Life in the semi-fast lane...

Normally when I'm packing a library I think about whatever project it is I'm working on. Not full-fledged, non-stop thinking but a kind of reverie where I let thoughts scamper about in my brain. It's mingled in with books I recognize and appreciate, but not this time.

I don't think I had a thought in my head except what was focused on the books I was packing. Maybe it's because I was exhausted from yesterday's travel and having to get up at 7am to go collect the packing materials. Which did manage to fit nicely into my rented Wagoneer.

Of course, I still talked to a few of the volumes. Set some up as buddies to protect each other. Saw really nice editions of some I'd read. And just meandered through the day, for the most part. Nothing came knocking from MQM or DW. 

Though another reason for that might be because I had to listen to the new version of All Quiet on the Western Front the client was watching, and it sounded vile. Lots of screaming and explosions and gunfire and retching and gurgling as men died in a pointless war. For 2.5 hours.

I've seen the original one made in 1930 and it was truly harrowing. There was a moment in one battle sequence during a tracking shot where a soldier grabs a fence of barbed wired, is hit by an explosion, and all that's left is his hands and forearms hanging from the wire. It's one of those great films that I could only watch once.

Something else that struck me was how fake some of the cheering sounded. Almost like a studio laugh track. Needless to say, I won't be checking this one out.

Maybe I'll take my earbuds tomorrow and use those to cancel out the noise.