Sunday night TV musings

Spent most of Sunday with cjl at the local Two Boots eatery - I had eggs benedict with a creole hollandais sauce and for dinner? We split a pizza with spinach, tomato, mushroom, blackened chicken, and garlic. Extraordinarialy thin crust. For cocktails? Mimosas and sangria. Very nice day. Also-
he loaned me several DVDs, very sweet of him. So now besides the Firefly DVDs to watch, I have Buffy S4 DVDs, and Red Dwarf DVDs. Meanwhile a lady from my book club took pity on me and gave me the book we're meeting on this week - its a book of horror/supernatural/suspense short stories by a local writer. (Actually by the guy who started our book club to begin with.) Called "Walk in Shadows" by Nicholas Kaufmann. Not available at most bookstores, have to order it. Hmmm networking for books and DVDs is working for me, now if I can only find someone who will give me a job. Finding a job shouldn't be this hard? Right? Right? Ugh. Moving on before I bore you with my weekly unemployment frustration whine.

Sunday Night TV - I taped Alias, b/c out with cjl during it. So watched that this morning. Did get home in time for The Practice.

( The Practice spoilers, a little ranty I'm afraid b/c I hated it )

Alias...well I wasn't surprised. Disappointed? Yep.
I think I preferred La Femme Nikita even if it was confusing at times and had incredibly pricky characters, it wasn't quite as predictable and formulaic as Alias is. But then perhaps I've just watched one too many epsinoage shows?

( Alias Spoilers - warning: I did not like this episode. )

Childhood Book Meme/Musings

The thing about being in the middle of a mid-life crisis, which I've more or less been wading through since 2001, is you start re-evaluating everything and discover somewhere along the line your tastes changed. And here you thought they'd more or less adhered to you or you'd stabilized taste wise at 30. Hah! Nope. Certain things don't change however, like my continued interest in journeying to other worlds through works of fictions. So, this childhood book meme thingy that has infected live journal, seemed like yet another opportunity to revisit those items that may or may not have influenced my current tasts and personality.

The difficulty with this particular meme is that the youngsters online have a distinct advantage, ie. it's a lot easier to remember the books that influenced your childhood if your childhood was uhm only ten years ago. Try remembering the books you read 15-20 years ago. Not so easy, let me tell you.
Especially, when there are days I have troubles remembering what I read last year. I've read over 1000 books in my 36 years...hard to keep track of them all. But will try.

The Childhood Book Meme

( Early early years...pre-third grade )

( second grade - fifth grade, or when I learned to read )

( 6th grade - junior high )

When I reached high school - I was reading Ayn Rand, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, etc. Books included:
Anthem by Rand, Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck,
The Reivers by Faulkner, Chaucer's Tales, Loads of Shakespeare - actually acted in one, Over 100 plays including the works of Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Arthur Miller (played Tituba in The Crucible), Samuel Beckett, Christopher Durang, etc...can't remember all of them. Advise and Consent, Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, Ethan Fromm by Edith Wharton, Machievielli's The Prince, a little of the Communist Manifesto by Marx, Diary of Ann Frank, a book on Japanese internment camps during WWII. After a while these books merge a bit in my memory. Yet, I remember the impressions, slight dents or epiphanies that changed my outlook on things.

For me, reading and writing are part of my being, an extension of who I am. The books I've read do influence how I write and view other things in slight ways, I can't quite explain. I think the fact that I read so much fantasy as a child may be the reason I still find myself escaping into it today whenever I get frustrated. Or my love of adventure and a darker/conflicted hero/outcast - may be why I love Spike and Lymond and Angel so much. It's weird to contemplate how much these things have influenced me and how.

Interesting meme.