Settling in

[miladycarol]

I have been cultivating this virus for almost a week now. I'm on the mend, yes, yet I've found myself almost embracing the virus in the past couple of days. I've tossed aside the bills and filing. Today's mail lies unopened atop that pile.

I've completely settled into the notion of casting off my responsibilities. I've been enjoying the sheer joy of making jewelry. I've designed and created so many pieces, I stopped to take portfolio pictures in the sun yesterday. I'm still working on adding the new pages to my site.

I've also been reading. I have read a book and a half this week, to my great joy. It's been lovely. Hey, if post nasal drip is going to curtail my sleep, I might as well run through the streets of an ancient city to escape the lava and ash (Pompeii by Richard Harris).  

G is planning on going to a movie with friends tonight.  I've decided to stay home and continue healing.  I have plans to work through a good chunk more of Pillars of the Earth and drink copious amounts of steaming liquid.  Me, the puppies and a languid repose on the couch.  

Yeah, though I'm not happy to be ill, I have settled nicely into my cave.  It's cozy in here.  

Comments

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

NOw that sounds healthy! I'm glad you've been able to rest for awhile, and making jewelry sounds like a good healing activity.

If you need anything, call!

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

I foresee the need for a coffee/breakfast date with you in the near future. Likely, the weekend after Orycon, at the earliest, though.

[mikeypdx.livejournal.com]

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Oooh, I loves me some Pillars of the Earth.

How was Pompeii?

-mikey-
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[gwyd.livejournal.com]

That book is terrible! It makes no sense, as in if you told the plot to Medieval people they would look at you funny. For example: they show the couple marrying right in the beginning (They agreed to marry in words of the future, then had sex. This constitutes a legal marriage in most of the Catholic world before the Counter Reformation and was definitely enforceable by law in England), so how is it so much of the plot hinges on them not being married? Another example: yes most people never traveled more than a day from their home village, but that other ten percent traveled widely. Merchants and such carried news everywhere they went. The building of a cathedral is big news and would travel super fast to every hamlet in the land. Yes, it might take twenty years for news to come from Poland, but England isn't that large and important things could be counted on to be widely known within the month.

It goes on from there, as the book ignores all the research done on the material life of peasants done since the fifties. Yes, the details of cathedral building aren't bad, but the plot and all the other historical details are pretty much garbage or so twisted as to be misleading.

Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is much better.

[mikeypdx.livejournal.com]

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Heh. Ok, ok. It did have its...issues.

OTOH, crazy mad medieval sex? Makes up for a lot.
.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

The Doomsday Book was my first Connie Willis. I fell in love with her immediately. I read it so long ago, I should grab it off my shelf and reread it. Reading her launched me into a huge historical fiction love affair.

Oh, and don't tell G. He might be jealous of how many long nights I stay up caressing the pages of those books, riding the highs and lows like a... well... *blush*

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Pompeii was well done. Were there inconsistencies? Yes. Still, it was emotionally perfect. I followed all the right waves and filled a couple of very late nights with its pages because I couldn't stop there.

Or, did you mean how was the actual polis of Pompeii? That was incredibly awesome. I could wax poetic on the pure historical geekery and emotional strain of being right there and witnessing the echoes of the emotions still reverberating within its walls.

I am really enjoying Pillars of the Earth. I've been sneaking reading time wherever I can. I've found historical inconsistencies, yet I am not bothered by them too much. I'm reveling in how much I hate the despicable characters and how much sympathy I have for the ones I like. I have so much respect for an author who can dream up the horrors that some people can do to others and relay it on paper in such a way that I am driven to tears, tension and hatred. I'm a pretty passive person, yet I've been encouraging homicide to this book. For me, much of my love or hate for a reading experience is based on the emotional roller-coaster ride.

It will be good to see you at Orycon!