My Own Personal Sabbath #24

Almost every Sunday since mid-May 2020 with a few exceptions, I have been taking my own personal Sabbath, where I tune out of the news and social media and turn off my ringer and all notifications on my phone.

I am starting today by reading and commenting on blogs and listening to Sleepy Hollow on XPN, a public radio station out of Philadelphia. Right now they’re just finishing up is “My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane, which I like when it starts, but then he gets a little “reedy” for me which is not one of my favorite things. Later, I plan on dipping into the second Ruth Galloway mystery, The Janus Stone, by Elly Griffith.

I’ll check in later to let you know how things are going. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the Coltrane song, which you might enjoy, even though I don’t toward the end of the song:

I don’t think I realized Coltrane was playing a soprano saxophone here (I Googled). No wonder it’s too “reedy” for me. Ugh.

It is now about 2 p.m. and I’ve been reading The Janus Stone. I almost abandoned it after I learned Ruth is pregnant by the detective from the first book and also italicized asides in the first person from the killer, which Griffiths did in the first one too. I don’t know why, but I’ve never liked italics. Flashbacks are even worse, I usually want to flash out. Ha. However, I am continuing on because the story is still interesting (enough). In the background I’ve been listening to a musician new to me, Theo Parrish, whose music I’m really enjoying. Here’s a song from his latest album Wuddaji:

I got about halfway through The Janus Stone earlier today and then decided that I couldn’t read any more. Mostly, it was for the reasons I mentioned above. I then took a nap. When I got up, I had dinner with Kim before she left for work and I’m now watching binge-watching CSI, Season 11, to end the night.

In The Chill Out Tent to end the weekend

The Chill Out Tent

This is where I am/was as I end/ended this weekend. I thought it was a good place to leave off for both my Thankfully Reading Weekend and what probably will be my last weekend before I head back to work after being off for a few weeks with covid.

Unofficially, I began the Thankfully Reading Weekend Wednesday night reading The Big Bamboo, the eighth in the Serge Storms series, by Tim Dorsey. On Friday, I finished it. On Saturday, I dipped into an audiobook version of A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton, but found both the narrator and the story borrrrring. The rest of the day, I got stuck in a marathon of CSI, which I slowly am making my way though (I’m on Season 10). Today, I began the day reading The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths in an ebook collection of the first three books in the Ruth Galloway series. I’ll be dipping in and out while I listen/watch The Chillout Tent.

How was/is your weekend? Reading, watching, listening to anything worth sharing? Share away in the comments.

2020 Thankfully Reading Weekend — I’m in!

I only participate in a few book blogging events every year and this (see image/link above) is one of them. This year’s event is from tomorrow through Sunday, Nov. 29, although I will be starting this afternoon. Here’s how Jenn describes the event:

There are no rules to the weekend, we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for the year. We thought it’d be fun if we cheered each other on a bit.

As I mentioned in my last post, I might try to read a little from a collection of the first three Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths that I picked up on my Kindle earlier this year. I dipped into it once before but it didn’t grab me, but based on lavish praise from Amanda of the blog The Zen Leaf, I’m giving it another try.

I also borrowed three ebooks from the Free Library of Philadelphia: The Big Bamboo, Hurricane Punch, and Atomic Lobster, the eight, ninth and 10th respectively in the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey. And lastly, I have One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton (Katherine Mary Deville Dalton), an author to which I was introduced by a friend via the blog The Passing Tramp.

So as you can see, I have choices. As I’m still recovering from mild symptoms of COVID-19 and have been in a little big of “a brain fog,” I’ll be lucky to get through one or two of them, but I like having choices in case one series doesn’t work for me or if I want to try something else.

I’ll let you know how I did in my next post on Sunday. Until then, stay safe, stay well…and may The Force be with you.