Different Books for Different Moments

I mentioned I went to Books on Beechwood last week The book I bought was Bone #3: Eyes of the Storm. 

What in god's name is "Bone #3: Eyes of the Storm" you ask?

Before I answer, let me explain my split personality when it comes to books: basically most of what I read fall into a few select categories. I actually wrote about this on my old blog, but I find the categories I am drawn to these days have changed a bit over time so it's worth revisiting the topic.

First, there is my "literature" category (what I referred to as "serious investments" in my old blog post). This includes probably my favourite book of all time, Les Miserables, as well as other classics, most of which were written in the 19th or early 20th century. I figure that if a book is still read a hundred or so years after it it was published, it must say something worth reading about (although I've been disappointed a few times). One thing I love about "literature" is reading a line or paragraph that is applicable to the modern world. Currently I am reading Madame Bovary, and so far, so good. Here is a short list of some books that fall into this category that I have read over the years:

• Oliver Twist - ugh. A couple of interesting lines but I generally find Charles Dickens a real slog to read.
• Anna Karenina - not perfect, but definitely some insightful gems about the human condition.
  
• Le Comte de Monte-Cristo - started interesting, but I then found the book repetitive and...cruel. Is it really that interesting to see a prisoner-turned-billionaire crush his opponents?
• Far from the Madding Crowd - never heard of this until I picked it off Glosette Girl's bookshelf. I'm glad I did - a bit sentimental but really enjoyable.
  
• Moby Dick - why oh why is this considered by many to be the perfect book? I don't get this book at all.
• Dubliners - some author's don't live up to the hype...James Joyce is not one of those. A great collection of short stories.
  
• Darkness at Noon - do books written after WW2 count as literature? Hmmm I'll say yes. This one made me think. It's about something we don't hear that much anymore (totalitarianism). Worth reading.
• Catch-22 - same comment as above when it comes to when it was written. p.s. best ending ever.

Plus many more. The literature category is good but dense so I need to compliment it with books from other categories. 

The second category is "science fiction". This was previously under my "guilty pleasure" category along with fantasy stories, but in the 9-years since I wrote my last blog post on this topic I've mostly stopped reading fantasy and have instead focused on science-fiction.  Maybe it's the times we live in but I really enjoy letting my mind wander these days and think about future possibilities. Some books I've read that fall into this category:

• Hyperion - a bit uneven at times but overall it was brilliant. It made me think like few books have. I can't recommend this one enough. Perhaps a top-5 book (any category) for me.
  
• The Left Hand of Darkness - something about this book stays with me. A race of people who can change sex? A perpetually cold planet? I also like how Ursula Le Guin broke the all male author sci-fi glass ceiling.
  
• Dune - OK I guess but I put this into my "over-hyped" pile.
• The Forever War - interesting premise (a war that takes place over thousands of years) but seems dated and slightly homophobic. I appreciate the anti-Vietnam War sentiment though (it was written in the 1970s).
• Stranger in a Strange Land - Another book that is on many "best" lists...which I don't understand. I find this book at times to be misogynistic and more dated than many of the "literature" books I mentioned above even though it was only written in 1961.
• A Canticle for Leibowitz - written almost at the same time as Stranger in a Strange Land (1959) but this one still stands up.  Post-apocalyptic so seems oddly prescient right now (hopefully not).
  

Next up, is my "comic book" category. No, this is not simply another "guilty" pleasure! Graphic novels stand on their own and intrigue (me, at least) in a way that traditional novels do not. Some of the ones I've read include:

• Walking Dead - I stopped watching the TV show long ago but the comic book version really is worth reading
• Bone - what I am currently reading! I received the first two books in this strange series as gifts from my mom 15-years ago. I have now finished 3 books in the series and I don't know where this is going. I am now intrigued enough to buy some more.
• Watchmen -  many consider this comic book to be one of the best ever. It's OK..but I can't quite get past the U.S. vs. Soviet theme... 
• The Sandman - scary. The things nightmares are made of.
  
• Louis Riel - tells an important Canadian story in a way that I found poignant and compelling.
  
• Nausicaä of the valley of the wind - eco-manga from Japan. Beautiful and sad. I think the entire series is collectively another of my top 5-books.

This blog post is already getting really long so I won't go into too much detail about my fourth category: pre-World War 1 non-fiction. This is the focus of my long-running bookclub with my dad and brother! I think that's a blog post for another day.

