Thursday, September 12, 2013

Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man & the Sea. By Ernest Hemingway


Time for a book review!

I haven't actually read that many books lately. Not novels anyways.

As you know, I am on vacation! and I found this book in our beach house by my night stand. I peeked at it and thought, you know, I feel like reading a classic. I'm on the beach and here is this book about the sea. I should read it. And so I did.



It was a quick read, which I liked. It has no chapters, you just read the book. But it felt good to read it. The language isn't difficult by any means. It's simple. But for some reason the story has stuck with me. Simple yet powerful. I'm sure many people would say the same.

"The Old Man and the Sea won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it likely cinched the Nobel Prize for Hemingway in 1954, as it was cited for particular recognition by the Nobel Academy. It was the last novel published in his lifetime." (from Spark Notes)

You know how I like to post pictures, so I Googled The Old Man and the Sea and found a ton of beautiful pictures. The hard part was choosing the ones I liked best.





I looked up the Spark Notes for this because, especially with classics, I like to know the significance of certain things.

Here is an example of why I enjoyed the book so much: "Hemingway’s strength and mastery lies in his ability to render concrete but still poetic images using familiar words and simple vocabulary." There is a scene where the Old Man has to kill a fish and he hits it on the head, "but for kindness"... "Hemmingway described this technique as the “iceberg principle,” for he believed that the simplest writing, when done well, would hint at the greatest human truths, just as the tip of an iceberg hinted at the terrific frozen mass that rested underwater." And that's definitely true. I got a clear sense of the characters even when they weren't explained in detail. 







The copy that I found was similar to this in style. Although it had no picture. Old looking. Very cool to hold in my hand and read by the sea.


And that is all. I would recommend it.


I found this little Youtube short video. Check it out:  The Old Man and the Sea





Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Beach Time! Time for vacation!



I see other people's blogs and I keep thinking 'I could do that!' but I just keep on not doing it. I've found that it's hard for me to do things. haha

I took a month of work to come down to Cape San Blas Florida for a month to spend with my mom and other friends and family down south. It's been really wonderful to take the time off work and relax and just spend relaxing time with family.

 


I've been going a little crazy with the pictures but that's what you're supposed to do on vacation right?
I haven't had a REAL vacation since high school... well, I guess I did get some vacations in college too.. but it was harder with having a job and all that stuff. So I've been saving my hours and I took a whole month! It's been so incredibly wonderful. I'll post more soon. I've seen some really fun animal life here that I'd love to share. The internet here isn't always working so hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures. These were the ones I've managed to pull off facebook.




I've been doing more than relaxing however. I've been working out! Yes sir Yes ma'am! I've been doing Shaun T's Focus T25 workout. I'd been debating whether or not to get it just because of the price but I decided to just go for it. And I'm glad I did. I love it! For only 25 minutes you get a great workout. I can't find any excuse not to work out for 25 minutes a day and I feel like I still get my butt kicked so I don't feel like I wasted my time. I did Insanity and TapOut and I've done a few of Shaun's Assylum workouts that my friend has. Insanity is my favorite besides T25. It's just SO long!

My problem has been that I work out and eat really well for awhile but then I start slacking and for some reason I just give up and go back to eating poorly again. Every time I feel like this time I'm gonna do better but it never sticks. I hope that this time it does. I hope that with T25 I can stick it out and keep going til I get back this annoying phase I'm in and over the hump.



There are a lot of things I want to share on here. I'm still learning a lot about healthy eating and living and what our bodies need and crave in order to thrive. It's something I'm working on organizing. I have a lot of things floating around in my head but I seem to have a problem putting them down on paper or onto a computer screen.

Here's a lovely kale smoothie pic on the balcony at the beach :)

EAT MORE KALE!

cheers!