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Another crisp crystal blue sky day...highlights were: on the way to work this morning, seeing the orange burst of the sunrise reflected like a prism in the storied glass of Chrysler building as I paused, in the bitter cold, waiting on a stop light at 42nd Street and Madison Avenue. Just beyond it was the sign, Tudor City, highlight in red, yellow and orange light. And...then, on the way home the sunset bursting against a water tower as my train trudged over the viaduct towards Smith-9th Street Station.

I'm trying to be mindful of little bursts of beauty.

During my walk at lunch, I treated myself to a Jacques Torres classic hot chocolate and two freshly baked gluten free chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of No Glu, a Parisan French Bakery that now has a NYC outlet. These new work digs are a bit dangerous for both my diet and my pocketbook. There's all these nifty temptations. Tucked away on a side street, half-hidden, is the Center for Fiction on 47th and Madison. And of course Barnes and Noble on 46th and 5th Avenue. Then there's Anne Taylor, J Crew,
various clothing stores, luggage stores, shoe stores, and chocolatiers. And restaurants galore. You basically find whatever you want -- for a price. Mid-Town is pricey.

Not getting many comments to my lj posts...making me wonder if anyone is bothering to read them? Although, considering how often I comment on friends posts...that's not exactly an indicator.

Was reading reviews of books at work, got mildly discouraged that there was a lack of reviews and sales for my own book, but shrugged it off. It is what it is. People are weird about books - not everyone reviews them. And whether you like a book or not is wildly subjective and based so much on your mood or interest at the time. I know it is for me. Plus everyone thinks differently. It's like LJ Posts - the posts folks respond to? Rarely make much logical sense and there's no discernible pattern that I can see. Sometimes it just because you said something that struck a chord. Could be a sentence or one word.

Case in point? On Good Reads: One woman reviewed Uprooted and stated: "I won't pin the tag fairytale on it like most others have described it because a true noteworthy fairytale has magic, enchanting the reader."

This just bewildered me. (Actually, a lot of reviews online bewilder me, so a frequent occurrence and proof that people think differently.)

Clearly the woman hasn't read many actual fairy tales, because a)not all of them have magic, b) few enchant. Most are actually quite disenchanting and depressing. Case in point, The Little Matchstick Girl by Hans Christian Anderson. And, this story definitely had magic, whether it enchanted or not is in the eye of the beholder. I'm bewildered by how people define fairy tales - magically enchanting and wonderous, is not how I'd define fairy tales (and I have studied them and have five different collections, including William Butler Yeats). Read up on your Brother's Grimm, they were called "Grimm" for a reason. I've always considered fairy tales as sort of a child's fantastical version of The Twilight Zone. They are horror stories about survival. Not nice little romps where you frolick with fairies and elves aka Harry Potter, and even Harry Potter wasn't a nice little romp.

Oh, and politics raised its ugly head today. Co-worker and cubicle mate is obsessed with Donald Trump. He's terrified Trump will win.
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