Le Baron's casual reading log

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BeaP
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby BeaP » Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:06 pm

Le Baron wrote:That is a most unusual greeting. Any idea about its origins?

I've looked it up. I don't know why but we think that our ears grow during our whole lifetime. It must be some 'folk observation'. I don't really feel that my ears have grown lately, but who knows. So if your ear grows very very long, it means that you've lived a long life.
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Le Baron
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:12 pm

That makes sense. It's a nice greeting which sounds vaguely like a not nice greeting. It's good to keep people destabilised and thinking. :)
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Cenwalh » Thu Jul 14, 2022 9:51 pm

BeaP wrote:We also pull each other's ear with force.

Where I grew up we had "birthday beats" where each of your friends would punch you on the arm or the leg once for each year old you are. Fortunately the practice seems to wear out after about 16.
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Double SC films: 200 / 200 (updated 2022-07-28)
Double SC books: 34 / 200 (updated 2022-07-28)

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Le Baron
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Sun Aug 14, 2022 4:36 pm

When you find yourself halfway down page 5, you know you haven't been keeping up your log. However I have been keeping up with reading.

I thought that perhaps after avoiding these 'long novels' I might have another go at one that I could get into over the summer. So I again tried one of the Isabel Allende novels La ciudad de las bestias. Supposedly 'young adult' literature. It did not go well. I haven't changed my mind about novels like this. Spanning unreal amounts of time and space, with unreal happenings. The only writer I can generally tolerate whose books contain more or less of this 'magic realism' is Salman Rushdie (hope he's doing well by the way!). Even then I stopped reading two of his books because of it.

So no, I will not be attempting another of Isabel Allende's books. It makes no sense, because even if the book was originally written in English, French or Dutch I likely wouldn't read it either. So why would I give myself an extra obstacle for a TL? I'm not merely against 'long novels' because fairly recently I read Anne Berest's La Carte Postale which is a 500+ page thing, though that's not a TL. That book is 'matter-of-fact' whilst also having enough of a sense of 'otherwordly-ness' to carry you into the story. So it's not really length, but treatment where I find an obstacle.

I've actually had just over a week of holiday time at home (and I have more, but I'll depart for that), so I've been reading books that aren't learning books. Over the year - and not as part of the book-a-month reading goal - I've been reading/re-reading Sartre's works, excluding L'Être et le néant. Far in the the past, far in my past anyway, I haphazardly read some in English, some in French. For the most part I've been reading his plays, some of which I have read before, but of which I'd retained no memory. My old Gallimard copy of Le Diable et le Bon Dieu is absolutely falling apart from age, so I can't read that in bed without it falling apart onto my face. Also some non-fiction, but in no particular order: Réflexions sur la question juive, Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions... All this will have to be cut back once I scale back up with TL reading.

That's bedtime reading though. In general I've been reading two technical current economics books about central banking operations policy. Maybe that should be bedtime reading? Quite a good natural soporific I'd say.
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby lichtrausch » Sun Aug 14, 2022 5:04 pm

Le Baron wrote:I haven't changed my mind about novels like this. Spanning unreal amounts of time and space, with unreal happenings.

Does this apply to movies as well for you? I find myself avoiding books and movies like "Cloud Atlas" or "Everything Everywhere All at Once" for the reasons you stated.
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Sun Aug 14, 2022 5:11 pm

lichtrausch wrote:
Le Baron wrote:I haven't changed my mind about novels like this. Spanning unreal amounts of time and space, with unreal happenings.

Does this apply to movies as well for you? I find myself avoiding books and movies like "Cloud Atlas" or "Everything Everywhere All at Once" for the reasons you stated.

Very possibly yes. I had to look up Cloud Atlas to see what it was, but from reading the plot summary on Wikipedia (some of it anyway), I don't think I would watch it. I have obviously watched films which cover a long period (Doctor Zhivago for instance), but I can't abide stories with very high levels of inconceivability. Or perhaps just lots of 'pop metaphysics' like that irksome film The Matrix, which I also found to be tedious pseudo-philosophy. I also don't like any of Tarantino's films (apart from Jackie Brown) for similar reasons...aside from him being a mere 'curator' of second-hand culture.
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Le Baron
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:02 pm

On Thursday I bought two books from the good charity bookshop near me. I realised that it's the only real bookshop in the village since the other one on the shopping street went down. Although there is actually one I think I've seen once or twice in a side street, but it also looks like someone's house, and I can't tell if it's a real shop or not. I'd have to check that out.

Anyway the books were novels, a French one (by Joel Dicker) and Spanish: Nada by Carmen Laforet. This place is one of my usual sources I go to once in a while to find decent books for a euro or two. I've had quite a few from there, so when I got to the desk serving as a counter, which inexplicably still has a large sheet of perspex hanging in front, the old fellow said: 'oh you've bought a lot of foreign books, perhaps I should speak French with you.' And I must have made some 'euh?' noise because he repeated himself in French.

