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I'm way too excited that DH is taking the kids out to dinner and I can read for pleasure at an early hour. I don't like to be interrupted while reading so I usually start around 10p.

I finished Hard Road West and then started 1Q84 last night. I'm really liking 1Q84, even though some of it doesn't make sense to me. And I don't mean the mysterious plot. I'm wondering if Aomame is such a professional and has a can't-miss appointment (trying to be vague here), why she didn't leave more time to get to her location. Geez, get there a couple of hours early and hang out at a cafe or park nearby. Regardless, it's very enjoyable. I thought I would start a chapter at 11:00p just to see how it starts out and what the style of the writing is. It's an easy read and the next thing I knew I was in the fourth chapter and I stumbled off to bed, bleary-eyed. I'm still chugging away at Ulysses. The reading schedule is 12 weeks long so I should just make a macro to type that for me.

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Oh wow! Sending good thoughts! Post some video if you can.

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I do that too, even ones that are really just the recipes with no extra text, like my mom's NYT cookbook from the 1960s. Hands down the cookbook I've enjoyed reading the most is The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rogers. Have you read it? She was such an amazing chef.

Sing it, sister!

I spent my Sunday reading time watching the Packers game instead. Ah well. At least the Packers are still in it. I've finished section 3 of Ulysses and am really enjoying it. So much beautiful language. It's like what happens if you cross a ridiculously well-educated Jesuit with Jack Kerouac, and the Jesuit likes to add in obscure allusions to keep English professors employed. How altruistic! I'll probably finish Hard Road West tonight. I want to complete it so I can begin 1Q84, which should arrive in the mail tomorrow. I really only want to read one other book while reading Ulysses. Not only am I a slow reader, it takes a lot of time to look up some of the allusions. I'm out of likes but have enjoyed all the posts on this thread!

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I looked at our shelves and all I can come up with is Clear and Present Danger (Clancy) or The Catcher in the Rye. :D

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Last night I read one of the best things I have ever read. I think it will stay with me forever. It's from Ulysses, and the one of the characters, Stephen Dedalus, is looking at a student of his who has come to him for help with a math problem. The student reminds Dedalus of himself. As a mother it just made me cry.

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Quoting myself to add that I just realized it's chronologically located after his other book.

I was at a bookstore tonight and saw this interesting book about The War of the Roses. It came out in October. I can't vouch for it as I didn't read it, but in skimming it looked quite good. The clerk had read it and really enjoyed it. You might want to check it out.

Be sure to use a mummified chicken as the projectile.

I finished the tidying book, my first completion of 2015. Actually, my first completion in a long time as I often have too many unfinished books. After reading the last page, I turned to my husband and told him that while Marie Kondo has a strange way of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects (my Japanese friend tells me this is very Japanese) and may be exhibiting some symptoms of mental illness, we should definitely follow her techniques as we declutter for our move. In other words, she is a bit crazy but strangely persuasive. She leaves you with an "Eh, what have I got lose?" type of motivation. Nonetheless, I will not be peeling labels off my deodorant to "reduce visual clutter."

I have it on my list to read too. I read it a long time ago but this time I shelled out for the version in which King re-inserted 400 pages the publishers had originally cut on the advice of their accountants, not their editors.

What are people's thoughts on reading HotMW if one has never read HotAW?