March’s book was Extremely loud and incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
The verdict? I couldn’t get into this book at all. Despite getting through almost half of it, I quit. I found myself really forcing myself to keep reading. At one point I even stopped reading it and picked up something else, the hope being that I just needed to get into the right mood for the book. Well, when I went back to it, I still couldn’t enjoy it. I didn’t like the hero of the story, Oskar (precocious kids don’t do much for me), and the differing narrators confused the heck out of me.
I finally gave up because a) the end of March was looming, and b) I didn’t see any hope for it.
I wonder if I’ll be in the right head space for it later…
See Penny’s blog for a few other reviews. I don’t think I’m the only one who didn’t like it.
Five things that make me happy are:
- Good health. You definitely miss it when you’re sick. Also I am glad that my illnesses have been minor ones.
- Good books. Essential when you’re sick and need simple non-taxing entertainment. (Once the room has stopped spinning, at any rate)
- Mozart
- Clouds. They make the sky more interesting to look at, especially at sunrise.
- Twitter. I love the conversations that go on. The questions, interesting discussions. Links, photos. Personal snippets. jokes, banter. Questions answered. Information shared. News.
Eating my first breakfast in a couple of days - yoghurt with banana and honey, which seems to be the only thing I feel like this morning.
Woke at midnight Saturday/Sunday with a sense of unease, which worsened into a feeling of nausea. This finally climaxed, at around 2:45am, into an attack of diarrhoea and vomitting. Went back to bed (after Peppi, who had come to gaze at me, concernedly). Lay there. Loo again at 6:30am (thankfully no puking) and then spent the rest of the day sleeping.
Monday was slightly better in that the room didn’t seem to be spinning, but I still spent much of it in bed. When M got home, watched several episodes of tv schmaltz (Grey’s Anatomy, season two). Thus endeth my day.
To think I’d wanted to take yesterday off, but didn’t, because I had too many meetings. Ended up having the day off anyway, and all the meetings have been rescheduled. Feeling much better this morning - just in time to go back to work.
All in all, not a recommended way to spend one’s days. However, chihuahuas are great company when one is sick. Paco and Peppi insisted on lying in bed with me for the whole two days. Paco was especially good, with just the right level of canine concern - when he knew I was awake he stood on my chest and gazed into my eyes - at other times he just lay against my legs, everytime I looked at him I found him looking back at me. Peppi was a little less careful, licking me awake quite a few times and trying to get me to help her chew her Nylabone.
