New Year's Resolution 2019: The Wheel of Time

2019年の目標。月に1冊本を読む。
もともとあまり本を読むのが早いほうではないんだけど、英語で本を読むのは、慣れてはきたけど、時間はかかる。今読んでいるのはロバート・ジョーダンの「時の車輪」というファンタジーシリーズで、このシリーズ、なんと15冊もあるのです。長いよ、長すぎるよ、このシリーズ。（日本語訳版は1冊の本を5冊ぐらいの文庫に分けて出版されているらしい）今3巻目を読んでるんだけど、毎月1冊読めば今年中にシリーズ全巻制覇できるのです。
全巻制覇できるように頑張ります。

Let's follow the rule of goal setting: declaring it out loud and making it measurable.

My new year's resolution for 2019 is to read one book a month. I always made it my goal but almost never followed through.

You see, I grew up as a bookworm. I liked reading and I read quite a lot of books as a child. However, my reading habit sadly disappeared when I moved to the U.S. I was learning English so reading in English was itself a chore, and my reading speed was a snail's pace so it took a looooong time to read anything (it still does). I spent hours every day reading text books for school and I had no time for pleasure reading.

My reading speed in English is still quite slow. I'm kind of a person who reads out loud in my head. If you know any speed reading technique, you know that's not how you are supposed to read if you want to read fast.

Anyway, one book a month. I have set this goal before, and I'm setting it again for this year. One difference though, is that this year, it's a bit more specific: I am trying to finish reading The Wheel of Time series this year.

The Wheel of Time series is a fantasy novel by Robert Jordan, who unfortunately passed away after Book 11, so the last 3 books were finished by Brandon Sanderson. It is a series of 14 books plus a prequel, so 15 books total. Yup, it's a big series.

The Man of the House had been recommending me to read it for years, and I actually got a Book 1 from a library few years ago. Sadly, I could not get into the book; maybe the slow pace, maybe how the story unfolded at the beginning, I don't know why, but I just wasn't into it. I extended my loan twice (1 loan is for 3 weeks) which was the maximum time I could keep the book, and I only read less than a third of the book.

Then last year, MOTH got me a Windows Surface Pro, which is sort of like a hybrid of laptop and a tablet, and he loaded it with the entire series of the Wheel of Time.

I wanted to see what it was like to read a book on a e-reader, so I gave it a try. And this time, I started from Book 0, a prequel.

Well, what can I say; it was much more pleasurable reading the prequel, and it was much easier reading the Book 1 after that.

In 2018, I tried to read 1 chapter a day. Each book has about 50 chapters so with the days I didn't read, it was taking about 2 months to read a book. I haven't been reading much for the past couple of months with all the moving, and I am still in the middle of Book 3. At this rate, I would be reading the series for the next couple of years. I like reading books, but I like reading different books than reading one story for so many years!

Hence my goal for 2019: I will cut back on my YouTube watching time, and devote more time on reading. If I can read 1 book a month, I can finish reading the Wheel of Time in 2019.

Now I have said it, and that's a very measurable goal, isn't it? I shall report back on the progress.

Game of Thrones Postage Stamps!

日本ではどのくらい有名なのか分んないけど、ジョージ・R・R・マーティンが書いているファンタジー小説、ゲーム・オブ・スローンズシリーズのファンです。テレビシリーズ化もされていて、2019年がラストシーズンらしい。日本でも衛星チャンネルで同時公開？

でも小説のほうはまったく新刊がでてくれないので、もうここまできたら（テレビ版が小説の先をいってるし）きっともう最終巻までいかないんだろうな、とちょっとあきらめてる。

そのテレビシリーズのキャラの切手が発行されて、買ってしまいました。切手なんて使うことないのに、買ってしまった。知る人ぞ知る。私、切手に弱いのよね。

The British Royal Mail issued Game of Thrones stamps and I had to get them. Yes, I had do.

See, I have a weak spot for postage stamps. Stamps are so intriguing. Lots of art and design in such small area. It's so pretty to look at. If I had endless funding, I would collect them. Since I don't have such endless funding, I buy fun stamps and I like using them. So I bought one stamp for each character.

What I thought interesting about the character selection is that they included Sean Bean and the Tyrell lady. Sean Bean was in the series for only 1 season but he totally made the top 10, huh? (Because he's Sean Bean, I get it). And the Tyrell lady? I don't know, I would rather have Brianne of Tarth in there.

I have been a big fan of the original book series for the past 16 years ever since MOTH recommended it. But now the TV series is so big and the final season is coming up in 2019, I have very little hope that the book series itself would get to the final book.

I like the TV series, but I don't love it: I like its production quality very much, but with limited air time, the story gets altered and chopped and things happen too quickly (like how Gendry can run back to the Wall). Argh, George, your writing is so solid, I wish your work habit was as good good as your writing.

