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Billy Joel: Glass Houses
I was going to start by saying it was another vacation in Pennsylvania but I might be wrong on that, seeing this was released in March 1980. It happens that we were in Pennsylvania a bit early that year as my grandfather had died and we’d gone for the funeral. It was early June and my brothers and I missed out on the last few days of school for the year.
Some time during that visit I had a sleepover with my cousin, who was three years older than me. The next day, we went with my aunt to “town” which was Clarion and we stopped at Jamesway, the only discount department store in the town. Well, as far as I know it was since I didn’t live there and didn’t know all the places very well.
Anyway, for some reason, we were there so I could choose a belated birthday gift. I’m not really sure what this was innate of because my aunt and uncle (who were my godparents) weren’t in the habit of doing birthday gifts for me before or after that year. I guess it counts as a notable gift in that way.
So there we were in the music department and I made the choice of Glass Houses by Billy Joel. I don’t know if there were any other contenders for my choice but I think I was pretty keen on this record due to the radio play it was getting at the time.
That was the first Billy Joel album I owned so it holds a special place in my heart even if it’s not anywhere near the best of his albums. It’s kind of weird to think the album is now forty years old. How did that happen? It doesn’t seem so long ago and yet, it was another lifetime ago.
I think the opening song, “You May Be Right”, is the one that I most identify with this record. That breaking of glass at the beginning of the song always alerts me to the memory of getting the album and the great, catchy song that would follow.
I adore the lovely, Latin sound of “Don’t Ask Me Why”. Without paying too much attention to lyrics, it’s rather a soothing listen late at night when you’re nearly asleep. That is, unless the excitement of hearing it wakes you up.
“Still Rock and Roll” is maybe the best known of the songs on this album and it still stands up well forty years later. It’s a catchy look at a rock and roller’s fame in decline due to the changing attitude of the public.
There were quite a few songs I’d forgotten from this album since I hadn’t listened in quite a long time. The most notable is “C’etait Toi (You Were the One)” another smooth ballad with some verses in French. Maybe it spoke to the French student in me but I really loved this then and it still works for me now. I would add the final song, “Through the Long Night” which is another almost lullaby for me. Good stuff!
Again, this is definitely not my favorite Billy Joel album but it fills a place in my memories and has much nostalgia for those days when I was a teenager in junior high school. In fact, it was on the cusp of my high school experience so very much a period of transition and growing up just a bit more.
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Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
It was the summer of 1978 and our family was on our usual vacation to Pennsylvania, travelling from North Carolina where we lived. My mom’s younger sister had just graduated high school and she was getting married to her high school sweetheart. The reception was where my knowing of this album started.
The album was actually released over a year earlier but it was so popular that the radio was still playing a lot of music from this album over a year later. It was enough that by the time I was at that reception and hearing it yet again, I was kind of sick of it. I don’t know if songs were played more than once at the reception but it sure felt that way to me and that’s one of my strongest memories of that particular event.
My feelings toward this album mellowed just a bit over the next several years. I’m not really sure at what point I changed my mind but I know by the mid-80s I had begun to really enjoy this album. It was a few more years before I saw the band in concert the first time. This wasn’t with the classic line-up since Lindsey Buckingham had left the band by this time and Rick Vito and Billy Burnett had taken his place. I will be honest and say their parts in that performance haven’t really stayed with me over the years and didn’t come anywhere near a Lindsey Buckingham performance. Even so, I really did enjoy the concert and from that point I got into Fleetwood Mac in a much bigger way, buying their albums and also becoming a big Stevie Nicks fan too.
But this is really the album to start it all and these days I can appreciate it much more than the preteen I was in the summer of 1978. It was a tumultuous time for the band with two members divorcing each other, two breaking up a relationship and the other having his own relationship woes. As awful as it must have been for them, this work of art emerged and is for me what represents the band despite the fact the band has evolved again and again over the years.
