I really miss going into a library and looking for books on the shelves. My library is open for curbside pickup only and it doesn't work well for me. So I have been reading what is on my shelves as I have said before. This library (above) in Philadelphia (West Oak Lane section) came on the scene when I was about ten. It was a thrilling day for me because book mobiles had great limitations.
I can still remember the floor plan and how often I campaigned the children's librarian to let me go to the adult side of the building. Mrs. Robinson was the first Black person I knew and she was beautiful, smart, and loved kids. She tried valiantly to get me to read better books than the ones I was drawn to. The books she suggested seemed like boys books to me at ten. I was very wrong to think Sue Barton, Shipboard Nurse, was a better pick than 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or Robinson Crusoe.
Even though our six thousand person community in Michigan doesn't have a very good library, I can use any in my county and do through loans.
I have watched a number of plays through various online methods this week. Saw THREE KINGS (with Andrew Scott from the Old VIC) AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, on you tube, which was sensational. a play at the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, MI (that's Jeff Daniels' theater) but missed one or two opportunities. If I was adept enough I could figure out how to stream them onto my TV instead of just watching on my laptop. Tonight I will watch showupforgeorgia.com, a table read of VEEP with special guests to raise money for the senate race in GA. Being able to see this sort of thing over the last year has been one of the few good things about the year. I have also been able to watch various authors at book store events through zoom and facebook. As hard as this year has been, it would have been a lot harder 20 years ago. I don't think I would make it if all I had to do was read. As much as I love to read, it's not enough. Even the audio version.
I only saw one person this week, but I ordered meals for us from a nice restaurant and we were able to have a pleasant dinner. They deliver them for $10 and you get three, three course meals for $40. They were quite good.
I ordered all my Christmas presents in the last few days, just hoping they can get them delivered in the next few weeks although Megan got one of them the next day. I wonder how many people will get Obama's book as a present.
Reading the Obama book myself. Don't think I am going to finish Nabokov's THE LUZHIN DEFENSE. It is too similar in tone and style to LAUGHTER IN THE DARK.
Been watching MURDER ON MIDDLE BEACH on HBO, which is pretty exciting. Also ETHOS, which I go back and forth about. Too many characters for my taste. And because so many women wear head coverings it is hard to tell them apart. And because all of the men have dark beards, they are not easy to tell apart either. Watching the last two seasons of FOYLE'S WAR, which I don't think I saw but who knows. Also watching the Cary Grant movies on Criterion this month. Can't remember ever seeing HOLIDAY before but it was a real gem. OPERATION PETTICOAT was a yawn though.
How about you?
20 comments:
I have 3 kids, 10 grandkids and one great grandkid (with another on the way). Too many to shop for so I just give my grandkids a gift card.
Didn't see anyone this week other than in passing. Bored.
Didn't find the first episode of Murder On Middle Beach interesting so I haven't followed up on it but I may have to since there is very little of interest on tv right now. I just didn't care about this family. Who names there son Madison and has over 100 hours of video of their family? Finished Line of Duty and have one left of Fargo. Need to go back and finish The New Pope. Rewatched The Irishman. Watched Mank on Netflix. I have mixed feelings about. Loved Gary Oldman's performance. And loved the photography which looked like it was shot in 1940. Check out the outdoor scenes especially. But I feel you need to have knowledge of/or interest in the subject matter to appreciate it. I can't see my kids enjoying it. They wouldn't have a clue who most of the people were and.
Reading Falling Angels by Gunnar Staalesen and A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick ( a reread of one of his lesser novels).
I also miss browsing the library. I do go to B&N once a week to browse. It's never too busy on weekdays so distancing is not much of a problem.
Did I say I'm getting bored? And dinners. Living on takeout pizza and homemade chili. One of the few things I can cook.
I totally sympathize with you not being able to browse library shelves. I wish I was reading all my books in house rather than ordering books online (or "pick up" from the independent book store). But I have less resistance to buying books now than ever before.
We did get to go to a modified book sale this weekend and I did a post about it. It was nice, although much limited.
We are about halfway through season 3 of The Good Place and we have only one episode left in Bosch Season 6. We just ordered all five seasons of Babylon 5 so that will be in the rotation as soon as it comes.
Reading: LITTLE WOMEN. I am sure I must have read it before (in my teens or twenties?). I am liking it more than I thought I would.
It has been a while since I saw Holiday, but I remember liking it. It is one of the few movies with Katherine Hepburn that Glen will watch without complaining. They also did Bringing Up Baby together and he likes that even more.
