Because I love books and so do my LJ friends, I bring you (probably again)
( Read more... )

Although this list repeated itself several times, I liked this list overall and will try to read some of the books that I haven't read on it.

Ganked from badgerbag
These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Added by oursin: and underline those you have no intention of reading. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book (that is, last time that the algorithm was done).( Read more... )

Ganked from emberleo

Sad but true. Not the lonely part, but the struggling.

You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time.
Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there
is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all
the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

From one of my usual haunts, Miss Snark, comes this:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird: (my sister gave it to me for Christmas)

"You are going to feel awful beyond words."

Ugh, didn't I experience enough of that in 2005? I hope this is not predictive of 2006. Or maybe it's just about my non-fiction book.

Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life. Have your friends list guess your favourite character from each item. Ganked from owlmoose and chasingtides

I would say that I've only ever had an obssesive fannish love of Star Trek the Original and the Pern series, but here's a list which have a character I really love/d.

1. Pern series -- Lessa


2. Star Trek - Original -- Spock guessed by owlmoose


3. Star Trek - Next Generation -- Picard guessed by owlmoose


4. Star Trek - Voyager -- B'Elanna Torres


5. Star Trek - Deep Space Nine -- Kira Nerys (after the middle of second season when they seemed to make her a better character)


6. Charmed -- Cole guessed by owlmoose


7. Babylon 5 -- Talia Winters


8. Pinky and the Brain -- Pinky guessed by owlmoose


9. Six Feet Under -- David Fisher


10. The Sopranos -- Tony Soprano


11. Disc world by Terry Pratchett -- Granny Waxworth guessed by owlmoose


12. Vampire Series by Tanya Huff -- Victoria Nelson


13. LOTR (movies) -- Frodo

Website from the SF Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll via C
Hey kids, go to the Creating Awareness of Education Standards web site, and read the smut in books that you are supposed to be protected from. Comes complete with a handy list of really dirty words in each book. Except that the site says that Shakespeare isn't dirty, because "Shakespeare's works contain neither a pervasive nor gratuitous amount of sex, violence, or vulgarity as do many of the other required reading assignments. For example, they do not teach our children about new types of sex (Song of Solomon which includes references to bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia."

So kids, if you want to read about bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia with your parents's blessing, read Shakespeare. because these concerned parents say Shakespeare is smut free. The site says "most Blue Valley parents do not want their children required to read books featuring teens in sexually active roles" but Romeo and Juliet are classics. They contrast Shakespeare with "sexually stimulating and graphically vulgar content such as Beloved and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison." So haul out your crib sheets and read some Shakespeare today!

And hey, if you don't want to bother with crib sheets, go and read Master and Commander where you can read about randy sailors rutting goats. Also on the Blue Valley concerned parents recommended list.

Remember kids, dead white guy writing=classic. Live black woman's writing=smut.

This morning we had amazing news. Little T's platelets suddenly bounced back to normal (211) We're totally stunned. His tumor has never responded so quickly. We were expecting weeks of treatment.

This is our third round with it. The prior two times, it took weeks of steroids and Vincristine (chemo) before his platelet count returned to normal. Change was so slow. This time you can see drastic change. His arm circumference suddenly shrunk from 25cm to 20cm.

A slight worry is that his fibrinogen is now down to 156, which is below normal. It's probably because it's being used to clot off the tumor. At least we all hope so!

We'll give him two more doses of massive amounts of steroids. Then we'll cut back to half doses of massive amounts of steroids. We go back next Tuesday to see how things are going.

Steroids are awful. Not as bad as chemo, but steroid change his personality for the worse. I think of athletes on steroids all the time. No wonder they get into fights all the time and beat their wives. His doc says they're different 'roids. Whatever. They suck.

Yesterday I looked at the four syringes of medicine that C was going to give him and my heart broke just a little. In his early days, we gave him as many as 8 drugs at one time. Gods knows how all these drugs interact and they don't run drugs trials on babies. But my little observations are these. He used to smile at least once an hour. Now he smiles once a day and cries at least once an hour. He wants to be held most of the time if he's awake. He used to like to scoot about on the floor most of the time.

He flies into 'roid rages a lot. Little things just tick him off. Like if I hover over him too much. If I take away a toy. If someone is too noisy. His face contorts into this furious mask like the Incredible Hulk. He starts screaming very loudly. He behaved this way as a baby and I always said he was really a sweet guy. Sometimes the nurses would just look at me like "yeah right." Now I know he is normally a sweet guy.

At least I've removed one source of his rage. Normal platelets means no more hovering over him whenever he scoots about or pulls up. And I can count the doses until we cut back to half doses. Maybe that will take away the 'roid rage. Or at least bring back the scooting.

Anne Lammot's book Bird By Bird is one of several that changed my life. People ask "how do I get through this?" One way is dose by dose, day by day, hour by hour. Sometimes minute by minute.

I will tell you we also learned today that this will probably not be his last relapse. That some kids with his type of tumor are on Vincristine aka chemo for 3-5 years. So in some twisted sense, Little T's "lucky". Or maybe we're just parents and a doctor who won't take that course of treatment. Who knows? There's no standard course of treatment for Kasabach Merritt Syndrome, because it's so rare.

I also learned that the relapse may have been triggered by his getting the stomach flu. Or maybe not. So no more playdates. And we have to treat him as immuno-compromised for the rest of the winter. Though he is in fact immuno-compromised right now, because of the steroids.

But honestly right now that's more than I want to deal with right now. I'm mostly telling you, so you won't be surprised if you read that he had another relapse. And if you live locally, why you won't be seeing Little T anytime soon.

