A Suggestion

I was just toddling about Wikipedia, and saw that Unbearable Lightness of Being is based partially on a belief by Nietzsche about eternal recurrence, and is just generally existentialist in theme.  I can't remember what you guys were planning to read alongside Nietzsche, but maybe we should combine the two.  I can always read P&P&S&S some other time.  What say you both?

And, Happy last 1 Hour of Birthday, Claire.

happy happy birthday, claire!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, C L A I R E !

I hope your 20th year is a good one, happy happy birthday!

I promise to slow down

I also apologize for my overly pedantic treatment of To the Lighthouse.  My enthusiasm for Virginia Woolf set an unrealistic precedent.  It would be as if they discovered a new and previously unknown Jane Austen novel, and Claire got to read it for the first time.  I just really love Woolf...

I've read about twenty pages of the Hemingway, and I like it significantly less, so I can promise not to be so overzealous from now on (until I start The Waves)...

I'm actually trying to read the Odyssey for a while, until we all get on the same page (har!).  It's an important precursor to one day reading Ulysses, which I must do before dying.

I have a few leads in my job search!  I won't talk about them because that would jinx it.

Anyway, continue reading and hope you guys are doing well.

Welcome Dana!

Now our blog is whole.  I read some of the Odyssey today in Barnes & Noble.  I'll probably start the Hemingway soon.  I do nothing but read these days.  I need a job.  Everyone already knows this though.  

I also complain when I'm not reading.  And sleep.  I do a lot of sleeping.

That's it though.  I hope you're both making progress...

poetrypoetry?

i have joined the blog! (though only after admiring the wit of the blog's name. was that you claire? clever clever) sorry for joining late, i was gallivanting around ny with my sister and was taking a break from the internet. i am now back in the bay, hanging out with the parental unit. i think i've already managed to annoy them. it's really a talent, being able to irritate my parents this rapidly.

so i have unfortunately not started reading mrs. dalloway (i left it at home), but i will start immediately, and will be on the lookout for the ideas you mentioned in your posts- vague desires, the moment, etc. i also will look over to the lighthouse again. i have to admit, though, I am slightly intimidated at the cerebral nature of these posts, i'm afraid my posts will not be as impressively intellectual.

in the past couple days i read the alchemist by paulo coelho instead. i found it in a crumpled pile of crap behind jillian's desk (along with like $20 of quarters), so i unceremoniously took it (and the quarters) and read it. have either of you read it? it was really a beautiful story. i also read half of the man who mistook his wife for a hat by oliver sacks, which is about various psychological disorders. have either of your read it? i bought it off the street in ny for $2, as well as purchasing a $3 copy of oliver twist. we better read oliver twist.

in other adventures, i went traipsing around central park the other day and made a new, um, friend. he's this intense old swiss-montengran painter. he told me about Daoism (it would help me find peace), instructed me to liberate myself and become a poet (find your talent! follow your passion!), and urged me to read Pablo Neruda ("so sensual"). this brings me to my point, which is, poetry! we cannot forget the goal of reading around 5 poems a week, right? i had some poems in mind (including mr. neruda), so would you guys be alright with me proposing our first set of poems?

and my new friend told me, among other things, that if i learned to breathe correctly (he demonstrated) that I would have an excellent sex life when i was 80. i said, why thank you. i will go do just that.

alright, i am off to rummage through my stuff to find mrs. dalloway. i'm sorry about your talkative roommate, claire... and i hope new york is enthralling, john.

Mrs Dalloway

I would be reading it now, but unfortunately my options are 1) stay in my room with my delicious bottle of wine and watch tv over the shriek of my surprise roommate's laughs and "ya know what I mean"s or 2) leave my wine to find a place where I can actually hear my own thoughts well enough to process a text as complex as Mrs. Dalloway. Frankly, wine is winning.

My only thoughts from today's reading (forty pages) are as follows: the moment. More to follow.

Also: She is on the phone. In my room. At 1:30 in the morning. That is all.

I have read roughly 10 pages

The going is rough. This is not my style of literature - so many long, rambling sentences, but with a vastly different structure from the more restrained Victorian rambling sentences, and such sudden transitions to different subjects, time periods, settings. It's all a little disorienting, and I don't think I'll know what to make of it until I've read quite a bit more. It's hard to concentrate here. My room is 100 degrees and everywhere else is noisy or uncomfortable. But I will soldier on.

PS Dana join the blog, dammit.