Weekly reading/watching meme

[petronia]

Books:

Not much this week. Got through a few more chapters of the Mark Atherton since I posted last, IIRC; am about halfway through that one now. My best reading experience this week was actually an interior design photobook called New Small Apartments, in a nice thyme-scented bath with a campari soda. XD I've never wanted a big house -- it feels ridiculous to walk and walk just to get from kitchen to bedroom, and I hate cleaning floors. My current place is 375 sq.ft. without the balcony, enough to qualify as Officially Small, but the apts in this book are in NYC and HK and Tokyo and Paris, where if you're dropping a cool million on a 2 1/2 you may as well hire an architect to renovate it.

New place, by the way, is 892 sq.ft., which is all the space I will ever need in my entire lifetime. Any bigger than that and it'd have to be because I decided to start a wine cellar or take up metal welding as a hobby or something.

Anyway, this reminds me that I keep a mental list of "stuff I would be incapable of explaining to Captain America," and second on that list is theworstroom.tumblr.com. (First on the list is that Lana Del Rey video where A$AP Rocky is JFK.)

Comics:

Chiho Saito's Dangerous Liaisons manga. Whatever you are thinking right now: yes. It is exactly like that.

EDIT -- went to the comic book store, so chowing through serials, only stopping to comment on All The Freakytrigger Posts. XD; That's Avengers Assemble 12-13 (Natasha story! ft. Chekov's karmic marker and surprise Pizza Dog), and the very Whovian 15AU (I am... missing a 14 I guess?). New Avengers 5 (backstory and cliffie), The Enemy Within #1. Dunno if I'm plowing through all of these tonight.

Movies:

Went to see Kon-Tiki. Eh, all right I guess -- felt like the script worked hard to generate interpersonal conflict for ~drama~, whereas tbh the book didn't give one the impression there was any. This made it sort of structurally weird, like the timeline of events was rejigged so that the movie was 20% pre-voyage, 55% the first 2-3 weeks, 15% the end and 10% the bulk of the actual trip. On the other hand, they kept the crab!

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

The books. One needs space for the books. See also: clothes, shoes, souvenirs. (Old manga do not come in e-reader format, though maybe some do, and an e-reader would be better for that than bunko. But still.)

Where'd the thyme scent come from?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't think I will ever need that many books at one time. I've realized that eventually, after a few years (7? 8? more than 5 but less than a full decade), my former interests get put out to pasture for good. Maybe 10-20% of stuff survives that cutoff? The same applies to clothes, and shoes destroy themselves on my watch. XD; I keep meaning to sell some of my manga (possibly to repurchase them in bunko) but it hasn't gotten urgent since I'm not short on space or money yet.

Thyme scent was a medicinal thyme bath powder randomly picked up from the pharmacy! It was surprisingly nice.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

But all your childhood books? Just thrown away?

You missed the 'you never know when it will come in handy' gene. I have dresses from 40 years ago. (Actually I have dresses from 80 years ago, that were my mother's.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I haven't missed it, actually, I have it on both sides. My mom and my paternal grandmother are both outright hoarders of the classic type (i.e. refuse to admit they have a problem), though they hoard different things. This is the result of a lifetime of self-directed cognitive training, because if I don't simply ignore my brain when it says things like "this may come in handy" I will end up with 5,000 used plastic bags in a cabinet. XD

One of the side effects of growing up fairly poor (but not realizing it) is that I don't really have that many childhood books. XD; Other than stuff I'd want anyway like the Tolkien, I have maybe one bookcase full. I mostly read from the library.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Oh well then, you're ahead of me. I have maybe one shelf (double-ranged, I admit) from my childhood, and another two from my twenties. But you see how it is if one accumulates exponentially by decade.

I have fought the hoarder instinct but alas! it keeps being vindicated when I do want the thing I threw out.

[meril.livejournal.com]

Mine is 1000 or so, only because I hate working from home off the kitchen table, and I would have nowhere to put the books.

Those apartment books suck for the reasons you've said.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't really want a separate office, I think -- in my parents' house using the desktop meant I was relegated to a freezing corner of my dad's basement studio, for YEARS. Now I intend to work in the centre of my home, precisely close to the source of mixed drinks and tea. XD