Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 167

Well, It Was a Surprise All Right

Me: So….the box of chocolates I just found on the dresser, under the folded laundry. Was that an anniversary present?

Scott: (looks amused)

Me: Please tell me it was an anniversary present.

Scott: (grins, enjoying this moment hugely)

Me: It was a Mother's Day present, wasn't it. Which I would have seen on Mother's Day. If I had put my laundry away.

Scott: I wasn't trying to trick you or anything.

Me: I know. You just figured I would, you know, put away the clothes you washed and dried and folded...

Sixteen Years Later

Still smiling big.

Reading, Have Read, To Read

Regarding I Capture the Castle, I'm aware I haven't yet done more than gush about how much I liked it, without saying anything of substance about what I loved and why. If anyone wants to get the ball rolling in the comments of yesterday's post, I'll chime in when time permits.

(If you've missed that combox chat, the consensus seems to be that those of us who haven't read Dodie Smith's original The Hundred and One Dalmations are missing a real gem, and that the Disney movie can't hold a candle ...

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Read it. (You said I should.)

Loved it. (You knew I would!)

Shall we talk?

One afternoon when we were having tea in the garden, [Father:] had the misfortune to lose his temper with Mother very noisily just as he was about to cut a piece of cake. He brandished the cake-knife at her so menacingly that an officious neighbour jumped the garden fence to intervene and got himself knocked down. Father explained in court that killing a woman with our silver cake-knife would be a long, weary business...

Dear Mo Willems

Thank you for writing (and drawing) books I truly do not mind reading half a dozen times a day—

seven days a week—

for weeks on end.

Thank you for the giggles, the belly laughs, the delighted shrieks when Rilla spots the pigeon in the endpapers of a Gerald-and-Piggie book.

Thank you for the new words Wonderboy has learned to read this week.

Thank you for the great discussion my eleven-year-old and I had about the subtle, deceptively simple ways you convey the Pigeon's emotions with the slant of...

This is your brain on the Internet.

From "Yes, The Internet Is Rotting Your Brain" (Salon), a discussion of the new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Your Brain, which is an expansion of ideas posited by author Nicholas Carr in the much-discussed Atlantic Monthly article "Is Google Making Us Stupid":

In the brief period between the writing of the original piece and the publication of "The Shallows," neuroscientists have performed and reviewed important studies on the effects of multitasking, hyperlinks,...

Need any chins?

We've got extra.

(But those cheeks are mine-all-mine.)

"I was a writer, so I was lucky."

One of the many reasons I'm grateful I live in the age of the internet is Roger Ebert's blog. With every entry, he makes me think, assess, examine, appreciate.

The best thing that happened to me was a full-page photo in Esquire, showing exactly how I look today. No point in denying it. No way to hide it. Better for it to be out there. You don't like it, that's your problem. I'm happy I don't look worse. I made a simple decision to just get on with life. I was a writer, so I was lucky...

I can't believe I forgot

The Borrowers!

Another book I love truly, Maudly, deeply. Funnily, I never read books three and four in the series. Can't quite explain that.

The lists keep growing in the comments here and here. Y'all are determined to make my TBR stack reach the moon, aren't you?

I am really chagrined that I didn't put To Kill a Mockingbird on my original list.

Lark Rise to Candleford: Nan?

SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't caught up to Season 3.

Molly left on comment on my Lark Rise post: did anyone know, she wondered, what happened to Alf's girlfriend Nan?

I replied:

I was wondering that myself. She seems to have been written out between seasons two and three. Which is strange, considering how the season two finale devoted so much time to her—wasn't that the episode that culminated in Emma's speech about Nan not believing she deserved a good guy like Alf?

Didn't that...