The album includes some absolutely brilliant songs but one part of the record that appeals to me most is the harmonies of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. The song “The Chain” seems to be the best example of this and in some ways is the standout song for me. It’s an angry song that draws you in from the first notes and makes you a part of it. It became the first of many sing-alongs when we saw the band play last year.
“Songbird” is a song that didn’t really appeal to me when I was younger but I now hear it and I’m in awe of the beautiful way Christine plays and sings it. I also really like the hopefulness of “Don’t Stop” in amongst the anger and angst of many of the other songs. This one’s another one with great harmonies too.
“Dreams” is a song that is great to hear with the headphones on. It’s got a magical and mystical feel to it that I liked from early on, well before I paid any attention to the lyrics. Stevie’s voice on this is fragile and delicate and takes you to another place while you are listening.
Lastly I want to mention “Gold Dust Woman”, which is another Stevie classic I adore. Not so much the fragile voice here but a firm narrative of someone going through a rough time in life and using “gold dust” to deal with things. The performance of this song was an absolute highlight of the concert we saw last year. It was dark and scary and full of that mysticism that goes well with so many Stevie Nicks songs.
I can’t leave this without mention of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the constants throughout the history of the band. They make a brilliant team and it’s their rhythm work that makes this album truly sparkle musically. With some great guitar work by Buckingham and keyboards by Christine McVie, it adds to an amazing team effort.
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1977
I bought my first music in 1975 with money of my own. That was just four 45rpm records and I don’t recall my next purchase. I just remember I bought the second Captain and Tenille album and maybe that was my first one? I’m not totally sure.
It was probably more like 1977 when I started to become a more proper music fan. By this time I was doing a bit of babysitting and earning my own money so control of my listening habits was shifting to what might be expected when one is nearly a teenager.
Another thing that may or may not have any influence is that we moved from Atlanta to Charlotte at the end of 1976. I think my understanding of the world really increased during this time period so it may be a by-product of my recognition of what was happening in the world. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence due to my age at the time.
I return to The Eagles again thanks to the song New Kid in Town, which I think must have resonated with me. Not that I was really listening closely to lyrics then but I was a new kid so it seemed an apt song. Another song that I strongly remember was Year of the Cat by Al Stewart.
Weirdly I got really attached to the song You Light up My Life by Debby Boone. It was hugely popular for many weeks so it was easy to get a bit obsessed. This was one of those songs that I liked then but I am rather indifferent to now. I wasn’t a religious person then so I guess it didn’t really have lasting power. I didn’t see it as religious at the time though, so I guess something about it reached me.
It was in 1977 I was listening to a local pop music station. That summer they sponsored a reading program where if you read a certain number of books they would give you six singles. I don’t recall the reading but I was taken to the station to get my records and I have a vague memory of standing in line with all the other teens. I got my records and I think I still have them today. I can’t recall all of them but I think one was Low Down by Boz Scaggs and Best of my Love by the Emotions. The one I remember the best was Undercover Angel by Alan O’Day. When I find my old records I will have to figure out the other three songs. Everyone got a different set of singles so it was all a random sort of thing.
I carried on doing babysitting jobs in the neighborhood and so continued to have some spending money. It was around this time I bought the first album that influenced me in any big way and it was not even a regular album but a compilation. Love Songs by the Beatles was released in late 1977 and I bought it because I liked some of the Beatles songs I heard on the radio. This was my entry point to becoming a Beatles fan. I used to listen that album all the time and it still is a sentimental favorite of mine even though it’s not one of their proper records. I think I must have the album still for that reason. Well, I think I brought it to Australia but those records are packed away in the closet at the moment. It would still be a few years before I came to know the proper albums by the group in any way.
The Bee Gees hit it big in 1977 too, with the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, a movie I still have never seen even though it’s supposed to be a good one. I have seen a few bits here and there when it’s replayed on tv but just have never watched it. The music, on the other hand is still pretty prominent in my memory. I already liked some of the Bee Gees music at this time although their shift to disco music was a bit of a surprise as it was a quite different from songs from their early days. That said I think they had a couple records before this that were already moving into this style. I have never owned this album but I do have the songs that were popular on a compilation album somewhere. Well, I don’t think I still have the vinyl so maybe I don’t own it now.
