I tried to bake last night. It was not a disaster. But it wasn't that stupendous either. I had a craving for peanut putter cookies and searched recipes online. I chose the wheat free version. The photo looked delicious. My dough was so sticky and Chris suggested another egg. So I added another egg. And it turned out even stickier. So I added more peanut butter. I was skeptical come this point. I started spooning the batter onto a make-shift cookie tray. I watched them bake for the prescribed 10 minutes. They looked like peanut butter meringues not cookies. I poked them at 12 minutes. They were still squishy in the centre. I kept them in for another 10 minutes. Chris was now skeptical at this point. We let them bake for another 10 minutes. They expanded. We accepted that perhaps they possessed inner-beauty.
Chris found them tasty enough. I thought they were an alright first foray into baking. I'm still craving peanut butter cookies with the crisscross on top. The crumbly, chewy kind. There is a positive though. This hankering in my mind is a reminder that I'm not as violently a housewife as I feared I was becoming. This cookie hole is a reminder.
Wednesday 27 May 2009
Tuesday 19 May 2009
v.low profile
In all honesty, I have been quite tame recently. Mainly, Chris has been working extremely hard and I have been flailing therefore we're not in any position to go nuts. That being said, I'm now, even still, feeling the consequences of 14 hours of white wine on Saturday. Presumably with YouTube videos to come.
It was our friend Jonas' birthday which was boozy pub lunch, then karaoke (I hope our friends are holding mobile phone videos close to their chests, I curse the day they might surface...), then buggering off and doing whatever we pleased, which was in fact continual drinking until 2.30am. We slept at Pippa and Jonas', forcing myself to pass out even without a fan only to wake up at 10am to the worst thing imaginable to wake up after 14 hours of white wine.
La la la la la la la la la. A sliding musical scale. Once up. Once down. Piano accompaniment. Then the beginning of some song from Oliver. Repeat. Repeat this entire process for 2 hours. One thing if that woman was playing a proper song, oh but she wasn't. She was la la-ing, and I couldn't figure out which room it was coming from and commissioned Chris to find her and kill her for my dormant pleasure.
Just realised it could be karmic retribution for singing very, (and boy do I mean very!) poorly in public. And now I've virtually lost my voice. And yesterday, I swear I was trying for the life of me to remember the expression- self-deprecating but couldn't. It's all grossly ironic and inter-textual.
It was our friend Jonas' birthday which was boozy pub lunch, then karaoke (I hope our friends are holding mobile phone videos close to their chests, I curse the day they might surface...), then buggering off and doing whatever we pleased, which was in fact continual drinking until 2.30am. We slept at Pippa and Jonas', forcing myself to pass out even without a fan only to wake up at 10am to the worst thing imaginable to wake up after 14 hours of white wine.
La la la la la la la la la. A sliding musical scale. Once up. Once down. Piano accompaniment. Then the beginning of some song from Oliver. Repeat. Repeat this entire process for 2 hours. One thing if that woman was playing a proper song, oh but she wasn't. She was la la-ing, and I couldn't figure out which room it was coming from and commissioned Chris to find her and kill her for my dormant pleasure.
Just realised it could be karmic retribution for singing very, (and boy do I mean very!) poorly in public. And now I've virtually lost my voice. And yesterday, I swear I was trying for the life of me to remember the expression- self-deprecating but couldn't. It's all grossly ironic and inter-textual.
Monday 11 May 2009
I am afraid of the dark
I think when I'm really stressed, or scared I revert to being childlike. It's irrational and downright silly.
Yesterday, Chris and I spent a splendid day wandering around the flower market, we went out for a late brunch on Columbia road, lazed in the afternoon and I spoke with my mother for 2 hours which was really nice as we had only emailed back and forth for the past few months. Not too indulge too many redundant details but we made this rather delicious salmon pasta with a garlic and onion cream sauce (and by we, Chris made the entire thing whilst I sat entertaining him with jokes...).
About 8pm last night we start watching the film Doomsday by the same guy who did the Decent (his name escapes me now...) and I handled myself rather well because it wasn't really scary at all. Plus I was on good form making jokes throughout (another way to numb my fear now embedding itself). So movie over, a full 2L bottle of Diet Coke half consumed. Next.
