hey estela guess what

ilyboth

i like bleak house a lot so far but i wonder if i have the endurance to read 900+ pages when i read so little during the week. i had a nice time reading in bed the last 2 mornings and got to page 65 or so.

i have been on an amy bloom kick and just read the last of her books. i do this, i find an author i really like and then read all their stuff in quick succession and then get really bummed when there is no more left to read. i did this with siri hustvedt and jane smiley also. the only person i didn't do this with was alice munro, who i paced myself on for like 3 years but i finally just finished the last one ;_;

now i'm obsessed with jonathan dee.

i am never goign to finish a book, i just read parts of multiple books. i'm back to the warmth of other suns. only 190 pages to go. i have a borders gift card, what should i buy?

an itty bitty book light and a tin of mints.

lol. i randomly selected 3 of those nyrb books.

never you read books?

new york review of books! there is a thread on them http://ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=55&threadid=74055#unread
i wonder if i will succeed at finishing more than 12 books this year. i've already finished the warmth of other suns, that's one for 2011. and a couple i read almost all of in 2010 and never did. i can do that. i'm just too tired most of the time.

there are 5 books that i read about 80% of, including crash. i need to just suck it up and finish that awful thing.

i wouldn't, i never force myself to finish books i don't want to read, it's a waste of reading time. reading time is finite and there are millions of books out there.

i don't know why i have this hang up. i tried to get rid of it and tell myself that very same thing. but i feel like i wasted time reading most of it and the time would become unwasted if i would finish.

i'm with estela on this one. ditch it if you don't like it.

The 50 page rule rules.

ok ok ok

lol, did we browbeat you into abandoning all 5 unfinished books?

not all 5. there is one i just re-borrowed. our library doesn't give enough time for slowpokes. i have like 100 pages left.
i just finished the true deceiver by tove jansson!!!

i read the first kurt wallander book and the first martin beck book, they were ok

ruby, i'm reading amy hempel's collected stories and finding her brilliant. if you have not read her i think you would like her.

that is the one i have, too! i started reading it a while ago, but then i got distracted. i think i liked it??

i got a library card last weekend btw

i did that too-- started reading, liked it, got distracted, and now i'm loving it.

i bet you have a good library there.

it's super tiny bc our city is super tiny. also i now officially live in contra costa county, not alameda county, so i guess i can't access berkeley's library with my card.

estela i am reading a novel right now, and the female protagonist's nemesis is the spitting (word) image of your 'friend' you told me about.

how lovely

hey e-stale-a

hey estela and what

^^ a good thread for a parallel ILX was mentioned repeated ages ago
kinda like the when pato met estela thread but with a sharper foil

hey t.skilaviver<3

hey estela, have you read any mona simpson? i'm reading 'off keck road', it's pretty good.

no i haven't read her but i always like to get a reccommendation from you.

i was trying to figure out why her name was so familiar to me in this backwards province and it's because she's steve job's sister.

omg

estela made a mistake <3

are you referring to backwards because that was deliberate, this place is too sunny and sky blue and beachy for backwoods.

or are you querying how we spell recommendation around here<3

or is mona simpson not really steve job's sister.

???

steve jobs'

or is it steve jobs's

i forgot that she is his sister!

i'm almost finished with it, it's quite bleak, sort of like richard yates but without the actual hardships i suppose? idk i have quite enjoyed it so far. it's a funny sort of novel, though - it's more like a series of short stories that are about the same group of people, but it took me like 3/4 of the book to to get a grip on who is who.

lol job's is a(nother) mistake, i am being a disaster. also i jist spelt lol as lot but i caught it in time.

just

i like linked stories.

I am reading this book about the Dust Bowl, and it is horrifying and amazing and completely engrossing.

Hey Estela guess what

I gave some marmite to my american friend and she LOVES it

i would never have guessed that.

at our grocery store there's a sad little sign next to the vegemite apologising that marmite is presently unavailable due to earthquake damage at the christchurch factory and i always laugh and think of you when i see it, it's the only lol i've had from that whole terrible ongoing nightmare.

there's an alley near me named christ church

did i tell you already that i had 3 stupid jars of marmite and now i (technically) have none??

- i lost the first through airport security
- i checked the BB date of the other 2 for lolz and one expires this month and the other already expired LAST YEAR

i gave the least-fucked one to my friend so now i'm down to one expired jar. still tastes normal.

aw if i see any anywhere i'll grab you some, nz ran out far quicker than australia did because the crisis got a lot more publicity over there.

oh i'm just gonna keep eating my expired jar - it's actually a 'best before' date, not a 'use by' date, so it's fine. and a small jar lasts me years!

next time you're in wellington you can check to see if the jar we left at the top of the cable car is still there

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3478/4013168312_2efed0c112.jpg