Do you read several books at the same time?
Of course, I'm not talking about literally reading more than one book at exactly the same time. It's the idea that you're alternately reading several books at around the same period. Personally, I do this although it's not as systematic as how writer Philips Athans does it. Read how he reads five books at the same time over at his Grasping for the Wind site.
Like I said, I sometimes end up reading several books (graphic novels included) over the same period of time not because of quantity (meeting a certain number of books read in a year) but in my case, it's an accidental thing. I sometimes end up reading several books in my search for that book I would really want to read from start to finish given other factors such as my temperament or mood, the flavor or the feel I'm looking for (err, it's essentially spec-fic but we're talking about whether I'm in the mood for some Jacques, some Tolkien, or another author, or maybe I'm into sci-fi now or a bit of alternate history, or epic fantasy, catch the drift?), and even the gravity or heaviness of the material (whether I'm in the mood to do some brain-whacking like what happened when I was reading Anathem, or just some light-heart adventure like reading one of the Redwall books, or I'm in serious mood to declare a crisis of personal faith when you read Angels and Demons, or the Da Vinci Code, or one of the Left Behind Books).
I end up starting reading several books and depending on which book catches my fancy, the other books are relegated back to the TBR (to-be-read) list. It also happens that even though I may be warped up with one book, I still thumb one of the other books from time to time especially if I encounter something boring with the current primary book. By that time, it's either I get the urge to finish the earlier chosen book or altogether leave it on the TBR shelf and give my full attention on the new current chosen read.
Athans' method is more systematic (somewhat) and that's because he has several goals in mind when he does his multi-material reading. As for moi, I just read for the simple pleasure of reading. If I happen to shift from one book to another to another or back again, it's just either impatience or the book lost its flavor.
* * * *
My left foot-ankle is now ok. Not yet 100% as I still feel twinges every now and then but it's no longer hurting. I no longer grimace in pain when I take a step.
Early last week, it was exceptionally painful to use and being bipedal, there was no escaping from it (crutches or the wheelchair were out of the question). A trip to the hilot who did a "healing" massage (what's the proper English term for hilot anyway?) helped. The hilot sent me home with stern warnings not to wet the sprained portion for the next 24 hours and not to stress it.
By Friday, it was healed good enough for me to be able to drive to Laguna.
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It was good to play my guitar again after quite a while even if it meant getting calluses again on my fingertips.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I don't have my guitar with me at the Makati apartment. It's at Laguna, at my parents' house (well, technically, my house as well since I grew up there) where it stays put in one corner of the house.
I purposely left it at Laguna because at least there it would be played more frequently by my father rather than just accumulate dust and other stuff in Makati. Since I bought it, it has been competing for my attention along with other stuff that, more often than not, have higher priority. I would've loved to play and hone my guitar-playing skill (I'm slightly lower than a novice, sadly) because that would also mean I get to hone my singing and song-writing skills. To do that, I would need lots of practice and need a lot of time. Unfortunately, time is something I don't have much of these days. But it's something that my father has aplenty so it was a no-brainer decision when he asked if he could borrow the guitar for a couple of weeks. It's now been over a year since I lent him the guitar.
Last weekend, I was lucky to have had time to play the guitar. There are times when we go home to Laguna that I don't get to play it at all because other activities take precedent.
But it's always a nice feeling to take out the guitar from its case, tune it, and slowly but surely strum and pluck the strings and get familiar with it once again. Then belt out the GNR's :)
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One activity that does get my attention when we're at my folks is playing the PSP.
The PSP was left by my sister, Wheng, who brought it home as a form of entertainment from Dubai two vacation trips ago. But she grew tired of it and left it (intending to buy a better handheld console) with me. I had it with me for a few weeks but then, like the guitar, I also left it with my father so that he would have something to do during those long days at home alone (he has been retired for over a decade now, one of the several house-bands in our little subdivision in Pacita).
Thanks to Edmon, it's upgraded to the latest firmware configuration and able to run the latest CSOs and ISOs. Unfortunately, it's limited by its memory stick size (just a mere 2GB in this age of 16GBs) and is now suffering from controller-wear-out (the buttons sometimes no longer respond to your tapping). The battery life is also not as it used to be but then again, it might be because it plays more graphic-intensive games that burn up the juice quicker. It's really in serious need of cleaning and some parts need to be changed (the buttons, most likely) and maybe on our next visit home I'll take it down to the mall and spruce it up. I hear the 8GB memory sticks are now cheaper.
A bigger mem-stick will allow for more games and that would please my father tremendously. He has asked if there are other games available for the PSP and that's a hint for me that he's getting tired of playing Lumines and the occasional Tekken 6 (those are the only 2 games I know that he plays on the PSP that's loaded also with Exit, Innocent Life, and one more game I forgot the title of which, in addition a UMD of Sims 2 Castaway is also available). My father is more into puzzles, word games, and tetris-style games so I'll probably be loading the PSP up with more of such.
* * * *
I'm still feeling the death of my rig from before Christmas last year.
I've talked about it here but adding further details about it ... my HP Compaq CQ40-310AU conked out because of overheating problems with the graphics processor unit (GPU). I believe that's a lesser-talked about flaw of the AMD-powered CQ40 models.
The more popular defect of this laptop unit is the LOF or "line of fate" -- an LCD-related problem which CoolToyz details here. I also experienced the LOF phenomenon and thanks to an extended warranty was able to get the LCD replaced with a brand new one. Unfortunately, what killed my laptop was the overheating GPU problem that occurred a few weeks later. My hacker friend, Momon, declared the laptop dead after a quick inspection. And further verification by an independent repair center confirmed it.
I hope HP does a recall of this product so that my investment would be recouped. Otherwise, it's Php 27K down the drain. I haven't put up on sale the salvageable parts in hopes that one of these days HP would have a softening of its corporate heart and actually recall the product.
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The reason I'm reliving the death of my rig is because I've been visiting computer retail shops online and scouting the prices of netbooks.
With fingers-crossed, I'm hoping that by next month we'll be able to purchase at least a netbook for our daily use. It's going to be a cooperative purchase by all users in the household and while I won't be able to play The Sims 2 or GTA3 on the netbook, at least I'll be online more often and get to work on my off-office hours work.
The full-powered laptop (power processor, max GB memory, power graphics card, optical drives, and all other works) will have to wait probably until next year. If a benefactor would be willing to donate some Php 30K, I'll be willing to shell out the remaining amount to purchase one of those power Asus or Lenovo laptops at the mid-Php 30Ks level. Otherwise, will have to be content with using a netbook for the meantime.
* * * *
Aargh, the review of The Lost Symbol has yet to see daylight!
That's one of the drawbacks of not having your own laptop at home.
In the meantime, I'm reading the anthology Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves but that could change at anytime. Like I said earlier, my reading preferences change depending on the mood and to be honest I haven't had a taste for short stories for quite some time now.
Let's see if I'll be switching to a novel or a series in the coming days or weeks.
