As always, I cannot always follow through on my stated intentions. I am interrupting my reading plan, which itself is a fairly major departure from my overarching reading list. I decided I really wanted to read Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita before seeing a musical version, which I am going to this Friday! Now had I stuck to my original goal, it would only have been 40 pages per night, which is pretty manageable. However, life intervened as it so often does, and I had about 300 pages to go and only 5 nights left, which is still only about 60 pages. I did read another chunk this morning and then took the train to work for the first time in many, many, many months (so I could read, which is the main drawback of cycling). I think I'm now at 200 pages to go and 4 nights left, so that's a little better and definitely doable. I've actually read this book several times and in three different translations, though it has been a while since the last time (probably 10+ years), but I'm deep enough in that much of the plot is coming back to me.
Then I have Douglas Coupland's latest book, Binge, which is comprised of 60 micro-stories, out from the library. I pretty much have to read this right away, as I won't be able to renew it. Then I can return to Joyce Cary and his first trilogy. I have to say I am not enjoying it much at all. Once I found out that the artist Gully Jimson was a frequent wife-beater (mentioned several times in Herself Surprised), I knew that this was going to be a challenge, as I usually draw the line at reading about abusers (and I dropped Donleavy's The Ginger Man for precisely this reason). I'll probably force myself to get through The Horse's Mouth, but already am pretty sure I won't like it, and To Be a Pilgrim is just boring and far too long. I have no idea why this trilogy is rated so highly. At that point, I will mostly be trying to read through books that are destined for the Little Free Library out front. And then I guess I will get back to my main reading list, though still trying to squeeze in a lot of poetry on the side... It looks like Maxwell's The Château is next whenever I get back on track.
My son has had a fair bit of homework and applying for scholarships over the past two weeks, so we've very far behind on watching the Britcoms compared to where I expected we would be. Also, more often than not there is some sporting event on when I want to see a movie. Nonetheless, we managed to see The Matrix. (I probably won't bother showing him the 2nd and 3rd in the trilogy.) Then we finally watched Chaplin's The Great Dictator. I'm not sure I've ever seen the whole thing. It did drag a lot, but I liked the parts where Napaloni (a parody of Mussolini) is on screen, and indeed the banter between Hynkel and Napaloni seems very similar to what goes on in Duck Soup. I tried to get to Duck Soup yesterday, but he felt a bit pressed for time, so we actually watched an episode of Slings and Arrows instead. On Saturday, I showed him Chaplin's Modern Times, though if I had known he was so pressed for time, I would have substituted in Duck Soup. Well, we'll get to it fairly soon. Given that it is fairly short, we should get to City Lights fairly soon. I haven't decided if I'll watch his later talkies (Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight and A King in New York) by myself or with him. Most likely by myself. I also had strongly considered watching another Bogart film with him, High Sierra, but I am a bit more likely to try to turn that into a double feature, paired with They Drive By Night, and push it off a week or so. Yet because we are so close to Halloween, I may pull yet another detour and have him watch Beetlejuice sometime this upcoming weekend.
Edit (10/31): So I did manage to stick to the (modified) plans for once. We saw Beetlejuice on Sat., and then Duck Soup after the trick-or-treating was over on Sun. The number of kids was fairly low this year, but at least the weather was quite nice, compared to the many times it has drizzled on us. Both my kids have aged out of trick-or-treating, though my son went to a Halloween party with some friends and my daughter handed out some candy. Duck Soup was great. I think it is my favourite of the Marx Brothers' movies.
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