Poem for February 2012: In Praise of my Bed.

You can read this month’s poem here.

I love this poem. Of late, I’ve not been working very hard at anything, but I can recall times in my life when nothing was better than climbing into bed at the end of a long day. “The labor of being fully human” indeed.
And with that, so my poetry project goes on hiatus. I’ve enjoyed memorizing poems over the past few years. However, I’m not reading a lot of poetry right now and so I don’t come across poems I feel compelled to memorize. Perhaps when I make space in my life for poetry, I can begin this project again.

I hope to soon have a poetry post outside my house so I can display my favorite poems that are not quite right for memorizing. In the meantime, I will revisit my memorized poems now and then to keep them in my brain.

Books read in February 2012

Four “grown up” books and five young adult books read this month. Apparently, I should have become a youth librarian. Darn you, early twenties ill-thought choices.

Read:
Private Life
Jane Smiley
I’m not sure why I bothered finishing this book as it seemed as if nothing ever happened throughout the entire story. On reflection, things happened and I’m still thinking about them, but during the actual reading it was rather boring. Which is kind of interesting, after the fact. And for that I’ll bump it up a star.
The Power of Six
Pittacus Lore
Book two branches out to introduce us to more of the six remaining Lorian Legacies. A lot more of them. I feel this this unnecessarily overwhelmed the plot, especially because there are probably going to be many books in the series. However, there was a lot of action and I was interested, so I find this book to be just fine.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard
Matt and I read aloud.
When I was in high school, a friend of a friend was cast in a local production of this play. I remember being enchanted by the title, even if I had no idea who Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were. I seemed to have missed out on Hamlet in English class somehow. But the play’s title has delighted me for years. It’s not the best read aloud, due to its absurdist plot, but I’m happy to connect title to plot and I wouldn’t mind seeing a production of it, should one appear.
Rainbow Valley
L.M. Montgomery
This is mostly about the absent-minded, widowed minister next door’s children, though regular Anne characters populate the story. After reading it, I lent it to a friend who was absolutely horrified about the level of neglect of the children and the fact that no one in the congregation (not even Anne or Susan) did anything about it. It’s true, they were starved, ill-clothed and completely without adult guidance. Were it today and they students at my school, I would be on the phone to Social Services within a week, but since they were children from long-ago, I took their neglect in stride.
My favorite part of the book came on page 155 when someone exclaimed “Bismillah!” which I had only ever seen in reference to the band Queen’s song Bohemian Rhapsody, but which the internet tells me I have completely missed the meaning of, it being a collective name of a recurring Islamic phrase sometimes translated as “In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful.” Internet, you are quite helpful. The best sentence in the book was “Carl must dree his weird alone.” No one writes sentences like that anymore. I guess they are too busy looking after neglected children.
This book had the usual problem of “very good character development, not so good plot development” but it was better than most. I look forward to reading Rilla of Ingleside and closing out the Anne series. Although there is also a new book, The Blythes are Quoted edited by Benjamin Lefebvre, which I recommend you do not go and read about on the author’s web site as he begins by immediately spoiling the plot of Rilla of Ingleside. I may read the Blythes are Quoted, we shall see how Rilla goes down.

I bought this book for cheap, so if any friends are interested in reading, speak up and I’ll send it to you.
The Way
Kristen Wolf
An alternate version of the Jesus story that I found interesting in some places, but I think the fact that I know the Jesus story made it uninteresting in others.
Let it Snow
Green, Johnson, Myracle
Three interconnected stories by three YA authors. All were good and Maureen Johnson was particularly funny.
The Descendants
Kaui Hart Hemmings
I read this after I watched the movie. Sometimes it works to do that because the book is the same story as the movie, but so incredibly different (The Town/Prince of Thieves) or because reading the book is like getting a DVD extra of the movie, with more plot and more character development (In Her Shoes.) In this case, the movie was such a faithful adaptation of the book and I had so recently seen it, it was hard to divorce the two. I think the movie was very well done and I have the exact same thing to say about the book. Choose one or the other and enjoy yourself.

ps. I didn’t know anything about the author and with the name Kaui Hart Hemmings, I pictured someone like Beau Bridges, an old white guy who grew up in Hawaii. Imagine my surprise to see the author picture and find out that the old white guy was actually a woman, and a fairly young one at that.
Why We Broke Up
Daniel Handler
I’m going to have to read this absolutely fabulous book again, the reason being that I was so eager to find out exactly why the breakup occurred that I read faster and faster as the book progressed, thus missing the delight of chewing over Daniel Handler’s very long and labyrinth sentences and paragraphs. I am a great fan of the dense text and Handler has such a handle on description that I want to go back and savor them. Perhaps this will be my next read aloud choice with Matt. This is another YA book that I can heartily recommend to the non-YA crowd. Also, it’s pretty, what with the illustrations and the heavy paper and whatnot.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Jennifer E. Smith
Great flight of fun which can be devoured in a night. If you are willing to forgo the evening chores.

