The last picture I posted on my blog showed that I’m attempting to grow some things currently skewered and suspended by toothpicks in two glasses– which I hope will sprout any day now. If you guessed they were acorns well, no. They’re not acorns. If you guessed avocados then you’re right! I’m growing an avocado tree and I hear that it could take a few years.
I don’t see any difference from those photos to now but I’ll keep an eye out for a root or a shoot sneaking out of one of the pits. Have you ever tried to grow a tree? Did you ever end up with seeds that turned out to be duds? Time will tell how these turn out. Now, time for a mini book review.
Mini-review: The Life of Pi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ll try to keep this spoiler free of specific story details, but you may be slightly spoiled on plot devices used in the storyline. If you’re okay with that please continue.
I was in junior high when I first read the oh-so-memorable short story “The Lady or the Tiger.” I’ve since read and seen enough plots to recognize the familiar tailspin into ambiguity leading to the somewhat disappointing “This was all a hallucination/dream. Or WAS IT? dun dun dun…” that makes you roll your eyes.
I liked that “Life of Pi” was entertaining in the sense that enough was going on to keep me turning pages steadily for most of the book, although the story was a bit sad. Some of the conflicts even produced a visceral reaction which kept me up at nights reading for longer than intended so that I could finish the chapter.
What I didn’t like was at some point I realized that the reason I enjoyed this book as much as I did was because it felt like a mash-up of other stories I enjoyed. I was reminded of parts of the movie “Titanic”, the last episode of the tv show “Mash” (where Hawkeye yelled at the woman on the bus), the movie “The Sixth Sense” and “Robinson Crusoe”– the last one most likely because I haven’t seen “Cast Away”.
Overall I would recommend it for a reader who doesn’t get easily put off when reading about wild animal predation or descriptions of carrion in various states of decay. And lots of poop. Hey, when you’ve got a tiger in a small boat what else would you expect?
All that’s left for me to do now is to watch the movie but if it’s true to the book I’m not sure my stomach can handle it.
A Mad Notepad 
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