Last night, Rowan and I finished The Book Thief. I had read this before, in 2008 (what a wonderful year for books THAT was!), and when I finished it, I was bawling. Rowan, who was just newly six, came up to me and tried to hug me and I told her she didn’t need to, that it was a good feeling to cry like that.
Reading it again, with her, was no different. Except that this time, we both cried. She buried her head in my shoulder as we read about the bombing of Himmel street (SPOILER ALERT, I GUESS). It is hard not to cry with such a strangely magical book. How wonderful it is that there are books out there that make you love characters and then break your heart when they die! The power of words is truly amazing.
We started this book at the end of November, and she did not like it right away. It’s a strange book to read with a child. A story of death and World War II. It is vastly different than our usual books of adventurous kids going on journeys and whatnot (we will be going back to this familiar territory with our next book, Wildwood). I told her to give it 50 pages and see what she thought, and by that point, when she met little Rudy Steiner, she was in love. I think that Rudy reminded her of her little boyfriend, and that was part of it, but she also fell in love with the world that Markus Zusak created for us. The world of Liesel Meminger, as told to us by Death. She has now experienced that feeling of a good cry and can no longer make fun of me for being a cryface.
I am now reading another book about death, or rather a lack thereof, and it is really quite good. I have a goal of buying either no books or only a handful of books in 2012, so have been checking things out from the library. The library has an iPhone app that one can use to search titles and put things on hold — I don’t actually even need to go there until it is time to pick up my books! It is like shopping, except without paying any money. Amazing. Yes, I realize that most people have utilized the wonderful service of the library for a long time, but please let me bask in my renewed love of the library system. Looking things up online (on my computer or my phone) is not quite as fun as browsing inside a physical library, but, the convenience is unbeatable. Anyhow, the book that I checked out is called The Post-Mortal by Drew Magary and it is about a world where scientists come up with a cure for aging, basically making people unable to die from old age (they can still die from other things, but will not age). I am zipping along in it, and am about 2/3 of the way through in just two days of readings. I can always tell how much I like something by how late I stay up reading it. This is a late night book.
I was up late last night reading, and then awoke in the middle of the night to a coughing Katja. Poor thing has a little cold right now. She was cranky as all get-out on Sunday, with a fever to boot!, but had been a little better yesterday, except for the cough. When I fell back asleep last night, I really fell back asleep and did not wake up on time this morning, which was kind of bad, because I had to get in and get stuff done before heading off to a meeting with our new vice president about the new organizational structures that will be implemented in our office. It has me thinking that I am ready for more of a challenge at work. I need to get a resume together, except that even though I work in employment, I am very bad at writing these things myself. Selling myself in general is not a strong point of mine. Ugh. So, now, that is on my mind. I am visualizing success and a significant pay raise. The money would be nice, but the challenge and change would be better. I would do this for a less than significant pay raise, to be honest, but I’m aiming high. You know, aim for the moon and all of that.
Oh! And, my morning was all out of whack so much that I forgot my pump parts at home and when I went to pump milk on my morning break, realized that that was not going to happen without some vital pieces. I had to go home for an early lunch, pump and bring my stuff back for the afternoon. It is so hard to go home in the middle of the day; I did not want to leave. The only bonus was, I guess, that I got a really great parking spot in the ramp upon my return.