This was also the year that Billy Joel became a big thing. The album The Stranger was everywhere and these songs were also being played constantly. Just the Way You Are was the biggest song but I latched onto She’s Always a Woman at the time instead. I think some of the songs got played so much I was a bit tired of it. These days I can appreciate it all much more than I did then, and maybe I will actually buy a copy of the album one day. It almost came to pass that I saw him in concert that year but for some reason I didn’t go. I later became a big Billy Joel fan so I do regret that I didn’t go then since it’s unlikely I will be able to afford a ticket even if I am in the right place at the right time.
Which leads me to considering my first concert, Shaun Cassidy. To be honest I don’t recall much of his music but I think the concert was that year and he was popular and my mom took me and I enjoyed it. Most of his music was cover songs and I did like the songs a lot. But Shaun Cassidy wasn’t my main teen idol. Instead it was Andy Gibb, who I loved and I would have seen a concert by him had the opportunity happened. His album Flowing Rivers was really good and I think even now it stands up a bit on the few occasions when I’ve tried to listen to it. Of course, some of the songs were written or co-written by his older brother Barry, who was able to pen a popular song himself. I will point out that the other idol from that time period was Leif Garret and I never liked his music and I didn’t care much for him either.
I should also add the album Frampton Comes Alive at this point. While I wasn’t a huge fan at the time, I did like some of the songs and I have come to appreciate how great the music was on that record. Funnily enough that’s the only record I know Frampton for and I’d guess that’s the case for many of us. This was a record that was popular with the neighbor girls I hung out with early on when we lived in NC. They were also big fans of Kiss, a band that I’ve never liked much although there are a couple of songs that are okay. I was just never a fan and most of the time these days I am as likely to change the radio station when they are on. I can’t recall if they had an album that year or not but there was a lot of fandom right then so I guess there must have been. Maybe I will look it up. Well it seem there was an album plus a live album that year so it makes sense they were so popular.
There was one other album that was really big that year which I will write about separately as it is a major album with major influence in my musical tastes.
I’m sure there’s heaps more from that year I’m forgetting right now. Until I started putting all this down, I don’t think I realised how much of the music of that year had been such a part of my life.
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Music in the early years
I was thinking about how I might write about influences on my musical tastes and I will do the album thing but it seems useful to think about the beginnings of my musical tastes.
I don’t really recall having much interest in music when I was very young. That said, I was a big fan of Glen Campbell when I was quite young. I don’t even know what songs I liked at the time as the ones that I mostly recall are some from the mid-70s or so.
I imagine a lot of my music knowledge was centered around what my parents listened to at the time. There was a lot of Charley Pride at my house. My mom was a big fan of it so we heard a lot of his records playing. Olivia Newton John was also quite popular although it was a bit later. I suppose we heard a lot more country music back then. But I did hear pop music too. When I was in third grade I remember the “song” The Streak by Ray Stevens was a thing. Of course I guess that was more from the country side of things too. That song reminds me of a girl named Paris in my class at school who used to sing that a lot for a time. Hmm…I just know there’s a lot of pop music I know when I hear it on the radio. At the very least we heard it in the car.
It wasn’t until the mid-70s I started to take a more active interest in music. I guess it was probably 1975 to be exact. That summer my cousins and grandfather came down to visit us for a week or so. This was when my aunt had the baby she gave up for adoption (even though we were all told it had died)…the one who I connected with a year ago on Ancestry.
