c16 frame of mind. It might also be that the evenings are getting colder and darker, and such a context seems fitting for a such a book.

But I had read mixed reviews of Wolf Hall, so I was hesitant to take the plunge. Most readers seem to love it, but quite a few deemed it "unreadable" because of a taxing writing style. So, when I arrived at the bookstore, I immediately texted Amstr to ask her if I'd like it. Amstr knows me very well, and she has an amazing way of remembering a lot of details about my interests and tendencies (a great quality in a friend, no?). She texted me back right away, which was fantastic because I only had about 15 minutes to spare. Here is what she said:

"Yes! I really liked it! It took a while to get into the groove of the narrative style (a weird kind of limited omniscient present tense, if I remember right). It took about 50 pages to get into it, but I'm glad I did."

I have just started the novel. I'm only about 15 pages in, but I really like it. And do you know why? Well, yes, because it's good, but I think I like it mostly because of the completely apt heads up that I got from Amstr. Since I knew what to look for in the style, and since I was assured (by someone who knows my interests well) that there would be a pay off, I wasn't thrown or confused by the POV. In fact, I was able to focus more on its benefits--the ways in which the characters and the relationships between them feel so real and alive.

So here's to good books and, even more, to good friends.

The Freaks Come Out

I have some crazy friends who are doing NaNoWriMo. These are crazy friends who are even busier than I am who are committing to write 50,000 words of a novel this month. I can't believe how crazy they are. I am just not that crazy.

But still. I kind of wanted to stick my toe in the water to see how it would feel. So today, after a few exuberant texts were exchanged with my buddy over at Cleared for Flight, I gave myself an hour to write 1,000 words. And, guess what? I did it! I wrote 1,200 as a matter of fact--1,200 words of a novel. And you know what? It felt pretty friggin' great.

So. Even though I am not crazy enough to commit to writing 50,000 words this month, I am going to commit to writing 10,000 words of a novel and 8,000 words towards my dissertation. These are my goals for November, and they are crazy enough for me.

And Tiki the Wizard (a.k.a Tiki Freaky) hopes that you had a great Halloween.

Friendly Respite

It's been a grading heavy week, and I am still stacks and stacks behind. But yesterday I had the reward of meeting SwallowingSoul for coffee, and, this weekend, Rebecca will stop over for an evening with one of her little lovelies.

On top of all of this, tonight is family movie night: pizza, snuggles, and a low-quality dog movie are typical fare. And a cool gin and tonic with extra lime for me, of course.

There will have to be work done this weekend, but these little respites are golden.

Riding the Train

I am on the train today. I know that I have written before about how much I enjoy trains, and today I'm doing it again. I'm on my way to a conference in Southern California. Some of my colleagues left last night to drive down, but I didn't want to spend three nights away from the kids, so I'm riding down on the train today, and will catch a ride home with my colleague when the conference ends on Friday. Any excuse to take the train.

The ride will be about six hours. I brought a lot of papers to grade, but guess what? The train car rocks too much for me to grade. Isn't that terrible? I guess I will just have to grade later. But it seems that I can type, and I'm sure I can also read, so I still plan to be productive.

I can also look out the window. Not only am I on a train, but I am on the Pacific Surfliner. I live near the ocean, so I see it on a regularbasis, but today I hope to see a lot more of it. So far, though, I'm mostly seeing fog. But now that the sun is coming up, perhaps some of the marine layer will burn off and I'll have some nice views.

Right now, I am passing through ranch land and am seeing cows, horses, barns, etc. It's lovely.

What Would You Read on a Three-Month Hike?

I have just started listening to Cheryl Strayed's book Wild on CD in my car as I drive to and from work. At one point, she talks about what books she has in her pack. She's got a book on the Pacific Coast Trail, she's got As I Lay Dying, and she has a collection of poetry by Adrienne Rich. As much as I love Faulkner, and as much as I love poems by Rich (esp. "Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev" and "Diving into the Wreck"), these are not the books I would take with me on such a trip. But then I started thinking, what would I take? I'm really not sure, and I'd need to think about it some more, but I think I'd use the time to read things that I'd never had a chance to read, maybe some classics that also have good plot. I'll list a few, but I reserve the right to revise my list when I see other people's choices:

1. War and Peace (I've never read it)
2. Middlemarch (I've read the first quarter of it)
3. Little Dorrit (or something else by Dickens)
4. Jane Austen (yes, there are one or two that I haven't read)
5. ??? -- I need to think about this. Something fat and fun.

This list might be too old school and classical for me, but that all have strong plot I think, which would be important after a long day of hiking. Maybe I'd have to do a re-read like Lonesome Dove or something. I read that one while backpacking in Europe and loved it.

So now you:  If you were heading out on a three-month hike in the wilderness, what reading would you take? I'm sure you could mail yourself new things at various PO stops along the way, so feel free to list up to five things.

Ready, go!

A Nagging Observation

Over the past year, I have worked on many a bureaucratic document, and I have sent many an email about bureaucratic issues. These documents and emails often require that I mention "instructional programs, adminstrative service programs, and student service programs."

What I've noticed is that, no matter how I try, I just can't find a good way to abbreviate "student services." Right? See what I mean? I can write "instruction" or "admin," but "student services" just can't be shortened.

Surely others have noticed this, too, but I've never heard any one  mention it. I've been thinking about it for nearly 10 months now. Just needed to get it out.

28 Minutes

It was late tonight after Hubby and I watched an episode of Once Upon a Time. And can I just real quick say how amazing Robert Carlyle is? His acting leaves me feeling stunned and slack jawed. So, anyway, we had just finished watching a great episode written by Jane Espenson, who is also just so amazing, and Hubby was off to bed. I stayed up so that I could do my 15 minutes of dissertation work. I wrote the whole time, and it turned into 28 minutes, and I got quite a few words on the page (not sure how many because I forgot to get a "before" count).

I feel very smug.

And also tired.