5,504 Steps
Currently reading:
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver [ongoing]
Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962–1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik [ongoing]
Books finished this week: 2
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: Kew & Willow, impulse-purchased while picking up a pre-order
Why this book: Writers, murders, potential spookies? Come onnnn.
Thoughts: This was fun, overall! Though I felt the plot dragged in some places, I still found myself wanting to read on to find out how it would all wrap up (even if I was, admittedly, skimming some of the excerpts from the fake novel).
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: BookHampton out in East Hampton, during Hamptons Whodunit weekend
Why this book: As someone who harbors a deep and abiding love of Scream, I am very much on board for a meta story. A friend——hi, Jacki!——also recently read it and suggested it to me.
Thoughts: I usually figure a three-star rating means something was just okay, maybe even mildly entertaining, so I’d probably call this more of a three-and-a-half-star read. Ironically, it was the humor and meta elements that I was most looking forward to, but those were also the things that hindered my overall enjoyment. The mystery was interesting and full of plenty of twists and turns, but the humor felt too try-hard and often misplaced. A lighter tough would’ve gone a long way here.
Library updates:
I’m going to be so real with you, I’m finishing up my draft of this missive after 10pm on Sunday night and I’m kind of exhausted from the week and weekend, so this is going to be a short one. I finished two books this week, what else do you want from me??
I walked a lot this week. My phone tells me I averaged 5,504 steps over the last seven days, which is much better than my usually sluggish few hundred steps. I was also more social than I have been in a long time——probably since college, when I was pretty much forced to socialize every day. It was a largely exhausting week, in a good way. Exhausting physically, rather than emotionally, in a way that let me sleep well and wake up early (mostly). I had to work harder to find time to do school reading and homework, which was admittedly stressful, but overall, life felt busy and full, even when I was on my own or not doing anything particularly interesting.
I’m going to just share a bunch of pretty pictures from assorted walks I went on and interesting places I went this past week, because I’m sleepy and my brain won’t produce any more words. Enjoy:
Clockwise, from top left: Roses in my parents’ backyard; the Palace, mere moments before Ben Platt took the stage; Moneypenny melting in the summer heat (we now have our air conditioner in the window, WOO); wide view of the Ridgewood Reservoir; mussels night at Dirty Pierre’s; detail of some flowers on a different walk at the reservoir
Closing thoughts:
Whenever you can, don’t just live through a day——take the time to enjoy it.