Sabbath report February Sundays

February 5

Lovely, lovely, LOVELY day! There was reading and napping in bed. There was watching a movie. There was walking to the park, sitting in the sun and writing a letter. There was idly reading email. And then, because I felt so rested, I happily ended my Sabbath and cooked the vegetables I didn’t have time to cook yesterday, so I would have something to eat this week.

February 12
I was lazy on Saturday and didn’t get anything done and so it was a struggle to have a rest day today. But the last time I tried this Sabbath thing that was exactly what sunk the project: I would be lazy on Saturday and then feel like I had to work on Sunday to make up for it. Today I read in bed for a long time then went for a walk and had a delicious lunch at Saraveza and walked home for more reading.
February 19
I had a volunteer work shift at church today during the second service and so I went to that. The rest of the day (both before and after) I spent reading. Which is not exciting for you to read about, but was quite nice for me.
February 26
Good, I think. I apparently forgot to report and here it is March and I remember nothing.

Just one thing: Weeks of February 2012

Week of Jan 29-Feb 4

Clean out three ring binder of recipes.
Did it. There were two binders and now there are one. Also when I was cleaning I found a lot of recipes I had forgotten about. So I will be visiting this binder now and then for direction/inspiration.
Week of Feb 5-Feb 11
Shift around bookshelves so I can clear off the top of the filing cabinet.
Didn’t do it.
Week of Feb 12 to Feb 18
Move cat litter boxes to their new place in the closet.
Did it.
Week of Feb 19 to Feb 25
Tape up cord that provides me Internet
Did it! Though to be truthful, I did it, then assigned myself the task just so I could say it got done.
Week of Feb 26 to March 3
Clean off the edges around the doors. Condensation due to previous, ineffective clothes dryer, built up on the windows, settled there and got a bit moldy. We need to put a stop to that!
Did it! We are mold free!

Three sentence movie reviews: My Week with Marilyn


This is one of those movies that makes me quite glad I don’t know any movie stars as they seem–as portrayed by Hollywood–incredibly exhausting, not to mention completely self-involved. I found the plot overall a bit “eh” but it was an incredibly gorgeous movie to watch: costumes, sets, actors. I think this would be a good movie for a plane ride, or a quiet night at home.


Essay: So you are going to see the movie adaptation of a book you have read.

Brace yourself. What you are about to see on the screen will be different than what you read on the page. The book world is limited only by the author’s imagination, has only one puppet master (the author), and the narrative is not hemmed in by the pesky human need to go to the bathroom, thus can extend longer than two hours. Movies? They are limited by what computers and movie magic can create, have many puppet masters and must tell their story comprehensively, succinctly and briefly. They are two different animals. Here are three tips for successful viewing of your book-to-movie adaptation.

Let go of the book. Though it is rare, movies sometimes use novels as a jumping off point to tell an entirely different story. So the story you read might not be the story you watch. Movies also need to condense narratives, eliminate characters and change endings. What you read will not be what you see, so just let it go right now.

Realize that these are two mediums. A book where we mostly live in the character’s head will probably not make a very good movie. (A-hem Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) Books are a medium of “telling.” They use words to let us into their world and the words can be used in a variety of ways: jumping into various characters’ heads to capture their thoughts, giving hefty background plot using a narrator, painting elaborate portraits of families, landscapes, careers. Movies tell by showing. Sometimes we get a voice over, to varying success, but mostly movies reveal things by showing us things: through dialogue, through action, through picture or the classic montage. Remember that how you learned about things in the book might not be revealed in the same way in the movie. It can be frustrating, but it’s necessary and sometimes the movie can explain things better than the book did.

Stop keeping score. It’s hard, but the more you forget you ever read the book, the more you can lose yourself in the movie. Sure, the movie people may have eliminated several characters, including your favorite, but just let it go. What have they done in place of those characters? Were those characters necessary to the plot of the story the movie is telling? The time for comparing the book movie format is after you have watched the movie. If you are too caught up in the fact that the main character is driving the wrong car, you might miss an extra detail the movie brings out that was skimmed over in the book.

As someone who loves both books and movies, I can say that I nearly always find the book a superior method of storytelling than the movie adaptation. But consuming both the book and the movie allows for interesting contrast. It also tends to be a nice commentary about society and allows for a juicy discussion of just what is up with Hollywood that they would have made exactly the movie they did. And once in a great while a movie will elevate your book into something really marvelous. All of those are reasons to take in both the book and the movie.