Some where along this time I bought my first 45 rpm records. There were four of them at the time although I don’t know if I recall all of them. I still have them somewhere in the house but have nothing to play them on. The big one is Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tenille. It was hugely popular during that summer and my cousin and I both loved the song a lot and sang it all the time while she visited. Even after she’d gone we started writing letters to each other and quoting lines from the song. I think sometimes before this I’d been to Pennsylvania and the big song was Donny Osmond singing Go Away Little Girl. Not sure which year but probably the year before, I guess. I didn’t have the record though. That song is still a favorite, mainly for sentimental reasons. It still reminds me of my cousin, who died many years ago from ovarian cancer.
Another of those records was Calypso by John Denver. I just liked the sound of the song and that has always been my favorite song by John Denver. But I was a fan of some of his other music too. I guess country music played a bigger role than I realized before.
The third single was Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band…which upon reflection was a country group, I think. Funny, I never thought I liked country music all that much but I guess I did have some roots in that area for a while.
I can’t remember what the fourth single was right now. I will have to figure it out later.
To carry on the country theme, I used to like a lot of Eagles songs from their earlier years. I know they were more country rock but it’s still connected. I have pretty much always liked their music but it was only a few years ago that I bought a collection of their music. I guess that’s one of those groups I liked to listen to but I wasn’t compelled to have my own copy. There were lots of groups like that. I guess the reason this came to me was my parents were in a bowling league sometime in the mid-70s and these songs were playing a lot in the background there. We kids used to run around while the adults bowled. I do have ideas of getting a couple of proper albums one day in the future.
Elton John was another artist I heard a lot of back in those days. My parents had the single Daniel which got played a lot in our house. Funnily enough that’s not one that I heard very often these days but it does take me back to those years. But I also remember the era when he sang Don’t Go Breaking My Heart with Kiki Dee really well. That was a radio play thing so I guess I must have heard it in the car a lot. I don’t have any of his albums either although I do hope to get a couple of them one day. Or maybe a compilation.
Neil Young’s Heart of Gold is my favorite song by him and I know it’s almost completely a nostalgic choice. Oddly I remember hearing this played across the street at our neighbor’s house. They had a son who was a year or two older than me and a daughter who was quite a bit younger. My brothers and I were playing there one day and that song was on. I honestly don’t remember much else about that day aside from the song and the fact we were in the son’s bedroom for a time.
I was also just reminded of Helen Reddy from that era too. My parents had at least one of here albums and it was played a lot. Funny to thing we were listening to an Australian at the time (not to mentioned Olivia Newton John). I remember the song I am Woman being really big for a long time. Kind of funny also to think this feminist song got played so much back then considering how non-feminist my mom has become in more recent years.
I was just reminded of The Association as a group from my earlier years. My family had best friends from when we lived in Pennsylvania. They moved to Atlanta around the same time as a us and we lived in the same apartments. Back in PA were were neighbors in an upstairs/downstairs apartment or duplex so of thing. Anyway, we were close with their family all the years I was growing up. I spent the night there many times and I remember hearing the Association music being played. I think Never My Love was the most prominent but I am sure there were plenty of others.
I guess the last music I will mention is probably one of the earlier records I knew. My parents had a copy of the first Beatles album released in the US. It didn’t have a cover from the point I recall it and I think it was mentioned at some time that we kids destroyed it. It may well have been me, in fact. The Beatles will get a look-in at some point of sharing although I haven’t quite worked out which album. So there is definitely some pop music I remember from way back although I wouldn’t say it made me a Beatles fan at a young age.
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Book Review: The Duke’s Disaster by Grace Burrowes
Note: I discovered this is book 1.5 in a series but it’s not clear why this is so. Usually the .5 books are related to the previous in some way, at least in my experience. That is not the case here.
This was a somewhat better than average historical romance but only enough to push it to 3.5 stars. The Duke of Amselm invested time and energy to court a young lady who ultimately chose another to marry. The Duke, Noah Winters then moves on to the lady’s companion, Lady Thea Collins, who has much to gain at accepting his non-existent courtship and proposal. Thea accepts the proposal, mostly to ensure her younger sister is provided for until marriage. Noah makes things happen to allow them to marry quickly and soon they are married and travelling to one of the Anselm properties.
