A couple of months ago, my cousin posted a list of books he thinks are great, and left it up to readers to add their own. Ted is always listing what is currently on his nighttable. Tracy suggested once in a letter that she thinks she should start a book journal of some kind. On the Bondi Books blog, the writer has a list of what he is currently reading as well as what he has read up until this point (I'm assuming it's a he, but who knows).
So, what are you reading? What am I reading? What have I read?
Jose Saramago's "Stone Raft"
Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood"
Jon McGregor's "If no one speaks of remarkable things"
Jon Krakauer "Under the Banner of Heaven"
Natsuo Kirinho's "Out"
Haruki Murakami's "Sputnik Sweetheart"
J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
Michael J. Rosen ed. "The Mirth of a Nation"
Cervantes' "Don Quixote"
Aldous Huxley's "Collected Short Stories"
Yukio Mishima's "Thirst for Love"
Haruki Murakami's "South of the Border, West of the Sun"
Margaret Atwood's "Murder in the Dark," "Good Bones," "The Robber Bride," "Oryx and Crake"
And of course, all the crap books designed for airplanes and beaches and distractions from studying and working, such as Dan Brown and Candace Bushnell...
There's loads more, but my mind is failing me right now.
While searching for the names of author's or the titles of books I can't recall, I have become thoroughly distracted by the huge numbers of books out there I will never even hear about, and started writing a tiny little list -- soon to become a very big one, I am sure -- of things to search for.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
3 Decades
Back from Okazaki, having completed a Japanese course that ended up being primarily review, disappointing but useful I suppose. Certainly I am more likely to impress the principal and vice principal with my new found grasp of polite Japanese when begging for favours.
Seized a chance to visit both Corinne and Berto in Gunma, arriving after 10 hours on the road in the middle of a torrential downpour that was so bad I couldn't see out the window no matter how fast my windshield wipers wiped. Fortunately, I didn't get lost on the way there. I arrived to find Eric showing two J girls his artwork, whilst Ryan attempted to work his magic on one and Dago on the other. Corinne and I just hung out and laughed a bit while I worked on my wine. There was a little music and dancing, departing of said J girls while we hung out on the "verandah." Around four, I gave up and sprawled onto my futon while Eric tried to convince a drunken Berto that I deserved to sleep, and it wouldn't hurt to turn down the music that was blaring not far from my head. Thanks to Eric's kind consideration, it finally happened, and the three, without cover of music to carry on the night, disappeared to search for the sunset, not returning until after eight.
Eric tried to sleep upon return, as he was to experience his first ever J girl date later in the afternoon, while Ryan continued to slumber and Berto and Corinne hung out in the kitchen with chu-hi, egg sandos, and Lila Downs, waiting for me who had been on the porch with "If no one speaks of remarkable things."Saving them from fighting over the last chu-hi, I savoured slowly with a children's book and tried to recognize Tears for Fears on the stereo. The day devolved into lazing and leisure as the boys all disappeared on dates with girls or friends. Corinne and I ventured off to a park to play on a giant slide with rollers that flung you around corners or knocked you on your ass as you tried to go down in a crouch. This was followed by adventures on a giant rope spider web, which made me think of the squares in the middle of giant clusters of bubbles. Corinne made it bounce and I tried not to fall off, and we were both put to shame by a small boy and his mother who climbed all the way to the peak.
After deciding to return later when drunk and checking to make sure our noise wouldn't wake neighbours, we returned to sit on chairs in the yard and spend our last afternoon together in Nippon in conversation. As the boys slowly made their way home, bringing other boys and unfortunate dating stories, we ventured drunkenly back to the park with Hiroshi while Berto attempted to catch up on sleep. Me being the eager fool I was went down the slide first and dried most of it off for the wiser companions of mine. We even climbed the spiderweb, but Corinne and Hiroshi were more fearless, ascending to the top as I came to look I was like in a real spiderweb near the bottom, causing Corinne to nearly fall off laughing at the sight of me swatting away in the midst of a massive rope web. We even followed this up with rides on a rope roller hanging thing that I don't know what to call before meandering back to the Lopez hotel for the rest of the night.
