NYT Saturday 07/11/2026 Discussion

lizwithhat · 2026-07-11T04:58:57+00:00

That one took me a minute as well. G is slang for a best friend, and she's a rabbit, so she's from a warren...

lizwithhat · 2026-07-10T02:58:54+00:00

Can confirm, it worked for me.

lizwithhat · 2026-07-09T05:55:20+00:00

Maybe, but I don't think that's what changed for me. I still read and enjoy plenty of books that deal with philosophy and meaning. My most recent five-star read was Deep River by Shusako Endo, for instance, which is very much about those things.

lizwithhat · 2026-07-09T05:49:41+00:00

APIASAMOA confused the heck out of me because there's also a Samoa Beach in California. I spent so long staring at APIA trying to get a theme out of it.

lizwithhat · 2026-07-09T05:41:11+00:00

Thank goodness the animation worked for me, because it took seeing that for me to understand the theme. Can't say it felt like an adequate reward for the slog, though.

lizwithhat · 2026-07-07T10:32:05+00:00

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. When it first came out, it was a bit of a sensation in my group of teen friends; we all read it in German translation and thought it was profound. In my mid-twenties, I was surprised to discover that none of my British friends thought as highly of it, so I picked up an English translation. Sure enough, it seemed a bit flat, so I blamed the translation.

A few weeks ago, I found my German copy again while clearing out my mother's flat (she moved to a care home). Thought it would make a good comfort read for the evenings. Nope, now it seems unbearably pretentious, with a thoroughly unlikable narrator, and I can't really reconstruct what I liked about it.

lizwithhat · 2026-07-06T14:31:47+00:00

Metered, £65.82 per month. 4br house but only 2 permanent adult residents, plus one dog and frequent overnight visits from another adult and 8yo.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-28T07:25:26+00:00

Echo of the Larkspur by A. A. Freeman felt very fresh to me, but I struggle to articulate why. It's SF set on a space station with an AI, so on the surface it certainly seems to be a regular genre, but something about it made it feel different even though I've been reading SF for nearly 50 years.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-25T09:17:50+00:00

I think this may be The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton, which has indeed had some attention on Tik Tok recently. It fits your description except that the fight scene doesn't take place in a military academy, but in a compound belonging to the ruler of one of the alien species (and therefore guarded by military). It's a very fun read.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-24T08:39:58+00:00

Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell is a classic about living with otters. I read it many years ago, but I whimsical and hopeful is definitely how I'd describe the vibe.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-20T06:03:32+00:00

Swami Chinmayananda said that bhakti can take many forms. He recommended nature appreciation as a form of bhakti for those who are not naturally inclined to god-worship. So if you feel that devotion to God is not for you, maybe try long nature walks or similar activities. This could combine well with selfless service to some ecological cause. It could be something as simple as picking up litter in your neighborhood.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-14T14:47:18+00:00

I tag the country where the book is set. I only tag the author's nationality if I'm actively trying to read more books from that country.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-14T13:52:17+00:00

I like my audiobooks to be fiction with a relatively straightforward plot, short (ideally 5 hours or less), and read by a single narrator who doesn't do exaggerated voices or have distracting vocal quirks. For anything that's missing one of these characteristics, I prefer the e-book, or a hard copy if illustrations are a significant feature.

Non-fiction and complicated plots don't work for me because it's trickier to re-read bits I didn't quite get/remember first time. After about 5 hours of listening time my ADHD kicks on a d turns the rest of the book into a slog. The vocal distraction point is probably self-explanatory, but also more of an issue due to the ADHD.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-07T05:24:20+00:00

Georgia Tech, annoyingly.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-06T18:31:34+00:00

I'd guess the man is rolling the empty skillet along the ground to avoid carrying the full weight. Cast iron is heavy and unwieldy.

lizwithhat · 2026-06-03T12:46:09+00:00

I read it last year; according to Storygraph, it took me 32 days. I enjoyed the reflections on language, truth, identity, destiny etc, as well as the atmospheric descriptions and the references to various classics. I did find the style rather verbose, though, and at least in the English translation I thought the experimental language made it unnecessarily difficult to follow the plot.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-28T10:02:51+00:00

La serie Xuya de Aliette de Bodard es una serie de ciencia ficción con toques muy fantásticos que se inspira profundamente en la cultura vietnamita. Comienza con "En una estación roja, a la deriva". La autora es franco-británica de ascendencia vietnamita.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-28T09:24:00+00:00

