Saturday, October 26, 2019

My Brain on Books XXIV

I am reading for The Office of Letters and Lights the folks who bring us NaNoWriMo today as I love what they are doing for literacy with their Young Writer's Programs and because I've participated in NaNo every year since 2004.  I have been blessed to have it in my life and would like to give something back if only kudos and link love.  I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading and writing and story in kids. 

This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones. I may be posting some updates on Twitter @Joystory and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two.  Including mini-challenges that don't require a separate post..   







4:44 AM - Made it.  Still going strong.

I stuck with The Catholic School for over two hours.  Then switched to The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess for another hour.  There was some snack scavenging and some social media lurking and a long distraction with giphy after discovering its existence on the hub.

Now I'm concerned I'm not going to wind down fast enough to get a substantial sleep before my alarm goes off at 11AM to prep for my Sunday afternoon date with my husband.

1:55 AM - Lost in an Italian Catholic Boys School.




10:10 PM - Five hours of browsing among 18 books

The 'browsing' included reading whole chapters or intros or short stories.
Besides all that I downloaded a free ebook of Whuthering Heights and 'reread' the same four chapters from Disc 1 of the audio.  The British accent of the narrator and her attempts to provide accents as indicated by Bronte's spelling coupled with my spectrum sensory issues had me frequently frustrated.  Having now read the same passages with my eyes I think I'll have an easier time of listening tho I miss the ability to speed up the audio the ap on my computer does not provide.  One of my sensory issues is that I listen better when I listen fast.

But I intend to return to the audio book later and pick up my crochet.  First I want to return for as long as my eyes will allow to The Catholic School.

Now that i've got the grazing urge sated i'm feeling ready to focus on one story long enough to get lost in it.  Hoping my eyes will allow that to be The Catholic School but if not it will be Wuthering Heights.



via GIPHY


5:55 PM - List of Yesterday's Library Haul not yet mentioned.

  • Everything Inside : stories by Edwidge Danticat
  • Hunter's Moon : a novel in stories by Philip Caputo
  • The American Spirit: Who we are and what we stand for by David McCullough
  • Moral Imagination : essays by David Bromwich
  • The Last Book Party : a novel by Karen Dukess
  • Whisper Network : a novel by Chandler baker
  • The Program : Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the rise and fall of NXIV  by Toni Natalie with Chet Hardin


Am going to be browsing in these for awhile.

4:44 PM - Books I Browsed in my Android device in the last three hours


  • Mind to Matter by Dawson Church (How thoughts become things by changing the physical structure of our brains and then our behaviors)
  • Moby Dick by Herman Melville ( a reader i visited was reading this which reminded me I had been reading it last fall or summer and hadn't finishd)
  • NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM! By Chris Baty (NaNo Prep)
  • From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler (NaNo Prep)
  • Scrivener by David Hewson (NaNo Prep)
  • Writers on the Spectrum by Julie Brown (NaNo Prep because I'm on the spectrum and it gives me insight.  Plus she identified Melville as Aspberger which prompted me to start Moby Dick)
  • My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (a teen girl answers a want ad from a teacher looking for students and discovers the teacher is a gorilla)
  • Little Black Book of Stories by A. S. Byatt (short stories)
  • World Famous Cults and Fanatics by Colin Wilson (NaNo Prep because my storyworld features a cult)
  • Nothing by Blake Butler (a rhapsody on Insomnia)
  • Raising Cubby by John Elder Robinson (Robinson's first book was a memoir about discovering he was Asperger in his 40s.  In this one he learns his teenage son is also)


I spent 5 to 15 minutes with each one.  All but the first I'd previously started and was various distances in.

2:22 PM - Personal reactions to The Catholic School by Edoardo Albinati:

What is it about this book that kept me coming back to it after repeatedly putting it in the no-go pile at the library for quite logical reasons.  I'd taken down it's metadata so there was no fear I'd loose track of its existence.  There was always next library visit or waiting for it to become available as ebook or audio.  Yet it seemed a magnet drawing me back to it even after the initial checkout of the pile of chosen ones.

