WWW.Wednesday: What I Am Doing (Reading) When I Should Be Doing A Million Other Things!

*** Update: The Fall by Albert Camus. Finished, and it was wonderfully written. It's about moral dilemmas, core values, and how someone handles themselves especially when no one is watching, or they aren't held accountable for their behavior. It's about secrets and confessions. I would recommend this book if you like to ponder such topics.

It’s Wednesday again, and I'd like to know how it happened so quickly.

What are you currently reading?

Yikes! It is so unlike me, but I have three books going at once. I need some focus in my life because this is a sign, for me, of a scattered brain.

Halfway through, and the narration is extremely different. We hear only one side of an extended, over the course of many meetings, conversation. I sense a confession coming on.

I have wanted to read this book for a long time, and I can’t wait to find out “the secret”.

Listening to this one. It is one of those novels in which each chapter is told by a different character. It seems, in the audio version, that a different person is reading the chapters, or it is a really good reader disguising his voice extremely well. It is giving each character more definition in my mind, and I like it!

What have you recently finished?

I love Steve Martin. While I really liked this book, I wish it had a little more depth. I did not get to know him as well as I thought/wished I would have. Still a great, and quick, read.

If you liked Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos, you will also like this. It is just as whacky and fun while hinting at, or flat out describing, the isolated and privileged life of the young child of a Mexican kingpin.

What will you read next?

I am increasingly unsure what will come next (see scattered comment above), but I recently found my old (OLD) copy of this book. 

I should reread it before I send it off to a friend.

Thanks to Should Be Reading for providing book lovers a place to recommend and share the love.

Yeah Write Garblebuster: First Everythings

Those

frequently fleeting,

unmistakable,

“I knew exactly when you existed.”

moments

of

tentative glances,

shy smiles,

lips about to touch

firsts

awakening,

or often jolting,

one,

or five,

of your senses;

the wishing

you could bottle it,

and,

the wondering

what if?

********************

42 words answering the question:

Have all your clocks stopped?

from Alice Munro's short story A Real Life

WWW.Wednesday: Books, Just One Day Late!

What are you reading now?

I do not have much to report except that I am almost finished with:

Because I liked Quesadillas so much, I am reading Juan Pablo Villalobos’ first novella, which I like a lot. This guy is hilarious. Where does he come up with his material?

I am currently listening to:

I have begun to love short story collections and this feels good right now.

What have you recently finished?

I am trying to finish all of the above even though I should be packing boxes (We are putting our house on the market June, 1^st!)

What will you read next?

 And it looks just like this! I love everything about it.

Thanks to Should Be Reading for hosting!

Just Write: Why Am I Not?

Every morning when I wake up, I meditate (horizontally) for several minutes thinking about the same things, and making mostly the same intentions.

Live today better than yesterday (extremely general, I know). Leap on opportunities that allow acts of kindness, but keep them to myself. Be more attentive to my loved ones. Write something. Anything. Just write.

Every morning I walk into town for coffee, assess how I’m feeling, and think about writing. Ideas spring forth most prevalently after the first few sips, but when I get back home I sit here. I sit here just like I am today consumed by meaningless distractions like web surfing through Facebook, Goodreads, my blog roll, etc. completely avoiding where my writing actually takes place, which is the desktop computer or my college ruled notebook both located in the study.

They pile on cumulatively, the days, becoming just another one without productive keystrokes or blue ink on my middle finger; thoughts and words that never make it to paper or the big, white screen.

Every day I see the proof, which is directly left of these exact words (my post activity). Although, I delude everyone including myself by saying I could be writing something bigger, more substantial that doesn’t include words in this space. It is sadly not so.

Like you, I get pulled and distracted into another compartment of my life, which is fine and wonderful (sometimes), but the feeling lingers. Sometimes all day. A dull ache sits on my chest like a pretty substantial paperweight, not disruptive but a constant reminder.

And every day I feel the same sense of disappointment in a “groundhog day” kind of way.  My lack of self-discipline and creativity, je ne sais quoi (not the good kind), haunts me the rest of the day.

Day-after-day I think, “Why am I not doing something that provides me with such intense fulfillment? Am I afraid?”

*********************

My feelings this moment, and written for Just Write.

Generation Y

“How’s Caroline?”

“Haven’t seen her lately.”

Pulls out iPhone.

[tap, tap, tap}

“Chomps. 10^th and Walnut.”

“How do you KNOW?”

“'Find My Friends' app. Lets me know where they are at all times.”

“Unless they leave their phone at home…”

“They wouldn’t.”

*****************

A Garblebuster answer to the question:

"Have you seen her much?"

Come check it out over at Yeah Write!

WWW.Wednesday: Book (In A Hurry!)

What have you recently finished?

One thing I love in books is when I discover the reason for it's title. I was completely satisfied by the premise behind this title!!! This is the quick review I wrote on Goodreads.

“The short story is a genre, which I have grown to like, almost love. This collection is most often hilarious, extremely refreshing and clever in an everyday basic kind of way. It's a little hard to explain, but to make it easier I will say I was thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. Each story was thought provoking in some way, even those that were three lines long, which there were a number of those. My only criticism is that some of the stories felt, to me, a little too tight. I wanted several to NOT be tied up so quickly and neatly. I think you'll know what I mean if you read it, and you should if you like standup comedy. It feels like that. Well, it should feel that way because it is written by one. Novak is also a writer, director, executive producer and actor on The Office (and I didn't even realize who he was when I watched the movie Saving Mr. Banks last week. Surprise!).

Some favorite stories are...I just went back to the Table of Contents. There are far too many to name individually (although I loved Missed Connection and Missed

Connections), but I will say that even the Acknowledgements at the very end of the book were clever and worth reading. I guess I'm not giving this book five stars because of the small criticism I mentioned above. Maybe I should go back and change that because I'm definitely experience the post book "glow"!!!”

What are you currently reading?

So far so great but I’m only 75 pages in. We shall see.

What will you read next?

Maybe…

Or...

As always, thanks to Should Be Reading for providing the space to link these babies up with other readers!!!

"Oh My, Starry Eyed Surprise"

(Blogger's Note: I wrote this for Yeah Write's new challenge, couldn't get the linkback to work, and by the time I came back to work on it, the grid was full! Oh, well! Next week!)

Foreheads touch then rock to nose tips.

Our breaths fog like mists of memory; 

wafting of dark chocolate.

Almost imperceptible shivers shoot 

from fingers to toes then back

As I will it.

Their softness sends me,

And all I see are stars.

**************************

This was written for Yeah Write’s inaugural Garblebuster!!!

42 words in response to the prompt:

What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing?

Well, of course, it's a great kiss!!!