Amityville Horror is on television (the original not the remake) which I have seen at least 15 times but haven't watched in the past 5 years lets say. My friend Sharon and I in highschool became really interested in the story and spent an afternoon researching at the library these alleged 'true' events. Theoretically, I shouldn't have been scared at all, but I was so freaked out last night. Branson and I have come to an agreement that if our children ever say they have imaginary friends, they're being given up for adoption, or sent to boarding school, or sent to live with their grandparents in Canada. Basically they're going to stay the fuck away from mummy and daddy.
Then Chris tells me that when he was about 3 years old his mother asked what he was doing one day when he was playing on the floor and she said he was talking to the people in the skirting board. I just glared at him and asked why he had to tell me that. This is information that I am not handling well. Ok so bed time now.
I won't get into our bedroom without him and he still has to brush his teeth. I just stand at the back of our bathroom and watch his routine, my heart is actually racing. We pour into bed, it's now about 12.50am. I'm tossing and turning and can hear my heart beating against the mattress. And I have to take off my pj bottoms because I'm now sweating. And I'm not allowing myself to fall asleep because I know I'll have bad dreams. And Chris doesn't fall asleep because he's afraid he's going to wake up at 3.15am and hear banging (in the movie, the characters keep waking up at that time). Eventually I fall asleep about 3.30am only to wake up 10 minutes later after having a terrifying dream (in my dream, I ask someone for directions and they want me to give them a dollar, then in my dream, but I think I'm awake, I start yelling Honey Honey wake me up and I can feel my body shaking). I then actually do wake up and cling to Chris for dear life. We both then fall asleep only to wake up to 7am alarm and feeling ridiculous.
Chris just called me on his lunch break to say that he was so scared last night too and that his only comfort was me spooning him at 3.30am when he could finally let his mind rest. Funnily enough, during my conversation with my mother yesterday, she was saying there was a growing trend in new build houses where couples are having two master bedrooms built so they can sleep separately. Now I thought that was heinously tacky and not a marriage, to live in separate bedrooms and see each other in communal spaces. I think Chris and I have come to an absolution; never ever will we leave each other's sides whilst sleeping. I don't know how I coped for those 23 years.
I have zillions of stories of being scared, alone, in my room at night. Futhermore, I used to sleep in the basement at my mum's house (that's where the guest bed was built in the mid 90s) but my parents made me move back to my room upstairs when I used to sleep walk and got my self locked into the cellar one night, only to have my parents hear me screaming and having to come rescue me. In all fairness, I probably scared my parents more than I scared myself.
Yesterday, Chris and I spent a splendid day wandering around the flower market, we went out for a late brunch on Columbia road, lazed in the afternoon and I spoke with my mother for 2 hours which was really nice as we had only emailed back and forth for the past few months. Not too indulge too many redundant details but we made this rather delicious salmon pasta with a garlic and onion cream sauce (and by we, Chris made the entire thing whilst I sat entertaining him with jokes...).
About 8pm last night we start watching the film Doomsday by the same guy who did the Decent (his name escapes me now...) and I handled myself rather well because it wasn't really scary at all. Plus I was on good form making jokes throughout (another way to numb my fear now embedding itself). So movie over, a full 2L bottle of Diet Coke half consumed. Next.
Amityville Horror is on television (the original not the remake) which I have seen at least 15 times but haven't watched in the past 5 years lets say. My friend Sharon and I in highschool became really interested in the story and spent an afternoon researching at the library these alleged 'true' events. Theoretically, I shouldn't have been scared at all, but I was so freaked out last night. Branson and I have come to an agreement that if our children ever say they have imaginary friends, they're being given up for adoption, or sent to boarding school, or sent to live with their grandparents in Canada. Basically they're going to stay the fuck away from mummy and daddy.
Then Chris tells me that when he was about 3 years old his mother asked what he was doing one day when he was playing on the floor and she said he was talking to the people in the skirting board. I just glared at him and asked why he had to tell me that. This is information that I am not handling well. Ok so bed time now.
