First Things First For 2007

[fiat_knox]

T'other day, I bought The Moon Watcher's Companion - a nice little book, filled with lunar-related sayings and themes. More than a few of these sayings are going to end up in my Red Book some time this year.

So, this time around, the first big activity this year: go to Manchester, hopefully tomorrow, and pick up this little book on Western Geomancy I spotted while I was last in New Aeon Books. H'mm. Have to give them a bell, ask them to set it aside.

But for today, two things I must do. Firstly, go and get my supper for tonight in the flat and restock. Secondly ... phone up some of my rellies. I've been remiss in not calling them this year.

Shame on me.

Addendum: Phoned the rellies. They expressed much joy and satisfaction that I would remember them, and I felt much guilt in not calling them all sooner, but at least I can sleep tonight. Providing nothing else disturbs me from my dreams.

Further Addendum: Note here. I bumped into a friend, L., in town today. L. is a woman whom I befriended many years ago, while we were both in college. I helped her out of a tight spot. However, the last time I saw her, about six months ago, she was openly hostile towards me for no apprent reason: and yet today, in the library ... it was as if we'd skipped that part altogether. No memory of that moment of hostility at all. Positively friendly.

Note to self: Arms length, dear boy. Arms length. Just in case.

Further Further Addendum: Bought Perfume, the Patrick Suskind book. Oh, it is an elegant book. I am loving it to bits. An irony, since the world of Grenouille is so alien to me, the poster child for anosmia.

Comments

[sandchigger.livejournal.com]

Your... red book? What's a red book?

Everyone Has Secrets ...

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

... and the contents of "The Red Book" are mine.

Well, some of them. ;) I have other secrets, which I keep elsewhere - but what, and where, I cannot say.

I'd always wondered...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

...about the book Perfume. But I've never picked it up. Of course, right now, I have so many books to read, it's insane.

Re: I'd always wondered...

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

It begins with brutal honesty, and carries on from there. Patrick sustains a sensual viewpoint throughout; we not so much follow Grenouille and look at his world through his eyes, as follow his nose. It's all about scents, from the sublime - Grenouille's sweet victims - to the profane - the stenches and foetid odours of 18th Century Paris.

What he does with some of his characters is nothing short of scandalous. Grenouille's birth mother gets given short shrift, and another one who looked after the anti-hero of the tale similarly gets a terrible ending and demise.

In all, there is much humour in the book, as well as some shocking scenes - and I've not even wandered too far into it yet, just as far as Grenouille's first kill as yet.

The irony is, of course, is that I have no sense of smell myself: I can only imagine the world Patrick Suskind devises for me.

And yet, his vivid descriptions make that alien world as accessible to me as to anyone who has a normal sense of smell.

If you do get to read it some time, enjoy it.

Re: I'd always wondered...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

Cool...when I get time, I may look into it. But I've got to catch up on the tons of books I've got...

...not to mention my writing. Blah.