To celebrate the first of December, we awaken to a dusting of snow on the ground.
Josie said she didn't want to put up any Christmas decorations until there was snow, so I guess now we can get to work.
I've already been at work; we've made and eaten three batches of Christmas cookies already.
I've done a little bit of shopping, mostly online. Now I'm out of money so I guess I'd better get to work. Things are slow. I have a few things to do and we're already planning our new designs for spring, assuming there'll be enough business to keep us afloat till spring.
Yesterday, my Christmas calligraphy job was dropped off, so at least I have that. I've also got a long list of non job jobs lined up so I can get at those, as well.
Zack told me there were two books out there that he wanted for Christmas. I never thought I'd see the day where Zack asked for books for Christmas. That's the best part of him moving out; he's so broke books are the only entertainment he can afford.
Personally, I think there's nothing on earth better than a book you can't put down.
I've always loved to read.
Seriously, loved it.
When I was in high school I never went out. I don't' mean I didn't date, I mean I never went out at all. I was much too busy reading R.H.Delderfield, Georgette Heyer and Louis L'Amour. Do you have any idea how boring high school kids are compared to that? I did.
I did wonder once in a while if there was something wrong with preferring to read about other people doing stuff rather than doing stuff myself.
Then I got married to someone much more entertaining than high school kids and I started doing stuff. I got so busy doing stuff that I didn't have any time to read for years.
When you have little kids, give up on the idea of reading books. You're lucky if you get two minutes alone in the bathroom each day and when they're in bed you're too tired to focus on a book; that's when tv becomes a blessing.
TV wasn't as good back in the '80s as it is now. It wasn't as bad as it is now, either. Back then, when cable was a new idea, we still only had about ten channels. HBO and Showtime were movie channels, with no original programming so Jay and I never bothered with them. We could barely afford to rent a weekly video, we certainly couldn't afford ten bucks a month for movies we didn't even choose. Now, with hundreds of channels and dozens of cable networks producing original shows, we have lots of great tv and tons of really, really bad tv.
I hate reality television. I hope it's a passing fad but it probably isn't. I don't' mind the shows like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars because they're more like the old variety shows. What I object to is crap like Jersey Shore, Real Housewives, Teen Moms, and anything starring a Kardashian. When a genre can make ugly, untalented folks celebrities, you know it's an evil entity.
They may all be compelling television but I'd rather read a mediocre book.
Since the dawn of the dvd era, I've done my tv watching like I do my book reading; all at once. Some tv shows are as good as a good book. These are the shows I buy and watch repeatedly, just like the books I've read almost enough to have memorized.
When I find an author I like, I tend to read everything they've written until they lose it. I refer to that as Danielle Steele syndrome. I read a few Danielle Steele novels back in highschool. I enjoyed them. But by her fifth or sixth book, either I had outgrown her or she had become predictable and dull, retelling the same tiresome, formulaic 'romance' over and over. Really, is there anything more tedious than a beautiful young woman who undergoes hardships until the boring but physically perfect specimen realizes he loves her? No. ( Well, yes; fictional tragedy is even more tedious. If I'm gonna cry, it better be true.) Anyway, I haven't read her since the early '80s.
Other authors I'm done with; Carl Hiaasen (the last one of his I read, I actually thought to myself; If Skink shows up, I'm throwing this thing out the window), Emily Giffen (liked Something Borrowed, really liked Something Blue, hated the next, couldn't even finish the fourth. Yuck.) and Steven King. But I gave up King for completely different reasons; he's too darn good and he scares me to death.
I haven't given up on Audrey Niffenegger. I loved the Time Travelers Wife but I hated Her Fearful Symmetry. I'm willing to suspense judgement until her third. Even Georgette Heyer wrote one or two dull books, although she never wrote a stupid book. But she was a genius. She was extremely prolific, her plots are intricate and fascinating and her characters deep, well rounded and delightful. You always know where she's going but you never know just how she's going to get you there. She never, ever repeated herself, not in plot or character. There's no one out there now who can hold her portmanteau.
The point of all my rambling here is simply that lately I've read some really good books and in my middle age, having done a lot of stuff, and seen a lot of places, all of which I've enjoyed immensely, I'm back to the opinion that there's nothing in the world, absolutely nothing, as good as a book you can't put down.
