• Books,  Fitness,  Knitting & Crafting,  Movies

    Weekend Gone By

    July 24, 2007

    Knitting: I got my Ravelry invite finally this past weekend which means I’ve been spending my merry time over there. If you’re on it, add me as I am “athenablue”. For knitting, I am still dismayed by the Swallowtail Shawl, but I cast on Shedir this week using Rowan Felted Tweed. I love the yarn. The yarn is quite dark, so I hope the cables show up well. I’m debating about cabling without a cable needle. I’ve lot both of my cable needles at the moment.

    Books: Well, I’ve read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this past weekend. I doubt I will make a blog post for long time. I started Beowulf last week, but have yet to delve more deeply. I also acquired the HP&DH audiobook as you see on the bottom. Chapter 33 is the only one I’ve reread so far.

    Movies: Last thursday, I rewatched Roman Holiday with a couple of others who had not seen it. I don’t tend to rewatch movies often, but it was nice to do so. I laughed and found it wonderfully dated. I also watched Kitty Foyle during the weekend, the first new old movie I haven’t seen in a long time. Ginger Rogers was very good in it. She can dance and act it seems.

    Fitness: So behind. Did yoga on saturday, intend to run again next month. Will start do pilates again.

    —————-
    Now playing: Stephen Fry – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Disc 18 – Chapter 33
    via FoxyTunes

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  • Books

    Booking Through Thursday – Just Wild About Harry

    July 19, 2007
    1. Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it?
    2. If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties?
    3. If you’re not going to read it, why not?
    4. And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to? – BTT

    Yes, I am going to read it. I’m buying it at 9AM the morning of and getting offline as soon as the book is released midnight GMT. I do not want to spoiled for this.

    I’ve been around for the last three release days, and I have never gone for a midnight release. I just go in the mornings. Living in a city with a big book chain store sort of guarantees the books. I considered preordering it because it was actually cheaper that way, but I’ll just go with my regular old way since I’m going to be busy that evening so I can’t be bothered to wait for the postman.

    Oh goodness, I have a whole list of things I can not think of. I was actually going to do this for a separate post, but I may s well do so here.

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  • Books

    I heart my library

    June 23, 2007

    Library Love

    On my weekly trip to the library yesterday, I saw and bought this bag which goes to the public library foundation. It’s one of those Bring Your Own Bag iniatives that encourage the use of recyclable and reusable bags in place of plastic bags. I’m really glad to have bought it since the money goes directly to the library and up to this point, I’ve been using one of my purses or a plastic bags (namely the ones I have from the LCBO; the government-controlled alcohol chain in Ontario) to carry my books to and fro every week. I often carry a lot of items from the library and normal plastic bags are ineffective any way.

    I love my public library; I spent summers there as a child, and I have been going every week for years. I often take out way more than I can handle which is sad and rather addictive. Right now, I’m on a particularly lending streak as I have 36 items separated into four piles in my house. The pile above on the right is all twelve of the books for the Book Awards Challenge, some of them are the library’s, a couple are mine and a couple are a friend’s.

    My reading was severely neglected last week because I was reading fanfiction. Sometimes, it comes over me especially now that I’m rereading Harry Potter. Speaking of which, the pile on the left has Books 3 and 4. I’m listening to the audiobook for 3 now, but I’ll mostly read it after I do some knitting and patterns browsing.

    Lots of books must be read this week especially since I start summer school next week.

    Link: Hot Library Smut – Completely and utterly work safe.

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  • Books,  Knitting & Crafting

    Monday Updates

    June 11, 2007

    Just some updates of what I have been up to. I started Watership Down today, am more than halfway now, and enjoying it immensely. I reread Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone this past weekend, as well as listening to Stephen Fry’s audiobook for it while I knitted the Rose Wrist Warmers.

    During the narration, I finished the left glove. No photos until the complete project. It could have been longer, but it fits very well. I always worry about that sort of thing because I never make a gauge swatch. Gasp. I know. When I knit a sweater, I’ll do it then. Anyway, the only issue is that I forgot to BO the thumb loosely, and so right now it has a tube of lipstick in the thumb to stretch the BO edge. It’s actually working until I block it when I’m finished the right one. I’ve CO for that, but I won’t knit it for a couple more days methinks. Estimated time of FO: Two weeks. After that, back to socks.

    Last week, I went to Michaels.  They truly suck for needles selection because they didn’t have either of the circs I wanted. They only seem good for the yarn sales I’m waiting for, on Patons SWS and Classic Merino Wool.

    As for the tangled pink Misti Lace Alpaca, I enlisted my mother to help me out and she helped detangle it out. It’s not perfect because we had to break it, but it’s now wound into two toilet paper roll. I just need the needles, and then I can start the Swallowtail Shawl.

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  • Books

    A Few Summer Readings

    June 4, 2007

    Fourth Day of the month, and I’ve already read two books, both that I named for my summer reading challenge. Need to catch up and prep for some more summer reading. I am currently reading E. M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread and will finish soon.

    Through surfing, I found Arukiyomi’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Spreadsheet from Paul Boxall’s list. I doubt I’ll read all of those books, and I don’t think I would want to either, but the spreadsheet is handy as it calculates how much you have read. I’ve read about 63 which is 6.29% of the list. I’m sure I missed a couple because I did scroll through 1001 titles. Most of the list is comprised of books from the 1900s, and there are about 12 for “Pre-1700” which is sort of sad. I know the novel was invented in the the 18th century, but I would at least think there would be more influences for it than that.

    One of the books on the list was The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam. I tried to remember if I had read it, and I’m 75% sure I did because I also remember vaguely seeing the campy 1960s movie in school. I am 100% sure I read Wyndam’s The Chrysalids which I remember enjoying immensely in middle school. I remember having one of the best English teachers that year too. I recommend the latter for anyone wanting to read a dystopian novel.

    Last week while knitting my monkey socks (slowest project ever), I listened to Stephen Fry’s audiobook of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’ll always prefer a real book, but I’m starting to come around to audiobooks though because I find them really nice to go along with knitting. For most projects, I can’t watch a movie or a TV. I like listening to audiobooks of books I have already read and love, especially if they are well narrated as the UK HP book versions are. Mr Fry is funny, articulate, and executes some good accents. I started out with Book 1 and 6, but today, I got 2-5, and I’m sure to get the seventh when it is released. I most likely will not preorder Book 7 because as with the last few books, I just go early in the morning to Chapters and buy it there. Not once has it looked like the book has sold out the night before. I would preorder it if I knew at exactly what time it would be delivered. For all I know, it’ll come at in the late afternoon. Unlikely since I do live in a city centre. Hmm, maybe I should preorder?

    Starting Saturday, I will be rereading all my Harry Potter books each week until Book 7 for the Harry Potter Read Along, and I will be making reviews of the experience with each book. It seems now that I’m going to read and listen to them too.

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