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Summer is a time of getting round to doing those things that you never got round to doing. Like eating better, taking a vacation, joining a CSA and of course, reading (and re-reading) those books that you've always meant to read. Here's my summer reading list: White Noise by Don Delillo ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fuwang lent me this book years ago, and I've been meaning to finish it ever since. I keep starting and starting over again. This time I think it will take. I'm in just the right kind of mental place for a snarky postmodern apocalyptic romp. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler I've always thought that I should read something by Octavia Butler, one of the more celebrated authors whose speculative fiction that deals with issues of queerness and race. I've started on Parable of the Sower and am liking it so far. The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth I read this during a phase in high school where I was reading almost anything I could get my hands on that was about or set in San Francisco. I was also going through a Samuel Beckett phase. I think I was caught in a place where I was delighting in the brutal fact that there was nothing other than this absurd life, but also sublimating my internalized need for a heaven (thanks largely to Christian primary and secondary school education) into a mythic San Francisco where gay beat poets made free love all day and all night in bay windows with views of the golden gate bridge. This book was one of my favorites from that period of my life, and I want to re-read it now to see how I react to it having now lived in the bay area for almost 10 years. Hamlet by William Shakespeare I haven't read this since high school, and I want to revisit it. It was the first Shakespeare play that I read without taking a class on it, and I loved taking my own time and developing ideas about the play that I could keep to myself instead of having to trot them out for the approval of an instructor or my peers. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth One of the if not the biggest (in size) book in our house as a child. I was impressed that my mother read the whole thing, and even more impressed that somebody with a clearly Asian name could write such a huge novel and have it be a bestseller. I think it's time for me to read it. Also I think I might be ready for a South Asian/diaspora writers phase, and this and The Golden Gate might be just the thing to jumpstart that. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri I've loved everything else she has written, and also, South Asian writers phase. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton I'm almost done with this and just need to finish it. Some non-fiction also to round out my list. Secret Identities edited by Jeff Yang, Jerry Ma, Keith Chow, and Parry Shen I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this for a while. I like comics and I'm interested in the minds of straight Asian American men (I think these editors are all straight. Someone correct me if I'm wrong). Tags: book, list, lists, summer
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Yays: 1) Set up lights in the backyard so now my guests and I won't trip over things at night. Lawsuit averted. Also they are pretty. 2) Discovered a great Thai restaurant near me, Sabuy Sabuy, thanks to armchairshrink3) Ate at Kopitiam this morning and had a Ratatouille/Remembrance of Things Past moment when the kopi came in exactly the little ceramic cups and saucers with blue line woodcut-style designs on them that I remember from hawker centers in K.L. and Penang as a child. I told armchairshrink only half in jest that I was afraid to actually taste the coffee and food because if it was too spot on, I might in fact burst into tears in public. 4) A friend of mine donated some money to No on 8 and will ask others to donate too! 5) Heard from D., whom I hadn't spoken with in a while. Fabulous to get her on the phone. Boos: 1) My bike frame is broken and even though I pointed this out when I brought it in to the shop on Monday and was assured that everything would be fine I got a call from the bike people today saying "hey did you know your frame is broken and we can't fix it" ARGH. 2) Saw Yes on 8 stickers on two cars in Walnut Creek. 3) Had to go to three separate stores to get the supplies for the lights. 4) Still aching from gym on Thursday - it's been a while, and my body knows it. 5) Feeling a bit isolated from city folk living here in the EB. Tags: lists
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1) Legal research 2) Fueling my Hypochondria by looking up medical conditions 3) HEY I SAW SOME CUTE CATS ON THE INTERNET AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT 4) Distracting friends from their work by chatting about politics 5) The news 6) Webcomics! 7) Podcasts! 8) Baring my soul to total strangers 9) Meta Tags: lists, meta
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It's an exercise I learned from this book, and I really like it. Every day, before bed, you write down five things that made you happy that day. They can be mundane, like the way your socks felt when you put them on clean in the morning, or making yourself a fried egg and then eating it while listening to NPR. They can be momentous, like giving (or getting) comfort over the loss of a loved one, or finally reconciling with a long estranged family member. As you write each one, you try to really remember what the experience was like. It can be hard to get into at first, but I've found that once I've started remembering and writing, all these happy things start coming to me, and it's hard to stop at five. My list for today, for example: 1) Eating a spinach-feta egg white omelet for brunch, after a walk to and from the grocery store. 2) Trying a new self-serve frozen yogurt place with sour-style yogurt. 3) Browsing books and magazines with T 4) Watching Persepolis 5) Introducing new people to Spices! and having them say that they really liked it Tags: lists
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I make lists instead! With hyperlinks, hello! Recently I have:
- hung out with armchairshrink and gone to the Alley, but it was too crowded so I didn't sing. Also we talked about marriage and how the state should just butt out. Sarah sends me an article in the NYT about just that, which features a quote from Nancy Polikoff, one of my favorite writers in law-stuff.
- gone to the Fancy Food Show in San Diego, where I ate so many free samples of chocolate and cheese and crackers and pate and curry and... and... that I made myself a little sick.
- met up with fuwang in LA for dinner at Pizzeria Mozza (a Mario Batali venture along with the sister of Nancy Silverton, of La Brea bakery) and lunch at Phoenix. Mozza was a little underwhelming, and rather pricey, though I did have the luck to order the tastiest pizza at our table (mushroom).
- gone to a birthday party for T's man-boss (he also has a woman-boss, as the company is co-owned), where I met many Mill Valleyians, including a piano teacher who is teaching the "Simply Music" method, which focuses on playing the piano, rather than learning to read music. Pretty awesome apparently. I also tasted about 8 ice cream flavors that may be at their upcoming ice-creamery.
- hung out with fantakat in Dolores Park and La Boulangere, where we played Set, which is very fun and consists of pattern-finding, a suitably geeky activity for K and me.
- attended a book talk by Steven Vedro, the author of Digital Dharma, whose thesis is that the development of telecommunications technology reflects and is reflected by the hierarchy of chakras. Vedro's blog is here. The talk was at Fields bookstore.
- gotten rather addicted to scramble, the boggle-like game on Facebook.
Tags: lists
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1) I am visiting Fu in L.A.. 2) I spent my time here mainly playing video games and eating, in part because of the rain today, and in part because of a cold, which has made me quite unenthusiastic about sightseeing (too many temperature changes make my sinuses swell, and the pressure hurts). We're also a bit lazy. 3) We did go to the gym; and 4) to UCLA, which is pretty, and felt rather East Coast under the grey sky. 5) The rain here is copious and noisy. 6) Fu and I ate at a delicious restaurant, Chung King, which could be a distant and less-greasy cousin of Spices! We ordered frog legs, a "little hot pot" (which could easily feed 6) and crispy rice with sliced pork. The floor was mysteriously slippery. Soap residue, I think. 7) I've been playing Bioshock, the completion of which indicates the distressing amount of time I've spent on the computer. 8) I visited the flagship Whole Foods. I was underwhelmed. Tags: lists, news
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