Shogun, Cycling, and a Three Week Countdown

I finished a book I've been reading for the past couple weeks or so.

I have a strange way of getting through books. Usually, I catch a few pages in the bathroom or while I'm cooking  supper. Sometimes I'll read for a little while before going to sleep (when my brain is awake but my body is spent.) A few times I'll actually read it at my computer desk. I'm a very quick reader, but sporadic bursts usually lead to the book taking me much longer than normal.

Especially when its a 1152 page monster like Shogun.

I've wanted to read this book for quite awhile now. I've been interested in Japanese history for a little while, and of course this novel was a draw to me. I would keep putting it in the back of my mind, though, so several years passed between when I heard about it and when I finally found a copy of it at a thrift store.

The book is good. It helped that, even though the names are changed, I knew which characters corresponded to which historical figure, and the actual history behind the story. And aside from minor details, the history was  portrayed quite accurately.

I won't blather on about it. I'm glad I read it.

As for the rest of my life, well, a few things to say, I suppose. Yesterday (June 12th) was my boyfriend's birthday. I would have really liked to spend it with him in person, but of course that was impossible. I did spend the whole day talking to him, minus the time I was at work. I am waiting to give his present to him until he gets here. I hope he likes it. It was a wonderful day, though, and I'm really glad I got to spend the time I did with him.

Work is going about as I expect it to. Some coworker stupidity, some customer stupidity, some personal stupidity (I'm not immune!). All part of a job, I suppose. I was in a bit more pain than usual Saturday and Sunday. Not sure if its the change in weather, or if I'm pushing myself too hard. Hopefully tomorrow will involve a little less pain. I've been wearing a back brace and it seems to help a bit. At least it keeps me from slouching when I get really tired. The stress level, for the most part, is a lot lower than my previous job, and I've found that stress is one of the biggest factors in my back pain. Its insane how mental this condition is for me. I will even start to hurt if I talk or think about it too long. I guess its good that I've been training my mind to handle it as well as my body.

The cooler weather lately has make bike riding easier for me. My asthma tends to hate humid weather. Even so, cycling requires a type of meditative focus for me. I always have to control my breathing, be attentive to how hard I am pushing my muscles in my back and legs, and make sure that I pace myself so that I can make it back home without keeling over. All while balancing a wobbly two-wheeled machine and avoiding the asshole suburban traffic. Most of this is quite universal to all people that ride their bikes, but a bit more so for me. I consider it good practice, of many things. And the only real exercise I'm able to do.

Well, I have blathered on for a bit longer than I intended, and my mind is beginning to match my worn-out body. I'll wear it out with one more bit of optimisim.

Things to look forward to: Charel in town in 3 weeks, Chicago trip, sushi, Guinness, a bike ride, and D'nA photo shoots. Wheeeee!

All Quiet on the Western Front

While going through a lot of my old piles of boxes lately, I have found many books from the earliest classes of my college days. Being the incredible, lazy packrat that I am, I never did sell most of my books back to gain a little extra money. So there they sat, in storage, for quite a few years.

I decided to keep a few of the books that I found in those boxes. I dusted them off and put them on the newly-built bookshelf that now sits in my living room. These books include a variety of things, including a textbook about offset lithography and a few college classroom staples of literature.

I pulled the book All Quiet on the Western Front off of the shelf a couple of days ago. This is a very famous book about WWI, but if by chance you've never heard of it, a simple Google search will probably explain the plot to you much better than I can. Summaries have never been something I'm good at.

Since it has been quite a few years since I read through this book, I had forgotten in that time that I had purchased a used copy. The previous owner of this book somehow found it helpful to highlight a vast portion of the book, the specific reasons of which are lost on me. Being the proud owner of several used textbooks, this is not a new thing to me. What sets this particular book apart from those other hand-me-downs is the presence of hand-written comments and notes in the margins of the pages. These notes also fail to indicate any purpose.

What they do show, however, is that the previous owner of this book has some major issues in spelling.

Now, I could insert some ranting and raving about the fact a college student seems to have trouble with simple spelling and how incredibly disappointing that is, but honestly, who is surprised about that kind of thing anymore?

Since I am re-reading this book for the literary story and not for the need to write a paper or take a test, these notes serve no purpose to me other than to distract me from the plot. It takes an enormous amount of willpower to overlook these scrawled indications of...something. I will probably have to re-read the book to catch the details I missed when my train of thought was sharply misdirected onto a completely different track. Such as the desire to share this completely useless information.

Or maybe I should go buy a new copy. And maybe my own set of highlighters.