About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Love in the Time of Cholera - You're It

Josie has tagged me with this meme and since it's sort of different, I'll play along. I absolutely love to read and had just finished "Atonement" last week, but hadn't yet decided on my next read. So now I've chosen "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez who won the Nobel Prize in Literature for this book in 1982. Apparently, it's an ageless and deeply human story about two young people, Florentina and Fermina who fall passionately in love. However, Florentina eventually decides to marry a wealthy and well-born doctor and Fermina is devasted. The book will tell me of the next 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days until he is able to again declare his love for her.

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.
4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same.

Page 123 reads:

One night, a short while after the serenade by solo piano, Lorenzo Daza discovered a letter, its envelope sealed with wax, in the entryway to his house. It was addressed to his daughter and the monogram "J.U.C." was imprinted on the seal. He slipped it under the door as he passed Fermina's bedroom and she never understood how it had come there, since it was inconceivable to her that her father had changed so much that he would bring her a letter from a suitor. She left it on the night table, for the truth was she did not know what to do with it, and there it stayed, unopened, for several days, until one rainy afternoon when Fermina Daza dreamed that Juvenal Urbino had returned to the house to give her the tongue depressor he had used to examine her throat. In the dream, the tongue depressor was made not of aluminum but of a delicious metal that she had tasted with pleasure in other dreams, so that she broke it in two unequal pieces and gave him the smaller one.

Wow! After reading these 5 sentences, I can hardly wait to get into the book! Now who to tag? Who do I think has a book on the go? Okay, I'll tag the following to make this a worldwide attempt, but don't feel obligated to do this.

jmb in Vancouver, BC
Nancy in Panama City, Florida
Mike in London, England
Meggie in New South Wales, Australia
Claudia in California

Happy reading, everyone!

9 comments:

Jo said...

That sounds wonderful. You know, "Atonement" is the first novel I have wanted to read for a long time, so perhaps while you are reading "Love in the Time of Cholera", I can perhaps borrow "Atonement". :-)

Leslie: said...

But of course, m'friend. It's a keeper for me though and I'd like to let D#2 read it, too. D#1 has already read it. Remind me next time we get together. It has such beautiful writing that I think you'll enjoy it.

meggie said...

I have seen the movie Atonement, & really enjoyed it. I would love to read the book.
This meme is a little different from the one I have just done, so I will seek out another book I am reading. I always have about 6 on the read at once! Mind of a flea!!

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

5 first sentences from page 123 of "A short history of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka.

We moved from talking about our father's marriage to Valentina to our parents'marriage , and now I see the door to the past has opened a crack, and I want to push.
"It was after the submarine commander was killed at Sebastopol. I supposed she was frightened of being on her own. It was a frightening time."

It's difficult to see how funny the book is.
I was lucky the first book close to me was not one of Marcel Proust with his so long and beautiful sentences.
I know I'm out of the rule.

HeatherDB said...

Leslie - I love your blog. It gives me something to read everyday that isn't just "look how cute our kis are!" :) I will have to pick up atonement ...somehow...
- Heather

Leslie: said...

Meggie, I had a strong feeling you were an avid reader.
Deslilas, thanks for joining in! Ah...Proust....
Heather, you've been just a "tad" busy lately and are forgiven for not having been reading much. lol

Smalltown RN said...

Oh that sounds good....now I have to get mine up...I am not an avid reader, but it just so happens that I am reading a book right now....I will have my post up by tomorrow....hey do you know Crunchy Carpet, she lives in Vancouver is a fellow blogger she started up the WetCoast Women blog...anyhow, she is planning a get together for local bloggers...and I am going to attend....not sure when it is though...if you are interested...click on the badge on my blog and it will connect you to the WetCoast Women site...you should sign up if you already haven't....have a great weekend my friend....

The sun is out it is absolutely brilliant out....the sun gods love us today!!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I might try that!

jams o donnell said...

It really is a superb novel. Garcia Marquez is one of the great novellists of our time. I would recommed 100 years of solitude, one of my all time favourtie novels