I follow Jinjer’s posts on her blog regularly on The Intrepid Angeleno. I love all of the random tasks she sets for herself with her reading. I also love a lot of random things. I have just begun my 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s Penguin Anniversary books challenge. I choose them randomly through the app Book Buddy.
Jinjer has been talking about a random wheel. On the wheel are ten slices of pie (book titles). On each slice of the pie a different book title is written. The wheel is spun and she then takes that book and reads for an hour. I thought it would be fun to join in with such a challenge as a way to get through some of my Kindle books. I always have a Kindle book with me either on my Kindle scribe or on my phone. I spent a lot of time waiting for busses or medical appointments, etc and I like to have something to read. Once the hour is up, the wheel is spun again. Mind you a different book will most likely be randomly chosen. I could eventually be reading 10 different books as the wheel spins again and again. I think it will be good for my brain to see if I can keep them all sorted.
That will be the challenge. If I find I can’t do it then I don’t need to continue but it should be fun trying. I will continue with the Penguin books of course as they are on my shelf and are not very long books. I will also read my monthly book club books but I usually listen to those on audible. Ideally I will have an audible book, a Kindle book and a real book all on the go.
Hopefully that will keep me off the screens so much as I find it is easy to scroll on social media apps and you tube when tired or need to relax. So often it consists of so much wasted time
I selected ten books and they are listed below. I think they are different enough that I shouldn’t mix them up. So stay tuned to see how I go. Thank you Jinjer for sharing your idea. I love it.
All Aboard! A Journey on the Trans-Mongolian Railway throughEastern Europe by Carrie Riles
Black Bazaar by Alain Mabanckou
The Accidental Book Club by Jennifer Scott
Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Bad Karma: The True Story of a. Mexico Trip from Hell by Paul Wilson
Angelina’s Children by Alice Ferney and Emily Read
Alone Time: Four Seasons, four cities and the pleasure of solitude
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Boarding House by William Trevor
1871: A Novel of the Great Chicago Fire by Peter J. Spalding
Doing a quick catch up here. Hoping to get out over the weekend as it’s going to be a tropical 15/16 degrees C. (60 degrees F). And the sun should shine a bit.
BOOKS
Finished this
I just finished the latest book by Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say.
The blurb:
Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad-at himself and the people around him-and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?
And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear-and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.
What I thought of it:
I thought it was a good read but not as good as the Olive Kitteridge series she wrote. I thought the story was pretty good and of course I always love her realistic character development. I think she’s great with characters but the overall book I thought was a little uneven. But I would recommend it for a light read.
Beginning this
I’ve just started reading A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr for book club and I am enjoying that so far. Our group meets next week to discuss that book.
LIFE:
Sadly we lost another friend in the past couple of weeks. This month has been quite the month for sad news. I hope we are finished with winter sadness. I am ready for spring happiness, if it ever gets here.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Our photography group had a fun excursion last week. Ten of us went to the tip shop. A tip is a dump. A refuse centre. The tip shop is where people donate things they no longer want or want to recycle. It’s too good for landfill. It’s the last stop for useable items.
Our mission was to make photos that tell a story. We had some interesting photos. Everyone has posted their photos up on our club Facebook page and we’ll show them on the big screen at our next meeting. On Sunday we plan on going down to the waterfront to get abstract types of photos. No doubt I’ll get distracted by scenery and landscape but I’m sure I can find some more abstract type of things.
Next week is the big Bullock festival in Oatlands, about an hour’s drive from here. Not sure I’ll make it up there. It runs the whole weekend and the bullocks are amazing animals. The residents hold a big parade through the main road.
Love the spelling correction.80s anyone?Someone had a good day once upon a time.
Enjoy the photos and I look forward to seeing what reading you get up to. By the way, next week I will share the random Penguin book that came up this week. I need to read it first. Have a good week and weekend.
I have now scanned all of my small Penguin anniversary classic books into the App Book Buddy. I asked it to randomly select a book and it came up with:
Gooseberries by Anton Chekov. It is one of the 80 Little Black Classics. It is only 82 pages long and I finished it in one sitting. This is not the only thing I read this week but it is what I am going to be posting this week. If I have other books or information related to books I will pause and bring you that information. But let’s get on with the Gooseberries. What is it about?
