What small, beautiful things did I notice today?

Metaphorically and literally speaking:

• Frosty fog that made everything quiet in the field near my house
• 500 geese that made everything loud in the field near my house
• A neighbor's wave
• A phone call from a friend who has moved away
• A phone call from a husband who is working over the holidays
• My dog's rambunctious joy (minus the nip marks on my arm)
• Hot supper waiting
• Bird ornaments for 49% off
• Happy hour
• A friend who makes me laugh and discusses books with me
• A connection with a new friend from England
• Addi Turbo knitting needles that are making my blanket project go really fast
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm, from Annie Bloom's Books

So many beautiful things on a simple day. What small, beautiful things did you notice today?

What's on my not-to-do list?

I have a lot of to-do lists. I use old notepads and the backs of envelopes. Sometimes I'll find a fresh journal to help me feel like I've made a new start. I've also got an electronic version in my calendar. It's overwhelming, because it always looks like I have a lot to do.

I'm going to make a not-to-do list and then not do these things. Take the pressure off. Maybe I'll do some of them later, but maybe not. Here's the start of my list:

• Don't repaint the outside of the house with a better color until it really needs new paint.
• Don't grow all of my own food.
• Don't groom my dog myself.
• Don't invite people over who can't handle sitting on an ugly couch.
• Don't whine about taxes.
• Don't send Christmas cards.
• Don't friend people on facebook who wouldn't invite me to dinner.
• Don't try to fix other people's problems.
• Don't watch movies adapted from favorite novels (except Lord of the Rings).
• Don't read bumper stickers.
• Don't re-watch all three seasons of Downton Abbey before the new season starts.

I feel lighter already.

What's on your not-to-do list?

This book infuriated me. So why couldn't I stop reading it?

The book that drove me to ponder abandoning it in a ditch.

If On A Winter's Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino. Do not read this book.

I picked up this book on a whim last year at Powell's. Had never heard of it. I'd been trying to read more fiction, and I purposefully looked for a fiction book by an author I didn't know.

I smiled before I started this little novel, satisfied with my sense of adventure, knowing that I would read it and finish it, easy. Because usually when I start a book, I'm going to finish it, no matter what. I want to add it to my list and keep it on my shelf.

But this book. I could hardly bring myself to pick up this book again after page 20 or so. By page 47 I was so angry at this Mr. Calvino I wanted to contact him to register my complaints, only to be disappointed to find he is dead. Yes, I know now this book is experimental and avant-garde and I am supposed to try to be hip enough to catch his drift, but he's broken all the rules, all the agreements between author and reader--which was his point, of course. But by the middle of the book I couldn't trust him to lead me into meaning, or resolution, or safety. Perhaps he wanted me to never take another story for granted.

So now I know: I need a book with a beginning, middle and end. A book with conflict. A book that treats me with respect and honors the code between author and reader. (Am I saying I need a book that follows rules? I'm trying so hard to get away from that.)

I did finish this book. Seething by the last page. Exhausted from the emotional roller coaster.

Postscript: I looked for my copy of this book when I wrote this post, then remembered that I had taken it to Goodwill. Which I am now regretting.

And you---would you ever abandon a book?