I’m half-awake right now, honestly. Nevertheless, I’m determined to do one of these posts a month so here’s my roundup of my February reading; my reading update also includes a chess update because I feel too bashful to have separate blog posts for chess given I’m really not that great at it even though I love it forever.
I read a lot in February but far less than January when I was ill for half the month and just self-medicating with books while feeling extremely sorry for myself. In February I was getting better but there was a pile of work to get through inclusive of grading for three courses and preparing two PhD supervisees for dissertation submission and another four for the final stages of their candidature (this includes co-authoring and submitting articles). That said, I did manage to read 6 books in February which is a decent number as opposed to previous years. Of note was my reread of Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing for one of those co-authored articles. It is excellent in parts while I just could not jive with some other bits of it. If you know you know. However, I cannot deny that even in her debut novel, Lessing’s brilliance shines through and I found myself emotionally disturbed by it for a few days. I’m currently reading Love, Again by Lessing which is again for another co-authored article with the PhD student obsessed with Lessing’s work. It’s slightly less emotionally confronting and quite engaging.
I also finished Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle which is absolutely spectacular and really relevant to the times in which we live– I am hooked on this world and want more. More! Excited to start The Mossa and Pleiti Investigations next. Another notable read for me was Tash Aw’s incredibly haunting and maddening We, The Survivors. I’m still introspecting about this one as it left a mark on me.
My months-long reread of The Lays of Beleriand came to an end the past week, which had me chortling with delight (yet again) over The Lay of Leithian which I love in all of its different iterations. Next up will be The Shaping of Middle Earth in my grand History of Middle Earth adventure. Other stuff I’m currently rereading: A couple of Patricia A. Mckillip books (The Winter Rose and Something Rich and Strange). I’m also still on my The Wheel of Time grand reread and am partway through The Path of Daggers.
Overall, I’m very pleased with myself returning to this intensely reading habit in the evenings. Not being active on social media agrees with me and reading helps me regulate that nervous system which is much needed in a year in which I need to achieve a frightening amount of things.
Chess Notes
Because I’m not playing any other game on my phone (although on ye olde macbook I do regularly turn up on my MUD that I’ve been on since 2004 and regularly update WoW and Hearthstone), my chess rating has gone up after a decline over the past few years. I was also astounded when I’d realised I was top of the league on one of the leaderboards and have now made it to the Crystal league. Mind you, I’m not really that great even though I’ve been playing since the 90s — there was a long lapse of time when I was not playing and back then I had zero strategy! It’s more of blundering through daily 3 minute chess matches. I’m awfully good at being annoying and winning through timeouts! Every now and then I surprise myself with checkmates or with opponents resigning because I chomped all their good pieces. Nom nom nom. I remain more a defensive player rather than offensive but daily puzzles and lessons on two apps have made me far more proficient and able to checkmate and to be more aggressive in my chess game.
On a more analogue level: I have been working on the puzzles set by Bobby Fischer in his book Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, which I have in paperback. To work through some of these I set up a physical chess set; also so I could try out opening moves and defences. I did this because I started to be afraid that I wouldn’t be able to see things clearly if it’s analogue so I need to have pattern recognition on more than one version of the chessboard. I mean, it’s not inconceivable that some day I might want to partake of analogue chess matches even if it’s for retirement age seniors. Let’s be real, that’ll be the only time I’d be able to do such a thing given my workload, my priorities as a published/publishing author, and my music studies. For now, I’m delighted that everything is getting easier although my ELO remains in the 600s so far. Strategies are easier to comprehend, my pattern recognition is improving in leaps and in bounds. But more than that, chess is fun and is a great workout for the brain; it provides structure and discipline. Also my version of self-care. Chess is love. Chess is life.
Maybe, if I ever reach an ELO of 1500-2000 I’ll invest in the chess set of my dreams. It’s a thought that makes me smile.