I won't get into our bedroom without him and he still has to brush his teeth. I just stand at the back of our bathroom and watch his routine, my heart is actually racing. We pour into bed, it's now about 12.50am. I'm tossing and turning and can hear my heart beating against the mattress. And I have to take off my pj bottoms because I'm now sweating. And I'm not allowing myself to fall asleep because I know I'll have bad dreams. And Chris doesn't fall asleep because he's afraid he's going to wake up at 3.15am and hear banging (in the movie, the characters keep waking up at that time). Eventually I fall asleep about 3.30am only to wake up 10 minutes later after having a terrifying dream (in my dream, I ask someone for directions and they want me to give them a dollar, then in my dream, but I think I'm awake, I start yelling Honey Honey wake me up and I can feel my body shaking). I then actually do wake up and cling to Chris for dear life. We both then fall asleep only to wake up to 7am alarm and feeling ridiculous.
Chris just called me on his lunch break to say that he was so scared last night too and that his only comfort was me spooning him at 3.30am when he could finally let his mind rest. Funnily enough, during my conversation with my mother yesterday, she was saying there was a growing trend in new build houses where couples are having two master bedrooms built so they can sleep separately. Now I thought that was heinously tacky and not a marriage, to live in separate bedrooms and see each other in communal spaces. I think Chris and I have come to an absolution; never ever will we leave each other's sides whilst sleeping. I don't know how I coped for those 23 years.
I have zillions of stories of being scared, alone, in my room at night. Futhermore, I used to sleep in the basement at my mum's house (that's where the guest bed was built in the mid 90s) but my parents made me move back to my room upstairs when I used to sleep walk and got my self locked into the cellar one night, only to have my parents hear me screaming and having to come rescue me. In all fairness, I probably scared my parents more than I scared myself.
Friday 8 May 2009
happy development
In regards to the whole crying/culture/collision, I think I've just had a breakthrough. As I'm growing further and further more helpless in the traditional employment sense, I have a genius husband who has found the ideal literary agent for me. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't publicise this as who knows what exactly will come to fruition, but it will also press me to keep my June deadline and submit this beast that I've been working on since November.
And I'm obsessed with statistics. For instance, the Word stats they give you on how many edits, how many minutes spent, how many words, paragraphs, even characters. I was calculating that all today (it's just a little form of procrastination I do, you know, to let my words percolate). Apparently I click save every 5 minutes; I have been working on this for over 45 hours. I've been hovering on 22-27,000 words this past month but I've finally found something to move shit along!
Thankfully I have Spotify to get me through these languid afternoons, and with that an entire new repertoire of music which brings me ultimately to the reason I decided to break from writing (ironic...but then again, this is a friendly distraction....with words percolating as I type). I've been listening to classical music for the past 3 days straight, hoping it will help sort out my meanderings from my helpful musings. Partially helpful yes, but the most pleasant thing just happened. I'm listening to Bach and two tears bubbled up and I let myself get slightly carried away by the music. Incredible thus proving further that I am some sort of audio-visual crier (do two tears count as crying?).
I sincerely hope it's the music and not some sort of physiological response to my writing. This process is strangling me, but I respond well to deadlines and I'm now literally sprinting. And crying. Maybe just tearing.
And I'm obsessed with statistics. For instance, the Word stats they give you on how many edits, how many minutes spent, how many words, paragraphs, even characters. I was calculating that all today (it's just a little form of procrastination I do, you know, to let my words percolate). Apparently I click save every 5 minutes; I have been working on this for over 45 hours. I've been hovering on 22-27,000 words this past month but I've finally found something to move shit along!
Thankfully I have Spotify to get me through these languid afternoons, and with that an entire new repertoire of music which brings me ultimately to the reason I decided to break from writing (ironic...but then again, this is a friendly distraction....with words percolating as I type). I've been listening to classical music for the past 3 days straight, hoping it will help sort out my meanderings from my helpful musings. Partially helpful yes, but the most pleasant thing just happened. I'm listening to Bach and two tears bubbled up and I let myself get slightly carried away by the music. Incredible thus proving further that I am some sort of audio-visual crier (do two tears count as crying?).
I sincerely hope it's the music and not some sort of physiological response to my writing. This process is strangling me, but I respond well to deadlines and I'm now literally sprinting. And crying. Maybe just tearing.
