J'ai aimée ça! C'est fantastique! Une histoire d'aventure magnifique!
(This morning I had my first university in-class course ever and it was French. This week is the first week of school and I am the most nervous about this course; but it was fine. Phew. This week is also the Blog Tour for Andrew Peterson’s second book in the Wingfeather Saga and I guess I should carry on the rest of this review in English.)
I finished reading North! Or Be Eaten rather quickly. It is one of those books where I can't help myself from cheating: when the suspense becomes too much, I scan ahead a couple of pages, looking for some resolution. I've always done that with books that are captivating and where I can't handle not knowing what’s going to happen. In my opinion, that’s a good thing; a story that is not predictable and that keeps me reading late into the night, because I just need to know what’s going to happen. It takes an author with a creative mind and one who has excelled in his/her own studies of the Three Great and Honoured Subjects to pull off another beautiful tale of the Lost Jewels of Anniera.
I have no idea if other women my age would like this kind of story, but (as I’ve blogged about before) it’s reads like this that balance out other not-so-pleasurable parts of one’s day—keep it light, mix in some stories of adventure, revisit what you delighted in as a kid. I just moved to my own apartment finally (after living in houses full of people for years) and I spent Labour Day unpacking about ten boxes of books! Two of these boxes had been taped up and were left over from the house I lived most of my childhood in. I have shelved them with the rest of my books (more adult reading) and I am looking forward to pulling one off every so often to lighten things up! Ooh ooh, I just thought: I should get TinTin actually in French—great children’s adventure stories AND kind of like studying for school.
In my apartment building are some friends who have sons. Admittedly, a few of them don’t enjoy reading, but I am going to lend Book One and Book Two to the mom to try reading with them. I am certain that they will soon be absorbed—the short chapters are bound to help too.
I’ve never written a book review before, but since this is my blog, I think it must be ok to intersperse my book thoughts with my life thoughts. As is surely the sign of a good book, book texts align with life texts and I found the text from North! Or Be Eaten that resonated with my life the most came from Peet the Sock Man, as he was reverting more and more to himself as Artham P. Wingfeather.
“…the darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming—and finer for the great shroud that surrounds it.”
My blog has sometimes been a place where I have shared about difficult life things. I can recall not being particularly happy with the passing of one bad year onto the next, but having just passed my twenty-ninth birthday, I am actually feeling really happy about a new season. The Light has always been there and fortunately…je la veux!
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Monday, 14 September 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
A voice--my voice--from the Past
It has been really nice this weekend to have no obligations, nothing to do, nowhere to be. I didn't leave the house all day yesterday and I quite enjoyed it. I read a whole book (some fictional tale about a girl in S. Africa, her father's unfaithfulness, her mother's insanity and fairies), finished a whole season of Heroes and roasted a whole bunch of parsnips. Today I went to church and didn't have to be there at any certain time (was not playing or leading any music this week). I attempted to stay in tune with what the pastor was talking about, but found myself doodling and then practicing fractions to make sure I'm in shape for the tutoring I am doing. Subtracting fractions led to me working out my genealogy/ancestry---I'm not completely sure, but I think it is 5/8 English, 1/8 Irish, 1/8 Scottish and 1/8 Welsh. Then this led me to realize that my grandparents' names make a little rhyme (Mary, Bruce, Ralph and Ruth) and maybe I should write a song about them (the little I know about them) sometime.
Then I found myself back in tune with the sermon and felt emotion stirring [again]. I'm supposed to be investigating my happiness right now and questioning if I am being held back from life by things in my life (funny that). (This is what I took from my last counselling session.) So I have been trying to dig, but not dig too much, into what I could do to be happier. The sermon "So What?" was a kind of look at What has God made me to do? I've been thinking again about music things.
There are things I want to see and I want to happen that I really can't do anything about--is there anything I can actually do? Even if there is, I'm kind of tired to doing. I am a doer by nature and today I feel like giving up on figuring out what I can do! I ended up at home and after lunch and a taste of Bollywood film (an indulgence I enjoy on some Sunday afternoons) I again retreated to my room and brought this all up with God. This song came to mind and the funny thing was that it is my own song, written eight years ago in India for a friend who was crying from physical pain (food related). I went and dug out my folder of self-composed songs and started with this one. It was interesting that it changed its meaning for me today--from a fun, cheer-up-my-friend song to a bit of a prayer. Then I tried another one that I wrote eleven years ago! It seemed better than I remembered. Then there was one that I've always liked that, this afternoon, I found hard to sing through. Funny how six years later, I'm still feeling the same way about the same things.