Millennium Series

もうすっかり寒くなって、朝霜おりてた。本当にものすごく寒いんだけど、凍った野原と霧の出た空に朝日が昇っていくのはものすごく美しかったです。馬が放牧されているところでは、逆光の中で馬たちの息が白くたちのぼっていて、寒いのも忘れて立ち止まってしばしうっとり。

犬は凍ってても気にせず草をむしゃむしゃ食べます。キジを見つめるユキ。

久しぶりに本を読みました。スウェーデンの推理小説家、スティーグ・ラーソンの「ミレニアム」シリーズの第３作、「眠れる女と狂卓の騎士」。
シリーズ１作目の「ドラゴン・タトゥーの女」がハリウッドで映画化されています。ダニエル・クレイグとルーニー・マーラね。
実はもう３作とも昔読んだし、ハリウッド版の映画も見てるし、スウェーデンのテレビシリーズもずっと昔に制覇している。ネットフリックスでハリウッド版の「ドラゴン・タトゥーの女」とスウェーデン版の２作目の「火と戯れる女」をやっていたので久しぶりに見たんだけど、３作目は出ていなかったので本で読んだ。長いし、無駄な部分が多いんだけど、話は好き。

It is getting cold. I have not lived in full-fledged winter weather for such a long time. But regardless of the temperature, when the sun is out, the country side England is just as beautiful. I took the dogs out for a walk in the morning. The grass was frozen and the fog was covering the lower ground. The dogs still ate the frozen grass every opportunity they got and made light crisp sound as they much on the grass. When we reach the horse field, I saw the horses further down the field against the rising sun. The horses sparkled against the bright sun light and their breaths rose like smoke as they breathed. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I had to stop and watch until it became too cold to stay standing still.

It took me over a month but I finally finished reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. It is the third installment of the Millennium series, or more popularly known as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.

I had read the series before, watched the Swedish TV series  (longer than the movie), and the Hollywood adaptation of the Dragon Tattoo before. I watched the Hollywood's Dragon Tattoo on Netflix last month, then there was the Swedish film version of The Girl Who Played with Fire on Netflix as well. But they did not have the third one, so I had to read the book.

I do feel that especially this 3rd installment book, the writing is not great. It's not necessarily the writing (especially when I'm reading an English translation), but I think the book needed a bit of editing. I don't mind the length, but some part of this book could have been organized a bit better to streamline the story. Some parts are disjointed.

I wonder if the Swedish court system is really like how it was in the book in real life. The way the evidence was presented during the trial without the other side's knowledge is crazy.

So, the author, Stieg Larsson, passed away after completing the 3 installments. I did not know until very recently that the series is being continued with a replacement author. Luckily, when I went to the library yesterday to return the book, the library had the 4th installment, The Girl in the Spider's Web, on the shelf so I grabbed it. Let's see if the story is still interesting to carry on.

By the way, this is my biggest fear about A Game of Thrones series (or correctly, A Song of Ice and Fire series). I have been a big fan of the series and patiently waiting for the new book. I mean, if it took him 6 years to go from book 4 to book 5, and that's before the HBO series, I don't even know if he's going to even finish the book 6...

Small Great Things

よくアメリカは人種るつぼと言われるけど、実はそうでもない。あまり交わらない。特に「白人対黒人」みたいなのは見えないところでものすごく根強い。外国人として、日本人として、アジア人として、移民としてサイドラインからアメリカの人種問題を見ていると、なんでいつまでもこうなんだろう、ととても思う。

表面的にはるつぼを気取っているけど、なんで交わらないんだろう。なんで固執するんだろう。それは嫌悪感というよりも、やはり自分と似たものと一緒にいたいという連帯感からくるんじゃないかと思う。だから白人は白人と友達になりやすいし、黒人は黒人とつるみやすい。そうやってグループ化するから溝は全く狭まらない。グループ化してその文化の中で育つから、社会的地位が変わることもなく、明らかな「人種差別」が社会的に禁止されている中でもやはり黒人人口の多くが貧困層にとどまり、犯罪歴が付く。

ジョディ・ピコー著、「Small Great Things」を読みました。（「私の中のあなた」という映画の原作を書いた人）いい本、というと悲しくなるけど、アメリカの現在の人種問題をものすごく的確に表現している本でした。

It is not a racial melting pot in the U.S. as it's often called. White people hang out with white people, and black people hang out with black people, even though they may live in a same neighborhood and has similar social status. Most of the time, it's not the overt racial discrimination; rather it's just people are more comfortable with other people who are similar to themselves. Just like jocks hang out with jocks and nerds hang out with nerds (in a way, regardless of their race). When I was going to school in the South, I always noticed that white students take a seat next to another white student in the first day of class, and black student takes a seat next to another black student. Nobody sat next to me.

