Sorry, I meant a tenth of his body weight, not a tenth of a lb. That's what they told me when DS was a baby and developed some issues. Spryte is right, whatever she meant, he's lucky to have you!

I am way behind in the thread because instead of thinking "January 1st" I was thinking of yesterday as "Saturday." Imagine when I checked in this morning for the new thread and it was already so long! I'm going to reply to a few things and catch up later. Welcome all who are joining. :seeya: I joined last year for the first time and it made a difference in the quality of my life. When I was younger I was a voracious reader but with small children and some serious health issues, I was in "survival mode" for several years and not taking as much time to read as I had previously. Then my children grew older and my health issues were better, but I was out of practice and the inertia kept me on the same track. Enter this thread, and I've expanded my horizons, spent much more time (for myself!) in bookstores and libraries again, and found caring souls. So if you're hesitating to join, please don't! I'm so happy I jumped in. A couple of us have The Invention of Nature on our lists. It sounds like a great way to start the year! I am also blatantly copying Rose. We went to the beach earlier and looked at the trees and rocks and took pictures of the (sparse) lichen we found. It was mostly on the large rocks the district has placed on the edge of the walking path to separate it from the beach. I think it's too arid to find much lichen around here and if we had more time we would have headed to the forest where I'm sure we would have found more. Thank you Jane, I will. Several of us read this last year and I think we would all recommend it. The writing, while simple, paints a phenomenal picture of ruthlessness on a landscape of West Texas. I was sad when I ordered my copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and it came with an Oprah Book Club stamp. Maybe I'm a bit of a snob about it. If you have 5 other lists going, you'll fit right in.

Maybe she meant a tenth.

How'd it go? We made chicken stock yesterday. It was nice to not have to monitor the pot. It took about 4 hours, it usually takes longer than that. The stock was a bit thinner but I think that's due to a lack of evaporation.

Happy New Year, everyone! May you have a year of peace and good books.

If we're in fantasyland I'll take one Mulberry Freya in oxblood.

Praying.... :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

I checked with DS and he told me nothing like this has occurred in his class.

From an email Archipelago sent me today:

I ordered a copy of Voyage of the Beagle so I guess I'm in! I finished The Power of Myth yesterday. It's the companion book to a 1988 PBS series in which Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell. The series was limited to 6 hours but the book contains everything. Interestingly, the forward thanks Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for being the editor who made it happen. It was the first book I've read on comparative mythology and I enjoyed most of it. There was quite a bit of discussion about why myths are repeated in different cultures and times, even if those cultures did not interact with each other and the thrust of Campbell's idea was they they are based on Jungian archetypes that have meaning across cultures, whether the story is of virgin birth or of people going to mountains for solitude and experiencing epiphanies. There was also some discussion about the infantilization of adults (not only young ones) and a lack of serious community-based modern rituals to move people through adolescence and show them it's time to leave "childish" things behind.

I didn't even know you could get books without a subscription. I'll keep mine but that's good info to know. If you're looking for someone to blame you, I'm pretty sure you'll find you're in the wrong place. :-)

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

Yes, it would still be okay. Thank you for injecting some "gray" into my response. Feet of clay and all that... You pay a monthly fee and for that fee you get credits, the number depending on the price you're paying. You trade in credits for audiobooks and I always try and choose more expensive books. There are audiobooks that cost less than a credit, especially if there's a sale, so if you can afford to pay more each month it's better to pay cash for the cheaper ones and save your credits. If you build up 6 credits (at least at my level) they stop selling them to you until you use at least one. Occasionally they have big sales and also free audiobooks. It's a great way to get audio versions of some of The Great Courses. They use your Amazon password if you have one. They have apps for iPhone and iPad and I'm assuming Android and some other platforms. The books stay in your library and you download them to listen. After that I usually delete them from my device to make room. There's also a way to burn them to CDs but I've never done that. The only downside is that you cannot purchase from within their apps, at least the Apple ones. I think Apple had some kind of beef with that. So you must purchase from a browser, but after that they will show up in the app.

I finished Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World today. As I reached the end I really didn't want to be disturbed (liable to happen at any moment as DH was due home and the kids' documentary on the Space Race was ending) so I hid in the closet and finished the last few pages there! I really enjoyed reading it. It's somewhat similar to 1Q84 but it's a much shorter and easier read. I can't figure out how to discuss the content without major spoilers so I'll just say it's a cyberpunk novel that also explores the meaning of consciousness. I liked that none of the characters had names. I went shopping for a gift today and the gift shop had a really nice book, Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library. I did not buy it because the case at the shop was bent and a few pages wrinkled, but I did this it was just beautiful and could be a good book for anyone studying natural history or illustration.

I think I'll try the boiled eggs. They're supposed to be easier to peel and peeling farm-fresh eggs is such a pain that I often don't bother with what could be a handy snack.

I didn't know any more about the story until I read your post with the extra information about him. :)

Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll try and schedule it in the summer when I have (slightly) more time. I did regret putting it back on the shelf, but it was a concession to sanity more than anything else. Oh no! I read it to the kids and was similarly inspired.

At the library I picked up and then put down the book on Anders Breivik. I was very interested but it's pretty hefty and I have a lot going on right now. I'd love to hear what you think of it when you finish!

Yes, March works!

Oh dear, you reminded me that I read this but never wrote it down! If my brain wasn't so full of things, I would have remembered this as one of my favorites of the year, although I think one of the reasons it left my mind was because it was a re-read. Thanks for reminding me! Would February or March work?

Our first dish!!! DH made the Mexican beef from the included recipe booklet tonight. The beef was well-seasoned, but the sauce was quite watery. If you're going to make it, don't add the extra water to the sauce! I loved how tender the beef was after only 30 minutes.

Bump

My copies of Plato's Timaeus and The Unseen Forest just arrived, not so coincidentally packaged with my Chemex coffee filters. ;)

Oh I forgot my favorite covers. These are from the Southern Reach Trilogy:

My family had a lot of this as well (very upper class and then nothing, but not in the U.S.), although things have shifted over the last 50 years. They definitely maintained their cultural values, friends, and accents after they had nothing, but they were driven by a cause so I think that helped their mental adjustment to a new reality.