Category: Ruminations

Saturday Snapshot: Paris Revisited

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot6 Comments

In reading, I am still making my way through Les Miserables.  Considering it’s a 900-page behemoth with small print, this may not surprise you!  As a result, I still have Paris on the brain…and since Marius and Cosette just fell in love, let’s run with that theme.

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I’d like to say I forgot the name of this bridge, but I don’t think I ever actually knew it.  However, I did hear the tradition somewhere–couples put a lock on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine, as a sign of commitment…because the only way to open the lock and end the relationship is (theoretically) to jump into the river and find the key again.  Obviously this is an immensely popular tradition.

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I wanted a close-up, so I fiddled around with the locks to get a good angle on a couple with fun names…kind of makes me wonder who Pierre and Juliette are.

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If you don’t like the lock option, people have carved up all the poor trees along the Seine too.  The sheer number of hearts and initials is staggering…my environmental instincts freak out a bit, while the hopeless romantic in me just goes AWW!

Have a wonderful weekend!  I’ll be forging along through Les Mis…

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Saturday Snapshot: A Paris State of Mind

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot15 Comments

I have finally starting reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo…and it’s putting me in a Paris mood!

The Seine

Liberte Egalite Fraternite

Paris Boulevard

Happy weekend!

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Rules for Life and Fighting Monsters

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations6 Comments

I mostly write about reading around here, but writing is a very big focus for me too.  Right now, I’m finishing up a young adult fantasy novel about a wandering adventurer, which has been mentioned here and there.

One of the parts of the book I have the most fun with is Jasper’s Rules.  As a wandering adventurer, he has a long list of rules for survival.  Some are good, like Rule #19: If you’ll be better served by talking, don’t fight.  Others are universally disliked by everyone but Jasper, such as Rule #2: Never make plans.  Some are very profession-specific; Rule #20 is Never make a Good Fairy angry.

And some are in there for comic relief.  Rule #11 is Always refuse a reward the first time.  Rule #12 is Never refuse a reward the second time.

Then there’s Rule #1…which is secret.  🙂 You’ll have to read the book some day to learn that one!

I don’t have a numbered list of rules for my own life, but I do think Jasper may be on to something.  There are certainly ideas I try to remember, in a somewhat similar way.  Do it now should be fairly self-explanatory.  I’m not very good at Take nothing personally but I like it as a principle.

More a mantra than a rule, whenever things go horribly awry, I always wind up sighing and muttering, The best laid plans of mice.  If I threw and men at the end of that then I’d be quoting Robert Burns, but without the last phrase, it’s a Douglas Adams reference, and invariably makes me smile.

Do you have rules for life that you try to keep in mind?  Or do you have suggestions for rules a wandering adventurer should follow? 🙂

What Are You Reading: Mostly, Les Mis

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, What Are You Reading?27 Comments

itsmondayI think it’s time for another installment of What Are You Reading?  🙂  What I have been reading is lots and lots of science fiction, but I’m getting down to the end of my stack.  I’m midway through Federation, leaving just one Trek book left from my original plans…and quite a few new additions to the To Be Read list after reading everyone else’s reviews for the Sci Fi Experience!

But for the moment I’m stepping away a bit from the sci fi.  In my ongoing quest to finish series, I have the next installment of the Pink Carnation series, The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig.  It’s a series of historical fiction romances–with spies!–and while some are better than others, they’re always quite a lot of fun.

P1020361After I check that one off, I’m finally diving into Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  I bought a big, thick, not-too-heavy copy and am ready to go on that one.  I was debating about which translation to get, and then in the end I wound up with a copy that doesn’t list the translation–even though I spent five minutes in the book store peering at the table of contents, the jacket flaps, etc.  I did discover in the (very long) table of contents that the book is divided into five parts, so I might intersperse other reading in between–or not, if I’m being carried along by the story.

If I do intersperse, I have a handful of quick reads that ought to be a nice break from the long and dense classical fiction…Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, a graphic novel; The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem, which is more or less a picture book collection; and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, which may not be short in itself, but is a collection of short stories I could dip in and out of.

Hmm…as I consider all this, I kind of feel like Les Mis is the heavy-gravity planet that all my other reads are currently orbiting around (it’s all that sci fi reading…)  I am slightly intimidated, but also excited.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

In the meantime…what are you reading?

And as an addendum note–this is my 500th blog post!  *tosses confetti*

Saturday Snapshot: Bookish Valentines

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot16 Comments

Last year for St. Patrick’s Day, I came up with Forty Bookish Shades of Green.  So with Valentine’s Day coming up this week, I thought I’d haul my red and pink books off of the shelves and come up with a Bookish Valentine’s Day picture!

Bookish ValentinesHappy Valentine’s Day!

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