Monthly Archives: February 2008

QotD: Chinese New Year

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2008 is the Year of the Rat.  Which animal year were you born in?

I was born in the year of the Rat. I’m hoping that means this year is going to be fantastic. It’s also my Golden Birthday – I’ll be 24 on the 24th of September.

Here’s a description of Rats (from this site):

In Chinese, the Rat is respected and considered a courageous, enterprising person.  People born in the Year of Rat are clever and bright, sociable and family-minded.  They have broad interests and strong ability in adapting to the environment and able to react adequately to any changes.

They are gifted in many ways and have an easy going manner.  They are active and pleasant, tactful and fantastic, and are able to grasp opportunities.  They seem to have interests in everything and hope to participate in doing it and usually do it very well.

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Vox Hunt: The Gadgets I Carry

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Show us the gadgets you carry with you.


Maybe this will help Ryan understand why my purse is so stinking heavy all the time.

The picture isn’t that great because I used my old digital camera. My new digital camera is, of course, the one in the picture.

Other things that make my bags heavy that are not pictured (because they are not ‘gadgets’) are: a book, 1 or 2 moleskins, an EPI pen, anywhere from 3 to 5 notebooks, a planner, painkiller, keys, and glasses.

This is why my shoulder hurts 95% of the time.

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Harmonious Reading

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I didn’t plan on it, but the books I’ve read lately have been rather complimentary.

First, I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is set mainly in Russian controlled Czechoslovakia during the Cold War (a setting that largely influences the plot and philosophy that makes the book incredible).

Next, I read The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt. It’s set in the Long Island, from September 1967 through June 1968. The major events of the time period (assassinations of MLK Jr and Bobby Kennedy) as well as the Vietnam War have big impacts on the book’s charming hero, Holling, and the people in his life. This book also is a Newbery Honor recipient, which is very well deserved.

Today I read The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis. This is an autobiography presented in pictures and words that just received a Caldecott Honor Medal. Peter Sis grew up in Prague during the Cold War, and the book spans from 1948 through 1989.

I loved all three, and am quite pleased that I serendipitously read them all about the same time.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
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Polysyllabic Spree – January 2008

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Books Purchased:

The Best American Non-Required Reading 2003 edited by Dave Eggers
Something Happened by Joseph Heller
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll
My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Best American Essays 2003 edited by Anne Fadiman
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith
The Fun of It – Stories from The Talk of the Town edited by Lillian Ross


Books Read:

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman
The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)
Beginner’s Greek by James Collins
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

I finished the last book (so far) in the Thursday Next series – Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. Now I have to try to wait patiently for Jasper Fforde to write the next one. According to him, there will be at least 3 more. I read Sideways Stories From Wayside School aloud to my brother while I was home for Christmas. That was very fun, I hadn’t read any in a while. I may need to read the other two on my own here.

I’ve already written about how much I enjoyed At Large and at Small, and there’s a great interview with Anne Fadiman on Powell’s. I also loved The Braindead Megaphone, and there’s an incredible interview with him on KCRW’s Bookworm, which you can listen to here. He has a great conversation with Michael Silverblatt about writing and editing, and also reads aloud a short essay from the book.

The Uncommon Reader is a short little novella, and highly enjoyable. The story of what happens when the Queen of England discovers books and becomes an avid reader.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Vocies from a Medieval Village was this year’s Newbery Medal winner, and I’ll write more about it in a future post.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being was 15 pages away from making it into this month’s post. But I got really tired and wanted to read the ending when I was actually awake. So the last 15 pages were finished on the train into work on Feb 1.  Oh well, it will help give a good start to February’s list.

My complete Polysyllabic Spree can be found here.

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