Blog 11-30-15 – Thanksgiving and Artwalk

Hellooo… It’s Blog time again. I’m still sort of in a Thanksgiving vacation type thing where everyone I’m around acts like I shouldn’t be working, but I still work but a lot fewer things get done. Anyway, I’ve got a few things I feel I should keep posted about.

First of all, my Artwalk showing in Alpine went wonderfully and it was much less cold than previous years (though at one point it did get quite cold). I met a lot of great people and talked to many more I’d met in previous years. And since I’ve officially unveiled my new books at the event, I will just leave the link to my Amazon author page where they can be purchased here again.

My Thanksgiving also went well, and I hope yours did too. It’s the first time I’ve really celebrated (had dinner that wasn’t just my normal dinner with immediate family) in a few years, and the occasion was much more pleasant than when I was last celebrating it because I was able to eat foods prepared closer to how I’m used too. Anyway, enough about me that doesn’t relate to this site: I hope your Thanksgiving went as good as mine or better and that any traveling done went smoothly.

And finally, due to several factors, including the two events mentioned above, it being the cold season and several other things, I am still behind schedule in my written items. And any lead-time my previous advanced planning for this site gave me has eroded. So things will still be late and at wonky times into December. Which, while past the date when I had hoped the problem would be solved, is not past when I actually thought it would be solved. And if things go well everything will be mostly back on track for the New Year.

Thank you,

Austin Smith

Table Topics Chit Chat 58 #115-116

QUESTIONS

  1. If you could only read one magazine, which would you subscribe to?
  2. What’s your ultimate vacation?

ANSWERS By: Austin Smith

  1. The only magazine I was subscribed to was Wargames Illustrated.
  2. I have none because I don’t like vacations really.

 

Table Topics Family 48 #95-96

QUESTIONS

1. If you could visit any place on earth for one week where would you go?

2. Would you rather be an only child or have 10 siblings?

ANSWERS By: Austin Smith

1. I wouldn’t, I really don’t like traveling, and I don’t care about what place in the world I see. I know I’m in the minority there, so if I could give that opportunity to someone else I would.

2. That’s a really hard one. And would depend on whether the income of my family rose to match the increased demand. If that were the case, and my siblings were respectful of my things, I might prefer the latter. But if either of those things weren’t the case, I wouldn’t.

Table Topics Family 29 #57-58

QUESTIONS

1. Would you value a coveted toy or a vacation with your family more?

2. What do you most admire about your parents?

ANSWERS By: Austin Smith

1. Variances in the values of either of those items is wide, I also don’t like vacations. That being said obviously the vacation.

2. The shear amount of things that they have managed to do in their lives.

The Book I had to have with Me at My Apartment (Of Mice and Men)

I moved recently and seem to not be able to shut up about it. So I might as well talk some more.

I like to read books, physical books, because I’d have to destroy each one individually by accident to lose them all. I guess there are several other reasons, too, but my point is that I had to move books with me when I was moving. Selecting the books I wanted to bring was hard. I had allocated myself only one box of books maximum to avoid overburdening myself, but one box only holds twenty or so books, and I own well over a thousand.

I selected my books to bring based on aesthetics (I collect the Shambala Pocket Classics and the Barnes and Noble Collectors Library books because they look great on the shelf together), interest (I just picked up the closest books that I thought I wanted to read, which was a lot of nonfiction, which would surprise the me of three years ago), and necessity (I write articles on the internet and do a comic about WWII tanks, so a dictionary and German Tanks of WWII were very much required). I packed these 37 books into a box and took them with me. This was all done in a rush, as I was under a strict time limit.

They look so much better than the pages read

They look so much better than they read

When I got to my new place I and unpacked everything, I thought nothing of the books and put them on the shelves. It was only later, when going through a bookstore, that I realized I had forgotten something vitally important to me and proceeded to buy one immediately

That was a copy of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which is easily my favorite book of all time and must be with me everywhere. I’m not sure the copy matters, but the book does, and knowing that my original copy is sitting somewhere in my library is of great relief to me.

This cover is forever in my mind

This cover is forever in my mind

I’m not going to review Of Mice and Men here, though I may do that in the future. I just want to say a few things about why it’s my favorite book and why I had to have it with me at my new place.

I first read Of Mice and Men quite some time ago when I was vacationing in New Mexico. We’d gone to town for an afternoon before returning to our camp and had stopped in a used book store. I’ve always loved cartoons and therefore I’d picked up several newspaper comics collections. I don’t know exactly how I ended up picking up a copy of Steinbeck, but I do remember having seen one at the house before and that it seemed small enough for a person of my age to get through in a reasonable amount of time on a camping trip. (Though either just before or just after reading Of Mice and Men I read Jurassic Park on a week-long vacation). I (my parents) bought the book and I didn’t look at it for the rest of the day, preferring to look at cartoons as they were easier to read in the car. I only opened it when I got back and was about to go the sleep in my tent.

I read that book in three sessions, evening, morning, and evening. All told it took me only a couple of hours and I was thoroughly engrossed. I read that book faster than I have read 100 pages of any other book no matter my interest level. I thought it was amazing on first read.

I noticed a lot of things that generally were present in what I was expected to read (but I read Jurassic Park around that time like I said, so I didn’t exactly do as expected). The book treated the reader like both an intelligent and empathetic person, while using simple enough language that almost anyone could understand it. It wasn’t hard to understand what was going on, what the characters were saying and doing, and why they were doing it. But it still managed to make the relationships between them very interesting and developed. The various themes of the novel are presented in a way that packs quite a few thought-provoking observations and events into a small package without beating the reader over the head with them. In that way it made me feel more than any book or story that simply tells me something happened. I cared for and understood why George and Lenny made the decisions they made.

I didn’t really notice the swearing when I first read it. They say “bitch” a lot. I only really noticed it when I read it in a class in middle school, and the kids each read a page out loud. Everyone said something to cover up the swear words (I never read, because I never wanted too, but I would’ve just read them, and that would’ve surprised some people I knew, I bet). That made me realize how well the book goes together and how much not including everything takes away from it. Every word in the book is tied to every other word, getting all the information across in the fastest and best possible way. Adding any word would be a mistake, as would taking out any word.

The book, in length (just over 100 pages), language, character development, and overall story is absolutely perfect, at least in my opinion. It is most certainly my favorite book and, like my favorite movie (the Great Escape), nothing has even come close to knocking it down. Having a copy with me at all times reminds me what the best I’ve ever seen of something is. And reading it each time is as enjoyable and sad and thought-provoking as the last. It is a wonderful book that I believe everyone should have a copy of. It’s certainly small enough to not be a bother, but the impact it leaves is far more than its mass would indicate.