Finally, I suppose I still occasionally read what I called "basic reads" in my old post: light non-fiction that doesn't really fall into the above categories. The latest book I read that falls into this category was The Midnight Library. It won't win a Pulitzer but it put a smile on my face when I finished it up the other day. Really, what more can you ask for?

Avoiding Amazon

Sometime early last year (probably around the time that all the calls for "buy local" went out from local business) I realized just how much I was buying from Amazon.  After this dawned on me I started making a conscious choice to avoid Amazon wherever possible. 

I did this for a couple reasons. First, there is just something gratifying about knowing that my purchase is going to help a real brick-and-morter store that makes my community more lively and interesting. Second, the news reports about COVID-19 outbreaks among workers at Amazon warehouses make me uncomfortable. I have the sense that the lower classes are putting their lives on the lives to subsidize the convenience of the creative class and civil servants who can work and live comfortably at home.

Anyways, I made my choice and I haven't looked back.

Yes it comes with minor inconveniences, like no free shipping. In those cases I  choose the "curb-side" pickup option, meaning I go to the store to pick up my purchase. Fortunately, that's still an option right now, notwithstanding Ontario's current lockdown.

This is what I did this past weekend when I ordered a couple of books for Margot and me from Books on Beechwood, a cute bookstore in the east end of the city. It took a little while for the books to arrive at the store after I ordered them but that was OK as it made receiving our books all the sweeter. 

A happy customer

It's probably impossible now to ditch Amazon completely. They just have too much stuff. But I do hope that more people in the future will start to think more sustainably and ethically about what they are doing when they shop online.

New glimpses into old Favourites

Recently, we discovered a cool new bonus perspective on Shirley's Bay. one of our tried and true trails in Ottawa.

We already knew that the trail was great for teaching Margot how to cross country ski; it has just the right amount of hills to make skiing interesting, without too many hills to cause too much trouble. However, the bonus we discovered is that, in the dead of winter, you can ski right onto the Ottawa river. 

The first time we went on the ice we saw some snow kiteboarders in the distance

The first time I tried this was a few weeks ago and I'll admit that I was bit nervous about going onto the ice of such a vast body of water. But the second time I tried I went full steam onto the ice.

What I enjoy most about skiing on the ice is the long horizon you get. The river just keeps going and going. People who live near the sea, beside tall mountains or even in treeless places like the Prairies, perhaps don't appreciate just how fortunate they are to have such vast views. In most parts of Ottawa such views simply don't exist - everything is so flat and normally your horizon is only a couple of hundred metres away.

Two brave explorers

But that's not the case here! On the river, the snow and ice just keeps going and going with nothing to interrupt your sight line except for the occasional kiteboarder or ice fishing hut....

Small but annoying fact: I lost my waterbottle somewhere out here!

The perfect place to feel small. 

Baking is Essential

I meandered down Wellington Street on Sunday. Even though non-essential stores are supposed to be closed (except for curb side pickup for online orders) the Wellington Bagel Shop is still open. So I took full advantage and bought...English muffins. No just kidding, I bought bagels.

Then on the walk home I bought some pastries from Luisa Bakery, which is a Portugese bakery that has opened up at the end of my street. I bought two Pastéis de Nata, one Pastéis de Feijão, two Palmiers, and one Cinnamon bun. (haha I just realized that I purchased a "deal" of 6 pastries for $13 and if I had bought them individually it would have been $11.50! I have to sit in on one of Margot's math classes).

"Let them eat Pastries!"

I also picked up a bottle of Laranjada - a kindof carbonated orange flavour soft drink. It's different! The kind of thing I would drink on an overseas trip to Europe while thinking..."how different!". I like it.

These guys opened last summer. Brave! And yummy.

I haven't been closely following what is non-essential vs. essential but it seems to be that as long as a store has a portion of its shop devoted to grocery store-ish products, it can stay open. This appears to explain why one of our local ice cream shops, Stella Luna, has mysteriously stayed open. I noticed a month ago that they replaced all their seating with grocery store shelves. I wondered, at the time, why they did that. Now I know, those far-sighted rascals: lockdown proof ice cream. Just what Ottawa needs in the dead of winter!*

* They may also be able to stay open because they offer take out?

And now, a message from... the Gladstone

Taken from the currently closed Gladstone Theatre, which is around the corner from our house:

You said it!

With the closing of Ottawa's only independent cinemas, the Bytowne, last week, how much longer can places like the Gladstone survive? Just hang in there guys...