Reading and Eating
This week, I finished The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. My son really wanted me to read it, but warned me that it was a little hard to understand, and difficult to keep the character’s names straight (since this is a translation from Chinese.) Nonsense! The name thing was a little challenging, but I’m used to it (reading all those Japanese murder mysteries paid off!) And, yes, too bad I never followed through on my summer plan to learn all about quantum physics (remember that half-baked idea?) But you don’t need to be a genius to enjoy this book- it was fascinating. I’m looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy, which my son is bringing home at Thanksgiving. There was also a postscript by the author that I enjoyed. He explains how he became interested in science, and then in writing science fiction. He says “I’ve always felt that the greatest and must beautiful stories in the history of humanity were not sung by wandering bards or written by playwrights or novelists, but told by science. The stories of science are far more magnificent, grand, involved, profound, thrilling, strange, terrifying, mysterious, and even emotional, compared to the stories told by literature.” I never used to like science fiction, but now I enjoy it. Next up… a book that’s been languishing on my TBR for a long time: A couple weeks ago Noemi mentioned how much she loves it (and the other books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.) Whenever someone talks about LOVING a book, I’m extra-curious to read it, so I finally took the plunge. I’m not far into it, but I started liking it in the first chapter. One more bookish thing. Last week Stephany wrote about things she’s recently purchased, and I was especially interested in the “Books are Magic” advent calendar. I looked at it on Amazon, put it in the cart but then decided to sleep on it. Do I really NEED an advent calendar? Maybe I shouldn’t spend the money…. while I was thinking about it, my husband made an Amazon purchase and bought the calendar since it was in our cart. Oops! (heh heh…) On to all the amazing meals I’ve made! Er, well, there was one. On Sunday I made the Pumpkin Pasta Bake With Almond Ricotta from Nora Cooks. It was so good! My daughter didn’t like it (SIGH) which meant more for my husband and me. We ate it Sunday with a salad, Monday with roasted broccoli, and Tuesday with roasted cauliflower. It made THREE DINNERS, woohoo!!! What are you reading? Are there any genres that you previously disliked but now like?