February 6th to February 12th

This week the reading starts out talking about him working at the horse races and it goes on describing everything he had to. It also kind of gives tips towards how you bet on horses and things like that. He said that whenever he quit the races he had a feeling of emptiness but that was whenever he met his friend Mike Ward.

He goes to talk about stopping at this little cafe like place where Mrs. Stein would always want him to fill her in about all the gossip that went on at political meetings he went to. She did not want to know the tragic stuff though. She never wanted to know about the real part of the world, nor the bad part of it either, he said she only wanted to know about the "gay" part. He said that everytime he would stop in to talk to Mrs. Stein he would try to get her to talk about books but she never seemed as though she really cared about books, she was only concerned with the gossip going on in the world.

He continues on to talk about how in Paris you could sit outside at the tables and see and smell the food that people had. He said that the Closerie des Lilas was the nearest good cafe whenever he lived in Paris. He says that it was warm inside during the winter and fine inside during the spring and fall. He goes on to tell how the cafe use to be somewhere where poets met to discuss their poems. He said that the people there at the cafe made it comfortable because they seemed as though they all had interest in one another, whether it been their reading or what they were drinking.

January 30 to February 5th

Hemingway talks about his times in Paris and is talking about the most negative parts of the city. He rents a room in a nearby hotel to where he can write. He talks about walking down the street and seeing a bar near by, that he thinks about going into but decides not too because of the smell coming from it. He then moves on and goes to a nice diner instead before going to his hotel.

Hemingway returns to Paris and talks about how the city has "adjusted" to the weather it is experiencing. He struggles but eventually writes a new story and he says quote, "you have to make one true sentence and the rest will follow." I think this is true becuase generally if you try hard at something then the results of that are going to follow. The same is with doing something bad as well. If you do something bad then the consequences are eventually going to follow.

Hemingway talks about the different ways you can walk along a rive in Paris. One particular way has books in English that he likes to take. One seller has books that are left over and another has books in English that they think are worthless and not worth anything. Hemingways gets them for cheap.

Spring finally arrives and Hemingway goes to work while he lets his wife sleep. (I wish my husband would do that). He buys a paper and goes to his home to read the paper before returning to work. He and his wife decide to go to a racetrack after he gets through working. He receives some money from a local newspaper that he writes for, for writing.

I find it so amazing that back them a little money could go a long ways and now days and little bit of money can get you almost nowhere. I think it is neat how back then they could have nothing and still be happy and then now days if you don't have the latest and greatest then you are considered a nobody and you have nothing. I would like to live back in the day for a week just to say that I experienced and I think alot of people should have that opportunity so that maybe it will make them realize that you can have a little or you can have alot and still be just alike. Someone that has nothing and someone that has alot can be just alike and not know it or realize it.

January 23rd-January 29th

I just finished reading the foreward, acknowledgments, and introduction to A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and I must say that I don't know if I am going to totally understand this book.

The foreward had me confused from the beginning, I have no idea what it was trying to say, I think it may have been trying to inform me of where the title of the book came from, but then again I am not totally sure of that. I really got confused whenever it was talking about the different types of the Bible and I had no clue how that related to the title of this book.

Whenever reading the acknowledgments I got the impression that the person that edited this version of the book may have been Mr. Hemingway's grandson. Other than that the acknowledgment part of the book was like any other acknowledgment of a book, it just thanked everyone that helped write and publish the book.

In Chapter One Hemingway is writing about walking down the street of a town in the wind and rain. He says the wind and rain is so cold that it has made people shut their windows. He talks about a cafe where everyone is at to stay out of the cold weather, they are drinking and he says that he stays clear of the cafe because of the foul odor.

He continues on and talks about how he is wondering about how cold his room at the hotel is going to be and he decides to look up at the chimneys to see if there is any smoke coming from them and to see which way it is going. He looks but there is no smoke. He thinks the chimney may be cold and not draw the smoke from the room and that the room could fill with smoke.

He finally finds a pleasant cafe that he decides to stop at. He orders and the waitress brings the order to him, this is when he pulls out paper and pen and decides to write about a day in Michigan that is similar to the day he is experiencing. While writing a pretty lady walks in and he wants to put her in his story but doesn't know where to put her.

Closer to the end of the chapter he talks about him and his wife moving. She agrees to go and asks when he wants to leave and he tells her he wants to leave now.