2022 #thankfullyreading Weekend has kicked off

Click on the image to be taken to Jenn’s kickoff post.

Officially the event, hosted by Jenn of the blog Jenn’s Bookshelves, began on Wednesday and runs through Sunday. Unofficially, I began this past weekend as I was/am off until Monday.

How will/did you celebrate Thanksgiving?

My wife, who is a 911 dispatcher, worked this morning, so she prepared part of Thanskgiving dinner earlier in the week. We had some last night to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary and will have some again after she sleeps a little. Right now, as I draft this, I’m watching the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon, and we might watch some more later after she awakes.

What’s in your TBR pile of the weekend?

I started with listening to a bit of Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, written and read by Bono. Also on my list are Paul Newman’s autobiography, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man and the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey, of which I’m on the 14th: When Elves Attack. Apropos or not, the latter is a Christmas tale of sorts.

How much time do you think you’ll have for reading?

A lot. However, will I use it to read all the time? Today, not so much. Tomorrow, a little more and hopefully Saturday and Sunday, even more.

What book are you starting out with?

See above.

Are you reading print, ebooks, or audio?

In addition to listening to Bono’s memoir, I’ll be reading Newman’s autobiography in print and Dorsey’s book on ebook.

What books will you be talking about during Thanksgiving dinner?

My wife and I probably will be talking about whatever MST3K episode is on at the moment. If you’d like to tune in, here’s a link (you even can rewind and it makes great background music):

So how about y’all? How are you spending Thanksgiving?

Starting 2022 Thankfully Reading Weekend Early

That’s what I am doing today. Officially the event, hosted by Jenn of the blog Jenn’s Bookshelves, begins on Wednesday and runs through next Sunday.

Click on the image to be taken to the sign-up post for this year’s event.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m off for “9 Days, 17 hours, 30 minutes”. I have a list of possibilities of what I want to read, watch, and listen to. This morning, I’ve already started to listen to Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, written and read by Bono, which is on the list. Also on my list are Paul Newman’s autobiography, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man and the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey, of which I’m on the 14th: When Elves Attack. Apropos or not, the latter is a Christmas tale of sorts.

Even as I’m writing this, I’m listening to Bono’s memoir. I just fell into it and now I don’t know when today I will be able to get out of listening to Bono’s ~~tenor~~ baritone voice accompanied by his, and his band’s, music, some “reimagined” just for this recording. I’ll leave you with a sample:

9 days, 17 hours, 30 minutes

That’s how long I’ll be off from work starting next weekend and running through Thanksgiving to the following weekend.

So what might I do with my time? I have several possibilities:

Bingewatch Doom Patrol, Season 3
Listen to Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono
Read Paul Newman’s autobiography, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
Watch The Last Movie Stars, documentary about Paul Newman and his wife
Continue reading Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey

~~I’m also going to see my parents, who live about an hour/hour and a half away, this coming weekend.~~ Update: Wednesday, Nov. 16, yesterday morning, the check engine light plus lights for cruise control and traction control on our 2011 Subaru Outback came on. I took it to the shop and they reset codes but they’re still flashing. Now we have an appointment, but not until after Thanksgiving. At least, it’s driveable for now. 🤞

So I’ll let you know how it all went or how it’s going later, but for now I’ll leave you with these:

Interrupting the doing

It’s a little bit before noon Saturday as I begin to write this. I’m in the midst of listening to two parts of a talk by Tara Brach titled “Beyond the Controlling Self” that she gave in 2019.

In the first part, she asks, “What can we do if caught in overdoing/overcontrolling?” with the answer to be mindful and “choose to stop the doing” and “to interrupt the doing.”

She talks about how it is important in our day to take pauses that invite us to beingness. I also am a strong believer in taking those pauses, that pause, in our week. It is what I am doing today and this weekend as I don’t have to work either today or tomorrow.

Initially, or at least as of yesterday, this was not the plan for today as I signed up for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, which is happening today, at the last moment. But I realized that I have my phone set up to block Instagram, where I was planning to post updates, for the weekend. While I could have changed the settings, I also realized that I didn’t want to do that and after another week at work, I needed to “interrupt the doing” and pause.

So here I am, interrupting the doing. Namaste.