I don't think it was necessary, I'm pretty sure I've spoken to him every time before in Dutch. Maybe it's only hello/goodbye and whatever, but I'm sure I once asked if I could pay by PIN. But he made a meal of opening the books to read the pencilled-in prices and say them out loud 'in full'...'celui-ci est deux euros...et celui-là un euro..ça fait trois euros monsieur!' (monsieur!) I think he found it far more exciting than I did, but it's novel to have the exchange in something other than Dutch or English I suppose.

Then he asked if I wanted the receipt and called it a 'reçu'. Even though that word is correct I've always heard most people say 'le ticket'.. le ticket de caisse or 'the till receipt' for the little paper chits. Obviously I didn't turn into a bore and start explaining this, I just said yes, And then he said: "on peut aussi l'appeler un 'ticket'.." :D, and again I just said yes. I was going to say 'ou un ticket de caisse', but I know these Dutch always wanting to trip me up' and he would have said 'no actually because it's a pin machine'. And then I'd have had to karate chop him in the neck for being annoying, and that would never do. So I just just smiled and thanked him and left.
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Oct 02, 2022 1:07 am

Le Baron wrote:On Thursday I bought two books from the good charity bookshop near me. I realised that it's the only real bookshop in the village since the other one on the shopping street went down. Although there is actually one I think I've seen once or twice in a side street, but it also looks like someone's house, and I can't tell if it's a real shop or not. I'd have to check that out.

Anyway the books were novels, a French one (by Joel Dicker) and Spanish: Nada by Carmen Laforet. This place is one of my usual sources I go to once in a while to find decent books for a euro or two. I've had quite a few from there, so when I got to the desk serving as a counter, which inexplicably still has a large sheet of perspex hanging in front, the old fellow said: 'oh you've bought a lot of foreign books, perhaps I should speak French with you.' And I must have made some 'euh?' noise because he repeated himself in French.

I don't think it was necessary, I'm pretty sure I've spoken to him every time before in Dutch. Maybe it's only hello/goodbye and whatever, but I'm sure I once asked if I could pay by PIN. But he made a meal of opening the books to read the pencilled-in prices and say them out loud 'in full'...'celui-ci est deux euros...et celui-là un euro..ça fait trois euros monsieur!' (monsieur!) I think he found it far more exciting than I did, but it's novel to have the exchange in something other than Dutch or English I suppose.

Then he asked if I wanted the receipt and called it a 'reçu'. Even though that word is correct I've always heard most people say 'le ticket'.. le ticket de caisse or 'the till receipt' for the little paper chits. Obviously I didn't turn into a bore and start explaining this, I just said yes, And then he said: "on peut aussi l'appeler un 'ticket'.." :D, and again I just said yes. I was going to say 'ou un ticket de caisse', but I know these Dutch always wanting to trip me up' and he would have said 'no actually because it's a pin machine'. And then I'd have had to karate chop him in the neck for being annoying, and that would never do. So I just just smiled and thanked him and left.
First of all congratulations for not causing mayhem in a book store. When I read Nada, I forced myself to not be comparing it to Bonjour Tristesse every step of the way. Both written by young authors both, but not, imho, telling the same story.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Le Baron
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Mon Oct 17, 2022 9:51 pm

I'm not slacking or anything. In fact I've probably read more books and done more listening than the previous two months, but I am tired. My cat has been ill for some weeks. She had an infection and the antibiotics were traumatising more than anything (can't imagine what idiot thought a citrus aroma was good for feline medication!). For a while she was practically eating nothing and became so weak she was falling over. :( This has improved somewhat, but not a great deal still only eating a little. Its a big change from going about normally only three weeks ago. My little companion has been with me quite a long time, so it's painful to see. Another check at the vet tomorrow evening.

Probably against my better judgement I watched the film La ciénaga (2001, Lucrecia Martel). It's quite a complex film if your Spanish is not top-drawer (that's me!) and I had to turn the subtitles on and off, choice of French or Dutch. Luckily that's a single button on the remote. I made it through the film though, which is always good.

Totally unrelated, but here's my favourite movement from Othmar Schoeck's 2nd string quartet (1923):

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Le Baron
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Re: Le Baron's casual reading log

Postby Le Baron » Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:51 pm

Unfortunately my cat is in a bad way. It's last chance saloon. Corticosteroid injection (for comfort and a pep really) and I'm giving her special food from a syringe, essentially a form of force feeding. She was just losing weight by the day and perhaps lost about 750-800 grammes over a month. Her temperature was about 7 degrees too low so she's now on my bed wrapped in a fleece and a wool blanket on. Normally she'd be trying to escape from that after 10 minutes.

Without improvement, there is only one course of action left. I am very sad. :( Devastated even. I know it's not language-related, but there we are.
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