books books books

When I was at BYU, I took a children's literature class.  I didn't need to, of course.  Children's literature hardly has anything to do with computer science.  I even had to get special permission to take it because it was an elementary education class, I think.  Anyway, I had to get someone from some department to sign a form so I could sign up.  It was an absolute delight to be able to excuse reading because it was an assignment.

My teacher was a librarian, of course.  I can't remember now where he libraried.  Maybe at the BYU library.  I do remember a story he told us of a lunch he took at Wendy's one day.  He had been very much looking forward to getting into a book he was reading for a brief half hour before having to get back to a very busy day.  While there, he happened to run into an acquaintance who was a reporter for the local paper who sat with him and talked through his whole lunch.  Of course he was disappointed, but he could hardly have turned the man away.  In a few days an editorial appeared in the paper about how the reporter had saved the lonely librarian from eating a sad lunch alone.  My teacher exclaimed aloud after reading, "Alone! Richard - I was reading!"

Lately I have been listening to books more than reading them.  It appeals to the side of my nature that doesn't like to know what's coming.  When listening to a book, you don't know when the end of a chapter is coming or even the end of a book.  And I can listen while doing a great number of other things, so I can still feel rather productive while getting lost in another world.  It does carry the risk of being rather rudely interrupted when the phone rings, since all my audio books are on my phone.  When reading a book, you can just ignore the phone, but when listening on the phone the ring stops the audio book in order to ring, leaving one to exclaim, "Why are you calling now?! Don't you know Edmond Dantes has just traded places with the corpse of the Abbe Faria and is waiting to be carried out of his prison to his grave?"

The point is, people often ask me what I've been reading lately, so here are the last ten books I've read (or listened to), for your judgement:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (ongoing)
2. Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard (ongoing)
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (still a favorite)
4. The Naming by Alison Croggon
5. The Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
6. The Land of Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
7. The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie
8. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
9. Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
10 The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Honestly I can recommend all of these books without reservation.  So, go ahead and pick one up today.  And feel free to post your own recommendations in the comments.

the terminator

It is a well known and documented fact that I hate spiders.  They are creepy and gross and I suspected they all have a secret desire to eat my face.  I have made a deal with them that if they don't come into my living area, I will not kill them when I am in their living area.  (Really, this deal applies to all creatures, not just spiders.)

I'm very good at holding up my part of the bargain. When I'm out running and I see a spider on the trail, I very carefully avoid it and do not squish it, as it would be so easy to do.  When I am out camping (a rare occasion, I know), I let sleeping spiders lie and I don't kill them, even when they're close to me.  (Unless they get into my hair; all bets are off when things get into your hair.)  I don't even knock down their filthy little webs when they are outside my door, as long as they are outside and seem like they won't try to come in, in good faith.  I'm trusting like that.

But now I live in the south.  I have had several instances of spiders in my bedroom.  So far (knock on wood) they have been small "harmless" looking ones, so I've just let them be.  I suspect my sister Alison would be proud because she always says to let them live anyway.  And having nine foot ceilings and a vacuum without a hose probably has something to do with it.

If there is one thing I will not tolerate, however, it is spiders in the bathroom.  Bathrooms are the area in the house where you are most vulnerable!  You're either using the facilities or showering and half the time I don't have my contacts in when I'm in there, so OH MY GOSH IS THAT A SPIDER OR A BAND-AID?!

The point to all this is that I have become somewhat of an expert of killing spiders in the bathroom.  Well, I've killed one so far, but it was such an easy experience that I feel like I could do it again.  I was even in bare feet!  I just saw it there, didn't panic, grabbed some toilet paper and flushed it.  I was so proud of myself I decided to blog about it because most of you will know what a big deal this is to me.  And also because Tawna has been bugging me again to update my blog and this seemed like as good a topic as any.

P.S.  Doing a google image search of "no spiders allowed" to find the above stock photo lead me to the most disgusting search result page I have ever stumbled upon and it made me want to vomit, so I hope you're happy.  But I did find this guy, so maybe it was worth it.... aaaaaaaaw!  Though there is still about a 50% chance I would try to flush that thing if I found it in the bathroom