It is not what is known as a page turner with a plot that acts as a string tied to your eyes.  If there are any strings involved it is the sentences themselves and it's not because any sentence is calling attention to itself for any known aspect of 'sentenceness'.  Maybe it would be more precise to say it was thought itself that is the string but if said thought were clothed in shabby sentences there would be discontinuities that break the spell that kept me reading in spite of all the physical challenges and the book would never have insisted on coming home with me on the bus tho it would not fit in the bag.

Beyond the sentences and thoughts themselves it is the mesmerizing fashion Albinati combines philosophy, cultural commentary, modern headline, fictionalized memoir, coming of age and gothic ambiance in a nearly 1300 page tome. Thus combining physical and mental exercise. :)

Not tome.  Story.  That's probably the actual string.  Duh?  Because I don't think my comments so far have made clear that there is the definite feel of a developing story in the competent hands of a master storyteller.  One who can hold dozens of threads in play at once as in the weaving of a fine tapestry.wall hanging.

11:11 AM - The Catholic School by Edoardo Albinati
This nearly 1300 page tome solved the problem of the nap attack.  The smallish print forced me to put a second pair of reading glasses over the first adding 2.0 to 2.75.  I needed to mount the book on a book easel to free my hands for I needed the left hand to hold the flap open and the pages on that side pressed flat and my right hand to slide either a book mark or my finger along the line.  This is why I so seldom make the attempt anymore with these ginormous books that I once inhaled back in the day.  20 pages in one hour!.  I remember when it felt slow to do less than 100 pages an hour.

This was one of the books from my library haul yesterday.  The first in several years because I can no longer walk alone to the library and then in 2016 had incurred a large fine after misplacing an audio book.  It was the fact of having misplaced a library item that shamed me into abandoning use of the library and I left the fine on my card to remove the temptation of using it.  I guess I finally forgave myself.

Since 2014 I've qualified for door-tp-door transport with the local bus service.  I've mostly reserved use of it for health-care appointments but in nonor of the read-a-thon I decided to go to the library yesterday.  And the experience was so positive I think I'll be repeating it.

The Albinati book was one of a couple dozen items I gathered in my first half hour and then spent the next hour browsing and taking down titles/authors in my android device with bluetooth keyboard with Evernote.  I spent a bit of time with each item, making stacks of yes, no and maybe.  In spite of the fact that I kept placing The Catholic School in the No pile for the fact of its size, weight and font size I kept coming back to it, opening it randomly and finding myself reading a page or three before reluctantly putting it back in the No pile.  I went to the checkout counter without it tho I had at the last moment attempted to fit it with the stack in the crook of my left elbow and could not control the stack one-handed with it there and I had to have a free right had for my white cane.

As I stood by the elevator I glanced back over to the table where I'd sat and the book was still there.  So was my coat!  I'd walked off without my coat.  I returned for it and on the way across the room I told myself that the bookbag was not over heavy and tho the big red book would not fit inside, the shoulder bag freed my left hand.  So I grabbed it up along with my coat and headed back to the checkout counter.

The image I'm posting must be for the British edition as the one I'm reading has no photo and is solid red with black title and yellow author text.  Which is probably what caught my eye and prompted me to pull it off the shelf in the first place.  This edition is the only English language edition on Goodreads (it is translated from Italian) and tho I have librarian privileges I've not used then in so long I'd have to relearn how to add an edition and such tasks or soooo time consuming anymore!  So not today anyway.

Well this has gone on too long already so I leave talking about the substance of the book and what is magnetic draw for me is in a later update.  Right now I just want to get back to reading it.



9: 09 AM - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Donada Peters (Narrator)  Random House Audio CD
Switching to disc 2 but not sure I'm going to continue immediately.  Fending of nap attack.  Need something that requires me to keep my eyes open.


6:05 /AM - I began the day finishing off the last 10% of the fourth book in Mercedes Lackey's Jouster series which I've been reading for the last two or three weeks.  My attempt to finish before I slept shorted me on much needed pre Thon sleep.  A bit less than four hours!  And still didn't finish.  Now I have a slimmer chance of making the full 24hrs without at least a nap.