The wedding night comes and Thea’s big secret is found out and threatens to destroy what was essentially a marriage of convenience for both. Both characters have a stubborn streak and they carry on the best they know how. They come to have a comfortable chemistry and there’s a fair bit of teasing of each other as they go. You always get the sense there is no ill will intended and they come to crave each others’ company. As the story continues there are some trials along the way, mostly related to the duke’s family and Thea. The ending is satisfactory and it seems it will be another happily ever after.
What I liked about the story was the character of the duke, who isn’t all that personable but is fiercely caring and protective of his family and friends. He does have something of a modern mindset which was written well enough that it doesn’t seem too out of place in an historical story. The character of Thea is one that’s commonly seen in these stories. I do like her resolve but she also is able to eventually share with her husband and accept his assistance. It is rather cliched in many ways but I think the best part of the story is the interchanges between the duke and duchess. It’s just so relaxed and comfortable even early on in the relationship.
I wasn’t too keen on the older brother of Thea’s charge early on in the book. It’s clear he’s a villain but I never feel his bad actions have enough motivation to be so vile at times. Also, there is quite a bit of focus on Thea’s brother, the new earl in the family, but rather little of the younger sister she’s meant to be looking after. It just feels the sister is nearly written out of the story from early on and she is mentioned occasionally but almost never seen.
There is the requisite twist in the story which is kind of expected although I didn’t expect the reveal to be quite like it was. My feelings are pretty neutral on this part because it was neither terrible or all that great.
Overall it was an enjoyable read for this rather fluffy genre.
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Book Review: 180 Seconds by Jessica Park
Allison is dropped off at Andrews College in Maine at the start of her junior year by Simon, the man who adopted her when she was sixteen. She’s relieved when she finds out she won’t have the roommate that she expected. See, she doesn’t do relationships with other people thanks to spending most of her childhood being shuffled from one foster family to another. She doesn’t want to get close because she knows she will lose the relationship and starting over just isn’t an option. It’s too much investment for her. Her goal in life at present is to never get too close to anyone and just stay part of the crowd.
It’s early in the school year and Allison spills her iced coffee all over the pavement and feels she has to clean it up. She’s struggling to grab all the ice cube and then this guy appears and is helping her. She thanks him and then she goes about her business. The next day she’s walking in the town when she is accosted by Kerry, who is helping her brother Esben with a social experiment. The experiment consists of sitting across and gazing at each other for 180 seconds. Allison finds herself from the same guy who helped her yesterday. The experience of 180 seconds is profound for both of them and they create something of an Internet sensation. See Esben is big on social media and has multiple thousands of followers. The story is about Allison breaking down the walls she’s constructed around herself and learning to live.
I was really drawn into the story at the beginning and the scene of 180 seconds worked well enough for me when I first read it. I was really interested to find out what happened next and I did enjoy the ride I was on for a while. But then it wasn’t so enjoyable. The first thing I noted is how Allison seems to heal so quickly once she meets Esben. It goes from awkward to a bit less awkward to not a all between them. I’m not saying this doesn’t happen but I know that most with lifelong issues like Allison are not going to go from super damaged to fairly recovered in such short order. Plus the path to recovery is so unlikely to go in that straight line.
Then there are those perfect hero types in her life: Esben who seems to have the mission to use his “star” status to improve the lives of others. Simon, the single, gay adoptive father who seems to have no real flaws. Even her best and only friend, Steffi, is glorified to some degree and seems to be almost self-less in the way she is looking after her friend/almost sister from their foster days. It’s not that these people have no issues or problems but they all seem to be devoted to Allison and not much else by the time we get much further into the story. Yes, there’s some big stuff that comes out but I never feel like we are digging too deeply into any of the characters aside from Allison.