Because they stay in a group, many white people stay in the legacy social status of middle class and black people in poverty. Not much social mobility unless you consciously pursue it real hard. Not because society doesn't allow it to be, but because people in a same group tend to act similarly; if your friends are criminals, it's accepted for you to be a criminal,too; if your friends go to college, you decide to go to college, too.

As a Japanese, an Asian (a true minority for that matter), a foreigner, and an immigrant, I tend to see American racial issues from the sideline. And it's difficult to understand why Americans are so infatuated with their race.

(I'm not saying there is no racial discrimination in Japan. In a lot of way, Japan has more overt racial and ethnic discrimination widely accepted in society, sadly.)

I read Jodi Picoult's Small Great Things. I would recommend this book to anybody in a heartbeat.

It is written from three different characters' points of view:

-Ruth, a black, hard working and experienced labor and delivery nurse with her nursing degree from Yale, who has worked so hard to have a middle class life even after losing her military husband who was killed on duty and to raise her son to be a straight A student, who gets accused of murdering a newborn baby;

-Turk, a hardcore white supremacist, former active skinhead (now a covert) who has a swastika tattooed on his head, who becomes a first-time father and requested the hospital to take Ruth off his son's care, whose newborn son dies when the baby was under Ruth's watch;

-Kennedy, a white public defender, who has financial ability to be a public defender because her white husband is a doctor, who defends Ruth on her first murder trial.

First of all, it's a page turner because of the interesting story, and what's not to like about trial.

But what's so clever about this book is that it's written in these points of views, and it is well researched, and you get to know the both side of the story.

Obviously, Ruth and Turk are polar opposite. The writer cleverly chose the black character to be the highly educated, middle class, responsible person in the society, and the white character to be the uneducated laborer, and criminal. You get to know how they grew up and how they got to a point where they are.

But the most important character is Kennedy. She basically is like us, yes, me included despite me being neither black nor white, who lives in American society, living their lives without thinking about race unless there is a news on TV about police shooting an unarmed black man.

This was a heavy blow in a stomach book with the writing that is very pleasurable to read.

The One Memory of Flora Banks

数時間ごとに短期の記憶をなくしてしまう女の子、フローラが初めての接吻のことだけはしっかり覚えていられるようになり、ラブラブモードで初キスをくれた男子をおいかけて北極圏に旅するという本を読みました。もちろんフィクション。
ヤングアダルト向けの本だったのでサクサクと読めたけど、イマイチでした。

I read The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr.

★★☆☆☆

The young girl, Flora, loses her short-term memory every few hours. She her old memory from before she got sick, but she relies on writing things on her arm and her notebook to remind her that she is 17 and she needs to be brave.

One day, a boy named Drake kissed her. Now, she remembers the kiss day after day after day and she gets excited that she can remember. She falls head over heels in love with Drake. So she decides to go the Arctic (from Cornwall) where Drake has moved and look for him.

The book is categorized as for young adults, and I think it properly was. Other than the very confused girl's adventure to the Arctic, the story was a bit too convenient and fairy tale-ish.

Ready Player One

久しぶりに読書。

「ゲームウォーズ」という本を読みました。アーネスト・クライン著。
オイルショックで経済の危機を迎え、失業者率は上がり、車で移動が困難なため、人々が町の中心部に集まり、低所得者層はそんな町の外苑に出来上がった、キャンピングカーを積み木のように重ねてできたスラムに住むような近未来。人々の生活はオアシスという名前のネットワーク上のバーチャルリアリティーで成り立つ毎日。
そんな中、億万長者であるオアシスの設立者が死亡というニュース。そして彼の遺産のすべては、バーチャル世界に彼が隠したイースターエッグを見つけた人に譲られる、という、バーチャル世界での超高額宝探しが始まるのでした。

面白くなくはなかったけど、稚拙？子供向け？
でもウルトラマンとかメカゴジラとか大活躍。とてもおタッキーな世界です。
そしてスピルバーグ監督で映画化されてるらしい。

It's been a while since I read a book last.

Read "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. A book full of 80's references. Spirit of nerd culture.
It wasn't bad, but the constant 80's references, and it's endless because it's the theme of this book, gets too much, and the writing was rather juvenile. It's good to see many of Japanese pop- and nerdy culture was referenced.

I guess Spielberg is making a movie based on the book. The main kid is played by the main kid from the boy scout zombie movie.

Overdressed

今シーズン初のプチトマトとナスが採れました。

First cherry tomatoes and eggplants of the season.

I finished reading Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline, which was the last Colette Book Club book.

Hmmm, where should I start. First, reading Overdressed was like reading my own senior thesis (I was a sociology major). The author had done a lot of research and had a lot of statistics and research results to talk about. But the story is so shallow. I expected a bit more in depth story, especially when she was visiting factories and garment district on her own and had first hand impression to report.