In the pile were a couple of poems that my brother wrote while I was in Derby ten years ago on my YWAM DTS and that I later put music to. He had actually emailed these to me while I was away from home for the first time and today I was able to read over what he had written me. I always remember my brother being soo much older than me yet, here are his words from his younger self--younger than I am now! And today they were special and encouraging to read again.
Finally I came across a printed email that I had written to a friend of mine during this same time. I had just come back to England from six weeks in Brazil and I was excited, inspired and filled up. Today as I read my own words from my eighteen year old self, I was pushed to more tears. I was writing to encourage my friend and to testify to what all God was doing around and in me and today, I ended up encouraging my ten year older self. Well, I'm not exactly sure if I am encouraged. I am deeply touched. I am amazed at how what I wrote then applies to how I feel now. I have this letter beside me right now and every time I look at it to perhaps pull out something that is touching me, I get all teary again. I think I will just continue to mull over my words!
I could look at my eighteen year-old self as young and untouched by pains and disappointments. Nevertheless, the words I wrote then are still truths and I must take these words to heart. The experiences I had during that time of my life were very real and I should hold to them and build on them, not brush them aside. I can scarcely comprehend the wisdom coming from the mouth of my eighteen year old self. Weird how God can speak to you through your past self. It's kind of like an episode of Heroes!
(This is me then. Hippy hair, plaid checked polyester man pants, a shirt with the Play Doh logo on it saying "Pray Mo'", the orange bowling shirt and my "I'm Po' But I'm Proud Shirt". Sigh.)
Then I found myself back in tune with the sermon and felt emotion stirring [again]. I'm supposed to be investigating my happiness right now and questioning if I am being held back from life by things in my life (funny that). (This is what I took from my last counselling session.) So I have been trying to dig, but not dig too much, into what I could do to be happier. The sermon "So What?" was a kind of look at What has God made me to do? I've been thinking again about music things.
There are things I want to see and I want to happen that I really can't do anything about--is there anything I can actually do? Even if there is, I'm kind of tired to doing. I am a doer by nature and today I feel like giving up on figuring out what I can do! I ended up at home and after lunch and a taste of Bollywood film (an indulgence I enjoy on some Sunday afternoons) I again retreated to my room and brought this all up with God. This song came to mind and the funny thing was that it is my own song, written eight years ago in India for a friend who was crying from physical pain (food related). I went and dug out my folder of self-composed songs and started with this one. It was interesting that it changed its meaning for me today--from a fun, cheer-up-my-friend song to a bit of a prayer. Then I tried another one that I wrote eleven years ago! It seemed better than I remembered. Then there was one that I've always liked that, this afternoon, I found hard to sing through. Funny how six years later, I'm still feeling the same way about the same things.
In the pile were a couple of poems that my brother wrote while I was in Derby ten years ago on my YWAM DTS and that I later put music to. He had actually emailed these to me while I was away from home for the first time and today I was able to read over what he had written me. I always remember my brother being soo much older than me yet, here are his words from his younger self--younger than I am now! And today they were special and encouraging to read again.
Finally I came across a printed email that I had written to a friend of mine during this same time. I had just come back to England from six weeks in Brazil and I was excited, inspired and filled up. Today as I read my own words from my eighteen year old self, I was pushed to more tears. I was writing to encourage my friend and to testify to what all God was doing around and in me and today, I ended up encouraging my ten year older self. Well, I'm not exactly sure if I am encouraged. I am deeply touched. I am amazed at how what I wrote then applies to how I feel now. I have this letter beside me right now and every time I look at it to perhaps pull out something that is touching me, I get all teary again. I think I will just continue to mull over my words!
I could look at my eighteen year-old self as young and untouched by pains and disappointments. Nevertheless, the words I wrote then are still truths and I must take these words to heart. The experiences I had during that time of my life were very real and I should hold to them and build on them, not brush them aside. I can scarcely comprehend the wisdom coming from the mouth of my eighteen year old self. Weird how God can speak to you through your past self. It's kind of like an episode of Heroes!
(This is me then. Hippy hair, plaid checked polyester man pants, a shirt with the Play Doh logo on it saying "Pray Mo'", the orange bowling shirt and my "I'm Po' But I'm Proud Shirt". Sigh.)
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