Saturday 2 May 2009
I could shower and get ready for a party...
But I'm procrastinating. See below for post on showers/hatred.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Between Chris and I, it's John Updike- Rabbit Series and a few other of his novels. Also some David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris, loads of Ali Smith and Tom Wolfe.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Again, fused together Chris and I both have copies of Dave Eggers Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and Ali Smith's the Accidental.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No because this isn't formal, it's conversational. Therefore preposition endings are technically allowed.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Disappointingly, I can't think of one. But I do tend to sympathise with every lead character in a novel, whether they're a likeable protagonist or not.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
I've read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast twice and probably the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe more than twice, but none others. I think I'm going to reread A Complicated Kindness. I read it for university 3 years ago but because it was in that framework, it seemed more a chore than pleasure although I remember really enjoying it.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I loved the Chronicles of Narnia but also lowbrow stuff like Wayside School.
7) What i s the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Please don't assume I'm pretentious, but I usually tend to read literary fiction now and for the foreseeable future, however back when I was 16, I read the Pilot's Wife by Anita Shrieve (I think?) and that has to be the worst book I've read in recent history. Still though, it really wasn't that bad...
8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was so beautifully written and the story was so engaging. It was rich but accessible.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Well I know my ladies are already interested in reading Charlotte Roche's Wetlands (from quite a few blogs past). Most already know my opinion on it, and while it decorates the vagina in an enigmatic yet engaging way, I didn't find it graphic, pornographic or raunchy. But yes at parts, I gauged.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
I think John Updike is a beautiful writer, beit a bit misogynist. He did just die and had an enviable career. He's won the Pulitzer, let's give him the Nobel.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. He refuses to sell the film rights to the book even though it is still so relevant today and would make an excellent film (which by today's standards are few and far between).
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
A.M Homes Music for Torching. I just finished that this week and whilst it reads like a screenplay, it's good that its only distributed as a novel. If it crossed medias, I'm sure the divorce rate would skyrocket. Either that or make couples uncomfortably introspective. All that being said, it would still be a great movie but it would come with cultural weight.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy made me have scary dreams. The words of the book were this incendiary literary landscape, an image that I couldn't shake from my mind before I went sleep (after I had put the book down). Terrifying, but so incredible.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I've read a few silly books one being Iris Bahr's Dork/Whore. If you've watched Curb your Enthusiasm, Iris plays the daughter of the orthodox Jew who happens to be the head of the kidney consortium. They get stuck on the ski lift together. Essentially this book was her memoir of traveling through south-east Asia trying to lose her virginity.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. It's so rich and dense I believe in a very positive way. The religious allegory was tricky to follow and I needed to look a lot of references up and ask my parents. Plus all the controversy surrounding the novel needs to be considered. But I believe it's a long standing testament to the battle of censorship, and this book demonstrates the power of fiction. Rushdie is in my mind the master wordsmith. This book reads as if it's sliding off your tongue, like chocolate cake. Sometimes it's too rich and you need to take a break and digest.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I've seen so much Shakespeare (again not a pretentious admission but I was a Theatre major). I've seen Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Love's Labour Lost, Midsummer Night's Dream and have even performed in Othello.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I value both for different reasons. I love the French because there is a certain kind of new wave philosophy surrounding all modern French literature, a joie de vivre so to speak which can be enchanting even if there's something disheartening. However the Russians have the whole tragic, love scorn, suicidal, cold, almost gothic implanted throughout. They're a tricky two to compare.
18) Roth or Updike?
John Updike. His descriptions are both poetic and realistic without ever harbouring on cliched.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Tough call. They're such different writers I think as Sedaris writes essays versus Eggers who writes novels and memoir(s). I love Dave Eggers post-modern style, capitalising on every published page in the book and Heart Breaking Work is one of my favourites and Sedaris is so poignant and celebrates these universal truths that in turn become hilarious. I guess they both sort of do that but in very different styles.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Not to get up onto my literary high-horse but I have indeed read and studied all three in depth. I think Chaucer is my favourite as Canterbury Tales is so provocative considering it was written in the middle ages, long before Shakespeare. Plus Chaucer was post-modern centuries before it was even a movement, even a thought process. It's a struggle to read and I had to put on a fake Scottish accent in my mind whilst reading but if you can make the effort, it's really worth it.