5:05 AM - Opening Survey!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
Longview, Washington USA a few miles from the majestic Columbia River

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The audio of Wuthering Heights.  I last read it as a teenager and I know I could not have understood it beyond the shallow plot level.  Reviews I've read in the last decade have more than hinted that I need to read it again

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm visually impaired, Asperger, mood disordered but reading and writing stories is my joy.  Reading often means 'listen' now so I am usually crocheting as story and fiber art weave their manifestations together.  I've been a NaNoWriMo for three years longer than a Dewey Thon reader and will be again this year so some of my reading today will relate to NaNo prep

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
For the last several thons I put all my focus on reading and neglected the visiting and the mini-challenges.  I'm hoping to shift that balance back a bit at least.


4:44 AM - I'm setting this to go live at 4:44 AM but it may be as much as an hour before I check in.  Making coffee, Getting eyes focused.  Settling in at primary reading station.  But I will be reading via audio by 5AM.


Ode to Dewey
by Joy Renee
We Miss You Dewey




Read more...

Friday, August 02, 2019

My Brain on Books XXIII (#reversereadathon)

I am reading for The Office of Letters and Lights the folks who bring us NaNoWriMo today as I love what they are doing for literacy with their Young Writer's Programs and because I've participated in NaNo every year since 2004.  I have been blessed to have it in my life and would like to give something back if only kudos and link love.  I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading and writing and story in kids. 

This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones. I may be posting some updates on Twitter @Joystory and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two.  Including mini-challenges that don't require a separate post..   










3:33PM- Riding out the end with The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  Might even finish it or at least come close.  This is another Primereads borrow.

2:22PM- Set aside ONE Thing and switched to  Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon (Audio via BARD )  . Had wanted to stick with ONE Thing via text-to-speech function on kindle but it stopped functioning when I tucked the device into the holster to walk around with it and I needed to fix my lunch so I called up my BARD library and selected the Weldon.  Reading about reading and why it matters couldn't be a better thon choice right? 

After I ate tho, I started reading Orwell's 1984 on Kindle.  Another Primereading borrow.  This is a re-read but the last time I read it was in high-school and that was decades ago.  And I've been seeing a lot of reference to in commentary on current events so I've had in mind to read it again for some time.  In fact I had borrowed it via Primereads in 2016.  One of the goals I set for thon late yesterday was to spend time with as many of those borrows as possible so I can have them back at the top of my currently reading list and get some of them finished soon as I have come across others I'd like to borrow but have maxed out the limit which I think is ten.

1:11PM- Finished the Mueller Report and am returning to ONE Thing.

11:22AM- Must confess I had a nap attack at dawn had to lay down and sleep until 11.  Am going to return to the Mueller Report and finish it while I eat and tank up on coffee.

2:22AM-  Set aside the Mueller Report with a couple hours left to pick up The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
by Gary Keller.This is another via Amazon Primereading.  The advice imparted by Keller is something I need to take to heart.  Success is rooted in narrowing focus to ONE thing. My inability to do this is why I have over two dozen WIP in several endeavors.  Creative writing, fiber arts, research among them.  Two dozen would be as a raindrop in swimming pool in my TBR list.

11:55PM- Listening to The Mueller Report on YouTube at 1.75% speed.  Sometimes a full 2X as this is not my first time through plus I had started out reading with my eyes via PDF the week it was released.

9:11PM- Have reached chapter 71 and 65% according to Kindle..  Am reading this thanks to Amazon Primereading which allows you to borrow select items for free (well considering the annual cost of Prime 'free' is a relative term.

I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading this.  It has been on my TBR list ever since the first time I checked out a tree copy from a brick and mortar library during the Bush administration--several times.  It is just the kind of story with just the kind of themes I'm most attracted to.

It's a coming of age story with spiritual themes and a page turning adventure with heart-in-throat scenes.  Pi Patel age sixteen, son of a zookeeper, is emigrating from India to Canada with his family and what is left of the zoo population they are escorting to new homes.  The cargo ship they are traveling on sinks and Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with a wounded zebra an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger.  Some of the most heart-in-throat scenes so far are those depicting what happens to bring the passenger count down to two--Pi and Richard Parker the Tiger.

In the years before their departure from India Pi had been exploring spiritual paths and could not settle on one so had become a serious practitioner of several including Catholicism, Hinduism and Islam.  He had studied under prominent spiritual leaders from each tradition.  These lessons and practices stand him in good stead as he struggles to keep both himself and Richard Parker alive for the more than 200 days they are adrift on the Pacific Ocean.

