Duck Days

Week 1: so far, so good.

There was a lot of rain the first couple of days (my four-year-old cousin told us it was a "day for the ducks" when we picked her up from school), but it has since been a bit nicer, and the last few days have been sunny. I'm not planning on going swimming yet, but there were a good number of surfers out on the beach yesterday.

The "spending time with cousins" part of the plan has certainly been successful so far: I've played a lot of hide-and-seek, babysat, and helped with homework and baking a cake. And after staying this week with my grandparents, I'm moving over to my aunt and uncle's house, so there will definitely be more time with those four cousins.

The rest of the plan is going along too. My aunt took me to the library, and I'm going to be able to use her card to check out books. The library is not very big, but I found a few of the books on my list already. First requested book: The Hunger Games! I'm hoping it gets in soon because I only have a few of my own books with me, and I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a few days ago. The verdict: I don't understand what all the hype was about. It wasn't well-written (even given the fact that it was translated. I can't imagine the long blocks of dialogue felt natural even if they were in the original Swedish). It was full of useless details (I tried very hard to appreciate this, because it did reflect the overload of facts that a journalist or detective would have to sort through in the case of the investigation. Perhaps I, the reader, was meant to experience this frustration with them as I picked through paragraphs of unnecessary information to unearth what was actually relevant to the story? But I don't like this explanation. Call me a lazy reader, but when an author starts giving me the dimensions of a room, I think it's a bit too much. Just describe the room please. Thank you.)

Aside from my personal opinions about the book, reading it made me think about what makes a book a bestseller. Because I realized that I don't know. Before, I thought of a bestseller as a book that was: 1. well-written in terms of clarity and character-development, and 2. engaging/provoking to a large group of people. That is, probably not experimental, "academic," or overly intellectual, not necessarily ground-breaking in the literary sense, but still page-turning and thought-provoking. The mystery part of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would qualify as page-turning (at least, this is what kept me slogging through the excess information), but it took a long time for the mystery to develop. I did not expect a "best-seller" to require readers to blindly stick with a book for so long before producing the impetus to keep reading.

So maybe I just don't have enough respect for readers. Or maybe a recommendation from a friend who's read (and finished) the book is enough to inspire people to keep reading a book even if the beginning is slow. If I hadn't heard the book title mentioned so many times and discussed by so many friends, I probably would have read the first few chapters and dismissed it. So the power of a recommendation (or even the curiosity sparked by someone's negative opinion of a book) is no small thing. But someone still has to be the first person to read the book and recommend it. Perhaps they have more patience than me!

Apologies if these thoughts seem like a bit of an information overload themselves, since the details of what I've been reading don't exactly say much about Ireland. It just happens that a good chunk of my time here has been devoted to finishing that book, so that is what I have on my mind!

Anyway, as for Ireland itself, I do really love it here. People have been asking if I am bored, asking if I have enough to do, but the time just seems to slip away really pleasantly. I can't count the number of times in the past I've wished for more time to do all the things I want to do, and now suddenly here it is! And in one of the most beautiful places I know. I've established a running route the past few days that takes me along the coast and down to the "prom," the long strip of sidewalk by the beach. The water is particularly nice when it is sunny, but it's even pretty on the grey days. Two thoughts on running:

1. I hate hills. Especially steep hills-- I would choose a long gradual hill over a short steep one any day. I have a new appreciation for the flatness of Minnesota and Indiana (something I never thought I'd say). There is a particularly steep hill here running down to the prom called Galway's Hill. I have changed my run so that I avoid this hill, even though it means a longer run with a longer hill.

2. Running by water is the best. I grew up running around lakes (thank you, Minnesota), and in high school loved running around Nicollet Island, over Stone Arch Bridge, or really anywhere along that strip of the Mississippi. But I have a new love of running by the sea, which obviously was not an option in the Midwest.

As for writing, I've been having a bit of a block, but obviously not bad enough that I can't ramble on about what I've been doing and thinking. More about Ireland in the next post!