Books

Book 288: Veronika Decides to Die (And On the Seventh Day #2) – Paulo Coelho

I had a copy of The Devil and Miss Prym and planned to read it, but when I pulled it off the shelf I found out it was the part of the And On the Seventh Day trilogy after By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, which I’d read already, and Veronika Decides to Die. This is hilarious, because I definitely wrote about the trilogy in December of 2012, but either way I picked this up from the library earlier this week.

As I said last time, and I will probably say again, it’s been far too long since I last read anything by Coelho. I somehow let myself forget how beautiful his writing is and I can’t help but wonder how beautiful it must be in the original Portuguese! These are the same thoughts I think whenever I read Murakami, just imagine how beautiful it must be in the original language and credit clearly is clearly due to the translators! I can’t remember what author said it, but someone said that a work of translation is a different work and is just as artistic and I truly believe it with these two authors.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #2 – Take a day hike

2014 06-28 Start of the HikeIf you want to find out how in or out of shape you are, go for a hike. Seriously, I knew I’d been lazy recently, but holy hell! I was hoping to cross four things off my list this week but only got to three, but YAY! Nine out of thirty (30%) done.

I’m still not sure that the sign was right, because our trackers definitely said longer than 2.5 miles, but I’m glad I did it! My friend Peter hiked a bunch of mountains last year and asked me a bunch of times and I always said no. When I was making my list I knew I needed to add it to the list and I did, but sheesh it was freaking exhausting. It was about a two-hour drive up and we hiked Mt. Tecumseh, 4003 ft/1,220m in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and it took a little under four hours (up and down).

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Books, Quotes

Book 287: The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #4) – Dan Simmons

I’m exhausted. This series has spanned 2,200+ pages and more than 10 centuries! It covers lifetimes of characters, many lived over and over and a few lived once throughout the entire story! (Twenty years shy of 1,000 years old, one character!) The story was convoluted and continuously changed which ultimately worked for and against the series.

As the concluding novel in this epic story, it felt a little hollow. There were definitely moments of amazement and creativity and Simmons intelligence once again comes across unquestionably, but for some reason it just felt a little hollow and most definitely rushed at the end. Even though I hadn’t fully thought through the end of the novel when I got there I was not surprised at the ending. It did feel a little deus ex machina (Wikipedia link), but with a “machine” like the Shrike, how could it be any other way?

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #7 – Spend a day at the beach

IMG_0958Yesterday, as part of my random three-day stay-cation I drove down to Cape Cod to spend the day at the beach. For those of you keeping track, that’s 8 of 30. I know a few friends have plans for the fourth to go, but I wanted a day by myself and to get out of Boston if only for a few hours. I couldn’t have asked for a better day!

Growing up roughly two hours inland in North Carolina we went to the beach EVERY summer growing up. Whether it was a day trip like I did yesterday or a week-long house rental with all my aunts and uncles, we went. I even worked at a summer camp on a very large saltwater pond in Rhode Island. Basically, I’m just trying to say I really like the beach. It’s been years since I last went to the beach just to go to the beach.

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – June 2014

2014 06-15 Finding Viviane MaierAlthough I skipped last month, this month’s culture explorations definitely make up for it. From my NYC trip which I wrote about last week and you’ll see a lot of pictures of below to my deCordova trip earlier this week and more I have planned over the next few days/weeks.

I’m not going to write much about the photo sets other than where they’re from and first impressions of the museums/experiences. I probably should’ve written this last week when it was all still fresh, but oh well. This first picture is of the postcard and ticket stub from the documentary Finding Vivian Maier. I’ve wanted to see this film for AGES and was very glad that the IFC was still showing it. It was worth every penny and made me even more excited about her as an artist. If you don’t know her story or her photographs I definitely recommend reading more about her above or at the Wikipedia page.

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