Comments on: Just killing time

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 13:54:04 +0000

Laura, I love this perspective! I am currently reading Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner. It is 569 pages long and printed in a small font. Just yesterday I was thinking that books these day are not this full of detail about side issues. They are plot driven, and almost every word drives the plot. I am purposefully trying to enjoy each moment of this book. Yesterday was a four pages of detail about a stagecoach traveling from one town to another in the Rockies. Scary!

By: Maggie

Maggie — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 10:04:33 +0000

I am very fascinating with how people in the past (before TV and internet) filled their free time. If you have tips on books, shows or articles about that, I’d be happy to read/see those!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 03:38:37 +0000

In reply to Sam. Good lord, I hope any adult has enough interests to keep him or herself occupied for three hours indoors!

By: Alexicographer

Alexicographer — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 02:36:03 +0000

In reply to Sam. LOL, I'm similarly situated. I work f/t (now from home), meanwhile, I live with my husband and my mom (in a basement apartment but all the same) and my middle schooler, who is on "extended spring break" right now. Guess who they all want to talk to?! Fortunately my mom takes my son out for walks, but down time, I do not have...

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 22:17:12 +0000

In reply to Sarah K. Do you have a partner? What do they do while you spent those 3 hours baking? Do they have their own interests to keep themselves occupied indoors?

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 22:16:10 +0000

The reading of books (and other solo hobbies) is *more* difficult now during this lockdown: my husband is highly extroverted and he’s not a reader. Whereas he’d normally meet up with friends a couple times a week without me (wherein I get my quiet time), that’s not happening now.
Several people have told me, “You must love this! You’ll have so much more time for books during this lockdown.” If only…It is, in fact, the opposite. lol

By: Sarah K

Sarah K — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 21:28:24 +0000

I did one rather complicated baking project this week while stuck at home. It involved multiple rounds of treating the dough and letting it rise etc. Probably took about 3 hours. Would never do this “normally”. And we ended up with some fantastic treats.

By: Barb

Barb — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:31:14 +0000

About 10 years ago (wow, time flies!) I embarked on Les Miserables. DS had made the cast in his high school production (as Enjolras, who pretty much always wears a red vest). So I figured I’d read the book. Started the day after auditions in mid-January, and barely, just barely, finished by closing night in May 9. And that was with wholesale skipping of pages and pages describing tree pruning, the history of clergy in Switzerland, Napoleonic battles, the Paris sewer system, and the production of whatever-it-was that Valjean’s factory was renowned for. More information than a Tom Clancy novel. But I suppose some books were also a form of education, whereas today, if I want more information on something I read in a book, I google it.
Oh, and yes, the high school production was pretty darned good.

By: omdg

omdg — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:20:14 +0000

Weren’t authors primarily paid by the word? I thought that was why novels were so verbose back in the day. I know that was the case for the Russians, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky being prime examples of this.