Just add ...

... well then.

I suppose I should start with my recent health whatsits and go from there.

Uhm. Last week-ish I went home early from work with a bad backache that I put down to lugging a box of paper upstairs for the printer.

Not so, and next day I was battling a gallstone attack. All I had in the way of pain relief was ibuprofen, which would work short-term, but then the pain would come back. Normally, for attacks, I had codiene, but of course, I'd run out.

So Wednesday was no fun, and then it was Thursday. Now, for me, gallstone pain was always a heavy kind of ache that felt like someone had placed a hefty weight just under my ribs, that they moved around for shits and giggles.

The pain I felt on Thursday morning, in my left side, was sharp. So, for me, not gallstone pain. Jeremy took me to A&E (ER) and that's where the fun really began.

After being poked for a bit by a lovely doctor, I had painkillers and blood tests, and a long-ish wait. I sent Jeremy and Patrick home - no point all of us sitting there looking at each other while I waited for the test results. (I'm skimming a bit because this is a ridiculously long story already - lol).

So I dozed and nurses brought me water, and the doctor poked more holes in my arms (she was lovely but insisted on doing her own bloodwork. Honestly, for that, give me a nurse any day) while I waited for the results.

Which were ... somewhat unexpected. I had pancreatitis. The doc had mentioned it as a possibility but it pretty much slipped out of my head until she very cheerfully told me that yes, I did have pancreatitis.

Oh.

What happened was that one of my teenie eenie gallstones (I have them in a specimen jar. They were WEE) had travelled down my bile duct towards the pancreas, thereby giving me pancreatitis.

What this meant was I had to be admitted. There's something in the blood (I think - please excuse my shaky anatomy - lol) called amylase. My amylase numbers were high, and they had to come down before the docs could do what they needed to get rid of the pancreatitis: take out my gallbladder.

The plan was for me to have the operation on the Monday. So there I was, stuck in the hospital from Thursday, so what's a girl to do?

Read a lot - lol. I read five books over the course of the time I was there:

Harry Potter 2 & 3
The Two Towers (yes, I finally finished it - lol)
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Full Dark No Stars

I'm ... not going to write reviews for those. I have six or seven books I should review but it's really not going to happen. I'm a bit too far behind. So whatever book I finish next, I'm just going to pick up from there.

Anyway. Fast-forward to Monday. I was pretty grumpy by then, having been nil-by-mouth for several hours already. I was sort of slotted to have my surgery in the morning, but because of the list I was on, it was a case of when there was a space available. And the girl in the bed next to me had a burst appendix.

So.

Monday afternoon, it happened. And honestly, it felt like I blinked. The anaethetist gave me something to relax, then knocked me out and the next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery. Little dizzy, and spaced on morphine, but that was about as bad as it got. (Unlike the poor girl next to me who struggled with pain and vomiting before and after her surgery. I felt bad for her.)

Next day, the doc and his minions/lackeys came around, and I was declared fit to travel. Yes! Home!!!

And that's where I've been since - lol. I got a prescription for painkillers, but the pain seems to have largely disappeared (yay). So I've been trying to take it as easy as I can, which sometimes isn't that easy with a nearly four-year-old running around, but Jeremy's been helping as much as he can.

So. That's, uh, the saga I guess?

This is also a way of me starting to ... integrate? the blog a bit more. I want to post more than just book reviews and book-related things. But we'll see how that goes - lol.

Wednesday wants

Wednesday Wants!!!
This is for Dewey's Books Challenge. You can read the details here:
Last year, based on Dewey's book coveting posts, I started my own Wednesday Wants posts, picking up on books I had seen here and there, that I wanted to read.

I haven't done one for aaaaaaaaaages, but now seems like a good time.
It's Wednesday, for one thing.
So what books are close to my heart at the moment, if not to my fingertips?
Hmmmmmmm ….

Thanks to Carl at http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/ and his Once Upon a Time challenge, I've been reading more fantasy lately, and wondering why I left so much of it behind me. Well, I sort of do (pale, mysoginistic and tired quest fantasies that became popular when I was a teen), but the genre has opened up so much, there truly is something for everyone.

My go-to for new stuff is still http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/ and there are a couple of books on the front page that look fairly outstanding:

Worst Nightmares by Shane Briant: http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/05/worst-nightmares-by-shane-briant.html looks good, and spooky.

This looks good, too _ Stones Fall by Iain Pears http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/05/stones-fall-by-iain-pears-reviewed-by.html

AND! This is the one I'm most looking forward to getting my sticky fingers on:

BoneMan's Daughter by Ted Dekker:

http://www.amazon.com/BoneMans-Daughters-Ted-Dekker/dp/1599951959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242216061&sr=8-1

I LOVED The Circle Trilogy, and House.

So, for 2009, my first Wednesday Wants.

Thanks Dewey :)

Holy crap, it's May!

Um, I mean, my catch-up challenge is done. How'd you all do? I failed.

Well, I finished the Once Upon a Time challenge, and I read half of Smoke & Mirrors for the Dream King challenge, but nothing at all for Dewey's Books challenge, or the Art History challenge.