It felt like she was stretching the story too much to make it a book. Anecdote here, statistics there, but what is being told is the same: Americans are obsessed too much with fast fashion, which can only be achieved by abuse of cheap labor overseas. We all know that; that is the principle of capitalism. What I wanted was the author to tell the "story" instead of some statistics.

The contents are also not organized very well. Her field research stories are haphazard, and often redundant.

So that was a bummer. I think the whole book can be shaved down to a few page magazine story and that would have been better.

As a subject matter, the book had a few points that I had never thought of. One was that all the polyester garments that I own and so prevalent in clothes these days are not biodegradable. Never thought of garments as ever-lasting garbage.

The other thing was the growth of Chinese economy and Chinese labor not being the cheap labor anymore. The author raised a good point about other developing country not having the technological and labor capacity to fill in China's shoes.

The last bit it got me was actually mentioned at the very first part of the book: that industry garment sewing, despite being done in a big scale factory, is still done by people. I mean, at all other mass production, factory workers just push buttons and machines do the job automatically. But when it comes to garment sewing, the sewing machines, no matter how specialized, are only tools, that require workers to operate one-on-one.

The book had such hypes a few years ago, so my expectation was high. I guess my impression of the book would have been different had I read it when it first came out. The subject matter, the "shocking" part of the fast fashion, has already gone stale. I wouldn't call it irrelevant, but it was an old story. The book would have had more lasting effect if the author focused more on the in-depth report or use more book appropriate writing.

B is for Burgler

スー・グラフトンの探偵小説、「泥棒のB」を読みました。
先日映画「オデッセイ」の原作本に続いて、２週間で２冊も読み切るなんて、私にとっては速読並の早さです。
日本語訳版を読んだのはどのくらい前？１５年ぐらい？なんか久しぶりに読みたくなったのよ。
ちなみにこのシリーズはアルファベットシリーズと呼ばれていて、タイトルがアルファベットの順で、Aから去年Xまで出ました。日本では早川さんが翻訳版を出してたけど、Rで終わってるらしい？
舞台が１９８０年代なので、携帯電話もインターネットもない時代の探偵小説は、今の時代からするとじれったいけど、それもある意味新鮮だったりします。
年末にAを読んで、４月にB。この調子でいくとシリーズがZで完結するころにちょうどよくとどくかな。

Finished reading Sue Grafton's alphabet series, B is for Burglar.
The series starts from A is for Alibi, and goes on along the alphabet; she has published until X, I think. It is a detective novel of a female private investigator, Kinsey Millhone.

I actually read A through K or so when I was still in Japan (the Japanese translated version, of course). My mother and I both really liked detective stories with female protagonist and we shared this Kinsey series, Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski series, and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series.

The Kinsey series is set in the 1980s (well, the earlier books were in fact written in the 80s). It is slightly frustrating to read a detective trying to solve a crime when she does not have a cell phone or an Internet, but it also feels good old days, too. Many characters are constantly smoking and everybody has ash trays; the speed of communication is tantalizingly slow without e-mail or cell phone.

The Martian

マット・デイモン主演の映画「オデッセイ」の原作本、「火星の人」を読みました。
そして読み終わった翌日に映画も見ました。

この予告編は無駄にドラマチックにできてるけど、映画はもっとドライで、小説は映画以上にドライです。
そしてやっぱり映画よりも小説のほうがおもしろかったです。

火星に一人取り残された宇宙飛行士のワトニーが、植物学者の知識と技術者の知識、そして化学の知識を駆使して火星に残された物資を使って救出隊が来るまで（もしくは次の有人火星探索器が来る４年後まで）生き残ろうとする物語です。

映画ではかなりはしょられてしまったけど、小説では宇宙船の仕組みとか、探索器の設計とか、酸素とか水素とかを使ってどうやって水を作ったりするかとか、ものすっごく詳しく説明されてて、まだ現実化はされていないSFであるにもかかわらず、ぜんぜん「ありえる」って思える内容です。
そして主人公のワトニーがとても皮肉屋で、読んでて飽きないです。

映画を見てから小説を読むと、映画も楽しめて、小説も楽しめていいと思う。

I read The Martian by Andy Weir, and as soon as I finished reading, I watched the movie version with Matt Damon.
As is the case for most movie adaptation, I like the book better.

This is a story of an astronaut left behind on Mars trying to survive until the rescue comes (or the next Mars mission comes in 4 years) utilizing his knowledge as a botanist and mechanical engineer, and what we have at hand.

The movie wasn't bad. It just omitted a lot of good stuff from the book, which was the actual science part. In the book, the protagonist explains a lot of how the spaceship works, how he can create oxygen or water from the machine and fuel he has, etc, etc. Though this is supposed to be a near future science fiction, the explanation of the science and the Mars mission makes this book feel very plausible.

