18/03/2003 - 12:40 a.m.

Good Day Sunshine

Wohoo! For the first time since my last entry, I have been graced by Andrew with the ability to post an entry. This is fantastic. For those who enjoy them, the quiz at the bottom of this page is a new one.

So I read the "first contemporary German novel to be translated into English and be popular enough to make it on Oprah Winfrey's Book of the Month Club", or whatever. The Reader, it's called, and the prof assured us that everyone loved this book and that it was a wonderful book and a short book, and yadda yadda yadda. I didn't like it. I hated the style, I didn't care much about the story, or the people in it. It is a million years worse than a certain Dancing Naked, but it is slightly better than Grendel. So it's probably third on my list of books I really didn't like. It also happens that these three books are the most contemporary published works I've read in the past two years or so. What does that tell us, boys and girls?

The weather here has turned summery gorgeous, so yesterday I went out for a ten mile ride. My camera broke, so I have no pictures, but I wish I did. Though, as far as the plants are concerned, spring is not yet arrived, but it's here all the same.

Some days, it's hard to believe anyone could ever live anyplace else but Iowa. Is it really possible that perfect strangers nod hellos to each other on the street anywhere other than in Iowa towns? The sky can't be as blue as it is over the miles of green and gold fields: corn and beans, corn and beans. In the face of war, hatred, and fear, how can Iowa exist as it does for me? How can such an easy, simple thing survive all that?

I watched the French version of Cyrano de Bergerac, with Gerard Dapardieu in it, again today. It's been two years since I've seen that movie, and I still remembered it as though I saw it yesterday. I admit, I can't understand all the French, and I would probably be lost if there were no subtitles, but I think that's one of my favourite movies, and I would kill to have it on DVD. As it is, back it goes to the Blockbuster next week.

Tomorrow, I think I will be spending the day at the library, checking out absolutely The Song of Bernadette, and probably The Scarlet Letter. I've never read either, and the first I have to read, and the second I want to read. So many books, so little time.