perlmonger::metalog

The latest book I loved and wanted to enthuse about was The Possibility of Tenderness (5/5) by Jason Allen-Paisant which is local history of a hill-farming community where he grew up in Jamaica, told through the lens of memoir and family history but also intersecting with global history and economics, but I'm too tired to enthuse properly and maybe it's better to think of Jamaica in the present for the time being.

Instead here's the very latest fashion in book memes, brought to you by the letter T (for thistleingrey) and with an educational song from the letter M (for magid).

1. Lust, books I want to read for their cover.

None, but I did recently buy a relatively expensive book when it was first published, in hardback, so I could revel in the illustrations. And I'm especially glad I did because apparently my local independent bookshop were one of the few who managed to acquire stock from the publisher Unbound / Boundless before it failed and took authors' royalties and readers' pre-payments into oblivion with it. At least my local indie made some money. Oh, and I got one of the apparently rare copies complete with dust jacket (and postcard and bookmark and creators' signatures). So, Wild Folk, by Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott.

2. Pride, challenging books I've finished.

"challenging"? I mean, I congratulate myself every time I manage to key out the species of any biological organism I've never seen before. I've always read imaginative, creative, experimental, literary, academic, &c books so I don't consider the good ones a "challenge" to read. Bad books are always a challenge: they challenge me to dnf because life is too short. :-)

3. Gluttony, books I've read more than once.

I did this very often as a child, especially books I was still getting something new out of each time (and because I had limited access to books although I was lucky to be able to visit a good town library regularly). I re-read favourite books as a teen too, but more for familiarity ("comfort-reading" doesn't have to be cozy). As an adult I have less time for re-reading, and more access to new books. Also, since my mid-forties I've also been in a race with death to read as many new books as possible before my time runs out.

4. Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest.

I either read or divest regularly so the only long-term inmates of my To Read shelves are secondhand girls' own annuals I've bought as and when I've spotted them and not yet read because they're a limited resource and I'm in no hurry (if I die with precisely one remaining unread then I've won, lol).

( Greed, wrath, and envy have been remaindered )

- Current reading quote: "Yu cyaan go wrong wid lan', he declares, cah dem nah mek no mo' a it." /seen

- Halloweek: so glad I didn't grow up in a culture with haunted murderous bedding, especially as I spent my childhood sleeping under patched bedding that first belonged to my grandmother's household: "The Boroboroton is described as a tattered futon who comes to life at night. It rises up into the air and throws its former owner out of bed, then begins to twine around the head and neck of the sleeper with the intent of strangling him." /wik-eep-edia

( - Habitat )

The Kraken, by Alfred Tennyson, 1830

1. Below the thunders of the upper deep,
2. Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
3. His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
4. The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
5. About his shadowy sides; above him swell
6. Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
7. And far away into the sickly light,
8. From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
9. Unnumbered and enormous polypi
10. Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
11. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
12. Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
13. Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
14. Then once by man and angels to be seen,
15. In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Notes
1. For "Below the thunders of the upper deep" read indigestion and the consequences thereof.
2. For "abysmal" read "abyssal".
3. "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie." "His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep" "the silent stars go by."
4. The Kraken lispth, the faint sunlight feints.
6. An early reference to Sponging Millennials.
7-8. O light, thou art sick. The invisible worms that swim in the deep, in the grotty sea.
8. For "wondrous grot" read car boot sale. For "secret cell" read burner phone.
9-10. Enormous octopuses use giant mecha to break village greens into smithereens and pitch them into the air.
11. For "ages" read "ageth".
12. "Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep": Paging Dr Freud!
13. Travel kettle.
14-15 Certainly knocks "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" into a cocked hat.

- Halloweek: Decided to go subtle for Halloween this year and terrorise the neighbourhood by putting a Beware of the Swan sign on my front gate. Received several concerned enquiries satisfyingly quickly, including from my postie who is now in on the joke and thinks it's lolarious. The fact that I normally eschew "practical jokes" is definitely working in my favour. XD

- Lexicophilia 1: Received an event notification from a learned USian institution informing me that " registratin " [sic] is open. Obviously I'm hoping any correction for this will be registratin' rather than registration. :D

- Lexicophilia 2: I met two gentlemen out for a stroll with their cameras and we got chatting, and eventually the subject came around to customer service representatives. One of the men said he'd recently been on hold waiting for a customer service ambassador, so I wondered if one should address them in the same way as a diplomatic ambassador, i.e. Your Excellency, but my interlocutor felt customer service reps should have their own title and after some discussion of which titles, such as Your Eminence, were already taken, suggested Your Refulgence. Having googled, I was disappointed not to find a fictional Your Refulgence, or any refulgences outside overly flowery translations. Reality has disappointed me again. It has failed to be adequately reflugent. ;-)