Come midnight, birthday choruses were sung and Berto awoken from his slumber as the Japanese fellow gave into his tiredness, collapsing into one of the gypsy tents out back. Once again, I succumbed to sleep around three or four, as did Berto, as Corinne and Eric munched on bagels and carried on into the wee hours.
Sunday morning I arose around eight and after a shower to refresh, was on the road for an unfortunate thriteen hours as I somehow got lost in the outskirts of Tokyo, a place I was never supposed to come near.
The ride back from Aichi to the inaka of Tottori was accomplished in my stuffed to the roof little car (I bought 20 or so books on two separate trips to Nagoya solely for that purpose) and a very squished Simona as she rode in the passenger seat with her knees around her ears. Unlike on the way to Aichi, I managed to make the return trip without earning a ticket of some kind. (I now have 4 tickets for 4 different offences in 4 different kens.) Simona, although somewhat socially inept, proved to be an alright passenger. And it is only my own social deficiencies that allowed me to recognize the same qualities in others.
Having been back for a week (and used my fancy new polite Japanese to request last week off, although I honestly had the requesting vacation politeness down pat before the course) I have managed to meet the two new Nambu JETs and cook for them, visit Elly in Tottori for card games and discussions about Japan and childbirth as two quasi-unrelated topics, cook lasagna for Cian and Pete followed by more card games, meet Katherine for lunch, and meet several new JETs at a barbeque last night.
Now, sitting at work wasting time writing blogs, thinking about how it would be kind of nice to be home already.... and I could really use another week off.
Seized a chance to visit both Corinne and Berto in Gunma, arriving after 10 hours on the road in the middle of a torrential downpour that was so bad I couldn't see out the window no matter how fast my windshield wipers wiped. Fortunately, I didn't get lost on the way there. I arrived to find Eric showing two J girls his artwork, whilst Ryan attempted to work his magic on one and Dago on the other. Corinne and I just hung out and laughed a bit while I worked on my wine. There was a little music and dancing, departing of said J girls while we hung out on the "verandah." Around four, I gave up and sprawled onto my futon while Eric tried to convince a drunken Berto that I deserved to sleep, and it wouldn't hurt to turn down the music that was blaring not far from my head. Thanks to Eric's kind consideration, it finally happened, and the three, without cover of music to carry on the night, disappeared to search for the sunset, not returning until after eight.
Eric tried to sleep upon return, as he was to experience his first ever J girl date later in the afternoon, while Ryan continued to slumber and Berto and Corinne hung out in the kitchen with chu-hi, egg sandos, and Lila Downs, waiting for me who had been on the porch with "If no one speaks of remarkable things."Saving them from fighting over the last chu-hi, I savoured slowly with a children's book and tried to recognize Tears for Fears on the stereo. The day devolved into lazing and leisure as the boys all disappeared on dates with girls or friends. Corinne and I ventured off to a park to play on a giant slide with rollers that flung you around corners or knocked you on your ass as you tried to go down in a crouch. This was followed by adventures on a giant rope spider web, which made me think of the squares in the middle of giant clusters of bubbles. Corinne made it bounce and I tried not to fall off, and we were both put to shame by a small boy and his mother who climbed all the way to the peak.
After deciding to return later when drunk and checking to make sure our noise wouldn't wake neighbours, we returned to sit on chairs in the yard and spend our last afternoon together in Nippon in conversation. As the boys slowly made their way home, bringing other boys and unfortunate dating stories, we ventured drunkenly back to the park with Hiroshi while Berto attempted to catch up on sleep. Me being the eager fool I was went down the slide first and dried most of it off for the wiser companions of mine. We even climbed the spiderweb, but Corinne and Hiroshi were more fearless, ascending to the top as I came to look I was like in a real spiderweb near the bottom, causing Corinne to nearly fall off laughing at the sight of me swatting away in the midst of a massive rope web. We even followed this up with rides on a rope roller hanging thing that I don't know what to call before meandering back to the Lopez hotel for the rest of the night.
Come midnight, birthday choruses were sung and Berto awoken from his slumber as the Japanese fellow gave into his tiredness, collapsing into one of the gypsy tents out back. Once again, I succumbed to sleep around three or four, as did Berto, as Corinne and Eric munched on bagels and carried on into the wee hours.
