Book Read
23. Normal People – Sally Rooney
Kilometres Ran
week twenty three – 43.7
2019 to date: 1,121 KM
A couple days ago I saved but haven’t yet read an article that, from the synopses provided, argues with itself as to whether or not Sally Rooney is good lit or chick lit (as if the two are mutually exclusive or something). I understand what the article is getting at but the dilemma strikes as everyday lazy misogyny. Anyway, like I said just a sec ago, I haven’t read the article any further than the deck headline, “The media can’t agree on whether her work is chick lit or literary genius—and maybe, for once, it’s possible to be both.” Maybe, for once. Moving along, I liked the book but maybe not quite as much as Conversations with Friends, which I devoured in a couple days. Normal People I enjoyed, but for whatever reason I found to be a bit of a slog. The story follows Connell’s and Marianne’s rather complex friendship beginning in high school and through college into adulthood. As should come as a surprise to no one, their relationship is anything but what one would categorize as “normal,” and yet I suspect people may find it somewhat familiar. It’s a good book. It has a lot of hype and mostly delivers, but I liked Conversations with Friends better, so if you’ve read neither and you’re going to read them maybe pick up Normal People first.
Part of why I haven’t been reading all that much is that I do most of my reading during my daily three-hour transit commute to and from the office and since coming home from a vacation (that included a vacation from reading) I have bicycle-commuted everyday except one. So not much reading, but a quite a bit of time pedalling. I’m pretty happy with the results. On Wednesday was Global Running Day and Mile2Marathon teamed up with the East Van Run Crew for a workout at Strathcona Park. I was curious to see just how much fitness I’d lost since the BMO Marathon a month ago, and then a two-week diet of Swiss cheeses and Parisian pastries. And it went much better than expected, which is good because I’ve two bit events on the near horizon. In four days, June 13, is the Pacific Distance Carnival at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, where I’m running the M2M 5,000 Chase-the-Pace, and the pacer I’m going to be chasing is sub 20 minutes. Then ten days afterwards is the Scotiabank Half Marathon, where I’m going to chase a sub 90, while trying to raise money for one of my favourite charities. I wrote about running for The Capilano Review on here last week. You can revisit that here, and if you’re interested in lending your support you can do that here. I’m pretty crap at asking for help, but I probably won’t shut up about this much for the next couple weeks.