The Penguin and I want to know why anyone would write a book about Gooseberries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gooseberry. I certainly haven’t tasted one but now I would like to. I must admit when shopping we tend to buy the same fruits and veg each time. I think I need to pick up something different once in awhile but let’s get on with it. (To Do: Find when gooseberries are in season and buy a couple.)
Gooseberries is one of Anton Chekhov’s most celebrated stories so I imagine some of you have read it already. It was published in 1898. That was four years after my grandparents on my mother’s side were born. I thought you’d find that as interesting as I do. Imagine being alive when Kafka was.
The information provided below has been researched from various reviews and online information and a bit from my own brain. After all we aren’t talking rocket science here. Many people just have better ways of saying things than I do at times..
The story is told by the main character Ivan Ivanich who while sheltering with a friend while on a walk at another friend’s home recounts the story of his younger brother Nikolai Ivanich to the two men.
Here is the story:
Nikolai becomes obsessed with a single dream: owning a small country estate where he can live as a gentleman and grow gooseberries. Imagine being obsessed with a fruit. Especially gooseberries.
To achieve this he lives miserably for years, saves every kopek, marries a wealthy widow for her money and eventually buys an estate.
Ivan decides to visit him and see what the situation is. He is shocked. Nikolai has become pompous, self satisfied, and blind to reality. The estate is shabby, the land poor, and the gooseberries are hard and sour. Yet Nikolai eats them with tears of joy, convinced they are delicious because they symbolise the fulfilment of his lifelong dream.
Watching his brother’s happiness’s Ivan feels deeply disturbed rather than pleased.
So what does it all mean?
The danger of comfortable illusions
The selfishness of private happiness
Moral responsibility. ( I might add he treated his wife terribly and she eventually died having been deprived of anything worthwhile.)
The gooseberries symbolise dreams fulfilled -but also the way people romanticise what they possess.
The estate represents the illusion of success and social status.
The rain at the beginning and end creates a reflective, melancholy atmosphere and reinforces the story’s contemplate mood.
******************
Such a country gentleman.
*************
Favourite quotation from the book0
When Ivan approached his brother’s house, this is what he saw:
“I went up to the house, and was met by a fat red dog that looked like a pig. It wanted to bark, but it was too lazy. The cook, a fat, barefooted woman, came out of the kitchen, and she too looked like a pig, and said that her master was resting after dinner. I went in to see my brother. He was sitting up in bed with a quilt over his legs; he had grown older, fatter, wrinkled, his cheeks, his nose, and his mouth all stuck out- he looked as though he might begin grunting into the quilt at any moment.”
I enjoyed this story. It was a pleasant evening with a cup of tea and a cat and a dog (Pickles and Peanny) on my lap and Ollie quietly snoring in his cozy dog bed nearby as the Tasmanian gale force winds tried to blow our house away.
Now onto regular life.
I did get to a local garden store that has the best plants and trees and spent yesterday digging a hole and planting a beautiful little Japanese maple tree into the yard for my dear friend I lost a little over a week ago. It has been an extremely sad time but planting the tree made me happy and I will always remember her when I look at it. I might add I have two other big plants for two dear friends who passed away in previous years. Along side the bells hanging in our large Japanese maple tree for each pet that we have lost over the last 35 plus years our whole yard is now a peaceful place to be with beautiful memories. All plants in our yard are native except the maple trees and a birch tree. I only plant bushes, etc that attract birds and bees eventually. If they don’t attract them they don’t get to live in my yard. Tasmania seems to have a lot of English gardens with plants that our lovely native birds have not eaten from. Especially roses. Only one very old rose tree lives in our back yard and I only use that to cut a flower or two for the kitchen window.
Today I might get the dogs over to a local beach that is 15 minutes away. Dogs are allowed on Nutgrove Beach in Tasmania during non Daylight Savings Time after 3 pm until the next morning. We’ll see if we get there.
Penguin approves of my friend’s Japanese maple tree. We had fun planting it and I know she would approve. She met the Penguin a couple of times.
Other News
*** I did go to a Fullers book award that other evening with a friend but I will write more about that later. I’m not sure many people would be interested except my Australian bookish friends. So I’ll do a short separate post on it and you can decide if it’s for you or not.
***Mr P is still overseas with family. Gets home the end of this week
*** I have my gym membership on hold so I can spend more time with my animals and my books and my journals. Lots of gentle activities.
Travellin' Penguin 