A friend of mine recently asked if other people had similar reactions when reading a good book. Since this site has been heavier on the brainless fluff of late; I decided to answer the question here rather than in her comments.

When I’ve got a really good book in my paws, — mind you this is only for a REALLY GOOD book! — I’ll start reading and won’t notice the passage of time until either:
A. My bloodsugar has dropped from not eating in 8 hours.
B. It’s suddenly four in the morning and my eyes are tired so the words on the page start looking insanely small.

With a book that catches me like that, my head is totally in the book. People in real life can try talking to me, but they’ll get grunts for answers (at best). When my favorite character1 is happy, I’m happy. When they’re running through forests; I can hear leaves rustling and feel the branches drag across my face as I dash through the trees.

The last time I really felt this way about a book was when I first read the book that I’m currently reading, Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones. A friend of ours had gotten her hands on an early (review?) copy of the book and recommended it to my wife & I. Ariesna sat down and read the entire book while we were at the friend’s house that night. I think I managed to wait until we bought a copy of our own to read it, but once I did I started to get really angry.

I need to pause a moment here to explain about how I generally enjoy my entertainments. If the book/movie/whatever has even a reasonably decent story; then I’ll suspend my disbelief and just enjoy it without analyzing it. This is particularly true on my first experience with the book/movie/whatever.

And what exactly does that have to do with getting angry while reading Ghosts in the Snow? Ghosts is a mystery story with a fantasical setting and I was getting attached to one of the characters. This character happened to be a suspect in multiple murders and some of the clues in the book seemed to be pointing to him being the killer. The thought of this being true was making me too angry to continue reading. Eventually, I had to ask my wife if he was the killer because I was so upset about it that I wouldn’t be able to finish the book if he was. She told me he wasn’t but not who the killer was (at my request) and I was able to finish the book.

It’s for moments like those that I read.

1 This will usually be a supporting character. Why? Because the main characters tend to get all the glory while somebody else is doing more to accomplish the goal (e.g. Sam vs. Frodo).

It has been many years since I’ve written you a letter; for that I am sorry. As it turns out, I’m absolutely rotten about keeping up my correspondence with people and I really should try harder at it. Hopefully, this doesn’t put me on your naughty list and I’d rather not find coal in my stocking this year. Enclosed you will find a list of things that I would like for Christmas.

Best Wishes,
Mark

P.S. Do you prefer chocolate chip or sugar cookies?

    Mark’s list of Christmas Wishes

  • An end to all war.
  • Food for the hungry.
  • Shelter for the homeless.
  • Clean air and water for the future.
  • Anything on my Amazon.com Wishlist.
  • 15inch Apple Powerbook
  • 30 inch Apple Cinema Display to use with the Powerbook when I’m at home.
  • A Mini Cooper like this Link is a PDF file, 811.18 KB in size.1
  • An all expenses paid, first-class trip for 2 around the world, to last not less than 3 months.
  • Forty million US dollars, in small unmarked bills.2

1 Said PDF file was autogenerated by the MiniUSA.com. While I’m generally against websites relying so heavily on Flash; their site just rocks. Plus, I’m lusting after their cars. Too bad my site is so unknown that I can’t get them to uhhh, sponsor me with a free car. *grin*
2 Forty million just has a nice ring to it and is something of an in-joke to me.

Normally given the choice, I will sleep blissfully through all of Saturday morning, arising from the depths of my slumber only when the morning has past. Unfortunately, I’d gotten stuck at work Friday night till nearly 7 and so I couldn’t get the rent paid the night before. Since rent must be paid within 3 days or you get hit with a late fee and since I’ve had problems before with dropping the rent off in the night deposit box around a holiday weekend; I really needed to get the rent paid while the bank was open. So my alarm was set and awaken in the wee hours of Saturday morning I did. Ariesna decided to go along with me; so went off to the bank and successfully paid the rent and then hit up the post office.

While I was waiting in line there, an old/odd friend of ours was there as well. Elf was farther up in line than I and was trying to be friendly, but I’m not at my best during the morning particularly not during the morning before I’ve gotten some caffeine in my blood. So, I apologize Elf; I wasn’t trying to be rude/mean, I just don’t do mornings. Finally it was my turn and I got my package mailed off1. The post office was kind of nice because my favorite worker waited on me. He’s an older guy who’s always nice and has a smile for everyone. Plus, he seems to take some real pride in his work and his appearance; as I’ve never seen him show up looking sloppy (like most of his co-workers do).
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I stayed up way too damn late last night so I could finish watching the end of PlanetES1, so this morning I stopped by the Terrapin and got something to drink. My usual drink is their “Grand Canyon”, which is 2 shots of espresso, a shot of chocolate, a shot of mango and steamed milk. Today, I decided to try something different and while it was good; for the sake of my stomach lining, I’m not planning on ever ordering it again. I got an Honest Terrapin Sunrise. That’s 3 shots of piping-hot espresso layered on top of a glass of ice-cold orange juice.

Naturally, I had to get this to go and to do that; they stick it in a plastic cup (since the majority of the drink is the OJ) with a lid and a straw. Personally, I think they should have used the paper cups with the sipping lid that most of the coffee drinks come in because I think the idea of the Sunrise is to slam down the espresso & chase it with the OJ. And that idea is defeated by putting a straw in the drink that bypasses the espresso and makes you drink the OJ first. As soon as I was safely back in the office, I removed the lid and started to drink the Sunrise as “God intended it to be drunk”. *grin*

It’s an unusual sensation because the OJ cools the espresso and raises the acidity of the drink considerably. Also, the espresso and OJ do start to mix into one another as you drink it. This forms a layer of slightly-warm , bitter OJ on your tongue. It’s not as unpleasant as that might sound but the Sunrise is definitely an acquired taste, which I could not recommend to everyone (unlike say the Grand Canyon which just rocks my world).

It sounds bizarre but the caffeine of the espresso combined with the vitamin C & natural sugars in the OJ really helps to wake you up. Of course, it’s been a couple of hours since I drank it and it’s beginning to wear off now, which is bad. On the other hand, I’m just about ready to head out to lunch; so I should be able to pick something else up to help me get through the rest of my head, which is good.

1A very good series that starts off weak (too much comedy/slapstickishness) but ends much stronger with several very good heartstring tuggin’ episodes. For the most part, each episode stands by itself but uses information in previous episodes to build the story. Unfortunately, the last 6 episodes or so seem to be more tightly integrated and I’m missing 22 & 23; which puts a massive gap into the story for me. This is one that I will strongly consider purchasing once it’s available in the US (my current copies are all fansubs).