But I guess if they keep resolving as quickly without the complications that have landed him in the hospital five times, then it seems somehow manageable. I dunno. I can't really think about it too much. So I just think about today and how his platelets are 211 and just two more doses.

There's a wool sock on our back porch. It's probably a gift that the cats brought us. I know that Mori really really loves wool to the point where he ruined a brand new cashmere coat a boyfriend bought me by biting a huge hole in it. I ditched the bf and I still have the cat. I guess Mori thought we'd like the wool sock. However it seems to disturb Special K who keeps asking why it's there.

Today I dropped off a box full of books at Bookbuyers, then went to the library and talked to the children's librarians. Neither of them had heard of the New Voices Award, or of Lee & Low Books. Oh, well. I wrote my cover letter today. I also wrote 800 words of The Road to Mandalay. I just wrote some random scenes. I do have the entire novel fleshed out in my head, but I've been stuck on how to make it flow. This way is much more productive.

I've decided I'll aim for 500 words a day. At that rate, I can write 10k (novel length) in 200 days.
Word count for the day: 1050
The Road to Mandalay: 2500. 97500 to go

According to SJMerc, Keplers will reopen on Saturday. "Kepler's will ask customers to sign up as ``members'' with financial pledges of support, a tool often used by public television stations and other non-profits, but uncommon among retailers. Depending on their level of support, Kepler's members will receive gifts or other perks such as reserved parking, invitations to book signings and chances to dine with prominent authors."

Kepler's is too far away to be a big part of my life. And I doubt I'll buy a membership. However I do like having a bookstore within walking distance of my house, so it does motivate me to start buying books at my local bookstore more often.

The reopening of Kepler's as a charity illustrates how wealthy and yet geeky Silicon Valley is. Enough people have thousands of dollars they want to spend on a bookshop to keep Kepler's afloat. Of all the charities I'd want to spend my money on, it wouldn't be a bookshop, but still it makes me glad to live here. It also struck me as slightly absurd. One of the things that keeps me going when things are bad is how absurd life is. I certainly donate dollars to absurd things. Most of my absurd donation dollars go to opera.

I'm so excited I can hear Anne Lamott speak at the CAR Luncheon. A friend is on the Book Committe that chooses the speakers, so will get me a seat. I missed last year's because Little T was back in the hospital again. I really really really hope I can go this year. I'll be bouncing to my haircut just thinking about it.

Anne Lamott wrote Bird By Bird, which has been an inspiration to me as a writer. I have no idea why no-one shoved this book into my shaking hands when I expressed doubt in my writing ability, but consider this a virtual shoving. I wish I'd taken one of her classes at the UC Berkeley Extension. Ah, well.

A zillion bloggers have blogged about Harry Potter. I hope what I have to say is at least somewhat original since I was struck by the way motherhood was portrayed in this book. ( To avoid spoilers for the few who still haven't read Harry Potter, here are the rest of my comments. )

My friend owlmoose blogged about our tea tasting yesterday. I really love drinking tea. In the US, some folks sit down to relax with a beer or glass of wine, I sit down with a nice cup of tea. I've discussed most important conversations with my relatives over tea. I can't help it. Both the Burmese and English sides combine to view tea in pretty much the same way. I'm privileged to have friends who do. It's lovely.

My husband C. doesn't really get it. Sure he drinks tea with every morning, but he says it's because he can't be fished to make coffee as well. Coffee is a different beverage. Nothing wrong with it, but few describe coffee as relaxing.

In France, the tea houses were ferments of dissident views. The Americans used to get it. They rioted over tea in the Boston Tea party. I just read that Emma Larkin in her book Finding George Orwell in Burma saw spies listening in Burmese tea houses. I'm no Burmese dissident, but...well this is a public site, which anyone can read, so draw your own conclusions.

Here's my result from the Harry Potter Personality Quiz



except that the headline at the top says ENFJ and the text below says ESFJ. Hrm. Which Harry Potter character are you? And did you find more bugs?

My friend Mary Anne's new book Bodies In Motion arrived today from Amazon. I'd forgotten the lovely unmarred surface of a new hardcover book, the uneven surface of the edges of the closed book, the soft sound when you open it for the first time, and the feel of cotton in the crisp pages. Buying books is something I gave up almost entirely when I stopped working. We have a good library within walking distance, and a large library of books in our home. Not buying books saves money and space, which my family could always use more of. I miss it, but not enough to cut back on other treats like eating out.

I'm somewhat depressed. Or is that sad? I am grieving. The closest analogy for me is when I'd break up with someone. My heart literally aches in the same way. My jaw tightens. My throat hurts. I feel the weight of sadness on my chest. Part of me is so glad that chapter is over. I have no regrets. But I'm processing what happens. I need to process, to feel sad, but it drains me.

I don't really want to do anything. Special K's angry at me, because I started withdrawing. I started reading My Sister's Keeper, a very depressing book about a girl whose parents created her so they could harvest her blood, organs, etc for her sister who has leukemia. I realised I had fallen into old habits of reading a book instead of dealing with my own feelings. I remember clearly in grade school after a classmate said something to me that made me want to cry that I biked to the library and read Moreta. I could feel sad, but it wasn't about me. And it didn't show on my face as much. Sadness was wimpiness. Sad people were too vulnerable. It wasn't until age 21 when I first broke up with someone that I learned to cry.

Special K loves a good cry. She cries everyday. In fact she just woke up crying. She said "Hurts" probably her neck had a crick in it. I'm not ready for a good cry yet. But I'll try to take a leaf from her book and feel more sadness.