I really like the protagonist's personality in the book. He is dry, witty, and very sarcastic.
It was a light book and very entertaining. I enjoyed it.

The Return of the King

｢二つの塔」に続いて、「指輪物語」最終巻の「王の帰還」を読みました。
これで「指輪物語」完読！
ファンタジーだから、半世紀前に書かれていても、あまり古さを感じないのがいいな。

Finally finished The Return of the King. Now I have read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yey.

You know what, I have to say it's a shame that Sam is written almost like a simple servant to Frodo. I think Sam is the true hero in the fulfillment of the quest. He is the one who helps Frodo's morale and he is the one who rescues Frodo. But at the end, all credits go to Frodo, who was "the ring bearer." So I am glad to know that Sam became the mayor many many times afterwards.

I also enjoyed reading the appendices, like Arwen and Aragorn story and family trees etc.
The movie definitely helped picturize the world of Middle Earth for me.

My next book is Overdressed.

The Two Towers

「指輪物語」の第2巻、「二つの塔」を読み終えました。
実は3週間の貸し出し期限で読みきれそうになかったので延長しようと思ってたのに、この本に他の人の予約が入っているので延長できず、ものすごく頑張って読み終えました。
ちなみに第3巻は他の人の予約が先に入っているので、私の番が来るのは来月ぐらいかなぁ。

I finished reading The Two Towers.
I was still around 2/3 of the way a few days ago. But my 3-week borrowing time limit at the library was coming up and I could not renew it (because other people are waiting for this book) so I had to try really hard to read the rest in the last 3 days.
I put the third book, The Return of the King on hold but there are 2 more holds on the book so I may not get the book for another several weeks.

So, what's wrong with this situation? Well, so it is said that the Lord of the Rings series is one of the most widely read modern books, right? But my library only has one book each available. Just 1 book for the entire county. We have a million people in this county and there are only 1 book each for each of the trilogy book.

I put Overdressed on hold (the next book for Colette's book club) as well and there are 16 books available. 16! I don't understand my library.

While I was reading The Two Towers, I also watched the Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of the Fellowship of the Ring (for umpteenth time). We have a 4-DVD box set (and every time I watch, I watch all 4 DVDs, and sometimes watch the movie itself a few times so that I can watch all the different versions of commentaries). What is amazing about this movie is the detail that went into to create the world of Middle Earth.

The box set includes 2 DVDs of all special features. The special features are definitely as good as the movie itself. How I wish I could go to Weta Workshop and and see the props or see the workers design and create the props. I think Peter Jackson should make a museum to showcase all the props from conceptual art drawings to storyboard to masks and costumes and everything.

The Forgotten Seamstress

指輪物語の2巻、「二つの塔」を読む予定が、ちょっと横道にそれて全く別の小説を読んでしまいました。一日で読みきったから今はちゃんと「二つの塔」に取り掛かっております。
もう毎日仕事で脳みそ沸騰中なので読書以外はする気なしなのね。

So I have joined the book club, virtually.

Collette Pattern has started an online book club and announced the first book a while ago. Like I mentioned last, I needed some push to read broader range of books so I thought it would be a good opportunity to keep up with the book club, not that I would ever participate in online discussion on their website.

So the first book was Liz Trenow's The Forgotten Seamstress. It has a flare of mystery solving aspect to an inter-winding two life stories. Since I was so mentally exhausted from work and wanted to do nothing but reading, I spent a whole day reading it last weekend.

I enjoyed reading it but at the end, it was too Lifetime movie like, and the over dramatic story felt rather cheap.

The book begins with a PhD student interviewing a former mental institution patient in the 70's, and the former patient's telling of her story 50 years ago.

The story, for that interview part, is told as a first-person perspective, basically a transcript of an interview, and I just do not like that style. I read plenty deposition transcripts all the time and it's actually interesting to read because it's a two-way conversation (unless the person stutters too much or use "you know what I mean" or "like" in every single sentence), but this one person talking pages after pages is painful to read.

I tried to read Wold War Z  before, which is entirely an oral history of zombie war told by different people, and I spent 3 years reading bit by bit and lost interest. My point is, one person's conversational talk is not pleasant to read if it's too long. Because people just don't talk 5 minutes straight without the other person interjecting some response, unless it's a speech. You tried to be "real" by transcribing the conversational language, but it's just so fake.

In The Forgotten Seamstress, thankfully, also has a second story line, which actually is the main story line, that is written in a normal first person view and set in 2008. That was a relief.

As I mentioned, the story is a bit too much Lifetime movie, so that was unfortunate. But it was fun reading a light novel, I needed it.

