Nameless Number

1:30 a.m. and I can't sleep. Doctor Zhivago is on TCM. David Lean did to this movie what Terrence Malick did to Days of Heaven. I have watched Zhivago over a dozen times, and it is a delight each time. Every scene between Zhivago and Lara is real and passionate, and the cinematography just blows me away. We think we have it hard. I can't imagine what it must have been like living in Russia at a time of tension and great change.

“I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them. ” ― Boris Pasternak

Pasternak's My Sister-Life was written in the summer of 1917. If you love Doctor Zhivago, you will enjoy My Sister-Life. You don't have to be a fan of poetry to appreciate this rich collection of poems. His perceptions of love, life, nature and the world are written in a way only a Russian writer who witnessed the revolution could describe.

Julia and I discuss books on occasion, but she only likes reading the classics. She was born and raised in Novosibirsk, Russia. (Novosibirsk in Russian means "new siberia"). She speaks English very well (better than some people who were born in this country) and is a very well-rounded person. Earlier tonight while we were having coffee with my sister, she described to us how she felt the first time she was able to see American films after the fall of communism. She made me laugh - she memorized Beauty & the Beast .