21) Austen or Eliot?
I've only read Jane but George seems like she was a righteous babe. She's amongst our classic literary fiction repertoire which I am slowly cracking into. Middlemarch will be read soon.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Margaret Atwood. She's female and she's Canadian. I grew up with the pretense set in my mind by my mother that she's a bit of a fuddy-duddy. Then when I was about 15 my mother properly read Handmaid's Tale and then she decided she actually quite enjoyed her. That's a gap I'm longing to fill.
23) What is your favorite novel?
Tough call. I'm looking up at my bookshelf and can't pick out just one.
24) Play?
So many to chose from. Loads of Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, now I'm drawing a blank but they're out there I'm sure.
25) Poem?
Funnily enough a poem by Margaret Atwood called You Fit into Me. It's very short, here it is:
you fit into me like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
26) Essay?
Agreeing with Chelsea on David Sedaris. The hilarity certainly ensues. I can't think of a specific example but they're all terribly enjoyable.
27) Short story?
I love Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill, It's lovely and charming then has a stabbing ending. I also really love Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. Again, extremely shocking ending. Honestly, totally out of left field.
28) Work of non-fiction:
Ernest Hemingway's a Moveable Feast. It paints a literary portrait of 1920s bohemian life in Paris, hanging with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda (also an acclaimed writer whose husband stole many ideas from her...). They're all ex-pats leaving the dream.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Very tough decision. Zadie Smith and David Sedaris are certainly both highly up there.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Kazuo Ishiguro I guess (did I spell that remotely correctly?). the Remains of the Day. Not that impressed.
31) What is your desert island book?
I'm about to tackle David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest which I'm sure would keep me entertained and engaged.
32) And … what are you reading right now?
I've just started reading Doris Lessing's the Cleft. She won the Nobel prize for this novel. It's sort of reminding me of the Giver, which I had to read in gr. 6. I'm excited to really get stuck in, I've only read 10 pages thus far.
And after that took 45 minutes, I'm not going to shower now.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Between Chris and I, it's John Updike- Rabbit Series and a few other of his novels. Also some David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris, loads of Ali Smith and Tom Wolfe.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Again, fused together Chris and I both have copies of Dave Eggers Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and Ali Smith's the Accidental.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No because this isn't formal, it's conversational. Therefore preposition endings are technically allowed.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Disappointingly, I can't think of one. But I do tend to sympathise with every lead character in a novel, whether they're a likeable protagonist or not.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
I've read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast twice and probably the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe more than twice, but none others. I think I'm going to reread A Complicated Kindness. I read it for university 3 years ago but because it was in that framework, it seemed more a chore than pleasure although I remember really enjoying it.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I loved the Chronicles of Narnia but also lowbrow stuff like Wayside School.
7) What i s the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Please don't assume I'm pretentious, but I usually tend to read literary fiction now and for the foreseeable future, however back when I was 16, I read the Pilot's Wife by Anita Shrieve (I think?) and that has to be the worst book I've read in recent history. Still though, it really wasn't that bad...
8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was so beautifully written and the story was so engaging. It was rich but accessible.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Well I know my ladies are already interested in reading Charlotte Roche's Wetlands (from quite a few blogs past). Most already know my opinion on it, and while it decorates the vagina in an enigmatic yet engaging way, I didn't find it graphic, pornographic or raunchy. But yes at parts, I gauged.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
I think John Updike is a beautiful writer, beit a bit misogynist. He did just die and had an enviable career. He's won the Pulitzer, let's give him the Nobel.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. He refuses to sell the film rights to the book even though it is still so relevant today and would make an excellent film (which by today's standards are few and far between).
