Reading and reading and reading and

When I was in primary and secondary school, I'm pretty sure most of the people who hailed me in the corridor didn't actually know my name. To most people and probably even some teachers I was Readabook Girl. And it vaguely disappoints me that, what with tumblr and Something Awful and roleplay and all sorts of other distractions, I haven't lived up to that name in a while. I read, but not nearly as insatiably as before.

So I'm trying to get back into the mindset of a reader of books rather than just a browser of the internet. When it comes to killing my attention span looking at memes versus trying out new stories and genres of novels, which one seems like a better idea, honestly? Especially since I'm supposed to be a writer or something. /side-eyes eight hundred unfinished manuscripts

On that note, I just finished my first noir novel. It was The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett, and the experience of reading it can be summed up like this:



In other words, it was awesome.

Next on my reading list is Lockdown, the first book in the Escape from Furnace series -- which is nominally for kids, but when did I ever let that stop me? I read the first few chapters last night and it's a hell of a lot of fun so far, even if the idea of a young offenders' prison deep underground seems a bit poorly justified so far. The prison's got enough creepy mysterious nastiness about it that I'm sure a better explanation will turn up in a plot twist at some point.

Also there's a mysteriously villainous chap in a gas mask, and you pretty much can't go wrong with one of those.

Things that are making me happy right now

My laptop is covered in Christmas lights because my boyfriend is literally the best person in the world.

And I have a new washing up sponge to replace the old dirty one.

And I am playing me some croony Bing Crosby.

And we managed to find apple cider at the supermarket yesterday.

And I have this excellent herby slightly spicy beef mince to make spaghetti bolognaise with.

And I am making the kitchen noticeably cleaner.

And I have a degree and a job, how did that even happen.

And did I mention that my boyfriend is brilliant?

And I get to live in a country I never thought I'd visit.

And learning Spanish is coming along surprisingly well.

And the guys at the shop I usually buy groceries at are friendly and cool with helping me learn it, so it's not nearly so awkward as it might be.

And I'm going to Skype with my mum and brother this Christmas.

And it's nearly Christmas.

And the kitchen is full of sunlight.

I was talking to a woman at the burrito shop...

…and she took me on the most amazing journey through internet conspiracy theory that I have ever experienced.

Did you know that the government staged 9/11 so that the Arabs could take over? She didn’t say what they were taking over, but damn it, they were taking over something. And not just the terrorists, not even the Muslims, but every single Arab person.

And she psychically “saw” that 9/11 would happen three days before it did. And did I know she read something once that said the time delay between Earth and the Astral Plane is… three days? It’s because we “live in time” and the Astral Plane doesn’t. When I asked, she couldn’t quite remember how this had been found out.

( Cut for teal deer. )

We also talked about how she’d travelled around being a fashion designer when she was younger, which was interesting in the regular way rather than holding a “holy shit, how far does the rabbithole go” fascination.

I told this story to my boyfriend when I got home with the food, and he reckons she was trolling me, but she seemed so sincere in person that I just don't know.