raincitygirl

I haven't actually bought any of these except the Sayers, because I'm trying to be good, and I've spent too much on books already this month. But I've bookmarked them and will probably buy them when I can afford to. It means I can get rid of a bunch of physical books. Amazon.ca has the following collections for Kindle app:

Dorothy L. Sayers Volume I (7 Peter Wimsey novels) for $0.99 Canadian!

Dorothy L. Sayers Volume II (4 Peter Wimsey novels, plus 18 Peter Wimsey short stories and 11 Montague Egg short stories, also for $0.99 Canadian.

The Complete Miss Marple by Agatha Christie (includes all the full-length novels and all the short stories) for $39.99 Canadian. OK, $40 is not particularly cheap, but it works out at $3.08 per book, which is significantly cheaper than any of the books are going for on their own.

Also the Complete Tommy and Tuppence for $19.99 Canadian, which works out at $4 per book.

And the complete Hercule Poirot short stories for $14.99, which is more than 50 stories.

Actually this makes me sad, because while I'm very happy Agatha Christie is continuing to sell and reach new readers, the fact that they're selling Dorothy L. Sayers' books on Kindle for pennies probably means, in contrast, that Sayers' books *aren't* continuing to sell and reach new readers. Which is a terrible shame, because she was a terrific detective novelist. I hate the idea of her fading into obscurity.

So, I've been reading the open access parts of the New Yorker and chuckling madly, and I've decided I'm going to ask my family to club together and get me a subscription for my birthday. My birthday isn't until October, but it's important to set goals ahead of time. The question becomes do I want a digital-only subscription ($59.99 CAD per year) or do I want them to send me the print edition in the mail and have the ability to clip out articles and physically send them to people ($89.99 CAD per year)? Bearing in mind that my dad and my uncles don't really *do* the internet. The print subscription comes with the digital subscription included. But I read magazines, actual print magazines, so rarely now. The Economist, yeah, because we get it at the office, so I'll grab back issues to read in my lunch break. But everything else I do digitally. I guess I could always print up something funny from the New Yorker digital edition for my Luddite relatives. And it's not like I don't have time to make a decision. October is some months away, after all.

Edited to add: It's decided, I'll ask for a digital version. I have enough paper in the damn apartment already.

And inlovewithnight posted a book review of a book that looks HELLA interesting, Lutz Kleveman's Wanderjahre: A Reporter's Journey in a Mad World, only $3.99 CAD at Amazon.ca. I'm still in the first chapter, but so far it's great.

Edited to Add: And I just read a very excoriating review of the book above, calling it Kleveman's big ego trip, and incidentally mentioned that there are descriptions of serious animal cruelty. I liked the little bit of the book I've read so far, but I edit to point out that my point of view may not be the only one, and anybody who has a hard time with reading about animal cruelty may want to give it a miss.

YMW has put herself on a strict diet. She's down to about 1.5 cans a day of the special gastrointestinal food when she's supposed to have 4 cans. She'd be eating 1 can a day if I didn't give it to her a heaping teaspoonful at a time every few hours, and then refrigerate the leftovers. When I would empty a whole (little) can into her food bowl, she'd just nibble at it for a few minutes and then leave the rest to go stale. She seems *fine* except for the fact that she's eating so little. Oh well, she could stand to lose a pound, but if it keeps up much longer I'll have to take her back to the vet. Hopefully she'll get her appetite back once I reintroduce the regular food.

Sorry for the near daily updates on the state of YMW's gastro-intestinal tract, which I'm sure must be very boring for everybody except me.

So I finally read Uncle #1's letter, and it was completely innocuous. Lots of interesting stuff, actually, about my great-great-uncle Phil who fought in the Middle East in the First World War. This soldiering business was not for wusses. Neither was being interned, actually. My maternal great-grandfather was a German Jew who moved to London as a young man circa 1900, married an English Protestant girl, and got his ass interned in 1914 for no better reason than because he was originally German. Fucking War Office.

I've made a horrible discovery. I had been sleeping VERY badly, so I cut out caffeine altogether the past few days, and slept much better. I figured my one coffee in the morning wouldn't have much effect on my sleep at night, but apparently I was wrong about that. This is horrible because it means doing without caffeine at work. I'm not sure I can cope! But then I wasn't coping when I wasn't sleeping. It's a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, really.

Gakked from selenak, have The Getting of Magic, a Harry Potter / X-Men: First Class crossover in which young Charles, young Raven, and young refugee Erik are all enrolled at Hogwarts in 1947. I was a little dubious about this one, because X-Men: First Class and Harry Potter are SUCH different canons, but I trusted selenak's rec, and it did not disappoint. Warning: long.

Going on a photo safari in South Africa is on my bucket list. It's one of those things that's on my bucket list rather than my "concrete plans" list because it's SO expensive. I'd have to win the lottery to be able to afford to go. But I was looking at safari tours online anyway, because looking at stuff I can't afford to do is kind of like porn, in a non-sexual way. The Kruger Park looks STUNNING. And now I really want to go. Guess I should start buying lottery tickets. Or plan to not take any vacations at all for the next ten years so I can save up enough to go. The latter plan might be more reality-based.

Still reading George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter, and it's really interesting. It was recced by...someone on my f-list/dwircle, I forget who. So thank you to whoever.

Gakked from rap541, a really neat short video by George Takei. It kind of made me sniffle.