To-Be-Read, an update

3rd and 4th ones from my To-Be-Read list are down: I finished 'The House of the Dead' last night and read Elie Wiezel's 'Dawn' after it (quick read: about 140 pages (40-45 minutes, which is much less than I was able to read at my best)).
I have to say that I seem to like Dostoevsky's's way to think, but something in his style bothers me. Maybe because, at least in this particular novel, he seems to make statements and forms the story out of them rather than tells a story - though, we have to notice that he bases it on his own experiences.
And admittedly I have never read anything else from him - yet, I have 'The Brothers Karamazov' in my list waiting... (I started 'The Idiot' aeons ago though)

Next victim: Daniel Katz's 'Otelo'
Coming to think of it... with this pace (4 books/ month) I am done after summer (notice that I have 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'The Egyptian' in my list) - and found my beloved addiction again.

I have a cunning plan

I will finish my fourth model today, then I will stitch Spring and after that, if I have time and inspiration I will see about the fifth model. If I don't have the inspiration it can as well wait for July launch - taking that it won't end up being a catastrophe (model, not the launch).

There's no reason to boil my brains and get sick just because I worry too much. It does nasty things to one's creativity and I can't afford to lose that.

To-Be-Read/ Books

I have found one of my long gone bad habits again: reading in bed. (When I was married I kind of had other things to occupy myself with and it made me forget joys of reading in bed...)
When I was younger I used to read in bed before falling asleep, though sometimes it caused me insomnia because book in question captivated my attention and forced me to just keep on reading (I read Stephen King's The Green Mile in one night because I couldn't put it down (or rather put them down, as it consists from six parts)).

And thanks to this newly found bad habit of mine I have finally been able to draw few strikes to my To-Be-Read list. (Two books in two days just by reading in bed... fact is that I am fast reader, still.) (Admittedly both of those books are only from two to three hundred pages, but we have to acknowledge that everyone is not Stephen King.)
(Currently my bed time story is Muistelmia kuolleesta talosta by F. Dostojevski (I prefer to use more or less direct transliteration) which is number 10 in my TBR list).

When it comes to reading no one won't find reading in bed unusual, but I do remember those odd looks I got during my earlier years if I happened to mention that in my home we were allowed to read at dining table while eating.
And I found it odd that people found that odd as for me it was completely natural... You know, it would have been so terribly boring and unimaginative just to feed one's body so we preferred to feed one's mind too.

It is just quite odd that I was in my teens before I actually understood that my family is odd if you compare to an average Finnish family (but then, I was seven or eight before I realised that joulu (Yule/ Christmas) is actually religious holiday to some people... I have always been tad slow). I was over twenty when I realised that it actually may be the reason why I have so many communication problems with Finns: we just don't share same culture and it causes clashes when other part doesn't understand that you can actually do things differently without being bad person. (I know, I digress... I think I should try to sleep a bit. If cats let me.)

Rewriting stories and ranting

Maybe it is just the fact that I am not a morning person, maybe it's phase of my cycle... maybe it is the fact that this world is dreadful place for an intelligent woman... even worse when you happen to enjoy of an advantage called looks.

Ugly duckling developed to a beautiful swan, but no one never asked was that swan happy in the end. Was the swan happier than the duckling because others though it was beautiful? Or was the duckling happier in the end because those who liked it liked it just because it had something to give personality wise? Tell me that mr. Andersen.

I was that duckling, and sometimes I can't help but miss it... life was so much easier.

I got some sort of enlightenment (even I have know it for ages) while reading The Cannibal Galaxy in bed last night (first one from my TBR list down *rolls eyes*): normal is the thing people want (even it makes them unhappy), hence they also act in ways which are considered normal.
To me there is no normal, it's a term created by society because people don't know how to spell common. And what makes it even more sad is that most people don't seem to be able to grasp the difference between normal/ common and absolute truth.
There are no absolute truths, there is no thing as normal (to continue....there's no unnatural (if something exists in nature it can't be unnatural, just less common)).

This place we live in makes sometimes so dreadfully sad. Even the stories you grew with don't bear closer inspection without losing their idea.

Another challenge

TBR

A challenge to get me back to reading, as I have been dreadfully lazy on that matter last two years.

Pick 12 books - one for each month of 2007 - that you've been wanting to read (have been on your "To Be Read" list) for 6 months or longer, but haven't gotten around to.
Starting January 1, 2007, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31, 2007.
By the end of the year you should've knocked 12 books off of your TBR list!

And my list (in no particular order) - original names in parenthesis:

1. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon (Egri csillagok) by Géza Gárdonyi
2. Oikeusjuttu (Der Prozess) by Franz Kafka
3. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
4. Sivuvaikutuksia (Side Effects) by Woody Allen
5. Sarastus (L'àube, Editions du Seuil) by Elie Wiesel 23rd of April
6. Otelo by Daniel Katz 13th of May
7. Kannibaaligalaksi (The Cannibal Galaxy) by Cynthia Ozick 3rd of April
8. Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari
9. Karamazovin veljekset (Bratja Karamazovy) by Fedor Dostojevski
10. Muistelmia kuolleesta talosta (Zapiski iz mertvago doma) - ' ' - 23rd of April
11. Jazz (Jazz) by Toni Morrison 5th of April
12. Orja (The Slave) by Isaac Bashevis Singer 17th of May

TAST

Haven't forgot that! I just need to get myself going with it, all those biscornus just are too tempting to be left alone, even for a day - or few hours.