The Fellowship of the Ring

お久しぶりです。元気にしてます。
仕事場での役職が微妙に代わり猛烈に忙しいのと、仕事関連で地元の学校で夜間授業をとり始めたので（１教科だけなんだけど、週二日）あまり家ではやる気がおきません。

そんなことより。
今年の目標は、というかいつも目標にしていてあまり達成できてないんだけど、一月に１冊は本を読むということ。
そんな今年の１冊目は、映画「ロード・オブ・ザ・リング」の原作小説、「指輪物語」の第１巻、「旅の仲間」です。

映画を何度も見ているので話がわかってるのもあって、さくさくっと、私の中ではかなり早いスピードの３週間で読みきれました。（図書館の貸し出しが1回3週間）
今日図書館に本を返しに行ったら、ちょうど予約していた第2巻の「二つの塔」が借りられて、ナイスタイミング。

Phew, it's been a while. I'm doing just fine.
With my job duties changing slightly and taking a class at a local community college for work 2 nights a week, I just have no disposable mental energy to do anything at home these days.

Anyways.
This year's goal, well, it's always been my goal for that matter, is to read one book per month. I wish somebody invites me to a book club. Being a book club really forces me to read and read wider variety of books.
My January book is The Fellowship of the Ring, of course from The Lord of the Ring series. I have watched the Peter Jackson movie adaptation many times so I'm familiar with the story so it was much easier to read than I originally expected, and I was able to finish it in 3 weeks, which is pretty fast for my slow reading ability.

Having watched the movie helps picturing the world of Middle Earth. I like the pretty straight forward writing style too, since I was expecting the book to be written in some old English, like it is in, say, Sherlock Holmes. But I guess, after all, Tolkin is a modern writer.

When I went to the library to return the book, the Two Towers that I had put on hold was also ready to be picked up today, so it was a perfect timing. Let's see if I can finish the second book in February...

KonMari Method of Tidying Up

私は最近知ったんだけど、片付けコンサルタント近藤麻理恵さんはものすごく有名なのね？
こちらでも「コンマリメソッド」はものすごくはやってる。
彼女の本、「人生がときめく片付けの魔法」の英訳版を3ヶ月待ちでやっと図書館から借りられました。

収納方法を極めるのでなく、収納する前にいらないものをばっさり除外してしまうというのが素晴らしい。

所有物を一つ一つ手にとって、その物によって心ときめくかどうかでキープするか捨てるかを決めるっていうの、すごくいい。

コンマリメソッドで人生が変わるっていうの、わかるわ。なんていうか、ただの整理整頓じゃなくて、整理整頓を通じて、人生の無駄なものを省く方法を訓練する感じ。決断力を養うというか。

週末はちょっと頑張って所有物の点検しよう。
ちなみにこちらでは物を必要以上に溜め込む人が多いです。そんな人を紹介するテレビ番組がいくつもあるぐらい。

After 3 months of waiting, I finally got "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo from the library. (By the way, the correct pronunciation of her first name is "ma-ree-eh", not "ma-ree" as in Marie Antoinette)

I don't know if it was the original writing or the translation, but I had to overcome with the somewhat juvenile writing style at the beginning. Once she started more in detail of her method, then it became easier to read (still, the writing is not great unfortunately).

The main and the most important part of the KonMari method is to purge items that do not spark joy. She emphasizes that you should not even think about how to organize until you have completed purging. It totally makes sense. The culprit of clutter is simply too much stuff. In order to de-clutter, you need to purge.

What is revolutionary about this method is that it strengthen your decision making ability. You go through every single item of your belongings and ask yourself "does it spark joy" and decide whether to keep or purge. What's left is only the thing you either must keep (like some important documents) or things you truly cherish and love to possess. Nothing else. This approach is so transferable to life in general and by going through her method, I can totally see a person more focused on what's important to that person in life.

I love watching Hoarders and Buried Alive shows. Not that I "love" watching those people, but extreme hoarding is a very interesting phenomenon. The hoarding or extreme clutter is a phenotype of one's mind. The KonMari method really links the being psychologically balanced state and clutter.

I have to mention that it is extremely difficult to declutter house in Japan. One, the house is much smaller and many times multi-generation family lives in a small house so there are naturally too much stuff in a small house. But two, not like in the U.S. where you get a ginormous trash can that you can fit a cow in it, most municipalities in Japan require you to purchase garbage bags (which is only slightly bigger than a grocery bag most of the time unless you pay more for the bigger bag) and you have to sort trash into minute categories like flammable, cans, plastic bottles, etc. I tried to throw away a lot of my old stuff that my parents still kept in boxes last time I was there, but it was just too much to deal with the garbage. Yard sale is not common either.

Anyway, the book. The contents of the book can probably be reduced to a third if I were the editor, to be honest. But the KonMari method definitely has very revolutionary (yet simple and solid) way of de-cluttering. Now I have to go through my stuff and purge.

