Book Report: Look to the Lady

Look to the Lady is the third Albert Campion book, and my least favorite so far. There are some good things in it, sure, but all in all, the set-up was not just far-fetched, which is fine, but clumsily constructed, which isn't. And both Mr. Campion himself and his sidekick/valet annoyed me with their personalities this time.

Of course, it’s been weeks since I read the thing, so the annoyage has stayed with me and the entertainosity has not. Or if not so at any rate and, you can make of that what you will.

I had altogether forgotten that I had read the book, in point of fact. Here’s the thing: I have taken the habit of writing down my completed (or mostly-completed) books in the rtf document I use for half-written notes. Actually, for years my habit was to stack the books physically on top of the CPU. This had the advantage that there was limited space, and if I got too far behind I ran the risk of the stack toppling onto my toes. This provided a certain motivation.

Then I got a laptop. So that trick was no longer an option, and I needed to find something else. And since I do write my blog notes in a word processor and then paste them in to the blog software (a leftover from when I was using My Gracious Host’s roll-your-own system, which lacked the capacity to save drafts, spellcheck or preview), there’s no reason not to just add in my reading to the bottom of the file, along with a few other administrative things I keep in there.

OK, it’s like this: I keep a file active for a month or so, and then rename it, take out the stuff that has already been posted, and keep working with that file, leaving the old one to be archived along with all the others. This means that if a bunch of my posts were to disappear somehow, I could easily reconstruct them with the old rtf. Not that it has happened, or that I expect it to, but you never know, right? And the active one is small and portable. In fact, a year or so ago, I started keeping it on a little thumb drive. That way if I have a chance to work on a note on a different computer, I can pick up from where I left off. All well and good, yes? Only I would need to remember to take the damn thing with me. I had one on my keychain for a while, thinking that I would be unlikely to leave my keychain in a computer, but, not so much, evidently. This is because I don’t usually have to drive myself home from work, so if I don’t have the car key or even the house key, it is only the most minor of inconveniences—in fact, less of an inconvenience than not having my data.

I could, of course, keep the data in the cloud. I have tried that. The problem is that (a) I don’t really like Google Docs word processor to work in, and (2) it’s enough of a pain in the ass, and I am frequently enough trying to shut down a computer quickly and leave, that I just don’t do it. I will save the list now to the cloud somewhere, because about six weeks ago, I put the little thing in the pocket of a jacket I don't wear very often, and didn't see it for six weeks. You know?

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.