On balance, I haven't really been doing a whole lot of reading lately. With the move and everything, I suppose I might be forgiven this lapse. At least part of the trouble is that I was just a little tired of the implacable turning of the Wheel!
On the trip over from India I was too stressed out with things to actually be able to focus on anything new. So I decided to pick up the Neverwhere re-read I'd been putting off for months. I must say, it was a very good choice :). Immersed in the world of London under, the imminent troubles faded away. Despite the gap of a few years since I'd first read the book, I wasn't particularly surprised (as I often am, with re-reads) by the flow of events. However, I'd forgotten much of the details, which rather greatly improved my enjoyment of the adventure :). The thing with it though. like a few other books by Gaiman, this one just begs for a sequel to be born. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Since then, I've decided to join the local book club. More as an excuse to hang out and talk books with some people once a month than anything else really. But the first book I came across has been quite the revelation.
Kitchen by the curiously named Banana Yoshimoto. I can probably confidently say that this isn't something I'm likely to have ever come across in the usual run of things. But there you have it, I was completely taken by the unusual method of the story-teller.
They have been taught, ..., not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness... What I mean by "their happiness" is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone.
I mean, seriously? Who puts that in the middle of an otherwise outstandingly soft-spoken and quietly reserved narrative punctuated by the most beautiful imagery? There's lots of moments like that, when I was left wondering what would make anyone in their early twenties think that way. And at the same time thinking that it was true, in a way. Some stories have that quality, of stripping off the mask from that game of hide-and-seek people often play, hiding from things we know to be true but don't want to be, behind things that we know aren't true but wish otherwise.
On a rather different note, winter seems to be having a hard time leaving this year. After several days of bright sunshine, it suddenly started snowing again late in the week! I didn't particularly mind, since that meant that the slopes at Kongsberg actually extended their season by a week! This time quite a few of us managed a trip. The slow, wet snow made things somewhat more eventful than some of us would have liked, as did the absence of the chair-lifts.
On the other hand, the virtually empty slopes and the slo-mo nature of my tumbles gave me the perfect opportunity to improve my control while turning :). It's like suddenly your reflexes have become so much faster and that confounding blur of activity that sent you sprawling ten feet down the slope becomes oh so very obvious! So yeah, I was quite glad we went yesterday.
Since then, the snow's turned into a particularly cold drizzle and I suppose the white will soon turn into something a little less pristine.
Currently: sleepy
Listening to: Dido / Kendrick Lamar - Let us move on