Oh, to wander through the library stacks...my idea of heaven.
It's been very chilly here this week. I had To break out a light jacket.
The girls decided to go on their last camping trip of the year. It was bitter cold and windy. They had a hard time getting their tents up and, once they were up, they were afraid that the wind would break the tent poles. Much of the weekend was spent in warm sleeping bags. Somehow they had a lot of fun. y own idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service. Different strokes, I guess.
The vaccine cannot come soon enough. Stupidity reigns in Florida, starting with a governor who refuses to anything about Covid. Mask boredom seems to have hit the students in the high school where Christina works; more and more students have stopped wearing masks, even though many are being sent home every day for testing positive. **sigh**
Jack has started basketball and likes it. Somehow his father dropped him off at the wrong practice so he spent the time practicing with one of his opposing teams. He'll be in the right spot this week (I hope). We have had to listen to the sound of a basketball bouncing on the sidewalk outside our apartment all weekend. We will survive, I'm sure.
Somehow Mark injured is knee. We're hoping it will be fine for his ultramarathon in January. Other than that, everyone is happy and healthy. Kitty and I are following the guidelines and will be even more isolated over the next couple of months. I am just hoping that this winter will not be as bad pandemic-wise as is being predicted.
Still watching a lot of TV. We really like the History Guy on YouTube. Also watched DANDELION DEAD, and old BBC drama about a true-life murder case, starring Michael Kitchen. Pretty good. Also re-watched Helen Hayes as Jane Marple in A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY -- too much of an 80s made-for-TV movie for my taste. It was good to watch Hayes, though, and the screenplay was written by Sue Grafton, so those were positives. I try to avoid Christmas movies like the plague but I was stuck watching Kurt Russell in A CHRISTMAS CHRONICLE with Jack, who was enthralled. I have to admit I liked the film, I mean what's not to like about Santa Claus driving a stolen car through the streets of Chicago, right? I never realized that Santa looked like Snake Pliskin.
Still reading short stories, but I broke with them for a bit because the library had the new Charlie Parker mystery by John Connolly for pickup. I can't get enough of that series.
I am hoping for a solid week away from the comedy stylings of Rudy Guiliani now that he has Covid. Wish I could get a week away from his boss...
I hope your week ahead is a great one, Patti.
I miss libraries, too, Patti! I also miss indie bookshops. I'm just hoping we get past this pandemic in the next few months so that we can do those things again. Thank goodness we can still find other ways to get books to read...
I heard a doctor from the task force say give them six months and things will be very much better. So June.
Steve-it gets much better after the first one. I know lots of people names Madison byt he way but mostly women.
Tell Glenn I didn't much like her in this one either. She is too conscious of herself for my taste. Give me Irene Dunn. Also watching THE GOOD PLACE AGAIN and getting more out of the latter seasons.
Still no snow in my part of Western NY. November was mild and December is warmer than Normal. But, I keep starting my snowblower to be ready for the inevitable.
The Erie County libraries are closed to indoor traffic (although Pick-Up service is available) while Niagara County (where we live) have their libraries open from 10-2 each day.
Patrick had dinner with us on Friday and stayed overnight. On Saturday, he hung some paintings on the wall for Diane and hooked up some stereo speakers for me. My brother gave me a SONY receiver and I upgraded my basement sound system by adding a CD changer and two audiophile speakers. Now music fills my large basement with wonderful sound! When I was listening to music on my SONY boombox, the sound of the furnace (or Air Conditioner) going on would drown out the music. That won't happen any more!
Diane enjoys her HALLMARK movies and I'm all caught up on THE Mandalorian. I'm reading some John Flagg spy novels. And Christmas music fills our house with hope for 2021. Stay safe!
I feel that way about libraries too. When we moved to Brooklyn when I was 9, we were two blocks from the giant Kings Highway branch. It is a very large building with a full second floor Children's section. I would wander freely up and down the aisles of the huge fiction section, pulling out whatever looked interesting. Years later, when we were close to downtown, I would go to the Central branch at Grand Army Plaza every week or two after dropping Jackie off at school and do the same for an hour or two. Good times. We have two local branches here. The Fort Hamilton is very small (I guess you could call it "compact") and dull. Bay Ridge is like Kings Highway (not as large) in that it has two floors with the kids' books upstairs. Right now both have the lobby open just to pick up reserved books and DVDs and drop off returns. The truth is, since they started on line reserving, I just don't spend that much time wandering the aisles aimlessly.
