I just finished "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It was a very interesting story of the survival of a castaway, though rather gory at times, and made me think about to what lengths I would go to live. Sadly, I'm not moved to say much more about it, though I wish Smitty weren't quite so far away so we could talk about it.Next up is a French novel, "Le sabotage amoureux" by Amelie Nothomb. French publishing is interesting. The book I bought is a high quality paperback, their version of a hardback, which is so intelligent. Who really wants to pay for a hardback? But it's strange how large their margins are, how big the type. This is really a novella, padded out to 186 pages. And French titles run up the spine, rather than down it as in English. Does anyone know what other countries/languages do?
And my final comment for the night, I played my flute for the first time in years today, and it was so enjoyable! I've played it maybe two other times since Abigail was born, but really all I was able to do was sound out some kids songs and play school fight songs for her to dance to. Today, though, she was at Nana's and I could pull out my old classical works. I'm not exactly a virtuoso, but my fingers haven't forgotten what to do. It was so relaxing and refreshing, feeling myself sway a bit along with the crescendos and decrescendos, my fingers fly through glissandos and trills. I should do that more often.
Welcome to my odditorium, a collection of curiosities made up of snippets about my life and occasional machinations on deeper subjects.
6 comments:
Among a small collection visible to me from my desk: Dutch titles go top-to-bottom; German titles are mixed. Italian and (one) Spanish titles go from bottom to top, like French.
There is an ANSI/NISO standard, favoring top to bottom: ANSI/NISO Z39.41 - 1997 (R2002) Printed Information on Spines.
http://www.niso.org/standards/index.html
Here's an interesting article on the subject:
http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/122/
"The tradition to write on the spine top-to-bottom is older; its roots can be traced back to the time when books were few. The reasoning was that if a book is lying on the table (or in a small stack) face-up, reading its title should be easy.
The tradition to write on the spine bottom-to-top is younger; it’s more concerned with how easy it is for the bookshelf owner to handle the book. Reading bottom-to-top is easier, because this direction is more in keeping with the European left-to-right writing tradition, which is especially apparent when there are several lines of text on the spine (an urge to read the lines left-to-right is only natural).
The Western Europe and the US opted for the more venerable tradition, while the Eastern Europe and Russia aligned themselves with the more modern one. What the reader should remember is that both traditions are centuries old."
I'm glad you enjoyed your flute!
I have wondered what junior will think of violin. (I know what my violin teacher's infant daughter thought of my violin playing, and it's not pretty.)
The cats have never paid the slightest bit of attn. to any instruments, live or recorded, in our house. But Spooky is strangely disturbed when I sing. She will get right up in my face and act Very Concerned. I should probably take that as a sign. (Note, there are never /people/ in the house when I sing.)
in keeing with the dunce's article, books in kyrgyzstan read bottom to top on the spine. i haven't seen any books in the present little country, but the illiteracy rate is high enough i don't imagine there's a large local market. actually i'd be surprised to find that there was a local publishing house in this country. but i'll have to look when i go out into town and see if there are any books out there, wherever they may be from.
incidentally, i'd love to chat about life of pi. i could call you sometime, although the odds of my being able to call when you are able to talk are pretty slim given the seven hour time difference. there's always email, of course.
Yes, you should do it more often. Maybe when I am there!!
You, David and Smitty could have quite a discussion.
FL mom
Yeah, I'd like to meet Smitty some day.
And to think, if I'd only been able to get out of Heathrow a couple weeks ago, that might have been arranged...
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