The Story Begins...

I finally started writing that story about the dream I had last month. I only wrote a few lines this morning, but it was a start. It seems likely that I will finish this one because the whole thing is mapped out for me; generally when I leave a story (or, ahem, a novel) unfinished it is because I do not know where to go next. It's either for that reason or I completely hate it. So far neither is the case.

Well, I could forget about it too, but that rarely happens.

I am also going to be reading three books at the same time: Madame Bovary, Ulysses, and Where the Red Fern Grows. I'm re-reading both Madame Bovary and Where the Red Fern Grows, and I'm nearly done (about 260 pages remaining) with Ulysses, but there will be least be some overlap between the books. I haven't read so many books at the same time since I was in school.

The reason I'm reading Where the Red Fern Grows is because I assigned it to the kid I'm tutoring and I need to follow along. I haven't read it since I was the kid's age (he's like 10 or 11). I had forgotten a lot of things about the novel, but I still remember how it ends, which is a downer. Oh well.

As far as Madame Bovary goes, I'm reading that because a friend wants to read it and cannot seem to get through it alone. Completely empathic to that issue (I often feel that if I'm bound to someone else, I can get things accomplished), I decided that I should read it again, even though I finished it just last year. The difference now is that I am going to be reading a different edition than the one I read. Instead of Eleanor Marx-Aveling's translation published by Barnes & Noble, I will be reading Geoffrey Wall's translation published by Penguin. Naturally, I will go back and forth between the two translations; I may just come out of this with more insight into the novel. Of course the best thing would to read it in the original French, but I would need to study that language first.

The whole point of all this is to try to keep myself busy so that I can get the ball rolling on other things. For instance, I need to apply again to Ph.D. programs, and I haven't started. If I let inertia take over, then maybe I can accomplish the things I don't seem to when I have all the time on the world on my hands.

Let's hope this works.