I've been reading more non-fiction lately. I'm a big fan of David Sedaris, and just read his "greatest hits" book THE BEST OF ME, most of which I'd read previously. He makes me laugh, good at any time but especially now, and there was one line that struck me so funny I could barely get my breath and read it to Jackie, who, of course, didn't get why it was so funny to me. Now I'm reading a book George reviewed a while ago, THE WRITER'S LIBRARY by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager. They interviewed various authors about books they read, authors they love, what they read growing up, etc. I'm really enjoying it. You not only get plenty of recommendations from the authors, but you feel like you need to read the authors themselves. So far I've read Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Egan, T. C. Boyle (who I have never read), Luis Alberto Urrea. Their enthusiasm is infectious.
We watched and very much enjoyed SOUND OF METAL on Amazon Prime. Riz Ahmed was terrific as a heavy metal drummer who suddenly finds himself losing his hearing. The next night, I was quite disappointed with the highly touted MANK. If you love CITIZEN KANE minutia you might love it too, but it struck me as a movie critics would like more than audiences, plus the main premise of the film - that Herman Mankiewicz wrote KANE as revenge for the 1934 California Gubernatorial election plot against Upton Sinclair - was just nonsense. Way too much inside baseball for me.
Too cold for my taste now (38 was the high yesterday), but they predict the 50s by the end of the week.
We're watching the second series of THE GOOD PLACE (I like it way more than Jackie), DARK (slogging through the final episodes), DERRY GIRLS (so much fun), THE CROWN (hateful people), MYSTERY ROAD (not liking second series at all), INSPECTOR MANARA, MOSSAD 101, SCHITT'S CREEK (finally up to series two), VIRGIN RIVER (about to quit it; too soapy), THE WEST WING (want to finish season five before it is dropped by Netflix 12/24), several other things.
Mostly, I'd rather read.
I don't get Virgin River at all. Not only soapy but awkwardly acted. Also the secodn season of Mystery Road I ditched. Hate drugs as main theme. Liked SCHITT'S CREEK more every season. Love THE GOOD PLACE more binging it like this. Initially it seemed to come and go. I'm going to get the Writer's Library as soon as I can justify spending money. I can't imagine having Megan at home. What a treat that would be.
Irene Dunne is one of Glen's favorite actresses. He loves THE AWFUL TRUTH. My favorite is ROBERTA, although that is partly because she sings and it also has Astaire and Rogers.
Just saw THE AWFUL TRUTH and it may be the best screwball ever. Close call with Bringing up Baby.
I think I am falling for Glen.
I'm not sure about Sue Barton, Shipboard Nurse, but Jackie did read a lot of "career girl" books like it. But she said she also read THE CARPETBAGGERS and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE.
She said she did not like Sue Barton. She liked Cherry Ames, a mystery-solving nurse, and Vicki Barr, stewardess, as well as Nancy Drew. The library did not carry them, so she had to use her allowance to buy them. The library didn't have the Hardy Boys books either.
Patti, you and Glen do share similar tastes in movies and actors / actresses.
So glad you're still here, Patti!
Our county is completely shut down, so there is No Library at all, no holds or pickups, nothing. I had a half dozen books about ready to come up and it all shut down. Fortunately, I have more than enough here, I won't run out any time soon, but there are things I want to read but no pay to buy. So we wait. I guess it's okay, as I have a huge case of the blahs anyway. Just not interested in much of anything. I am reading some short stories, but it's slow going.
Not watching anything either, except the occasional football game (Ducks and Seahawks played awful and lost), which is from boredom rather than much interest, except Seahawks, but that's frustrating when they play so badly.
It's cold, in the low 40s and so, but some sun, so pretty some days. I lost a pound this week, so that's good.
Oh, I read Cherry Ames too. Anything that described a more glamorous life than mine. I couldn't read Robbins until I made it into the adult section at 12.
It is getting harder to make it through each day, Rick, isn't it? The news about Trump turning down more vaccine is another blow.
Still here as well and I miss bookstores and libraries. Dallas is open to curbside pickup, but our branch suddenly closed to that as well last Thursday due to a confirmed Covid case among staff. Two more Dallas branches closed yesterday.
Things are now rolling back due to the infection metrics at the hospitals all across this region. Dallas County is now down to just 30 ICU beds county wide.
Staying home and staying away from others. Supposed to be 70 here today. :)
Well, I wish it were 70 here today because at least being outside would be nice. Instead we are in the thirties. Of course, I wouldn't enjoy your summers.
Summers ARE evil. I hate them.
Supposed to be almost 80 today after hitting mid thirties this morning.
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