Focus on What Matters

"Many people are going through life "out of breath" because they are involved in so many activities--many of which do not contribute to their life's purpose.... So many agendas will compete for your energy and attention that if you're not committed to your own unique purpose, then your resources will be drained by everything else."

~ Fresh Air by Chris Hodges

Chapter 2: Catch Your Breath, pg 29

I've been feeling so overwhelmed lately, stalked by an ambiguous anxiety that's not caused by one big stressful thing, but rather a thousand little inconsequential chores or errands. 

It's funny how even things that are recreational or entertainment, like reading or hobbies or even watching TV, can warp into yet another thing on the To Do list. For instance, "having" to watch TV because you're trying to clear up your DVR queue.

The same has been true of reading for me as well. At the beginning of the year I challenged myself to read 150 before 2019. While I think this has generally gone well, it has had two shortcomings:

I Was Not Alone

After writing my review of Agatha Christie's Dead Man's Folly, I found this review on the novel's Wikipedia page:

Miss Agatha Christie's new Poirot story comes first in this review because of this author's reputation and not on its own merits, which are disappointingly slight.... The solution is of the colossal ingenuity we have been conditioned to expect but a number of the necessary red herrings are either unexplained or a little too grossly ad hoc. People are never candid about their vices so there is no need to take seriously the protestations of detective addicts about their concern with the sheer logic of their favourite reading. What should be the real appeal of Dead Man's Folly, however, is not much better than its logic. The scene is really excessively commonplace, there are too many characters and they are very, very flat.

~ Anthony Quinton 

Times Literary Supplement 

December 21 1956 (pg 761)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man%27s_Folly

I'm not sure whether to be encouraged that my amateur opinion was in sync with a professional reviewer's contemporary analysis, or to be disheartened that my opinion is not unique or new in any way!

Reviewing "Manxmouse" by Paul Gallico

...for all his small size and defenselessness, when it came to doing something for others, there seemed to be nothing Manxmouse would not dare.

~ Manxmouse by Paul Gallico, page 111

Most epic stories follow heroes—usually warriors—who go on adventures, quests, and journeys where they protect the weak, defeat monsters and villains, and eventually earn their glorious reward and a place in legend and history.

Manxmouse: The Mouse Who Knew No Fear by Paul Gallico is an epic tale, but its protagonist is a mouse—a fearless, good-hearted mouse, but still a mouse—and the story follows him on a rambling adventure where he protects elephants and tigers and defeats his own fate, before settling down into a happy ending that isn’t quite the norm for epic legends. 

Reviewing “Dead Man’s Folly” by Agatha Christie

As I neared the end of Agatha Christie’s Poirot mystery, Dead Man’s Folly, I was reminded of another mystery writer, Rex Stout. Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels tend to be named in similar ways—for instance, including numbers (especially 3) such as Three Doors to Death, Curtains for Three, Triple Jeopardy, etc.  One of the other common titling “habits” was the title “Too Many ____”: Too Many Cooks, Too Many Women, and Too Many Clients.

It’s of this latter titling habit I thought of when reading Dead Man’s Folly, because there are too many suspects.

I Read This Because of Shark Week

A few years ago I was watching Discovery Channel’s Shark Week when a documentary came on about three men whose plane crashed into the ocean during World War II, and how they had to survive on a life raft for weeks—all the while being stalked by sharks, of course. I actually didn’t finish watching that documentary, since I prefer the more scientific documentaries to some of the Shark Week programs that are aimed more at Jaws-like drama, complete with reenactments filmed by shaking cameras and terse music.

I looked up the story online, mostly curious as to how much was true and how much dramatized. To my surprise, the story was even more dramatic than the documentary; the sharks were hardly the most perilous part!