Author: Geoff W

Reading my way through life.
Random, Updates

Thank You

Geoff W

So for those of you that have followed The Oddness of Moving Things for a while you’re aware of my personal turmoil or at least aware of the fact that it’s existed over the past year or so. It’s taken a lot to get through the year. I just posted this on Facebook and realized that a lot of it comes from the amazing people I’ve met through here.

It’s amazing where you find yourself year after year: 52 weeks later and I’m happier and healthier than I’ve been in a long time. I’m not as happy or as healthy as I know I’m going to be, but it does go to show that some adages actually are true: time does heal all [emotional] wounds.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you to those of you who I interact with on a regular basis and even those fleeting few who appear randomly.  Just by visiting and interacting with me you’ve given me the confidence and the support to keep this blog going and to better myself mentally, physically and emotionally over the past three years, but especially over the past year.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – September 2013 Meme

Geoff W

Classics ClubFor September the hosts of The Classics Club have another member question: “Rereading a favourite classic at different stages of your life gives you different insights with each reading. Is there one classic you’ve read several times that also tells a story about you?”

I’m not sure if there is a specific classic I’ve re-read that tells me a story about me. I feel that any book I re-read more than once says a lot about who I am. I’ve probably re-read the Harry Potter series the most frequently, closely followed by Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. When it comes to Classics I’ve re-read Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice numerous times. I commented on someone’s blog that a lot of it has to do with the physical copy of the book as well. I’ve been carrying around the same copy of Pride and Prejudice for years and although I’ve lost my first copy of Wuthering Heights I’ve replaced it with two beautiful older editions here and here.

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Books

Book 230: The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3) – Rick Riordan

Geoff W

My thoughts still stand from the first two novels. This series is not as great as the other two of Riordan’s series, the publisher really should have invested in a better copy editor and I’m still not convinced about the ‘transcription’ part of the story (it brought the author into the story in a way that Percy Jackson didn’t). Aside from that, this was a great ending to a mediocre trilogy.

The Serpent’s Shadow picks up right where The Throne of Fire ends. Looking back on my reviews of it and The Red Pyramid, I’m not sure what holes in the plot I referred to were but it didn’t feel like there was anything missing from this third book from the second. A lot of the characters that I remembered and enjoyed from the first two books made appearances in this novel and there were even a few introductions of new characters, although fleeting. Riordan seemed to have mastered the Sadie/Carter duality in this novel so that was great and I enjoyed their love interests although the parallel of the two was a bit weird and could be misconstrued as lazy.

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Books

Book 229: When the Emperor was Divine – Julie Otsuka

Geoff W

When the Emperor was Divine was the required reading for the college where I work and although I do think it was a good choice, I feel that there are other novels out there which tell this story better. (Such as Snow Falling on Cedars, and this story wasn’t even the main storyline in that book.)

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this book and I did not get along. It wasn’t bad, per say, but it definitely wasn’t good. It was a very short read and I read it in three sittings on the train to and from work, but there was just something about it that I didn’t enjoy.

I’m starting to think that it might be related to the fact that it was chosen as the required reading and I felt that it wasn’t very challenging. I do believe it highlight’s a portion of World War II which many people aren’t aware of, or never learned about, but the writing style and the novel were very basic. Given I didn’t attend the speaker series, this could be a total misinterpretation of the novel, but I feel that a required reading for college students should be more challenging. However, that being said there were parts of the novel that were really well done, so don’t think it was a completely horrible work.

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – September 2013

Geoff W

Things have been a little crazy for me. Work has picked back up exponentially so I’ve been really busy and not able to dedicate as much time to my blog as I want. Thankfully I’ve had time on the weekends to pre-populate book posts, but my other fun asides have been severely limited. So much so that this post is a cop-out. I quick snapped a photo of a cool public artwork where I catch the bus home most days.

It randomly appeared a few weeks ago and it just made me laugh. It’s not the first public sculpture in the Somerville area, I’ll try to get more photos on one of my next walks.

On a different note, I’ve had to put my podcast on hold until at least after winter. I enjoyed the first two and actually have  plans for the next 3-4 podcasts, but I just don’t have the extra time to put into it with how busy things are. I’m hoping to pick it back up again after the holidays, but this might be a permanent hiatus or just until the summer when things get really slow at work.