Why would he make keeping the tiger alive on a par with keeping himself alive?  Well that is a question that would take the whole book to answer.



4:44PM - 1)What fine part of the world are you reading from today? And what time is it where you are?
Longview, Washington USA situated in the V formed by the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers.  Across the the majestic Columbia river from Raineer, Oregon..  On the north side of the majestic Columbia River approximately 50 miles from the coast and 25 miles from Portland, Oregon as the crow flies but drives about double that..

At my Mom's house.  The house I lived in from age 18 to 21 (or 1975-78) and again since January 2013.  See earliest posts under the label Lifequake for explanation.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

For Fiction: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
For Non Fiction: The Mueller Report

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

spicy hot chocolate with a little piece of very dark chocolate

4) Do you have a #reversereadathon plan of attack?

mostly  as always I'm looking forward to free range reading.  The most important part of my plan for this thon is to not have a plan.  That's basically been my thon plan every time for several years now.  It much more fun that way.  Less stress.

also to follow advice i give to thon newbies and vets alike: Stay hydrated!

Get up and move once an hour.  You can read while you pace you know.  i like to stand on my mini-tramp with a ebook or audio book to encourage bloodflow in my legs and brain.

Blink.  Seriously.  Dry eyeballs can't see.  And the hands rubbing them can't hold books

5) Are you doing the readathon solo or with others?

i'm solo
Ode to Dewey
by Joy Renee
We Miss You Dewey




Read more...

Sunday, June 02, 2019

Waffle Love Shawl

Waffle Love Shawl by Joy Renee
H/T Fiber Spider YouTube tutorial for waffle stitch triangle
H/T Jayda Instiches YouTube tutorial for granny square hearts
Used 2 skeins Lion Brand Ice Cream Cotton Candy for Waffle Triangle and Caron Simply Soft for hearts and white boarder

I kept intending to get pictures of the boarder creating process but kept waiting until I was sure I was on the right track and that sureness never coalesced.  My process when I'm not following a pattern is something hit-and-miss that I call sculpting.  It involves a lot of frogging after experimenting. I will attempt to describe in words what finally worked:

After I was sure I had the right number of hearts per side I established how many stitches there were between the bottom tips when lined up with edges at the widest spot touching. 

Then I started a chain and attached to the top crevasses of each heart with a half-double and chained nine in between.

At the end of the row I chained 18 and then attached to the bottom point of the last heart in line with a single crochet and chained nine in between each again.

I completed the circle with another eighteen chains and joined where I began.  Then I went around the circle with half-doubles wrapped around the chain.  I did this by feel as one to one with the number of chains was too sparse but it seemed to average five or six half-doubles for every four chains between the hearts but choice was always affected by the double crochet that dips down to join the two hearts at the half way point between the crevasses. 

For the  18 chain loops at each end of the chain of hearts I crowded more half-doubles in per chain in order to create the right number of stitches so that joining them at the corners would not cause too much bunching up.  I never could get it to lay completely flat but finally decided i more than half liked the slight ripple effect anyway.

I made this for my MIL who was in hospital in March when I started it.  Her birthday was at the end of April and Mother's Day was mid May and I missed them all and now temps where she lives in Southern Oregon are probably in the 90s.  Sigh. Still, I hope to get this in the mail this week.

I'm thinking of making one for myself in shades of blue and I'm also liking the idea of all red hearts with all white boarder and waffle.  Or a reds and pinks variegated waffle with red and pink hearts and white boarder.  Oh no.  I need to stop visualizing them.  I already have too many projects on the hook.  As in I wouldn't be surprised to find they topped triple digits if I took the time to sort them all out and count them.

Read more...

Saturday, April 06, 2019

My Brain on Books XXII

I am reading for The Office of Letters and Lights the folks who bring us NaNoWriMo today as I love what they are doing for literacy with their Young Writer's Programs and because I've participated in NaNo every year since 2004.  I have been blessed to have it in my life and would like to give something back if only kudos and link love.  I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading and writing and story in kids. 

This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones. I may be posting some updates on Twitter @Joystory and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two.  Including mini-challenges that don't require a separate post..   









4:44AM - l am prepping this ahead and scheduling it to post at 4:44 AM which is also when my alarm is set.  That gives me time to get up and take care of biological business including fixing coffee and water bottle.

