bookish

"Having been so little loved by his parents, [Honoré de Balzac] overflowed with love for his own issue, specifically the issue of his pen, but, needless to add, the issue of his loins also."
--Marcel Girard, Introduction to Old Goriot

Since I have lived in Bristol for three months and still have only gone out to one non-work social event, I decided this weekend to find some fun, an activity, and possibly a friend.

The first task set up to meet this goal has been to join the Bristol book club meetup group, which I found online. They meet about once a month at a pub to discuss a book. Sounds perfect for me, no? I found the current book today at the library, and signed myself up for the group. The book is the one mentioned above, which has been translated to English from the original 19th-century French.

Another friend-making fun scheme is the upcoming Bristol Cider Festival, which happens in two weeks. I'm hoping we can convince the only non-work people we know in Bristol--one of Dan's high school classmates and her husband--to join us. The cider will be made locally and, for anyone who might not know, cider in the UK is alcoholic. I expect that will be a boozy good time.

Oh, and in other book-related news, I read Harold and Maude last week. The film closely follows the book, and I think if I had read the book first, it might have done more for me, but as it is, the film kicks the book's ass. Though I will say that the book includes a little bit of helpful back story not shown in the film, and it is by no means a bad book.