So I can live with a somewhat shallow story to some degree but as we start nearing the end of the story things get a bit over the top dramatic and then it gets over the top silly in the process of dealing with the dramatic. I found myself skimming quite a bit during this part of the story and I certainly didn’t feel as much as I possibly could have for the characters. There is a bit of improvement at the end but it never quite recovers the charm of the beginning. I think I might have been willing to give this 3 or even 3.5 stars until we got to this point but this really dragged the book down a lot for me. And I think I am almost struggling to give it 2.5 at the end because it’s turned into something a bit dream-like by this point.
One other weird point I will make is that even though Allison is a junior, we never get any idea of what she is studying aside from one psychology class. I know we don’t have to know but I think it might have been interesting to help develop the character a bit more. In fact, the only character who seems to have a clear major is Esben’s sister who is an art major.
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Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Like the previous Jenny Han book I read, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before , this was really quite sweet and lovely. It’s really a bit of a coming of age story. Belly (nickname for Isabel) is on the verge of turning sixteen when she makes the yearly trip to the summer house with her mom and brother. They’ve gone every year and stayed with Susannah Beck and her two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly is the baby of the group and over the years she has often felt left out from the fun had by the three boys. This year she intends for that all the change. She’s all grown up and she wants to be seen as more than the baby. It’s obvious the boys see that she really has changed when they first see her upon arrival. This is the first year that she feels pretty and feels like she is actually being noticed in a new way by the guys, aside from her brother.
During the summer she has her first summer romance of sorts with a boy she meets at a bonfire. Her brother leaves early in the summer to do college shopping with their dad and so he’s MIA for much of the story. Conrad is different this year and she can’t understand why. Jeremiah is mostly the same but not all. Susannah is napping when they arrive which is totally out of character. For this relatively short YA story, there’s a fair bit of drama here and lots of love in various ways.
I really like this and look forward to reading the next part of the story after what could be a long wait from the library.
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Reading
I’ve been doing lots of reading of late. I started reading amateur writing on Wattpad and that’s been an interesting experience. Most of the writers seem to be young and much of the material I’ve read has been teen fiction. It’s interesting how I see the same sort of stories here as I do elsewhere. And although the writing is often lacking it’s not much worse than some of the published works in some of the free ebooks I’ve read. The one thing that would improve most of these stories would be some proofreading at the very least. Some of the spelling is really atrocious but I am kind if pleased to see the flow of story ideas even though they are keep to some of the same story lines. Something else I noticed in these stories is that they do a lot of building up and then suddenly the story is finished up quickly, skipping over the rest of the story. I can only imagine these are situations where the writer has lost interest or given up but want to do some sort of completion of the story. Some of the stories are reasonably good so it’s a disappointment when this happens because I feel it ruins what was working out to be a good book. I’ve also been reading at Radish and Inkitt which are similar sort of websites. All have apps to use on IOS so I have all three on my phone and try to check out material every so often.
Although Wattpad and similar are kind of fun, I am also back to getting through many of the books I’ve downloaded on my Kindle. Most of the books I have are freebies but some I have bought. The quality is pretty variable and some of them I finish just to get them out of the way. Others are surprisingly good and I read other works by the writers. So the idea of a free book isn’t so terrible if the quality is there. I also get some of the daily and monthly deals. I’m still reading the second book of the Outlander series but managed to buy a couple further titles at greatly reduced prices in the monthly sale a couple months ago. I also managed to get a couple Robin Hobb titles although I don’t think they are in the Farseer trilogy where I am currently reading the second book.
Another series where I got books on sale is the Paper Magician series. I won’t say it’s great literature but I liked the premise of the first book quite a lot. But it got stuck in the problem of the writer setting it in the early 20th century in England but there are teenaged characters behaving like modern day teens instead. This is an issue I felt the editor should have handled but didn’t. I read the second book, The Glass Magician, and it was much better. But I came to wonder why it was set in that time frame in the end. There was so little to tie it to any time period in my view. I still have one book left in the series and plan to read that soon. The books are fairly short and are generally quick reads.
