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Great Expectations is Charles Dicken’s thirteenth novel and only the second one after David Copperfield that is written in the first person -according to Wikipedia.

I am listening to the audio version of it in the car and must say I am thoroughly enjoying it. More so than most books I have read this year.  According to academic sources it includes  themes of wealth, poverty, love, rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

I have not read Dickens before and have felt guilty for many years. It wasn’t emphasised in American high schools in the 1960’s.  Then life got in the way and I never made time for these very long books.

The version I am listening to is performed by Martin Jarvis and I love his interpretation of it. (Audible.com).

Dickens paints pictures with his words. The swamps with the convicts hidden, Miss Haversham’s old dilapidated house. Pip’s sister and brother in law are exceptionally well spoken.  The characters are three dimensional and I expect to look over in the passenger seat of the car and see Pip or Joe sitting there.  Sometimes if I get distracted by traffic I will rewind the chapter and listen to it again.

Other news:

I have been reading several magazine articles from Womankind and Philosopher magazines that are published in Hobart.  There is a brand new book shop in Hobart connected to the publishing establishments of these magazines. I went in for the first time the other day and talked to the staff. They let me take some photos. I will do a separate post on this wonderful new shop.

I am also reading the blogs listed on my post regularly.  Although I don’t always have the time or strength to comment I do enjoy them.

I have been seriously decluttering the house. I have joined a fitness centre and am working on ‘getting old gracefully.’  Stretching, balance and weight bearing are the goals. I have lost a few pounds and am working on strengthening my upper body and torso muscles as I get achey while riding my motorbike.  It is like riding a horse. I hobble the day after.

I have a week coming up in Sydney beginning the 19th of this month but more on that later too.

Our photo club challenges are taking up a lot of time. I watch countless videos on You Tube to learn all the settings of my Canon 5D Mark III.  It is like learning to fly a plane. Lightroom and Photoshop are also extensions of that.

I will leave you with a happy honey bee I photographed this morning as I practised various camera settings.

How is your week going?

 

Bus Trip into Hobart for my Writing Group Meet Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very  quiet day..

Lots of bits and pieces happening during the past week or so. The biggest news is that I have taken the rest of  my Penguin Book Collection to auction. It will be auctioned off on Friday. I did keep the vintage Illustrated Classics that comprise the wood prints and I kept the collection of cerise (pink) Penguins. They are the travel and adventure books mainly from the 1940’s to 1960’s. I also still have the 37 boxed sets.  I will probably keep the above lists on this blog as a reference for other people who collect Penguins.

As I drove away from the auction house I was near tears but then remembered the Buddhist principals of impermanence and stopped at McDonalds for a large Orange Juice and an Egg McMuffin.  I then felt okay. I was beginning to worry a lot about who was going to take this house apart if I depart this earth first. I don’t want Mr. Penguin worrying about it. I still have so many adventures on the shelves to keep me happy.

I decided to treat the whole collection as the Penguin Journey. As if it had been  a holiday that had to come to an end. I visited England on the book hunt. I made many friends. I learned a great deal about the Penguin Publishing history. I gave several community talks. I visited the Bristol University Archives. I had a great time over almost 10 years and now that holiday is over.

Time to move on. I  have never shied away from moving on in any capacity.  I am getting deeper and deeper into photography and enjoy the new friends I am making in the arena of the Hobart Photo Club and the challenges through the Cannon Collective. Learning Photoshop is exasperating and fun and hopefully will keep dementia at bay. It is really like learning a foreign language which is supposed to be great in fighting off dying brain cells.

My photography equipment doesn’t take up as much space either as 2000 books did. In many way it is true that decluttering helps de-stress a mind. It wasn’t ‘sparking joy’ as it once did.

I still have five rescue pets under my roof to keep me stressed and happy with their worries, recklessness and happiness.

I might take up Wordless Wednesday with photographs. I picked that up from “O” of On Bookes blog. I enjoy her classics blog, life with rescue hens and budgies as well as her photographs of northern England.  I am in the midst of three books at the moment.

A crime book by Robert Crais, The Promise,  is currently on my phone kindle. I have followed his characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike for years.  He lives in the hills of Los Angeles and I enjoy his antics.  I read that when I am out of the house waiting for people and appointments.

A wonderful version of Great Expectations is on the car bluetooth speakers through Audible.com. I am loving it. Dickens was wonderful in character descriptions and dialogue and I am loving this story I have not read before. I look forward to driving and listening to another chapter.

In print I am continuing walking The El Camino in Talking with Cats by W. Lee Nichols.  I love the philosophy he thinks about, his experiences in cafes and hostels and his mind is always turning over. Meaning of life stuff and history.

Speaking of long walks. I am still playing with the dogs but thinking I don’t get as much exercise as I need. I have signed up for swimming and senior exercise classes at a local fitness centre. Having grown up within the cornfields of mid Michigan I wasn’t exposed to a lot of swimming. Paddling around a lake or fishing, yes, once in awhile. But the Australian childhood puts growing up in other countries to shame when it comes to swimming.  I am enjoying being in the water and getting out of breath from lap to lap. I do mean lap to lap too.  Swim one lap. Rest. Swim another one. Rest. My goal at the moment is two without the rest. Small steps.

I forgot to mention I also have hung onto the more modern Penguin smaller books. English Journeys series. Great Journeys series. Great ideas. I am toying with the idea of saving these for weekend reads. Now I need an alliterative title for post on weekend Penguins. Though it may just be called Weekend Penguins. I am planning on making some minor tweaks to my blog’s focus. It is coming up on about 7 years and we all need changes from time to time.

Looking ahead to 2018 I see travel. We have a big trip coming up for the month of March and there will be much walking. I need to be more fit. More on the later. I see more reading of the TBR. I see more Penguin books posted. I see better health (2017 was a wipe out). I see photography. I see food. I am cooking more. I might share one of the Great Foods books Penguin puts out.

More to come.  Are you as ready to finish off 2017 and start a new year as I am?