Thursday, May 25, 2006

Me Readses More Bookses

My siblings and I have a peculiar brand of English when we are speaking to each other. Some have told me that this is not unusual, and I've had others tell me there is something wrong with us, haha. My sister has always been the biggest wordsmith of the family and she is particularly prodigious when it comes to hashing words into each other and developing new family colloquialisms. Here are a few of the strange idioms that are particular to my close family:

Frolly - A term of endearment that my sister gave to my grandmother. A derivative of the german word Fräulein.

Pointulae
- Referring to my sister's dog's ears, ostensibly because they are very pointy and it just sounds cooler when you take the adjective, turn it into a noun, then add a Latinate twist to it.

Yumulous - An adjective I coined when I was a bit younger. It refers to food which is exceptionally delicious.

. . . and back to the subject of the title of this post . . .

I recently finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It was well-worded and despite the picturesque speech (which sometimes causes my interest to wane), it was a brilliant cautionary tale that details what could possibly happen to society if we, the human species, are not mindful. It is sort of a different slant on the concept put forth by George Orwell in 1984.

My reading has been very heavy and serious as of lately and my mind is getting a little tired of it, so my next couple reads are going to be something light and fun. I heard about Life of Pi (by Yann Martel) on NPR a while back and I've just started reading it. I am only 4 chapters in, but so far I am liking it. Here is a beautiful, poetic quote from chapter 1 . . .

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity--it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, posessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and the gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

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