"Edge of Tomorrow"

トム・クルーズ主演の映画、「オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル」を最初に見たのはもうけっこう前なんだけど、原作が日本の小説だったってオットに言われるまで知らなかった。
オットが原作を読みたいというので図書館で借りて（英語翻訳版）、オットが読み終わった後で私も読んでみました。

感想は、ちなみに、イマイチ（爆）話が、ではなく、文章のテンポやスタイルが（翻訳だからか？）。めずらしく、原作より映画のほうが良かったです。
締めに映画版も見直してみました。やっぱりトム・クルーズ映画は、なんだかんだ言ってちゃんとどれもいい娯楽作品なのがすごい。

I had watched Tom Cruise's recent movie, Edge of Tomorrow, a while ago and I did not know that it was based on a Japanese light novel, "All You Need Is Kill."
The Man of the House wanted to read it so I got it from the library and I read it after he was done.

Well, this is one of the rare occasion that I say the movie was better than the book.
I did not like the writing style and tempo of the story. It was just not good writing and I had to force myself to finish it. Thank goodness it was a "light" novel.

As it has been the routine, we finished the book with the movie. The movie is quite different from the book actually, so nothing redundant.

I also watched The Bourne Identity right after Edge of Tomorrow, not knowing it was done by the same director. I really like The Bourne series. Maybe I should read the original novel... (if only I could read faster.)

Harry Potter Series

ハリーポッター１巻を読み始めたのが２月ぐらいだったんだけど、やっと全７巻読み終えました。
一応１ヶ月に１冊本を読むのが目標なので、ペース的にはオッケーかと。（児童文学１冊読むのに一月かかってるっていうのはおいておいて）
シリーズ後半は話が色々込み合ってきて、すっかり内容を忘れていたので楽しめました。

ちなみに私が４冊目を読み始めたころに、オットも１巻から読み直し始めたんだけど、私が６巻にたどり着くころには彼はとっとと全７巻読み終えていました。
シリーズを読みながら、映画も順次見直していたので、あと映画最後の２巻分（７巻は映画２つに分かれてるから、３作か）見たら我が家のハリポタ熱終了。

次はジョージ・オーウェルの「動物牧場」の予定。（図書館の貸し出し順番待ち中）

Finally, finished reading Harry Potter series. I started reading the first book in February, and my goal is to read 1 book a month, so I am right on track. (Don't mention the fact that it takes a whole month to read a children's book)

Though I had read the entire series before and have seen the entire movie series as well, I kind of forgot the complicated story of Horcrux and the Hallows, so I did enjoy reading the series again.
Of course, the more I read, the more I dislike Dumbledore and the more I notice how jerk and kind of selfish Harry is (I guess he is in that way very similar to Dumbledore).

The next book is Animal Farm (on the library's waiting list). Not that I really want to read it but so that I can understand the Man of the House when he references it, which is pretty frequently. I don't even like classic books in Japanese so we shall see if I like it...

If I could have a super power, I want the power to speed read.

Read: Harry Potter Book #1

サクサクっと本を読みたくなって、何年かぶりかで「ハリー・ポッター」を手に取りました。

サクサクと言っても、夜寝る前にちまちま読むので２週間ぐらいかかって読み終えました。
読むの３度目ぐらい？１度目は映画が出る前に読んだので、もう１０年以上たってるのね。
大人の今読んでも結構楽しめるけど、子供のころに読んでいたらきっとものすごくはまったと思う。

１巻は短いからいいんだけど、やっぱり１巻読んだら全巻読まないと気がすまないし、２巻以降は分厚くなるばかりなんだよねぇ・・・。読むのが２度目でも３度目でも、読むのが遅いのに変わりなし。

I wanted to read something light and I picked up Harry Potter from my meager book shelf. I don't own many books so if it's not Harry Potter, then it would be The Game of Thrones, which would take me 4 months to read. Of course, it still took me a couple of weeks to read Harry Potter but it was stress-free reading.

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time over more than a decade ago, right before I watched the first movie adaptation. I still remember vividly that the movie was exactly, exactly what I imagined while reading the book. Now that I have watched all the movies, it's really fun to read the book with visual aid of the characters and the setting from the movie in my head.

At my snail's pace of reading, by the time I get to the last book it will likely be half way through the year. Do I want to spend the next 6 months reading the books that I have already read before just because I finished the first book of the series, or should I take on another book?

Well, for now, I will have to move on to the Harry Potter book #2, since I got no other books to read and my library holding queue is completely filled with DVD reservations.

