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March Rereading Madness: Day 23

March 23, 2021

Hi friends!

Sad news – I am officially supposed to be drinking less tea. I don’t know how it’s going to look like (I’m apparently allowed to have up to have 1 cup of coffee’s worth of a tea a day) but I’m hoping I can get back to my regular caffeine consumption levels soon. There’s far too much tea out there for me to drink.

Anyway, it’s been a fairly good reading day. I’ve finished:

  • One more chapter of The Tale of Genji – He’s finally in exile. It took half the chapter (Genji had to say goodbye to each of his ladies) but he’s there and everyone is miserable. It’s pretty interesting that it’s a voluntary exile, but it’s being treated as though he’s sent there by the emperor.
  • Finished Essays in Idleness – Sadly, an entry in the second half of the book was really terrible; basically it was a list of reasons why women were terrible. Reminds me of the discussion of women in Genji and how awful that was too. Apart from that, what I got from this book is: the non-popular moments can be beautiful, don’t strive too hard (or ‘show off’ even if you are the expert), the past is better than the present and all new trends suck (this is because the author believed he was living in the last age of the world). I could see some aspects of these still reflected in contemporary Japanese culture, but I’m hoping others (like the attitude towards women) are long gone.
  • Finished At The Sign of the Sugar Plum – New book! Review to come!
  • Started on The Meaning of Night – This was initially recommended to me by Warren and I remember really enjoying it the first time around! I’ve finished part 1 and I’m definitely hooked (especially since it’s historical fiction with very gothic undertones)

9 thoughts on “March Rereading Madness: Day 23”

  2. Are you OK? Is the caffeine affecting your blood pressure? I recently underwent tests for heart palpitations. I passed the tests but was also told I might want to adjust caffeine consumption as I often have three mugs of tea per day. Hope you like the second reading of Michael Cox’s book. It remains one of my favorites. Just finished “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro—about an empathetic AI and her interactions with the family that bought her as a child’s companion. I found it a little disturbing, but thought-provoking, and enjoyed it so much that I just began Ishiguro’s “An Artist of the Floating World.”

    1. Yes! It’s just acid reflux – so the doctor wants me to lower the caffeine until it gets better.

      I think I’ve only read one book by Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go – so Klara and the Sun sounds interesting! I will have to check it out when I have some time.

  3. Oh no — I hope the limits on your daily tea intake are soon going to be removed again! And, as importantly of course, the underlying reasons are going to go away …

What do you think?