New exercise regime?

I have been watching April Verch videos, supposedly while painting (ahem), and have decided that she is modeling my new plan for good health: she fiddles like a brilliant madwoman, and tap dances out complimentary triplets, often while fiddling at the same time.

It's stunning.

And I think doing even a tiny fraction of what she does would make me more fit than I was when I played rugby in college.

Here are a few examples:






And if all of that made you tired, and you need to sit down and read a book, I have a couple of recommendations.

If you haven't read Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, already, you're in for a treat. I've never read such a sensitive, but not precious, novel, with so much bloodiness. It can make Game of Thrones look like dull, heavy-handed documentary.

Oh, fine, maybe I go too far there.

But it is oh so good...

And then, in literary fantasy young adult fiction (yes, all of that), is Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races. It's unusual in the current young adult world, in that a sequel would be a let down. It's such a tidy and wild story that there is no room for more. Man eating horses, an Inis Mor style island... Need I say more?

It's nice to read what I know I could never write, and these two women, in completely different genres, are clearly out of my league. Not even in the same ocean.