Books, puppy, books: so just the same as usual, really.

[mrissa]

I am very nearly to the stage of Thermionic Night known as fidgeting. I still have beta readers who will get me comments, so I have not declared it done for the time being, but the stuff I'm tweaking still is of dubious value and along the line of 5-10 words worth of change, not even 50, much less 5000.

(This last is probably a good thing, as someone who loves me will come along and whack me with a stick if I add 5K to this book without also cutting 5K. I don't know which someone who loves me. But there are options.)

In this sense, the work on Sampo is probably good, because I can roar through it with my pink pen of girly death and do something and not just twitch. So yarg, said the girly death of adverbs.

Gloom, doom, and despair: Ista has discovered toilet paper. While I was in the shower. (She is desperately jealous of my time in the shower.) From the evidence at the quote scene of the crime unquote (and no, I didn't take thirty-seven color glossy photos -- although there is one Ista pic over on novel_gazing), she first tore off a long strip and then taught herself to delicately remove one piece at a time. The tears along the perforation are perfect.

As if we needed a thirty millionth reminder that "smart" and "well-behaved" are not the same thing....

She's learning good things, too, though. When she was dancing on lydy's head with such joy the other night, it didn't sound like she was biting, just mostly licking. So yay. (I told Lydy that we could remove the dog if she wanted us to. When she could speak again through her laughter, she said no, she was having a good time. Apparently it is the rule that all members of our household have to be able to break the Lydy laughing.) She also has sniffed at timprov's toes and refrained from chomping on several occasions, although to be fair she has also bit at them a couple of times. Still, much improved.

So. What are you reading? I've finished the latest New Scientist this morning and F&SF yesterday, so I'm out of periodicals for the moment. I'm neck-deep in Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter, still, and it's making me want to write the Aesir noir novel, which is just sad and shows a disturbed turn of mind. (Dorothy Dunnett...Raymond Chandler...Snorri Sturlason...uhh, sure, Mris.) I'm in a part with insufficient killing right now. A killing lull. I should pick it up again right away, because I feel sure that there will be more killing, and I am in the mood to jump up and down with the shrink yelling, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

I'm going to go listen to something that is not Arlo Guthrie now, for obvious reasons. And those of you who have never heard "Alice's Restaurant," ummmm...well, go do so, for one thing, but for another, please don't worry about me and the shrink jumping up and down yelling kill. While they might pin a medal on me, hardly anybody is likely to mistake me for their boy.

(Yes, it's one of those moods. Sorry.)

Comments

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Kenneth Oppel's Airborn. Cute YA alternate history with airships.

And, amazingly, that is *all* I'm reading right now.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

A multiple book at a time person, are you? I used to be, and then I wasn't for a long time. Now I like to have a novel going downstairs and something with shorter chunks going upstairs. Probably Tim Powers's Strange Itineraries next for the latter.

The dog has just discovered that she can reliably make the door stopper make noises, so I'll get to other comments later.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Our cat Simba is particularly smart, so I feel your pain. Now our dog, we didn't think of as smart for a long time. She may only be average for a dog, I don't know. But as she's gotten older, she's become very *wise*. Not wise as in "I'm a good dog now and have learned from my mistakes," but wise in the sense that she knows that no consequence we could possibly give her could outweight the extreme pleasure of stealing and eating a large pepperoni pizza off the kitchen table, still piping hot. Alas...

It definitely sounds like Ista's a smart pup. Poodles are known for that, so you shouldn't be surprised! ;-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, we picked a poodle in part because they're pretty smart on the average.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I am reading a book about blindness that seems intended for the Clueless About Blindness, and tangentially for blind people themselves. It was published in 1961. I'm skimming through looking for interesting psychological aspects of losing sight as an adult which I can steal for a character.

I'm also finally reading my single unread Laurie Marks novel, THE WATCHER'S MASK.

I have a couple of old Philadelphia guidebooks left, from which I am cherrypicking information.

And if any one of the four copies of three books about the Philadelphia Mummers in the library were to be returned, I would leap on it with cries of joy.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My advisor for the summer I was in Oregon had gone blind as an adult ("macular d," as some people call it, which always makes me think Jack Black is in it, but never mind that). John was a really neat guy. Had decided to keep a sense of humor, so he was full of blind jokes, including the one I tell where people think I've gotten to the punchline one line early.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Very appropriate to this post - you know, blind justice and all.

One of the oddest books I own is called Deafness and Cheerfulness, published in 1901. I picked it up at a used book sale because it looked interesting, and it is. It tells exactly what it's like to be going deaf in middle life, from both the physiological and the emotional viewpoint. It also goes into detail on such things as how to keep a good attitude (hence the title) and why one might not want to use an ear trumpet (again: published 1901) and why it is better to do so anyway.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, the idea of an Aesir noir is really growing on me as something I want to read; probably because it is so far form anything I could possibly write ever.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Lucky me, then! Because it's not a question of if but when.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

My cat, when he was a kitten, would *howl* with loneliness when I went into the shower with him. He was such a baby, he was happier being held by me in the shower with water coming down than sitting outside by himself.

"Beautiful" and "intelligent" are also not the same thing, as my mom's big orange cat proves--his most beautiful son takes after the dad in the brains area as well. He went to live with a friend of my brother's, and they'd report the cat, when in a particularly good mood, would run through the house with one end of the toilet paper. Like a toilet paper ad, only not as useful.

