Tag: Reading

Hand Basket

My current audiobook is making me feel like an immature child and it is giving me the giggles.

I am listening to Recursion by Blake Crouch. I’m about 2/3 of the way through and I am really digging it. I keep thinking I know where it’s going and then it curves off to someplace totally unexpected. That’s not what this post is about though.

This post is about how I am a nine year old goofball. One of the characters is named Helena. Every time one of the two readers says the character’s name I insert the words hand basket immediately after it.

Helena (hand basket) said hello.

Helena (hand basket) did something.

Every time I do it I feel like I am going to giggle. What a goof. Sometimes I think that I am going to stop it and I do… briefly. I stop inserting hand basket but instead I insert the word bucket.

Helena (bucket) walked down the hall.

Helena (bucket) opened the door.

Yeah, I am a child. A goofy, lame, immature child.

Re-Reader

Daily writing prompt
What book could you read over and over again?
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I could give you a list for this prompt. A long list. I’m not one of those folks who reads a book once then never returns to it. I am a regular re-reader. I don’t re-read everything, but there have been a lot of books that I’ve read multiple times.

Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is probably the big one. Every time he added a book to the series I would re-read all of the previous books in preparation. After he finished the seventh and “final” book of the series I went back and tore through the whole thing again. I may have actually done that 2-3 times. The only book I haven’t re-read is the one he wrote after he finished. The eighth book in the seven book series. I’ll get to it some day.

The Harry Potter series has been re-read a bunch of times. The Lord of the Rings has too. All sorts of Clive Barker and Stephen King books have had many reads. When it comes to scary, those two are just the best. Just within the last couple of weeks I’ve re-read a book. I picked up an audiobook copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments which is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Before I started digging into it I went back and re-read The Handmaid’s Tale so that I could be clear on the differences between the book and the Hulu series (even though the second book is sort of more a sequel to the show than the book… sort of).

To sum up, there have been so many books that I have re-read over the years that I can’t even remember them all. There have been some books that I have read through five or six times, or maybe even more. Why not? A good movie is re-watchable, right? Why not a good book? There’s always more to dig in to. Always.

My Effin’ Life

Bloganuary writing prompt
What books do you want to read?
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I used to read constantly. I’ve worn reading glasses since I was a kid. A few years ago my eye glass prescription needs changed and I had to switch to progressives. That made sitting down and reading a book more difficult. It’s more stressful on my eyes and they get tired very fast. 

At the time I was commuting to work over and hour each way four days a week. I had a very active Audible account and I was listening to piles upon piles of audio books. When the pandemic hit I inactivated the account. I don’t do well with audio books when I am not a captive, driving audience. That means there have been very few books read (in any manner) since early 2020.

I am going to need to have a new eye test one of these days. There’s a part of me that wants to get a set of reading glasses again to go along with the mid-distance computer glasses I have and the progressives I wear when I am not sitting at my computer. That’s a lot of money for specs though so probably not.

There is one book that I started reading a little after xmas though. I’m only on chapter three and have only been reading a few pages at a time. It’s a memoir. It’s Geddy Lee’s My Effin’ Life. I am very driven to get through it but it’s hard to find the time or the energy. I will read it. I have to. It’s a moral imperative. 

Reading/Writing Nooks

Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
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Wow… did the B-team write this one? Are the daily prompt writers on break this week? Did they just ask ChatGPT for a list of dumb questions? Today’s daily writing prompt thingie is just… bad. Really bad. Utterly bad.

I guess here it goes. My response today is a photography response. I took some pictures of my favorite writing and reading nooks in our house. Why? Because I’ve already built my perfect reading and writing spaces. The writing space is a desk with a laptop and the reading spaces are comfy chairs with lights. Perfect. So detailed and worthy of a writing prompt. Ugh.

Writing nook, which also doubles as a music recording nook. My home computer desk in the cellar:

As for reading nooks, I will share three. This one is my main go-to, even though it is not in the usual place due to the xmas tree. It is also missing it’s usual reading light and end table, but it still works. I just open the curtain and use the bay window for both end table needs and lots of extra light:

118/365

Reading nook number two is on the other side of the living room. I don’t use this one very often, but it works perfectly:

The fourth and final image for today’s masterpiece of a blog post is the reading nook in the bedroom. Sorry that the lights were off when I took this with the Hipstamatic app so it’s pretty dark. I don’t use this one often, but I love that it’s there. I often sack out here while I am cooking dinner in the kitchen, which is the room next door. Fascinating, I know:

There. A pointless, shitty response to a pointless, shitty daily writing prompt. Yippee.