Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Two More Down

I finished The Turn of the Screw tonight (only a month behind schedule).  The ending is... ambiguous.  I vaguely remembered hearing that there were multiple ways to interpret the story; now that I've finished it, I've poked around on the internet and read some of the existing theories.  Some seem valid, others rather a stretch.  I need to discuss it with someone.

It was pretty good, but James' style of writing takes some adjusting to.  His sentences are long and winding, full of commas.

I finished My Year of Flops a few days ago.  Since it was mostly a collection of essays, it wasn't like it built to one big conclusion I can comment on.  But it remained entertaining and interesting throughout.  After reading it, I definitely want to seek out some lesser-known, impossible-sounding films like "The Apple."  I even kind of want to see "Elizabethtown" (he opens the book by ripping on it, then reconsiders it in the final essay, and finds it does have some charm).

I still have At Home to finish.  Enjoyable, solid.  Not especially fast-paced.  I'm excited to finish it, though, as I used some birthday Borders gift cards to stock up on novels to read.  Up first, probably, is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  Oh no: I just double-checked the spelling of his name on wikipedia and may've accidentally read a spoiler.  I really, really hope not.

Well, anyway, I get to spend the long weekend reading and relaxing and visiting with family.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Farm Animal Information

Two things:

First of all, I'm still plugging away at Bill Bryson's At Home.  It's very interesting but not especially un-put-down-able, since it's nonfiction and broken up into different topics.  Also, I'm concurrently reading Nathan Rabin's My Year of Flops, which is based on his AV Club column of the same name.  He spent a year watching movies that did abysmally at the box office, and reported about them.  There are some secret gems that needed to be rediscovered, and there are definitely some movies so terrible it's hard to believe they're real.  It's an entertaining read - though again, it's broken up into small sections and is not particularly un-put-down-able.


Getting back to farm animals, I just learned from At Home that until the beginning of the 1900s Central Park had a flock of sheep to keep the grass under control! They'd just wander around! How cute is that?

Also, UW-Platteville has a working farm, and they've recently added a brush for the cows.  Read this article about it; it's adorable. 

Monday, November 15, 2010

New Album!

Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) put out a surprise new album today! He had announced that he'd be putting one out sometime in 2010 but gave no indication ahead of time that it would happen today.  I've already listened to it once and am in love with it.  Download it for free at his website.