Happy Sunday! November is getting better and better, in the same way not being on fire is so much better than being on fire.
Reading
I finished Starter Villain. I actually liked this book *more* as I read it, and even more at the end. It was just... fun. And funny. And a little bit thoughtful. Only a little bit. I liked it.
I started reading Demon Copperhead this week because everyone seems to rave about it and it won a Pulitzer.
Last night I got 10% of the way through and I have decided NOPE. I do not want to read stories of sad things happening to kids. I don't want to read stories of sad things happening to anyone, generally, although sad young adult and sad 30 year old is somewhat fine.
I downloaded One Day in December instead. It looks cute.
- Monday
- 30 Minute Pop Ride with Robin Arzon (Peloton)
- Tuesday
- 30 Minute Interval and Arms with Hanna Frankson (Peloton - Live!)
- 45 Minute 2000's ride with Hannah Corbin (Peloton)
- 10 Minute RED stretch with Ben Alldis (Peloton)
- Thursday
- 1 hour gym session. Arms. I planned with with a friend and I don't think I made it hard enough. It was still fun to work out with a friend
- Friday
- 90 minute gym session with a new gym friend who is very intense and very awesome. Working out with strong women is fun.
This week so far my average is 6.5 hours. I feel bad. On Monday evening I went out to dinner with friends. On Thursday and Friday evening I went out to the gym. On Wednesday Andy and I had a massive end of year planning meeting which was great and also.. I was awake late. And one morning Audrey woke up at 4:45am. Most mornings she's been awake before 5:30. It's not been a good week for sleep. I am tired.
This morning I woke up and it was 5:55am and I said to Andy "Oh wow, we got to sleep in this morning, 5:55!"
I am not an evening person, but my mornings aren't really mine now either, so I will have to work on finding a better balance between doing stuff in the evenings (stuff is good, right?) and going to bed early. I could have recouped more sleep yesterday but I spent an hour reading, trying to find a happy stopping point of the sad things that were happening in Demon Copperhead book. There wasn't a good stopping point.
What's your favourite genre of book? Do you read pulitzer prize winners intentionally? What's your favourite pulitzer prize winning book?
Also, I do sometimes read books with sad things. For instance, one of the best books I've read was No One Is Talking About this.
It was a finalist for the booker prize. How are Booker and Pulitzer different? How is a book written like a twitter something that's stayed with me for years? I know some of those questions weren't really for you.
Thanks for attempting Demon Copperhead. I keep feeling that I *should* read it because everyone else on the planet has, but I also feel like I would be on Team Nope, so I am using your nope to officially join the team.
ReplyDeleteNever have I ever read a book because it won a Pulitzer or whatever. I'm sure that I've read many award winning books, but the award isn't the reason that I read them, it that makes sense. I do like sad books/movies occasionally. And hey, the questions may not have been for us, but I have a similar list of internal questions going in my head at any given time. I feel you!
I'm glad I could help! I think YOU have steered me away from bad reads in the past so I am glad I could reciprocate. I really appreciate your answers to my internal monologue of questions! Perhaps that should be a blog post some day. Maybe you could also solve my childcare dilemmas, work dilemmas, food dilemmas, car dilemmas.... all of it. Hmm....
DeleteI read Demon Copperhead but it took me two tries, as in, I almost DNFed it, my library loan ended, I put it back on hold and then decided to pick it up again, and in the end, it was an alright book but the beginning was not really gripping me. I also felt that it was a bit long and I think that looking back, I would rate it as okay, but not great (despite the raves from others).
ReplyDeleteI have found that classics and Pulitzers and NYT best sellers and Oprah's booklist etc. mean nothing to me and I often do not like them as much as everyone else. However, I do like the Goodreads Choice Awards and I use that every year to get ideas of what to read next.
I should start using goodreads! I look at yours sometimes for inspiration and then I forget to look again for a while. I really liked Elinor OIiphant is Fine and that was a Reeces book club pick so I thought I might like others. One year I read all the Booker Award Finalists for that year and they were all good and all weirdly similar, like there was a "Booker Theme" that year.
DeleteI thought Demon Copperhead was brilliant, but it did take me a while to get into Demon's voice. That being said, I can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea. I don't usually read Pulitzer Prize winners on purpose, but I do try to read all the Women's Prize for Fiction winners and Demon Copperhead won that award, so that's why it was on my radar.
ReplyDeleteI am unlike Kyria, though, because I think the Goodreads Choice awards are trash. LOL. They are usually super popular books that I do not understand why so many people are reading!
I generally like "feel good books", like Jenny Colgan's series. Whether she writes about the Beach Street Bakery in Cornwall or the Christmas Book Shop in Edinburgh, she has this superpower with her writings to take my mind off from everyday decision-making and let me lose myself in a book. This is super relaxing, and being an emotional person as I am, I tend to be "under impression" for a long time after reading her books ;) Just one funny fact about me is that I ordered the map of the UK after reading all her books, to have a better understanding of the places :)) This is an addition to the map of Mexico that I ordered after reading "The American Soil".
ReplyDeleteApart from them, I think the library algorithms keep offering "similar" books for me, because there is no way I can read any other genre, that don't make me feel good :))