However, I think I might run the challenge again in August. April and August - nice symmetry, right? Also, the challenges I didn't catch up on this month will still be going. :)

I hope everyone else did better than me. Leave a link to your wrap-up post in the comments and I'll come by and say hi. :)

Reading Dewey's Books _ mini-challenge

Jodie at http://bookgazing.blogspot.com/ and I teamed up for this challenge.

Here's Jodie, talking about the play, The Barber of Seville, which she chose because it had been several years since she read a play:

1): You chose to read a play, and it was the Barber of Seville
Can you talk a little bit about why you chose that particular form, and why that play?

Well I decided to read something from the 18th century to tie in with maree’s book choice. When I started investigating Restoration theatre it seemed that most of the plays had been discarded by the modern dramatic community. Even Voltaire’s plays got a rough ride and most of the plays from that period were seen as very much of the period, with little relevance or interest for a modern audience. Beaumarchais Figaro trilogy was one of the few exceptions and Beaumarchais himself sounded like an intriguing person so I started in on ‘The Barber of Seville’.

2): I find in my experience that I prefer to see dramatic works performed. How did it differ, reading a play, to watching one being acted out? Did you get a good sense of the storyline? The action? The comedy/drama?

I haven’t read a play since I was in college (that’s sort of 16-18 in the UK) and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. Plays are quick to read, you can dash through them without giving the text all the dramatic inflections and pauses it would have on stage, but you can still get a good sense of the plot and the comedy. I also like that you can spend as much time exploring areas of the text, whereas with plays on the stage your thoughts go with the action.

I think plays involving sword fights don’t do so well with me when I’m reading plays instead of seeing them because I’m used to reading highly described fight scenes in novels. Comedy can date but one good comic line can conjure a vivid moment while stage directions do nothing for me.

3): Would you read more plays from the same era, or seek out dramatisations of them?

All the way through the Barber of Seville I’d catch myself hearing the inflections a modern cast would give to the words so I’d love to see a drammatisation of this play. The forward says the play is often dramatically altered for a modern audience with scenes and poems slashed right out. I’m also looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy. I might look out some of the other plays that have continued to be thought well of, but I’m not sure about those that have become historical curiosities.

4): Can you give us a run down of the plot of the play?

It’s a simple comic plot. Count Almaviva has fallen in love with a girl named Rosine but her guardian Barthollo hopes to marry her so he whisks her away to Seville and hides from the world. The Count tracks them down and tries to work out how to win Rosine. While doing so he encounters his old servant Figarro, newly a barber in Seville. They hatch plan to save Rosine from a forced marriage, and this plan involves false names, play acting and trickery. In the end Barthollo is confounded and the Count and Rosine marry thanks to Figarro’s endeavours.

5): And finally, did you enjoy it?

I did enjoy it. I was rooting for the Count and Rosine, just like the author wants. Figaro is a fun trickster character, although his schemes are not the most elaborate I’ve ever read.


And here are mine:

The book I tackled for this challenge, was Travels Through France & Italy, by Tobias Smollett, a collection of letters by Smollett from the 18th century. Smollett, a doctor, took his family touring after the death of their teenaged daughter, Elizabeth.

1): You chose to read some non-fiction, a book of letters called Travels through France and Italy. Can you talk a little bit about why you chose that particular non-fiction, and why that book?

I chose non-fiction, because I don't read a lot of it, and I chose this book, honestly, because it's been sititng on my shelves for a few years. It's all letters, which is a style I almost never read, so it fit the challenge parameters' pretty well.

2): What was the last non-fiction book you read before Travels through France and Italy and when did you read it? Why is non-fiction something you don’t read much of?

Um ... it was Up Till Now, William Shatner's autobiography. I don't know why I don't read more non-fiction. I don't go out of my way not to read it, it's just that there are so many novels in my way!

3): I hear that the author finds fault with quite a lot of things. Did you find the author very cynical and if so was his cynicism amusing, distracting, powerful…?

From my perspective, he complained about eeeeeeeeverything! Honestly, I only made it to his eighth letter before I had to give it up. It was depressing to read, and as I told you in one email, it made me want to go out and eat rocks.
I actually found him quite tedious to read. I also would have liked to know who he was writing to, but that's not mentioned anywhere in the letters nor in the introduction, and there's no appendices, or notes, which I think would have helped my understanding, if not my enjoyment.

4): Have you visited any of the places mentioned in the book? Based on the descriptions the author gave do you think you would have preferred to visit any of them in the 18th century?

I've never travelled far from home, although I would love to visit France and Italy one day, which is another reason I chose this book. However, based on the letters I did read, I'd much rather visit them now, than then.

5): What other non-fiction books are on your TBR list?

I had to check, but I have Fernleaf Cairo, by Alex Hedley, about the experience of New Zealand soldiers in Egypt in World War II, and a trilogy of books by H V Morton, which were given to me by an old priest many years ago, who was a friend of my father's. I've kept them for sentimental reasons, and I'm trying to read more of my own books this year, so they've gone on that list. They are In the Steps of the Master, In the Steps of St Paul and Through the Lands of the Bible.

6.) Did you enjoy this book and has it made you want to read more non-fiction?

I can't say I enjoyed the book. I didn't even finish the book! But I always want to read more non-fiction. I find the world fascinating. :)