Skip navigation

Monthly Archives: January 2013

Dystopian literature

I’ve been reading a lot of dystopian literature lately…intended for younger audiences.  Why for younger audiences?  I dunno.  Felt like it.  And there seems to be a lot of it available.  I wonder what that says about our society?

So first up, yes…I read The Hunger Games (and Catching Fire and I’m in the middle of Mockingjay right now) finally.  I’m sure you all know about the plot and such already.  I was kind of surprised about the quality of writing.  It’s not bad at all.

Why am I finally reading the series now since the hype about it has since died down?  Because it’s free to borrow for Amazon Prime members who have a Kindle device and I was looking for something to read.  The downside of that is that I’m only allowed to borrow one book per calendar month and the books are a pretty easy read.  So that means I finish the book in a couple nights of reading before bed and I have to wait another 28 days or so before I can read the next one.  That’s why I’m in the middle of Mockingjay right now instead of being finished with the series.

No, I don’t intend on watching the movie(s).

Second, The Giver series by Lois Lowry.  Actually, I don’t know if there’s a designated series name.  It’s just a quartet of books that take place in the same general setting.  The Giver is the first book.

Anyway, this one actually is children’s literature, but it’s really good.  I found out about it through NPR, where I seem to get most of my reading suggestions now, and I read all four books.  Since it’s supposed to be children’s lit, it’s an easy read again.  Plowing through a book is nothing.  I rather like how the dystopian themes develop through the book and are recurring through the series.  I also like the different points of view you get from each book.

The author does a good job of letting each book stand alone so that reading the previous books in the series aren’t necessary.  I would recommend it though.  Mostly because that’s just how I believe series should be read.

I would have to say that I found the last book, which I believe will be the final book in the series, has kind of a weak ending.  It wasn’t like the other books.  Maybe because it was supposed to wrap everything up as the final book.  It’s still a pretty good read though.

And there are my book reviews that really didn’t say anything at all about the books.  How useful.

In case you were wondering, since my last book report, I’ve read several books of epidemiology, virusessesseses, and diseases.  Oh, and also medical stories about hallucinating.  No, I don’t believe this fomented a desire to read dystopian literature and no, I don’t think I’ll post about them.  I just like to read about epidemiology, virusesesesses, and diseases (including those that have hallucinations as a symptom)…and dystopian lit, apparently.  I guess I should go read adult dystopian lit now.

I should get a restraining order

Monday and I have a rather unhealthy relationship…in that, Monday has the hugest crush on me and I can’t stand Monday.  Monday follows me around.  You would think that Monday would be satisfied to the one day a week a relegate for it, just like every other day.  But Monday is not pleased.  Monday will follow me around the whole week, days and days on end.  Why, Monday followed me around all last week and through the weekend too.

The past week, I had to be up at Clia’s from Wednesday to Friday.  That meant Monday and Tuesday were a mad dash to get everything ready.  Monday evidently felt that I need to spend more time with it and tagged along for the rest of the week.  Monday worked it’s Mondayish charms on Wednesday and my PM ended up being sick and couldn’t help me at Clia.  Thursday was marginally better, but not much because Monday had slowed work down so much we had to go back to Clia on Friday.  Now then, we had originally planned to use Friday as backup.  We weren’t really supposed to be up at Clia.  And we didn’t know that it would be necessary until late Thursday (which also included a somewhat emergent situation in the family while I was miles and miles away).  That means three consecutive days up at Clia.

In case you were not aware, my policy is that if I have to spend three or more consecutive days at Clia, I will get a hotel room nearby so as to minimize the commute and maximize the sleeping.  I didn’t know that I would be spending three days up at Clia until it was too late.  So…there was a lot of driving.  And in the midst of driving one of those days (most likely Friday), I drove over a nail.  And it punctured my tire.  And yesterday, my tire flattened out entirely.

And that’s when I found out that the dealership did indeed install the wheel locks on my wheels even though I had said not to.  That’ll learn me to not check other people’s work and think Monday is benign.

I was at the meeting hall when I discovered my incredibly flat tire with a nail poking out of it (it had actually been moderately flat that morning before I left, and I thought I would have time to pump it up and figure out what was going on later).  I was in the process of changing my tire when I realized that the wheel locks were installed on my car.  And the key was at home.  And that there was no way for me to change to the spare without the key.  I had to borrow my dad’s car to drive home to get the key and go back (with Yaris) to finish changing the tire.  Which we did.  And then after going home, I realized that the wheel lock key had been misplaced.  I cannot change from my spare tire back to a normal one.  Which I probably will have to buy (along with a new key).  Because I didn’t notice the flat in time and the sidewalls are looking pretty bad.  There’s a possibility that they can fix it, but it’s unlikely.

All of this cut into my time I was going to spend doing all the things I should have done last week but couldn’t because I spent all my free time on the road.

Also, a knife fell on my foot.  Wouldn’t it have been funny if it also completely severed my foot?  (It didn’t, it was just the blunt part of a butter knife, the most innocuous of knives.)

Monday is such a jerk.  I should file a restraining order against Monday.