The Glass Castle

コラムニストのジャネット・ウォールズが書いた自伝、「ガラスの城の子供たち」を読みました。
実は読むの２度目。最初に読んだのは、もう５，６年前？

ニューヨーク、マンハッタンの高級アパートからパーティへ向かうタクシーの中で、ゴミあさりをしているホームレスの母親に遭遇するシーンから始まり、そのあとは著者の３歳のやけど事件から年を追って生活の様子がつづられています。

お父さんはかなり頭がいいようなんだけど完全なアル中で、ブルーカラーな仕事を転々。
お母さんはどうもかなりいい家の出身のようだけど、芸術家肌。
そんな両親の元で、ジャネットと姉、弟、妹の４人兄弟が頑張って生活していく話です。
極貧でありながら、社会からの施しを受けるのを嫌う両親のおかげで生活保護も受けられず、かなりひもじい生活をするのよ。学校に行ってもランチを買えないので、ゴミ箱あさったり。
雨漏りのする家ではトイレはバケツ。
育児放棄どころではなく、お母さんは子供たちがお腹をすかせている横で隠れてチョコ食べてたり。

でも「私、こんなすごいひもじい暮らしを耐えてきたのよ」っていう話ではなく、逆にそんな生活の中でいかに両親が子供にとって影響的か、っていうのと支配力があるっていうのがとても興味深かったです。

Read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
I actually read it 5, 6 years ago. I was waiting for a reserved book from the library and I wanted to read something short and easy from my book shelf in the meantime. Yes, this book is one of my rare "owned" books.

The book is good. I like the simple and clear writing style and the matter-of-factly way of storytelling. Because the degree of neglect and poverty she endured is extraordinary.

Lord of the Flies

イギリスの作家、ウィリアム・ゴールディングの１９５４年の小説、「蝿の王」を読みました。

日本ではあまりなじみが無いけど、映画化もされています。
何年も前に映画を見て、あまりに衝撃的でびっくりしたのを覚えています。
そんなわけで原作を読みたくなって、図書館から借りてきました。

ヒジョーに難しい本です。青少年向けなのがびっくりするぐらい。
南太平洋の無人島に飛行機が不時着し（墜落したのか？）、生き残ったのは中学生以下の少年のみ。救助されるように煙をたこうとするも長続きせず、リーダーを決めて秩序のある暮らしをしようとするも、結局少年たちは怠惰に暮らし、対立グループは野蛮かするばかり、という話です。
青少年向け無人島話に良くある冒険活劇を想像したら大間違い。
とても悲しい、悲しい話です。
映画がお勧め。

I watched the movie adaptation of Lord of Flies years ago. I remember the heavy gut feeling watching the movie.
The book was... It took me over 3 weeks to read the first 40 pages. I just did not like the writing at the beginning. Too scattered. It got better afterwards but it was a very slow reading.

This is heavy stuff. I don't know how this book is categorized as Teen book.

読書 Ender's Game

先月見た映画「エンダーのゲーム」の原作本を読みました。

やっぱりいつものことだけど、原作本の方が映画よりいいです。奥が深いです。
主人公のエンダーが地球に帰ると（普段は宇宙船に住んでいます）湖に行くんだけど、その湖が私が以前住んでたとこにある湖で、親近感倍増。なんだ、あたし、この本の作者が住んでいる街に住んでいたのね！

ちなみに私はこの、映画を見てから原作を読む、というパターンが好きです。
2度おいしいし、本でイメージしづらい場面も、映画見てるからわかりやすいし。（とくにこの本は宇宙船の中だし、無重力の中で生徒たちが「ゲーム」をする様子は映画見ておいたおかげで想像しやすかった）

逆に原作を読んでから映画を見てしまうと、どんなに良くできた映画でも、原作ほど細かく描写されないし、テンポ速いし、話はしょるし、大抵がっかりしちゃうから映画にたいしてアンフェアな評価をしてしまうので注意です。
あ、でもハリーポッターの1作目の映画は、まさに本のまんまでよく出来てたな。

どうでもいいけど、図書館の貸し出し期間が1冊につき3週間なのね。
私、3週間で1冊読めないし（泣）（延長も出来ます）
読むの遅すぎ。

Finished Ender's Game. Better than the movie, as usual.

Earlier in the book, there was a mention of Guilford County, and I was so excited because we used to live there. So I told the Man of the House:

Me (excited): "Oh, Orson Scott Card must live in Guilford County because he's mentioning Guilford County in the book!"

MOTH (as a matter of factly): "Yeah, he lives in Greensboro, you didn't know that?"
---Of course he knew... (But he did not know that Card is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young. Ha!)

Anyway, so we actually lived in the same town that Orson Scott Card lived!
He's still in Greensboro.
Yeah, I checked. He owns a house there. Kind of surprised that a celebrity like him would own a property on his own name. Too easy to track him down.
I even Google-mapped his house, well, I used Google Earth for that. Am I a cyber stalker?
That is the power of the Internet and public records.