I’m still fascinated with the teen romance genre. One thing I’ve noted lately is a number of stories in published and amateur situations where the female protagonist comes from some dark background (sometimes it’s the male love interest though) and then one bad thing after another happens to this character. I find this to be a bit of overkill and makes the somewhat unbelievable stories even more so in the end. I really do wonder how much tragedy one person could experience.
Which leads me to Twilight which suffers a bit of this sort of treatment too. While I didn’t love the book, it wasn’t so bad as so many have made out. I mean it was like a bandwagon of Twilight haters. Much like the bandwagon of haters on the rock groups Nickelback and Coldplay. I wasn’t too keen on the ending of the book, mostly because it seemed to be like the end of a chapter and not an actual volume of a series. I am in no hurry to carry on to the next book but probably will read it in the future. I will say it’s kind of good to know a bit more about the series than before.
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A few words, finally
My intention back in October was that I would write all about my US trip. So now it’s six months later and the last I wrote was about being ready for Game Fanatic’s birthday.
I do have intentions of writing a bit about my holiday but today I am going to try to just get back into writing again after so long.
Yesterday I bought a pair of Crocs for the first time. I’ve heard many claim wonderful things about Crocs. I don’t know if I would agree but my goal was to replace some thongs that had broken after a couple years of use. I’d been rather frustrated with my efforts to find anything equivalent and then remembered some local markets have a store selling Crocs and Skeechers. (?) and thought they might have something that is suitable. Most of the shoes hanging there weren’t great but there were a few that I liked but didn’t have the right size. Then I found one pair that felt really good to wear. They didn’t require any work from my toes to keep it on and were low stress for wearing. They were pricey but I think they are worth it. At least they have worked well in the one day I’ve worn them, I can only hope they are as durable as the last ones I had to make it good value for money.
Yesterday I was at the library and I decided to finally tackle reading the book Twilight. It’s not that I have been against reading it to date but just hadn’t gotten around to doing it. I really would have liked to get the ebook but our library doesn’t have an electronic version. Alas I am stuck with a 10th anniversary edition of the book that also includes a reimagining of the book. Last night I started reading and got about a third of the way through. I probably could have read through the night but forced myself to close the book and put it aside at one point. So far, I am enjoying it. It’s no great literature but it is engaging and it’s certainly better written than some of the crappy teen fiction I’ve been reading on Wattpad lately. It’s kind of funny because I’ve read some Twilight wannabe books in the last year so now I can compare the original story. After I finish the first book I will likely watch the film. I may update once I finish to comment further. Unless what I have said is all there is to say. :D
Speaking of books, I also recently read The Paper Magician which I’d gotten on sale for my Kindle. I did enjoy some aspects of the story and I might have called it pretty good but the writer had some huge issues with the setting, which is supposed to be early 20th century in England. But it read more like a modern high school setting in many cases. There was never any sense of the social norms for that time included. I find it really shocking the editor failed to flag and correct this before it was published. There are at least two books that continue the story which I will eventually read once I steel myself for further inconsistencies.
In May the Scientist and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. While we were together well before we got married, this is the official date. We didn’t have much of a honeymoon back then due to work commitments so we are doing a bit more of a celebration now. We have a holiday to Thailand booked for five nights and we have splurged on a nice hotel on Koh Lanta. We’ll be leaving the boys on their own for the time we’re gone although there will be family and friends to provide support for them. I’m really looking forward to those days with just us in May. It will be our first real holiday on our own since we came to Australia. We could have gone for more days if we’d gone to Bali but it’s so crowded there and much of the population at any time includes a large percentage of Australians. It’s actually cheaper to go there than to go to other capital cities domestically. Koh Lanta is a lot quieter although it’s also a bit of a tourist area. Our room will have a private pool and there is also a private beach on the property.