It's always a toss up which is better--smart, or well-behaved. They're not mutually exclusive, it's just the smart dog usually spends a portion of time figuring out things to do that while not strictly illegal, are usually not the best idea. (One of my step-mom's lure coursing dogs figured out that if he stayed where he was, the bunny would eventually come back to him. True, but defeating the purpose of the whole 'race' thing.) I think ultimately, I have to go with smart, even though there's more danger there. (The same holds true with boys, of course)

Also, I got confused while reading the paragraph involving Lydy, and throught it was she who was refraining from biting them. Which I would actually assume she is doing, but that it's less noteworthy than when Ista does it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have no information that would indicate that Lydy bites anybody who does not wish to be bit.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Currently reading The Kalahari Typing School for Men, one of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith. But I'm still in the mood for more Rome since I reread most of The First Man In Rome series by Colleen McCullough. I don't own the two final books, and a used bookstore trip yesterday turned up nothing, so I may have to surrender and buy them new.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That series has been on my list for awhile--the Alexander McCall Smith, I mean--but I haven't gotten around to it. I asked for mystery recs some years ago when I discovered that I like some mysteries, because it's not like spec fic where I like the concept, so even the bad ones are somehow "my" bad ones; it's a genre I visit politely from time to time, and I felt like advice would be helpful. And then dd_b started lending me books in long series, so I haven't been to the library to get more for a long while.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Ista looks the perfect chenille puppy in that picture.

I've just finished Charles Stross's The Atrocity Archive, am taking Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners in pieces (which approach works well with short story collections), and have just started Li-Young Lee's The Winged Seed: A Remembrance.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What is that last about?

She is a very soft girl. Right now she looks a good deal more poodly than she does in the NG picture, because she's just been clipped. I like it better when she's fluffy, but this is a necessary stage.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

I'm getting ready to go crawl around in the basement and find my copy of Stafford's Writing the Australian Crawl. Next on the list is probably either matociquala's Hammered or something I snagged at Powell's and thought looked interesting and now can't remember what it was but it's in a bag with my pile of books.

And Alice's Restaurant is probably on my list of top 10 favorite songs evah.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Powell's. Sigh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it since I was 11 and would like to give it another watch now that I'm a bigger Arlo fan and know some of the tidbits of movie trivia. My parents hadn't watched it between when it came out and when I turned 11, and they were disappointed. They had remembered it being...er, I think "more coherent" was the general theme of their complaints.

[platypus]

I'd go so far as to say that "smart" and "well-behaved" are difficult things to juggle simultaneously. Most of the border collies I know need to have jobs to keep their brains occupied enough to keep them from destroying the universe.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Exactly. When you get a smart breed of dog, you have to think about what the dog has to do, or the dog will think about it for you.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

The picture of Ista is notably devoid of circles and arrows.

I am rereading Freedom and Necessity - actually, I think a better phrasing of that would be, "Lucky me, I get to be rereading Freedom and Necessity".

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

HTH.

[keightyb.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you have the beginnings of a very neurotic dog on your hands. :(

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

As I said above in response to a different comment, when you buy a smart breed, you have to think about what the dog is going to do to entertain itself, or the dog will. I knew this in advance, and I have practice with poodles in this regard. We'll be fine. Thanks for your so-kindly phrased "concern," though.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

The puppy is adorable, even with the little circles and arrows. :) Someone should acquire a wind-up VW micro-minibus to chase across the floor.

I'm reading the current issue of Discover and Archaeology magazines in the periodical pile, Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton and Melusine by Sarah Monette in the book pile. Just finished Charlie's book, The Prodigal Troll night before last.

And I'm supposed to be revising my book, so I should go do that and stop reading LJ. *g*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I still need to get my copy of Melusine. I have gift certificate money earmarked for it, but I just haven't had the combination of time and inclination to get up to the city to do it.

Is this your first read of Tooth and Claw or a reread?

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Scoiety by Anthony Saldarini. Officially I'm also reading God's Politics by Jim Wallis, on general principle and because I'm scheduled to review it for work, but I'm not thrilled--it's enough preaching to the choir for me and enough like a hastily thrown-together series of magazine articles that I'm debating how much I truly, truly have to finish it. And actually *at* work, I'm reading A Country of Strangers by David Shipler.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I generally don't like compilations of magazine articles (or, heaven help us, editorials) even when they were good in their context. On the other hand, I approve of the impulse to collect them, so there you have that.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I'm also reading King Hereafter, though very slowly, because every time I finish a section, I have to take a break and go read something lighter before continuing. I'm grateful that I know something about that period of history (though more about the English than the Scandinavian or Scottish side of things), or I would be utterly lost (instead of just slightly lost).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have gotten to a point where knowing how it ends is a detriment to my enjoyment as it wasn't earlier in the book. I think that part of my Dunnett enjoyment is watching how/if the hero is going to pull off whatever scheme it is, and knowing that he won't is just as unfortunate as knowing that he will would be, if that makes sense. I think it only applies to Dunnett, though.

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

One of the Atlanta radio stations used to play "Alice's Restaurant" every Thanksgiving; we always listened to it in the car on the way to my in-laws'.

I'm finishing up Beowulf--lots of killing (alliterative killing)! I wish I had your Aesir noir novel to read next.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Does it help or hurt if I tell you that the blonde who walks into the PI's office at the beginning is the goddess Sigyn, who has left Loki to the mercies of the serpent venom for the time being?

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I am finishing up Iron Sunrise and about to start on The Time Traveler's Wife. Still reading Jeeves stories, too. I parcel them out as the language tends to stick in my head for days. I am still chortling over "Jeeves gave him the respectful raspberry" as a way of conveying the valet telling an inopportune visitor to piss off.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I ended up writing a Wodehouse pastiche short story because I read an omnibus of the short stories all at once one Christmas.

Also we now have seasons three and four of "Jeeves and Wooster" on DVD, and markgritter and I watched the first of season three today.