Kindness

We had friends for dinner at the weekend and were discussing the "Team Chivers" year of DSD challenges (Do Something Different). Having knocked the first one off (no spend for a week) we're fairly confident we can do the rest, although March's wartime rations is going to be a toughie. Or maybe not depending on how I'm doing at curbing the growth of my sweet tooth come sun down. So in a fortnight's time February's challenge is to focus on random acts of kindness for a week. This inspired our dinner pals to extend a hand of kindness to their elderly neighbours today (a difficult and pride-swallowing task given how much they've been costing them in planning application objections recently) and it makes me feel more than a little bit nice to know that I've rubbed off on someone in a positive way. And they rubbed off on me too in that I'm heeding their suggestion to re-read a favourite book (something I've never thought a particularly worthwhile thing to do) and we're going to incorporate their joint favourtite film into our November challenge. The book re-reading is interesting in that I will happily re-watch a favourite film or a CD but have always thought it odd to do it with a book. But as Kim pointed out, every time you read it you get soemthing new from it and the book becomes like a best friend. She reads Pride and Prejudice every year and I'm wondering what I might grow to have the same sort of affection for. Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca maybe? Right now though I have the final 30 pages of No Time for Goodbye, a slice of carrot cake and a silent house to savour.

My Cousin Rachel

Last January, being a lover of lists and planning, I did something very geeky (a lot like me) and that was to prepare a reading list. The intention was to make sure I got through a handful of books I've been vowing to make time for but had been displaced by the suggestions of friends and Psychologies magazine for the past two years. So with 100 pages left of my last book for 2008 (Daphne Du Maurier's 'My Cousin Rachel') I'm looking back at everything I've read. I didn't make myself stick at stuff I wasn't enjoying (my reading opportunities are way too short for that silliness) so What Mothers Do, The Ya Ya Sisterhood (Yawn Yawn Sisterhood?) and Quarantine didn't get ticked off. I tried and gave up on Dorris Lessing's The Golden Notebook too, but as that was not on my original list I needn't feel too bad. My favourites from the original list were Helen Dunmore's The Siege (my god that made me feel grateful for my life); Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island (outspoken wit I couldn't stop laughing and nodding along to) and Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (which has left me wanting to trek to Everest base camp). In addition to that lot I really recommend the following that I picked up during the year:- A Thousand Splendid Suns; The Point of Rescue; One Good Turn and The Post Birthday World. These come from terrific writers. So to 2009 and I'll be starting with The Almost Moon by Alice Seebold as soon as My Cousin Rachel has gone back to the library.