Libenter Legens

“Gladly reading,” a phrase that just popped up in my head. I’ve not been great about reading for the past few months, honestly. I’ve been playing a lot of videogames most days and/or watching TV instead. Years ago I used to read for 2-3hrs/night and just roll through books. I picked up Emily Wilson’s Iliad translation awhile back when it first came out in hardcover, and while it’s lovely, it’s daunting, and I think I’ve gotten a bit tripped up on reading and needed a break from it. Recently I read a collection of horror stories by the Denver Horror Collective called Terror at 5280’, which was really good. My spouse bought it for me as a gift a couple of years ago, and I just got around to reading it. After I finished that, I picked up Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, which I’d been wanting to read for a long time, and again, which my spouse bought for me (in April 2021, per the gift receipt inside the book). It’s been a quick read so far and I don’t think it’ll take me that long.

I haven’t read any Stephenson in a very long time. I found out awhile back that he is kind of a crypto-bro, which is extremely offputting, and I haven’t wanted to read any of his stuff since then. He has also been extremely influential among billionaires like Bezos and Musk &c. So yeah, not my thing any more, but I used to dearly love Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle. Honestly I kinda spaced out after reading the first Mongoliad volume, which went on way too long apparently. But again, my spouse got it for me as a gift, so it’ll be a one-and-done and I’ll gift it to someone else. The sad thing is that I’m actually rather enjoying the book, but that’s OK, I’ll get out of it what I can and move on to something else. I have a whole shelf of “to-read” books (well, some are already read, but it’s mostly to-read) in my office, and there is plenty to choose from on there. I’d like to tackle the Proust volumes at some point, but I’ve not felt I have the fortitude to do that anytime soon. Maybe I’ll read Archaeology of the Night next, a book I heard about on one of my favorite podcasts, Nocturne, which is all about the glories, wonders, and terrors of the night.

I find myself, every week, saying “what a busy week.” Not much different than my grad school days where I said that all the time too. Busy weeks, but they’re good weeks, and happy to do what I’m doing. I really enjoy the weekends when they come, a lot more than I did when I was teaching. We’re taking a vacation in the not-too-distant future, which will be lovely, so it’ll be some nice time off. And I’m hoping to see my family at the end of May, since there’s a family reunion of distant cousins of my dad’s in eastern Colorado (I’m equally intrigued and apprehensive about it tbh). Ideally my sister will come out for a couple of days, too, and stay with us, since she hasn’t seen the house yet, and hasn’t met Lyra!

Anyways I don’t have much more to say at the moment, but wanted to jot down a few thoughts. I was thinking about friendship recently and maybe I’ll write something about that soon. It’s hard making and keeping friends as an adult out of school! Thanks for reading, friends <3