Several days ago I had the “pleasure” of being stung by a bull ant. We’d seen it in the house earlier and I had collected it in a container and taken it outside. An hour later I felt something crawling on my leg and it was this creature. About the time I noticed it I was stung. My theory is it was the same ant getting revenge for being flicked onto the ground. The sting was really painful at the time but once it settled down I didn’t notice it much. Well until the next day when it started to swell and become itchy. I was okay until I gave into the temptation to scratch. Then it got much worse. Fortunately the itchiness didn’t last too long and now it’s just a small mark near my ankle that hasn’t completely healed. At first I didn’t think it was a bull ant but then the following night another one crawled up my leg and I caught that one and photographed it. It was clear that it was a bull ant. I didn’t have a bad reaction so guess I am not allergic. That said it was the first time I’ve been stung by one so I can’t guarantee it won’t happen again.
I’m hoping to write about the following topics with regard to my US holiday:
- The journey from Perth to DFW in Texas
- Road trip from Dallas to NC
- The wedding/new family
- Revisiting Charlotte after 20+ years
- UNCG reunion
- Road trip from Charlotte to PA
- Family in PA
- Road trip from PA to Indianapolis
- Visit with my cousin and family
- Road trip from IN back to Texas
- Hanging out in TX
- Journey from DFW back to Perth
I don’t know how much I will cover buy hopefully I will touch on everything above since there was so much that happened and so many people that I met and was reunited with after many years.
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Reading habits
I seem to be back into a habit of reading books again. Not that I ever stopped but I’d been reading all sorts of mixed media and much of that was manga and webtoon titles. I’m still reading some of those but the manga types I like have been pretty much exhausted as far as what the library has and it felt like time to mix things up a bit anyway.
I’m currently reading lots of straight fiction, mostly romance, mostly light reading. I tend to give a miss to the Harlequin types. Some of what I am reading probably would be similar to chick-lit. But I also started reading more young adult titles too. It’s kind of a weird territory for me. It wasn’t around back when I was in the targeted age range so I mostly read adult novels once I reached my teens…probably before that.
Something I’ve noticed about the YA titles I’ve read are that they are fairly easy reads. Most I’ve finished in a few hours. Maybe it’s just luck of the draw. Of course there are books like the Harry Potter series that are longer reads but I haven’t found any like that lately.
One of the series I’ve read recently is a sort of Twilight wannabe series. It’s not terrible but not great either. I have only finished the first book of what seem to be three or four depending on how a prequel is counted. It deals with paranormal stuff and supposedly dark romance. I don’t know if the darkness is really that dark though and the romance isn’t written that well…but maybe it gets better in the second book. I read another book from a different series which also probably qualifies as a Twilight wannabe. I think I liked that better but I haven’t found the next books in the series to find out what happens next. I haven’t actually read the Twilight books but I am thinking about tackling them some time soon just so I can make comparisons. I know the series isn’t known for any great writing so I won’t be going in expecting much. I suppose it will give more context to all the pop culture references though and I might still enjoy it for what it is.
One of the reasons I’ve delved into YA romances is to compare them to the shoujo manga I’ve read. There are lots of tropes that show up in manga and I am already seeing how there’s some overlap in the YA books although without some of the more culturally Japanese tropes, of course. There’s definitely lots more available these days but I must admit to being disappointed at the way so many books represent romance with such negative behaviors in relationships. Too many girls are just too accepting of the guy doing things they shouldn’t. That’s not stopping me from reading but it does leave me wondering when the culture will change enough that it will be reflected in the literature. So far, I’ve not found much to hold up as particularly good…but it’s still early days in my reading.
I’m also reading books on my Kindle which works better late at night because I can read in bed for a while and just go to sleep. If I’m reading a physical book I need to get up and move to the bed and that often gets me awake again. Anyway, the ebooks are so much easier to carry. I get a lot of the books from the free books on Amazon but I also buy some when they are reduced price too.
Part of my intent in reading is to have a broader understanding of what’s out there in the literature since I do have aspirations of working in a library and probably a public library soon.