On Thursday night urged by something close to craving I ordered Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife from Bookstation and got it just after the store opened the next morning. I was going to get other books anyway and I ventured to see if I can get this one as well. I think they just read the emails in the morning, went to the shelf, and took the book off for me. It cost a bit more than 1000 forints on being second hand, but judged by the look it hasn't been touched more than once. Even the spine got crumpled by my reading. Sometimes I have this feeling with books that it feels just so relieving to hold it in my hands, but at the same time I'm excited all over. After purchasing or taking it out of the library I like to open a book on the tram, read the praise and the author's biography, the blurb, then turn to the last page and check the page number. For some reason I like to know the length of the book before reading, and I often check how far I've got and calculate the quotient, as in I'm at the tenth of the book now, I'm at the sixth, whatever. With short books it is easy to proceed that way, and it gives the sense of advancement, I guess. Sometimes I do it because I don't like the book and just want to get over with it. In other cases I just want to check how long I've read in one day, and that also implies if the book is a good one. For example, I read about a hundred pages from The Time Traveler's Wife in one day. I'd started Dubliners by James Joyce about a week before, and I have to admit with slight embarrassment that I haven't even reached page 60 of that.
I have to go in about thirty minutes, and I wasn't going to write a post during the day, but then I'm home alone, and feel so down. I hate all this job seeking stuff and all the dead ends of life spreading up for me. Probably the rainy weather just adds to it, though just this morning I came home whistling and my sister remarked what a good mood I was in despite the weather. I was too, though I don't know why as my morning class wasn't a big success. I think I'm not putting enough energy to it, though sometimes I spend a whole lot of time selecting and arranging activities for the lesson, photocopy thorough worksheets, cut out funny activities, you know, and in the end the lesson doesn't turn out that splendid.
Yesterday was a good day, though. We went on a trip to Nagyvázsony, near Lake Balaton. There's a faction in the orchestra that is doing Hungary's blue tourist route, though not too fast as we just have a couple of trips each year. I came to the orchestra when they had already started the route, and never bothered with actually buying the book in which you can collect the seals after each passage, though it must be fun to look at them and see how far you've gone (just like with reading). Anyway, I think I missed about two years as the other members often pre-discussed the date without informing me and my boyfriend and we'd made other plans. Or last time there was a two-day trip and I didn't want to spend on the motel. We usually go in cars of orchestra members whose workplace pays for their fuel, so all we have to take care of is our food. The weather was ideal for hiking yesterday, perhaps a bit too windy. I enjoyed being outdoors and eventually started to enjoy the company as well. We got home around 10 pm, which was a bit bad, it being a Sunday and I having to wake up early, but at least I slept like a baby.
The day before my boyfriend stayed for the night. We had hot sandwiches for dinner and watched Spielberg's Munich, starring Eric Bana (and Geoofrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Matthieu Kassovitz - they are the ones I know by name). It's a nearly-three-hour-long drama about the 1972 Olympic Games, when eleven Jewish sportsmen were killed, and its aftermath, in which a group of Israeli agents are assigned to find and kill the Palestinians responsible for the murders. It raises several issues and works as a thriller as well, though I wouldn't say it's an easy movie for a date. I'm getting to like Bana as an actor more and more. Perhaps his only film I'm not keen on is The Incredible Hulk, which is not my genre at all, and he plays a miserable biologist guy.
Another positive feature of today is that I've spotted a tiny lilac plant in the florist's window in a matching-colored pot, and bought it for mother's day (all right, a day later than should have, but she wasn't at home at the weekend, anyway). It's called campanula, and requires a lot of watering, so I hope it will survive.
I haven't told much about the book (but I will) and I have to fly, let me just refer back to the title of the post. Or perhaps a quote from the blurb: "This is one of the books that makes you want to eat it up from start to finish." An I didn't feel like anything else, except for perhaps making love.
P.S. This is the title of a Sophie B. Hawkins song, though I'm not sure if it was hers originally because my favorite by her is Bob Dylan's "I Want You."
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