the “worked out as planned” was mostly when Ryland would do anything and it would just work, or he had everything he ever needed in the laboratories, or he was able to always just get the math right and had the ability to write a program to translate language and could do basically everything type of things happened. While there were unexpected crises, they always got fixed.
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next genre memoirs, biographies, autobiography- Wild - Cheryl Strayed
Finished “Fighting Caravans” by Zane Grey. My father-in-law, who passed last week at 99 years + 10 months, loved Zane Grey. Hip_tiger_wife recommended this one as his best.
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I finished The Axe Factor, a Jimm Juree murder mystery by Colin Cotterill. It was fairly humorous. I see he stopped writing these, though. They are not as highly rated as his Dr Siri Paiboun series, and I assume that’s why. There’s one more I haven’t read.
The summer reading challenge is going on now and I slacked off during most of it. I have 5 books to finish by 8/1. I’m pretty sure won’t be able to make that, even with focusing on shorter books.
The Botany of Desire - A Plants-Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan. I have no idea how this showed up in the magazine rack next to my recliner.
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With a couple weeks left to do the summer reading program, I searched for “best short books” and found a goodreads list. I picked the top ones I haven’t read and which were easily available, which embarrassingly contains some juvenile books that I"m going to count.
What I’ve read so far:
The Phantom Tollbooth. Meh. Some of the wordplay was interesting, but it really didn’t tie in very well with the story, so overall I found it annoying.
Three Men In A Boat. A bit like a mild Bertie Wooster but without the convoluted and hilarious Jeeves plots. It was humorous overall.
The Little Prince. Way better than I was expecting.
I’m most of the way through Roadside Picnic now and I’ll likely finish up with either The Uncommon Reader or Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Probably the first. Just likely because a bunch of other fairly short books should be arriving any time now.
next genre up is Fantasy - Wicked - Maguire
i have the whole series, so these my fill the genre for a while
Roadside Picnic is a Russian scifi that takes place after some aliens clearly have visited the earth, although nobody saw them when they visited. The areas they visited are now blocked-off dangerous sites with some remnants that are not understood and phenomena that are not understood. Some people sneak into the area illegally to retrieve these remnants and that’s what the POV is. While some people think a civilization dropped off some stuff to speed our development or that sort of thing, the title refers to the idea that maybe the aliens just topped for a rest and had no particular intention wrt earth and what they left was really just picnic trash that they didnt’ bother to clean up.
The Uncommon Reader is a little story where the Queen of England becomes an avid reader, which has some affect on her duties and on how she interacts with those around her. It’s a pleasant enough read in the US, but makes me wonder how the reaction was in the UK.
Stayed up way too late finishing The Prince of Tides. Really enjoyed it, particularly the characters’ reflection on meaning, making the most out of life and the sadness of unfulfilled potential. Here was my favorite example, which described a man re-watching an old video of his best play from high-school football.
Collapsed for length
“But, as I watch this film, I often think that the boy did not know what he was really running toward, that it was not the end zone which awaited him. Somewhere in that ten second dash the running boy turned to metaphor and the older man could see it where the boy could not. He would be good at running, always good at it, and he would always run away from the things that hurt him, from the people who loved him, and from the friends empowered to save him. But where do we run when there are no crowds, no lights, no end zones? Where does a man run? the coach said, studying the films of himself as a boy. Where can a man run when he has lost the excuse of games? Where can a man run or where can he hide when he looks behind him and sees that he is only pursued by himself?”
Not sure what I’m going to read next. Don Quixote is on my list, but not sure I’m in the mood for another long one right away.
can’t remember if from the book or the movie, but I use the line “as long as I can read, I can cook” (paraphrased)
I liked Wicked quite a bit and then found book 2 pretty meh, curious of it improves from there.
It will take a while as I rotate genres. I really only wanted the first, but my daughter gave me them all, so since on my shelf, I am obligated to read them.
We will see
I don’t know. The martian was a hit movie, despite also being a series of stem crises solved by a nerdy guy. The trick is to make a sexy actor play solo nerd.
The Martian was a much more believable plot.
It was the simple story of a man surviving against the odds and elements
Hail Mary, is more far fetched
It involves aliens and the protagonist seems to just know too much
The crises are less relatable and need explanation
They can do a good job, but it is harder to be relatable
For what it is worth, I spoke of Project Hail Mary in my wedding speech for my daughter
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Can you share the gist as I may have to make a speech at my middle daughter’s wedding in August?
for that reference, it was due to the Alien understanding sarcasm better than my SiL
they are both sci- fi and fantasy nerds. He makes chain mail jewelry he sells at Renaissance fairs
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I believe the speech included references to:
Project Hail Mary
D & D
LOTR
Star Trek
Shockingly no Princess Bride (though this daughter did a great Princess Bride speech at my older daughters wedding)
and was forbidden from Big Bang references
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You were ambitious.
I will probably primarily stick to thanking everyone for coming. Tempted to find a quote from Princess Bride thought as that was a favourite of my kids.
Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togethah today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dream!
__________ and __________ have come here to make this tweasured agweement in front of their family and fwiends, pwomising their commitment in this holy and magnificent pwace, today and each day fowawd.
We would not be here today without wuv. Wuv, twoo wuv between these two. Twoo wuv will follow you forevah, so tweasure your wuv, __________ and __________, always.
but only if you use the accent
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What??
Inconceivable!!
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