Sunday morning I arose around eight and after a shower to refresh, was on the road for an unfortunate thriteen hours as I somehow got lost in the outskirts of Tokyo, a place I was never supposed to come near.
The ride back from Aichi to the inaka of Tottori was accomplished in my stuffed to the roof little car (I bought 20 or so books on two separate trips to Nagoya solely for that purpose) and a very squished Simona as she rode in the passenger seat with her knees around her ears. Unlike on the way to Aichi, I managed to make the return trip without earning a ticket of some kind. (I now have 4 tickets for 4 different offences in 4 different kens.) Simona, although somewhat socially inept, proved to be an alright passenger. And it is only my own social deficiencies that allowed me to recognize the same qualities in others.
Having been back for a week (and used my fancy new polite Japanese to request last week off, although I honestly had the requesting vacation politeness down pat before the course) I have managed to meet the two new Nambu JETs and cook for them, visit Elly in Tottori for card games and discussions about Japan and childbirth as two quasi-unrelated topics, cook lasagna for Cian and Pete followed by more card games, meet Katherine for lunch, and meet several new JETs at a barbeque last night.
Now, sitting at work wasting time writing blogs, thinking about how it would be kind of nice to be home already.... and I could really use another week off.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Babelian Towers
I have been in Okazaki for 2 weeks now and had my first test today... Find out tomorrow what the results will be.
Despite the fact we are all here to study Japanese, except for a few European teenagers who were forced to attend by uncaring and cruel parents, we all speak English outside of class. Taiwanese students, French students, Spanish students, Portuguese students, Brazilian students, Chinese students, Swedish students, Austrian students, Slovakian students, and of course the Canadian, American and British students. And I can't help being impressed with these people who speak their own language, my language, and are now learning Japanese. I am also disappointed by how easily we all fall into the English trap, and feel ashamed when I do it too.
One of the students made his farewell speech today -- in Japanese naturally -- and at one point in the middle, he made a small stumble and said "sorry," but he wasn't even a native English speaker, making me laugh because he used sorry.
I have decided to attempt to read a book in Japanese. Rather than choosing a Japanese author, as I have read plenty of Japanese books translated into English, I am battling my way through Bridget Jones' Diary, The Edge of Reason. With my kanji dictionary and electronic dictionary close at hand, I get no further than 2 or 3 pages at a time, which makes my ambition wane, although I have been trying to prepare for a test, so I would like to point to that as my reason for falling slack. I have also been trying to read a "Film Comic" of Howl's Moving Castle, which Studio Ghibli released last year. It is much easier going, not only because there are pictures, but also because the kanji all have little tiny furigana beside them, so when I am lost for a reading, I don't have to spend 2 or 3 minutes searching for it.
Despite the fact we are all here to study Japanese, except for a few European teenagers who were forced to attend by uncaring and cruel parents, we all speak English outside of class. Taiwanese students, French students, Spanish students, Portuguese students, Brazilian students, Chinese students, Swedish students, Austrian students, Slovakian students, and of course the Canadian, American and British students. And I can't help being impressed with these people who speak their own language, my language, and are now learning Japanese. I am also disappointed by how easily we all fall into the English trap, and feel ashamed when I do it too.
One of the students made his farewell speech today -- in Japanese naturally -- and at one point in the middle, he made a small stumble and said "sorry," but he wasn't even a native English speaker, making me laugh because he used sorry.
I have decided to attempt to read a book in Japanese. Rather than choosing a Japanese author, as I have read plenty of Japanese books translated into English, I am battling my way through Bridget Jones' Diary, The Edge of Reason. With my kanji dictionary and electronic dictionary close at hand, I get no further than 2 or 3 pages at a time, which makes my ambition wane, although I have been trying to prepare for a test, so I would like to point to that as my reason for falling slack. I have also been trying to read a "Film Comic" of Howl's Moving Castle, which Studio Ghibli released last year. It is much easier going, not only because there are pictures, but also because the kanji all have little tiny furigana beside them, so when I am lost for a reading, I don't have to spend 2 or 3 minutes searching for it.
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