Kinda like dating itself!
My online book club gravitates toward thrillers, and I have been reading a lot of those over the past year or so, but I am getting bored with them as well. I also have a separate list of restrictions for thrillers just as I do for romances: no child abuse, no animal cruelty, nothing about eyeballs, no teenaged protagonists, no first person alternating POVs, no stupid main character who deliberately flings herself into danger, etc.
This is not an exhaustive list.
Right now I’m reading The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner. It’s nonfiction and interesting. I do have to take breaks when I get annoyed with Mark for being an unemployed bum and remind myself that it’s okay and I am not dating him. In a romance novel, Mark would have been an introspective earl who could study birds all day and still be obscenely wealthy with a vast estate, but at least in this book the MC’s lack of a job actually means he goes hungry for a while. I have also started My Octopus Teacher on Netflix, which I am enjoying as well, but where is the documentary of an irresponsible man who won’t work, befriends animals, and dies impoverished and alone?
This morning I am going to breakfast with a friend and looking forward to catching up (and getting some avo toast). After that, I may paint again because my self-esteem is a bit too high, and it will be fun to fail at creating the masterpiece I have in my mind and end up with a hopeless mess. That way, I can remember how I didn’t pursue a lucrative career because I wanted to put energy into creative endeavors… and how that didn’t pay off. At all.
Besides that, I have loads of anxiety lately about all the things that have happened plus the ones that haven’t but might. Good times.
No advice needed. Commiseration encouraged.
"My Octopus Teacher" was a mind-blowing watch for me. Has me rethinking how little we know about the creatures that live in our ocean. Also an incredibly beautiful documentary.
ReplyDeleteAs for thrillers/mysteries, I have my own hard and fast rule about what I won't read: Stories where the antagonist/criminal is a psychopath. Give me people going off the deep end with a normal brain.
All-purpose commiseration offered for the anxiety. <3
"where is the documentary of an irresponsible man who won’t work, befriends animals, and dies impoverished and alone?"
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen this and don't want to (and you probably won't want to either), but there is a famous, fairly recent, documentary about a man who was obsessed with bears, thought he could befriend them, went to live like a bear in the wilds of Alaska (I think) and got killed and eaten by a bear. He wasn't alone, as his girlfriend got killed too.
Something you might enjoy more is the book "Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life." Really fascinating book about octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, how they think and what that tells us about the origins of consciousness.
Thanks Keera! Yes, I really enjoyed Octopus, though of course it was sad near the end. It’s hard to relate to a psychopath, and part of the enjoyment of a story for me is to “become” the main character, at least somewhat…
ReplyDeleteDaniel, I did read Other Minds a few years ago and LOVED it!