flemmings | (no subject)

Not dead, or not quite. Have cold, have had a full week at work, come home brain-fried, take cold pills and go to bed and get up again next morning to do it all over again. But now! Three day weekend! Hurray!

xsmoonshine gave me a virtual glass heart for Valentine's Day, the better to be broken, I suppose. (snerf)

Last night I dreamed I spent Chinese New Year with

paleaswater's very traditional (in my dream) Chinese family; her ditzy sisters-in-law expressed their shock to me that she didn't pound nails into her head because her husband was away as any good wife would do. Shock was expressed in Japanese-- "HidoooOOOIII!!!"-- which didn't help.

paleaswater just laughed at them. Meanwhile her scholarly, courteous, bespectacled father brought out various ancient and valuable wooden carvings and large paper fans to display for New Year's; the carvings were abstract and curving shapes. It was actually rather nice.

Was reading Anansi Boys last year some time, bogged down twenty pages in, someone said 'Yeah, that's about as far as I got with it too.' Put it out on the lawn. Then read what happens in Anansi Boys, was intrigued, bought it again and am now reading it with reasonable happiness, aside from being ear-wormed by Graceland. OTOH my used-book guy saved a couple of Sherlock Holmes pastiches for me, I passed on the one I owned but happily bought The Revenge of the Hound, saving it for when I finally got to The Hound of the Baskervilles in my reread. Only before that I was rereading lj entries looking for something that's still missing and discovered that The Revenge was something I started last fall, threw against the wall, and... put out on the lawn.

(Should go back and see where Fat Charlie grew up, because if it was Florida and not somewhere in the Islands, I don't think I can buy the Britishness of his literary references.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was intrigued by Anansi Boys, but nver got the nerve/courage(?) to read. Does one need to have read American Gods to know what it's about? Or does it do well enough as a stand alone story?

I just managed to get my hands on the Memoirs and Adventures. (ACD) I will get the longer novels later I think. I am still going through them Sharpe books. Have read 8 and got 8 more out the library. I hope to finish the series soon. I think after this pile there are only 6 more to go.

Words ... lovely lovely wonderful words. ^_^

I don't think it has any relation to American Gods at all. Perfectly fine as a stand-alone.

What fun to have all those Sharpes to read. Yes, it's the same period as O'Brian, but O'Brian sends his characters all round the world to various colonies, and the sea battles are less historical engagements, IIRC, than individual encounters between enemy ships.

You should come and spend Chinese new year with us one year. I swear I will not drag you to Chinatown. Wahaha -I like the idea of my scholarly, courteous, bespectacled father best. He was scholarly and bespectacled, of course, but he still manages to come across as an angry uncouth proletariat in person. Everyone who knows him marveled at it.

I'd love to spend CNY chez toi. Your description of the food always makes my mouth water.

Your dream father was tall and thin with a long face, whereas I always think of your real father as looking like Hu Jun. Not that I have a clue what your father looked like, natch.