I miss reading. Back in high school I used to always have my nose stuck in a book when I wasn't actively doing something else (like learning in class), but once I got to college and had to read more and more it became a chore and definitely more like school work than pleasure. It's been a recent change that I've found pleasure in reading again (like in the past 6 months), but then with my migraines I was unable to read even when I really wanted to. Now I'm hoping to get back to reading again. I have on my bookshelves a good number of classics I want to read and I just printed out a few different book lists. I came across Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list (and Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels), which definitely encouraged me to read some books that I would normally never read. (Plus I felt pretty accomplished to check off the ones I had already read-- it wasn't an astonishing number, but it still made me feel good.) Yesterday (or maybe the day before) a friend posted a link to the "Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge" book list. It's a book list of all the books on Gilmore Girls that Rory is seen reading throughout the 7 seasons. I crossed off what I could, but again it wasn't an astonishing amount (about 30 and I already have about 15 other books lined up for me to read off of this list). Then I ended up looking up a list of the Best Southern Literature (according to GoodReads). Their list includes 471 books and some I definitely don't agree with (the first Sookie Stackhouse novel should not be number 23 on the list) but all in all the list seems at least somewhat sound.
I took all of the lists and made a small list of my own (in a notebook) of books I would like to read; this does not include the books that I already have on my shelves. I'm going to slowly make my way through every single one of those books until I have read them all. I'll keep you updated, if you like, especially if I find a book that I really love. Right now I'm reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. I started it before I made the list or even thought about making the list. I've read it before but now I know it's going to have so much more meaning to it. I have wanted to reread all of Jane Austen's books since I reread Northanger Abbey in college (I liked the first time I read it, but I didn't really get the whole meaning so it was just so much more the second time around and I have a feeling all of her books are going to be like that).
Oscar is recovering nicely, well, he seems to be anyway. I've noticed that he hobbles when he gets up from naps (like an old man) but I think his paw just gets stiff when he isn't using it. Sometimes he limps and sometimes he's having so much fun he forgets to limp or not jump or not do something equally silly. When I love on him, his hurt legs keeps ending up in my lap. He paws at me kinda like "look, it hurts, do something about it" but besides that he is his old self. He still barks at the cat and roughhouses with Jack. He's totally terrified with a capital "t" of my car. He looks at me with those sad, scared puppy dog eyes when I get in it. While I'm glad he's not hanging out under my car anymore, I hate that I was the one who ran over him and I'm the one getting those eyes. I'm his mom! He still loves me though. Which is completely wonderful because I would be very, very sad if he didn't.
We just booked a flight to Hawaii (for my parents and me) for the beginning of August. I can't wait to go. We'll get to see my sister and her husband, their puppies (there's one of them we haven't met), and see their brand spanking new house. Seriously, it seems so far away. So the video that I chose is in honor of us going to Hawaii (even though I don't exactly like mangoes).
Title: "Mango" by Angus and Julia Stone
Labels: Books, Hawaii, Jack, Lists, Music, Oscar