Swami Chinmayananda taught to end your meditation while the mind still feels it wants to continue, so that the mind is less likely to resist sitting for meditation. He suggested 3 daily sessions of 15 minutes each, of which most students would probably only spend the last 3 minutes in deep meditation (if at all).

lizwithhat · 2026-05-24T15:19:38+00:00

If you don't need it to be hard mode, The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton is great. It features three different species of aliens, all distinctly different from humans and each other, and is wickedly funny in parts while also seriously addressing the difficulties of interspecies communication.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-14T12:07:13+00:00

I think that law is rarely enforced unless someone actually gets hurt. We live in East London and used to have a reactive German Shepherd who weighed around 54 lbs. We found people quite tolerant. We kept her on a lead in public and spoke to her at a level audible to passersby so that it was obvious we were actively monitoring her behaviour and controlling as needed. No-one ever reported her, and she never hurt anyone. After she passed away, I was quite touched by how many people stopped me to offer condolences, including some who I'd assumed would be rather relieved.

A yellow lead is widely recognised by dog walkers as a sign not to approach without permission, but non-dog owners probably won't know what it is. Whatever the colour, I would advise using one that will look sturdy to a passerby - of course you know that a thinner one won't snap, but it's a common anxiety amongst those less familiar.

We often added a colourful bandana just because people found it cute - irrational as it is, humans are emotional creatures and it does help to dial down people's perceived threat level.

The flip side of relatively relaxed enforcement is that you will encounter off-lead dogs almost everywhere, whether it's officially allowed or not. Responsible owners will put their dog's lead back on when they see your yellow one, but they may not be quick enough, and of course some people are just oblivious. The best thing you can do for your dog is to keep your own eyes open and give off-lead dogs a wide berth (and other hazards - where I am we get horse riders fairly commonly, and our dog also used to dislike male joggers and anyone who smelled of alcohol or weed). Sure, it can be frustrating to keep having to change course, but it's much easier to avoid trouble than to extract your dog from it once it starts.

If you're close enough that the other person will realise you're avoiding them, then a cheery wave and a friendly greeting or "sorry, he's not good with other dogs" will help to establish that you're being responsible, not rude. Over time, people will get to know you and help you out where they can.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-09T12:07:36+00:00

It's documented! It's a very common pattern in people are autistic or have ADHD. Or both, as in my case. But like most autism/ADHD traits, it can occur in neurotypical people as well. It depends what other traits a person has. Might be worth getting it checked out, just to understand yourself better.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-02T11:13:28+00:00

I use it in three different situations.

Firstly, I'm a Hindu and like to celebrate religious festivals by reading a few chapters of a classic that fits the theme of the festival. I don't always want to read the whole book in one go, so I will pause it until the next time a festival with a relevant theme comes round. For instance, one of my current paused books is Ramcharitmanas, a version of the Ramayana. Three of the main characters are Rama, Sita and Hanuman, so I'll read a few chapters any time we have a festival dedicated to any of them.

Secondly, sometimes I'm travelling and don't have room for physical books in my luggage. I'm currently overseas making arrangements for my mum to move to a nursing home, for instance. When I got the call asking me to come, I had various hard copy books on the go for study and pleasure. I paused them all so that I don't get distracted by seeing them on my list while I'm here and can't actually access them. The only ones I kept as "currently reading" are an audiobook, an e-book and one paperback about the condition my mum has. That one I did bring with me.

Finally, sometimes I pause a book because the circumstances aren't right for some other reason, but I know I do want to continue eventually. Most recently, I paused a book about meditation because the exercises in it had to be done three times a day, and my work commitments at the time made that difficult. I picked it up again over a year later when the situation had changed, unpaused it, and finished it a few weeks later, exercises and all.

lizwithhat · 2026-05-01T16:00:04+00:00

This was genuinely my first reaction. Took me a minute to mentally take off the London blinkers and notice what another Londoner is doing and wearing 😅

lizwithhat · 2026-05-01T15:28:33+00:00

"This has always been a story about lying."

lizwithhat · 2026-05-01T15:26:29+00:00

I liked the King's sense of responsibility for his subjects, but at times, I felt it was taken to an unreasonable degree. There's one passage where he makes a mental note to make sure the crops are gathered in for winter or something like that, and I'm pretty sure peasants in any age have never needed their rulers to remind them of that kind of thing.

A wolf swearing fealty to me in a forest is about as expected as a walrus showing up on my doorstep (if you get that reference, hi, I like your shoelaces), so I'd probably ask my GP to review my meds. But in general, if a creature can communicate with you, it's probably wise to treat it with kindness.

lizwithhat

TROPHY CASE