After finishing The Thirteenth Tale, and heaving back into my comfy chair with a satisfied grin on my face....I've been thinking about what to read next. It has to be something good, after a book like that.
In The Thirteenth Tale, the books Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are mentioned a lot. I've read Jane Eyre and I own Wuthering Heights but haven't read it yet, so that is the book that I've chosen.
The first line "1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with." Oooohh. Tell. Me. More.
I love the first sentence in books, don't you? When I look at a new book, I always turn to the first page to read the first sentence. Sometimes it's disappointing, sometimes it's neutral and sometimes it just pulls you in right away. Here are some random sentences from some of my favourite books on my bookshelf. Can you identify the books from their first sentences?
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
"One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot.""It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."
"They're all dead now."
It happened again, I was walking past the washer/dryer and saw this out of the corner of my eye.
(This is post #100, I'll be sure to celebrate with rum.)
Dear Robbers,
Do you know how many camping trips, over how many summers I put in sleeping in crappy blankets rather than a real sleeping bag, because I just could not afford one? Do you know how many years it took us to accumulate all our camping gear? Or how many trips we took where we happily went without certain gear because we love the outdoors that much?
When my grandparents generously gave me some spending money, I decided to splurge and get the best sleeping bag ever.....I used it 4 times...and now it's gone.
You got our attention when you decided to ransack the communal storage lockers. It sucked to find other peoples items thrown in amongst our things, but what sucked the most was discovering that you had taken nearly $750 of our beloved camping gear. This hurts us on levels that I won't get into here and because of this I have absolutely no sympathy for you or any problems you might have.
So less than two weeks later we now feel almost targeted when we discover our car has been broken into. And, of course it happens on the same night when Brad forgets his wallet in the glove compartment.*
If I ever get my hands on you, it will be chainsaw enemas all around.
Yours Truly,
Jabba
*This has never happened before. Ever.
Isn't it the best feeling when you pick up a book, start reading and are instantly enthralled? Well, that's what happened to me on Monday. I picked up The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, on recommendation from Claire and boy does it deliver....
"The house sat at an awkward angle. Arriving from the drive you came upon a corner, and it was not at all clear which side of the house was the front. It was as though the house knew it ought to meet its arriving visitors face on, but at the last minute couldn't repress the impulse to turn back and gaze upon the deer park and the woodlands at the end of the terraces. The visitor was met not by a welcoming smile but by a cold shoulder."
I started to read it on the ferry on the way to Vancouver on Monday. By the time I arrived on the other side, I was completely hooked into the mysterious story. On my way back to Victoria on Tuesday I was further into the captivating prose and interesting characters. So much so that I nearly missed getting off the ferry. This never happens.
I had a great trip to Vancouver for a visit with Rawbean which is always truly amazing. Time was spent with terrible television (a guilty pleasure), communal blogging (Only 3 comments? Were we that bad?!), a trip to Fabricana, red wine, laying on the grass in the sun, cheap sushi and right before we left for the ferry Rawbean gave me the best summer dress ever! Super generous, and I think I'll likely spend the rest of the summer in it. No, really.
Can you handle the apple fabric? I love, love, love it. It's destined for a new 'market type bag' I'm going to make and add to my Etsy shop soon. I made my first local sale yesterday. I met up with Jenny at Mayfair Mall and 'delivered' her bag in person. How awesome is that?!
Last weekend we took the train to Courtenay. It leaves from downtown Victoria, takes 4 1/2 hours and is a lovely way to spend time traveling.
It's not like taking the bus, or driving for that matter. You speed through forests, mountaintops, over huge old trestles and you get to see the best views.
Here we passed by a bunch of people bungee jumping, they totally stopped and waved as we went by.....
That was the coolest part - how everyone stops and stares as the train goes by, people are fascinated! Little kids get the most joy and wave frantically, but even grow adults stop and give lots of waves too - it's so cool.
When we arrived in Courtenay we walked downtown and they had a local market going on - happens once a year. All the businesses along the main strip put their wares outside, there was lots of music and great little shops to poke through.
For dinner we were planning on sushi, but we noticed that two businesses teamed up and were offering a great deal: you got to pick a pottery bowl from the pottery shop and the restaurant next door filled it up with chili for $15. Given my love of pottery, it was a no-brainer.The next day after scoping out breakfast, we walked back to the train station and headed home. The Courtenay train station is in really good shape which made me happy. There is so much history in the train and the rails, I think it's important to maintain it. Most of the stations along the way were in great shape*, which just adds to the unique experience of taking the train. Here's the station in Courtenay as the train is pulling in...
After another great train ride, we arrived back in Victoria for a stumble home and a late dinner. Perfect trip and all for about $300 - well worth it.
