The Old Woman and the Sea

It's my Friday photo...a little late and a little early.

Though I can't quite remember the art piece, phrasings from this description have stayed with me.  I hope you have had a good week and I'll be back to normal (?!) after Labor Day.  Cheers!

Museum of Contemporary Art
Sydney, Australia 2012

Victory from De-Feat

I have no idea why this excerpt appealed to me so much.

This is what my brain is trying to tell you while my heart says, "Yes, you do."  Cold Feat by Andrew McCarthy is slated to be published next month.  Soul-searching, traveling, challenging, and picking the wrong book sometimes at the right time.  Hope your Monday is off to a good start.

Author's note:  Forgive me these next few weeks if my posting schedule is a bit off.  I've got some soul-searching, traveling, challenging, and reading a few (wrong or right) books in my future.

I Tri-ed #240

Today's writing has been briefly delayed by a triathlon and a long nap.  I'm fairly certain this is the most supportive book club in the history of all book clubs.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Things I learned today that were not in any of the books I read in prepping for the day:

• You might awake to pouring rain.  In this case, one should go back inside to apply sunscreen.  If you don't, your back might look like a Rubin vase
• Timing chip = left side
• Sometimes life doesn't give you a warm-up.
• When your alarm is set for 4, you will awake at 3 and start thinking about the swim
• You may accidentally end up in a faster swim heat
• Despite being better than average at math and having keen memorization skills for numbers, you will forget where your bike should be racked
• There are no instructions for removing your neighbor's handlebars from your back wheel spokes
• You will smile when a 10 year old passes you
• You will smile when you pass an 18 year old
• You may forget to drink water on the bike
• You will hug the first person you see when you cross the finish line.  Thankfully, I happened to know the person removing my timing chip so it wasn't so strange.
• The body markings are a challenge to remove.

So here's to tri-ing something new, setting goals, facing fears, and being just a little bit crazy.  Have a great weekend!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

It's a challenge to garner enough reading material for a yet undermined amount of time.  When I was in France for a month, I had nearly a dozen books.  I think I read two, maybe three.  There were other times on holiday that I could go through a book nearly every two days.  (Perhaps there is a reading water correlation in the mix?)

I stumbled across The Light Between Oceans this morning courtesy of Amazon cookie tracking and their SEO.  It's ML Stedman's first novel and while I assumed the author was male, I was pleasantly surprised to see "her" on the author's page.  The reviews include "heart-breaking", "barren couple", "baby", "isolation" and "return" which were enough to hook me into a Kindle download.  I'll admit the Australian setting played its part as well.  Here's a link to a recent Q&A with The Day, though if you like plunging into a novel not knowing too much, I'll suggest that you refrain from reading to the end as it hints to a key plot event.

Good luck with your end of summer reading selections!

What do you Mean?

With the Olympics and my own personal voyage, I someone missed the Long List announcement of the Man Booker Prize at the end of last month.  Occasionally a baker's dozen, this year we have a proper list of twelve.  My first click (no surprise to some of you) was Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.  The site's descriptive "Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams."  Count me in (when Amazon has stock).

In another award-winning news, GBC T1m celebrates another 365.25 days around the sun.  We wish him a day filled with sci-fi books, board games, great food, and family hugs.  Cheers!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Most of us are into music as well as books.  It's the go-to for exercise company, the necessary for clearing your head, traveling soundtracks, and the impromptu kitchen dance.  The Olympic ceremonies have done a fine job of reminding me of a few favorites and NPR gave me this link to the Six Songs of Me.  Six easy questions and endless possibilities for a playlist.

Full Tank

My mantra of late has been "I am a fish" but I found this exhibit to be rather sharking.

Atlanta Aquarium, "The Wall"
June 2012

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Zero.  I've read none of them, well read none of them from cover to cover.  Finnegan's Wake I've skimmed.  Was it Honors English?  I'm certain it had to be either a class or some brief intellectual foray during my year of volunteer/travel/learn/run/develop worse puns.

This morning I discovered "The world's most difficult books: how many have you read" posted by Alison Flood and referencing this list from the Millions.  I'm certain that at least a few of our fellow GBC members have managed a couple of these titles.  Stein I can understand making the list.  After all, I compared another of her works to a half-marathon which surely was not the intended consequence.  (At least, I don't think she was a runner).  I would have included a Joseph Conrad to the list.

So, how many have you read?

"It's a Wheel!"

"For several thousand years people supposed that the earth was a great platform surrounded by the sea to an unknown distance; and that the sun set in the sea and rose out of it."

Opening line from Astronomy without Mathematics by Sir Edmund Beckett, Sixth Edition (revised for the results of the transit of Venus).  Published 1876.  My particular copy was "Obtained by William Brown in the Examination of Science Classes held May 1877".  It was noted as the "Queen's Prize."

Well done, Curiosity.   

New Cycle

I don't know how the week passed so quickly.

My reading time has had an inverse relationship to my biking.

I hope to be back in gear before long.

Up to the Sky...

I need to pack at some point in the near future.  With this self-acknowledgement, I've noticed that I have become one of "those" who still have unopened boxes from the last move.  Some are this way because I have been in a smaller space and I have too many kitchen items.  One box is still taped because I haven't had the heart to face the memories.  Maybe I'll visit it the move after this one.

Maybe.

In the winding down period before the winding up, I feel the chaos and this Al Kennedy piece felt at times as though he stepped inside my own head to find his words.  In "The Chaos of Writing:  Still hitting the keyboard after all these years," he notes, "Almost half my life has passed before my eyes. It was dusty. And creased."  He's moving as well and has had to deal with the emotional side of packing that creeps in beside the practical.  You're in the midst of a box, and stop short to look at a photo, listen to a CD, pause to remember, sometimes to cry.  What to keep?  What to rid?  How in the world did I end up with so many [insert slightly embarrassing admission here]?  Endings and beginnings swirled up in cardboard and whatever adhesive you happen to find.  Holding it together is always the hardest part.

Kennedy says, "Onwards".  Come what may, always, ever, and back again.