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
A.M Homes Music for Torching. I just finished that this week and whilst it reads like a screenplay, it's good that its only distributed as a novel. If it crossed medias, I'm sure the divorce rate would skyrocket. Either that or make couples uncomfortably introspective. All that being said, it would still be a great movie but it would come with cultural weight.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy made me have scary dreams. The words of the book were this incendiary literary landscape, an image that I couldn't shake from my mind before I went sleep (after I had put the book down). Terrifying, but so incredible.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I've read a few silly books one being Iris Bahr's Dork/Whore. If you've watched Curb your Enthusiasm, Iris plays the daughter of the orthodox Jew who happens to be the head of the kidney consortium. They get stuck on the ski lift together. Essentially this book was her memoir of traveling through south-east Asia trying to lose her virginity.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. It's so rich and dense I believe in a very positive way. The religious allegory was tricky to follow and I needed to look a lot of references up and ask my parents. Plus all the controversy surrounding the novel needs to be considered. But I believe it's a long standing testament to the battle of censorship, and this book demonstrates the power of fiction. Rushdie is in my mind the master wordsmith. This book reads as if it's sliding off your tongue, like chocolate cake. Sometimes it's too rich and you need to take a break and digest.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I've seen so much Shakespeare (again not a pretentious admission but I was a Theatre major). I've seen Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Love's Labour Lost, Midsummer Night's Dream and have even performed in Othello.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I value both for different reasons. I love the French because there is a certain kind of new wave philosophy surrounding all modern French literature, a joie de vivre so to speak which can be enchanting even if there's something disheartening. However the Russians have the whole tragic, love scorn, suicidal, cold, almost gothic implanted throughout. They're a tricky two to compare.
18) Roth or Updike?
John Updike. His descriptions are both poetic and realistic without ever harbouring on cliched.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Tough call. They're such different writers I think as Sedaris writes essays versus Eggers who writes novels and memoir(s). I love Dave Eggers post-modern style, capitalising on every published page in the book and Heart Breaking Work is one of my favourites and Sedaris is so poignant and celebrates these universal truths that in turn become hilarious. I guess they both sort of do that but in very different styles.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Not to get up onto my literary high-horse but I have indeed read and studied all three in depth. I think Chaucer is my favourite as Canterbury Tales is so provocative considering it was written in the middle ages, long before Shakespeare. Plus Chaucer was post-modern centuries before it was even a movement, even a thought process. It's a struggle to read and I had to put on a fake Scottish accent in my mind whilst reading but if you can make the effort, it's really worth it.
21) Austen or Eliot?
I've only read Jane but George seems like she was a righteous babe. She's amongst our classic literary fiction repertoire which I am slowly cracking into. Middlemarch will be read soon.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Margaret Atwood. She's female and she's Canadian. I grew up with the pretense set in my mind by my mother that she's a bit of a fuddy-duddy. Then when I was about 15 my mother properly read Handmaid's Tale and then she decided she actually quite enjoyed her. That's a gap I'm longing to fill.
23) What is your favorite novel?
Tough call. I'm looking up at my bookshelf and can't pick out just one.
24) Play?
So many to chose from. Loads of Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, now I'm drawing a blank but they're out there I'm sure.
25) Poem?
Funnily enough a poem by Margaret Atwood called You Fit into Me. It's very short, here it is:
you fit into me like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
26) Essay?
Agreeing with Chelsea on David Sedaris. The hilarity certainly ensues. I can't think of a specific example but they're all terribly enjoyable.
27) Short story?
I love Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill, It's lovely and charming then has a stabbing ending. I also really love Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. Again, extremely shocking ending. Honestly, totally out of left field.
28) Work of non-fiction:
Ernest Hemingway's a Moveable Feast. It paints a literary portrait of 1920s bohemian life in Paris, hanging with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda (also an acclaimed writer whose husband stole many ideas from her...). They're all ex-pats leaving the dream.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Very tough decision. Zadie Smith and David Sedaris are certainly both highly up there.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Kazuo Ishiguro I guess (did I spell that remotely correctly?). the Remains of the Day. Not that impressed.
31) What is your desert island book?
I'm about to tackle David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest which I'm sure would keep me entertained and engaged.
32) And … what are you reading right now?
I've just started reading Doris Lessing's the Cleft. She won the Nobel prize for this novel. It's sort of reminding me of the Giver, which I had to read in gr. 6. I'm excited to really get stuck in, I've only read 10 pages thus far.
And after that took 45 minutes, I'm not going to shower now.
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