*Nanaimo - what the hell?! The train station is falling apart. How sad considering it's the largest stop on the way to Courtenay.
Last night we went out to see a movie. It was incredible, and if you know me at all, I rarely say that about Hollywood movies. The movie is called Moon and it's directed by Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie, which explains where his awesomeness comes from). It's sci-fi which is also rare these days and even more rarely - it's done well.
(Want good sci-fi? Think Alien, 2001 or 2010.)
So whenever a space movie comes out, I'm all over it.
[Side note: I realize 'space movie' is my own term, but I like to distinguish between movies about space and sci-fi. I'm not a Star Trek or Battlestar Gallactica fan. I like movies about the psychology (2001) or scariness (Alien) of space.]
After witnessing the wretched awfulness that was Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection (both of which I paid good money to see in theatres and wasted hours of my life on) I was hungry for an excellent space movie.
Years ago I was so desperate for good space movies that I actually went to the theatre to see Starship Troopers.* I didn't know it was a video game!! How am I to know these things?! I also wasted precious minutes of my life and saw Pitch Black.** Ohmigod you cannot get much worse than that drivel.
There were also movies like Red Planet and Virus yeah....I bet nobody really remembers them. Red Planet was okay, but Virus was - yet again - just awful.
So, anyway Moon was incredible. Just the right mixture of great psychology mixed in with a futuristic view of what it might be like years in the future to be stuck out there. The character 'Gerty' was really well done too and not just because it was Kevin Spacey's voice. Gerty is a computer that's there to keep the lone human company while being stationed at the base. Gerty was equipped with a yellow emoticon that "displayed emotions" - but the emoticon had just the right amount of goofiness to make it that much more ridiculous. Bravo!
*I won't taint my blog with a link to any Starship Troopers paraphernalia.
**This was before anyone knew the disgrace that is Vin Diesel.***
***What kind of stupid idiotic name is that anyway?!
I don't know what it is. I love Dickens.....earlier this year I read Great Expectations and I loved it. And don't get me started on how much I love Bleak House........but I can't get into this one.
It's been sitting on my night stand forever. Ben, you were right - Oliver is pretty weak. Not much of a personality there, compared to Dickens' other notable characters.
Maybe it's the warm weather but I need something more 'mindless'. I love mysteries and not the serial killer, gory mass murder type. Agatha Christie is top in my books, but I've read a lot of her stuff. So I've found PD James. Brad had one of her books and I read it when we first met. So I'm re-reading.
What books are you guys reading these days? Do you tend to read more 'mindless' stuff in the summer months?
Ohmigod.
I had a request in my Etsy shop to make a Buttercup Bag with a zipper closure, rather than a magnetic snap. So I went online and found out that there are lots of people out there who say 'zippers are easy'!! Including a super handy tutorial on YouTube that I followed, but it was meant for clothing.
There was also another tutorial for installing a zipper on this particular bag, but it wasn't exactly the most clearly written tutorial, so I ended up making it up as I went along.
Installing a zipper in a hand bag is freaking HARD. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, especially when it's something I'm actually going to sell to someone - but I wanted it to be perfect! This is what I ended up with....what do you think?? Honestly.Overall, I'm really happy I got to do this. The best thing about this entire process is that I've learned something new and now I have a pattern for installing zippers so the next time someone asks, it will be that much easier.
On Saturday we planned to drive up the coast to Port Renfrew and check it out. We got as far as French Beach and decided to stop and have lunch. Given that I still consider us "freshly landed on the island" from the mainland, we were shocked to see a parking lot fairly empty. It was early too - about noon.
So, we grabbed our chairs and dragged them down to the beach - it's one of those rocky beaches, no sand. Not fun to lie down on but if you have chairs, just lovely. The air was slightly cool at first, but if you took your socks off and warmed your feet on the stones it was great.
I love the sound of the waves crashing on rocks. When the wave recedes into the ocean it pulls the rocks back with it and it makes a swishing sound......hard to explain but very cool.
We did lots of cryptic crossword - does anyone else out there do these? I still don't know anyone else who does them except Brad and his Mom.
After a few hours in the sun, we headed back into Victoria - we'll make it out to Port Renfrew another time.
Yesterday we headed downtown with some friends to check out the Canada Day celebrations. Holy crap - it was crazy. Brad and I kept looking at each other and wondering - what the hell!? Why doesn't Vancouver have a big celebration like this?
We stuck around for the fireworks, we ended up standing right next to where they were firing them - which is the best place to be for fireworks - I think.
In The Thirteenth Tale, the books Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are mentioned a lot. I've read Jane Eyre and I own Wuthering Heights but haven't read it yet, so that is the book that I've chosen.