Am including the intro meme here so I don't have to spend the first hour preparing it as so often has happened before.  In fact much of it is copy/pasted from previous Thons.

I'm going to spend the first hour actually reading!

Intro Meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Longview, Washington USA situated in the V formed by the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers.  Across the the majestic Columbia river from Raineer, Oregon..  On the north side of the majestic Columbia River approximately 50 miles from the coast and 25 miles from Portland, Oregon as the crow flies but drives about double that..

At my Mom's house.  The house I lived in from age 18 to 21 (or 1975-78) and again since January 2013.  See earliest posts under the label Lifequake for explanation.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

For fiction:  Mr Spaceman by Robert Olen Butler   (Audio via BARD )        

For nonfiction: A Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Call to Mercy and Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees by Pope Francis.  (Audio via BARD ) 


But mostly  as always I'm looking forward to free range reading.  The most important part of my plan for this thon is to not have a plan.  That's basically been my thon plan every time for several years now.  It much more fun that way.  Less stress.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 

I'm looking forward to a great big salad from a salad kit. And a drink called a ginger soother..  and a 80% cocoa dark chocolate bar.  The three feel about equal but if forced to choose I'd probably go with the chocolate.  Unless i happened to be thirsty at that moment...

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I was raised in a cult that imploded over doctrinal disputes in the early 90s as I neared 40.  I then began to teach myself to think for myself.  The last few years there has been an internal struggle between the need to own my own thoughts by speaking them and the fear of doing so.  The fear has been winning.  First my blog posting fizzled out then all my other writing.  This is not sustainable.  Without my writing I am not I.  What's the use of knowing how to think for myself if my self won't own herself.  ...

I'm legally blind from RP aka Tunnel Vision with less than 2 degrees of vision left.  I can no longer read even large print with my left eye.  I now prefer ebooks for the ability to enlarge fonts and control line width so I don't loose my way between end and beginning of lines.  I used to read nearly 1K words per minute but now read slower than I talk.  Very discouraging.

But in the last year I've started listening to audio books via my access to LOC Talking Books and BARD.  And also via text to speech.  And often I speed up the delivery to between 110-175%.  I discovered that I listen better when i listen faster--better focus, comprehension and retention.  I think it's an Autism thing.  I've come across it in the spectrum memoirs several times since my diagnosis four years ago.

I intend to use audio predominantly this thon so I can crochet and/or continue my ongoing sort and organize project while I listen.  I'm continuing the ongoing project of getting projects finished.  There are dozens of them in various stages.  I have several with me that have been stuffed in a bag under my craft table for two years needing only to have their tails tucked, a tassel or fringe attached or a few snags fixed.  Am working on several late Xmas projects I hope to have ready for Mother's Day and/or some early summer b-days.  And a shawl for my mother-in-law whose birthday is at the end of this month.  And several projects begun as CAL last fall that are for myself so have gotten neglected since Thanksgiving when my attention shifted to Xmas.

I've had a mood disorder since childhood featuring depression, anxiety, panic and insomnia.  Several times professionals have considered the possibility of bi-polar but finally ruled it out definitively in late 2015 when they diagnosed me with High Functioning Autism aka Asperger's.  Over fifty years of feeling 'wrong' and not knowing why.  I've spent the months since reading nf about the autism spectrum and novels and memoirs featuring autistic individuals which has gone a long way toward helping me understand much that once confused and shamed me.  Since I have several of those books in progress I'll probably dip into them today.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I would like to participate in the challenges and visit other readers which I've done little to none of the last several thons having got lost in the reading.

Advice to newbies and vets alike: Stay hydrated!
Get up and move once an hour.  You can read while you pace you know.
Blink.  Seriously.  Dry eyeballs can't see.  And the hands rubbing them can't hold books.


Ode to Dewey
by Joy Renee
We Miss You Dewey




Read more...

Blog Directories

Saysher.com

Sitemeter

Feed Buttons

Powered By Blogger

About This Blog

Web Wonders

Once Upon a Time

alt

alt

alt

alt

70 Days of Sweat

Yes, master.

Epic Kindle Giveaway Jan 11-13 2012

I Melted the Internet

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP