The Time Traveler's Wife

This will be our last look at The Time Traveler's Wife, which I finished last night. And when I say I finished it, I mean I bawled my way through the last 20 pages or so.

I can't remember the last time a book made me actually cry, or if a book has ever made me cry so hard.

And that's a good thing!

The book is fantastic. It's realistic, it's emotional, it's incredibly well-constructed and it flows so nicely that you can get lost in it for hours and feel as though no time at all has passed. Clare and Henry are some of the best characters I have come across in quite some time.

And that's what I want to focus on for the rest of this post: Characters.

They're real people. I don't mean that literally, of course, but in a literary sense, they are so real they might as well be flesh and blood. They are flawed -deeply, secretly and at times embarrassingly flawed. They lie, they hurt each other, they fight and they make mistakes.

That is one of the golden parts of this book. Clare and Henry are more passionately in love -and in odder circumstance -than many other characters in modern novels, but their relationship is still as fraught as any other real life relationship. They have Henry's chrono-displacement to worry about, but they also have "normal" problems like trying to have a baby, dealing with a small living space, difficult family relationships, illness, silly little fights over who's going to vacuum (they hire a cleaning service).

Those are the things, as much as the oddity of Henry's condition, that readers are going to take away from this story. They are the things that make The Time Traveler's Wife such a powerful read.

Writers, we hear all the time that our characters must be believable, and that point hits home so clearly in this book. If Clare and Henry fit together easily all the time, or if their families were stereotypically normal -or predictably flawed -this book would not pack the punch that it does.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say this: even if the book had ended differently than it had, and it ends on an amazingly poignant note, I still would have cried. I still would have put it down feeling slightly dazed by the writing. I would still be looking very closely at my own writing for the emotional power I found here.

Questions

What were your perceptions of the characters in this book?
Writers, how do you achieve emotional complexity without detracting from your plot or goals?
What did you think of the rest of the book?

Writing in the right atmosphere

This is what happens sometimes. I'm learning to be okay with that.


Today I set myself a goal -I wanted to write 5 articles and complete a useful blog entry. So I sat down at my desk with a cup of coffee, a bottle of water and the Intertubes...and absolutely nothing happened. Normally, sitting at my desk in my room is the absolute best way for me to write. There are no distractions that I can't control (although honestly, Tweetdeck is a little bit ridiculous sometimes), it's guaranteed to be quiet and I can get up to make more coffee any time I want to. My desk is also conveniently right next to my bed, in which I have spent an inordinate amount of time sleeping lately (I blame laryngitis. And laziness).

Ordinarily, my room is the best place for me to work.

And yet today, when I opened up all of my little research windows and the form in which I write my articles, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. There was no speedy tapping of keys, and I was listlessly looking through the tabs of research I had open. My eyes had glazed over and I knew that I was absorbing less information than I normally do.

This is a rare occurrence for me (like I said, I really like working in my room. It's like the batcave, only less technological and filled with posters of Audrey Hepburn).

After about half an hour of sitting in front of my computer and accomplishing absolutely nothing, I finally gave up. Not on writing, just on writing in my room. I had to admit that I needed a change of pace, and some new scenery.

I came to the student center here on campus (despite the bomb threats that keep popping up here, I feel pretty comfortable coming to Baker. The dogs didn't find anything, so I'm okay with spending a couple hours here if it lets me get some work done). Things began looking up immediately -I have become aware of the fact that I will not be able to write unless I have ample access to caffeine. I got a hazelnut latte from the coffeeshop, and the girl accidentally put an extra shot of espresso in it. Woe is me.

So with that jolt of energy coursing through my veins, I came up to the 5th floor and sat back in a corner. Plopped down, plugged in and caffeinated, I pounded out 3 articles in about an hour (and the only reason it took that long was because of research for one of them). Bam, said the lady.

I'm trying to be more attentive to my writing needs -I think it's important to know what factors influence the Muse and get my energy up.

For instance, after some experimentation I know that:

• I write better and more quickly if I am listening to something like Antonin Dvorak or Andrew WK than something like Owl City or Jack's Mannequin
• I have to have adequate back support. If I can't lean back in the chair, I'm not going to get along with it.
• Putting my feet up is awesome (although my knees get stiff pretty quickly -does that mean I'm getting old?)
• Caffeine, obviously, is required for the writing process
• I work best in spurts -write one article, then catch up with Tweetdeck updates and read some other articles, check Facebook, then write another article. Lather, rinse, repeat
  
• If I don't feel my best, I don't write my best. I can't write before I've had a shower and eaten breakfast. I don't write well in pajamas or sweatpants -I have to feel like I'm presenting my best face to the world in order to present my best writing to the world. Sloppy me = sloppy writing.
  
• Other people are a distraction. Distractions are not always bad. Texting while writing does not break my focus (if it does, the text can wait). People-watching is fun (although I'm starting to think fashion-impaired androids are taking over the world. Put on some pants, please. Leggings + Ugg boots + short t-shirts = BAD. If I can see your cellulite or your lady bits, your outfit should never have left the house).
• Driving in a car with the windows down and the music up is usually the only inspiration I need.
  
• Sometimes, I just can't write as much as I want to, and I need to get over myself. I'm not all-powerful (but don't tell anyone else I said that). Sometimes I just need a break.
  

What atmosphere do you write in? How do you deal with changes in your writing space? What do you do to shake things up when you're feeling stagnant? Do you ever feel stagnant, and if not, how do you avoid it?

Zombies and a preview

So, I found out last night that Humans vs. Zombies begins on my campus today. For those of you outside the undead loop, HvZ is a week-long game of madness, Nerf guns and pretending to be living in the zombie apocalypse. I won't go over the rules in detail, but basically it's this: humans wear an arm band and carry Nerf guns or balled up socks. If a zombie grabs a human's arm band, that human is dead and has to become a zombie. Zombies are killed when shot with a Nerf dart or hit by a sock. Zombies wear bandannas around their forehead or neck and "respawn" after each time they are killed (once a specified amount of time has passed or a certain point in the day is reached).

It is, hands down, the most awesome game ever in the history of both awesomeness and games. It's played 24/7 and generally takes place during the week leading up to Halloween (not too cold + creepy holiday = perfect).

I am so excited.

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Books!

Anybody ever read His Dark Materials? Has anyone seen the movie based off of the first book, The Golden Compass? (If you have, I am so, so sorry -I saw it too. I was so upset when I left that I almost threw my cell phone across the movie theater's parking lot; it was a bad movie. Totally missed the point of the book. Daniel Craig did a good job, though.)

Well, recently I found an article written about the movie/books and "arguing" with Philip Pullman and his ideas... I use the term arguing really loosely.

Like I said in the title of this, what you're getting is a preview. I am, at a later date this week, going to be going through that article and ripping it a new one/respectfully disagreeing with basically every point they make (probably at the same time). Before that happens, I need to try to find a copy of said article on the interwebs so I don't have to type the whole thing out for you. Give me a couple of days and we'll get that ball rolling.

In the meantime, if you haven't read HDM, go get started. Christian, atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, agnostic, Jewish, Pastafarian, whatever -it's a great series. Absolutely one of my favorites. :) Jonah has my copy of The Golden Compass right now or I'd be quoting it at you already.

Ebooks and ebook readers

You know what's disgusting? Making a cup of coffee and, after said cuppa is made, realizing that the milk you put into it has gone bad -and went bad several days ago. Curdled milk is gross. Ruined coffee is tragic. But I did go uptown and buy some coffee and soup, so we'll all survive and get on with what I wanted to write about today.

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Namely, ebooks and ebook readers. If you've been following along, you know my mom's birthday was yesterday (she claims she's 29. I think she's just bad at math). We got her a Kindle (she lost her shit for a second after she opened it, too; it was pretty cool).

When the Kindle first came out, I barely registered it, and that registering was mostly one of disgust. I didn't think ebooks were going to be anything major, and I thought the idea of an ebook reader was pretty appalling. "You want to take my paper-and-ink books from me? I don't think so, pal." But I was wrong (it happens sometimes. Take note, because this is a very rare occurrence).

Ebooks are pretty much the shit. The future. The next big thing in publishing. And, as I remarked in a writing chat about ebooks, if you bet against technology...you're going to lose.

I'm not saying paper books are going to go the way of the dinosaur, however. More like the buffalo -they won't go extinct, but they'll be rare, intentionally cultivated and taken care of and newer, faster, flashier things will catch the international eye. This is neither good nor bad, in all honesty. It just is.

Ebooks are fast, convenient, cheap, easily marketed, save on production costs, open up incredible avenues for authors and readers -and they're already taking over. No joke. I'd post the sales figures I saw at one point but I lost the link (if anybody has info on this, feel free to leave it in the comments) -let me put it this way: phenomenal. Unbelievable.

The cost of an ebook is low. Really low (generally speaking). No paper, no ink, no distribution costs to speak of. That takes a huge amount of cost out of making a book. Ebooks are a wonderful answer to technological questions about books.

Ebook readers still have a bit of a way to go, though, I'll be honest. The technology is relatively new and still has some bugs. And, admittedly, there are things a paper book can do that an ebook reader cannot. I would not take a Kindle into the bathtub, ever. That's an expensive piece of equipment. Books can, more or less, survive a bathtub experience -and one book is not 1,500 books, which a Kindle can be. Real books can't get viruses or be mysteriously reclaimed in the middle of the night when a publisher decides they didn't want people having electronic copies of a certain book. Anybody remember that? That was nuts. They can't really do that with physical books.

The main reason I had resisted ebook readers up until recently was that you can't write on the ebooks. If I can't write on a book, I don't want it. Sorry, no thanks. I have to be able to highlight passages, underline descriptions, write awful things about incompetent editing in the margins and generally make my mark on a book to really enjoy it -and now I can. Sony ebook readers come with a stylus and the ability to mark up ebooks.

I'm so sold you don't even know how sold I am. If the devil appeared to me and said, "I'll give you a Sony ebook reader in exchange for your soul!" I would tell him, "Thanks, but I'm waiting for Santa to bring me one. Try me again after Christmas, just in case Santa doesn't come through." That's how sold I am.

Seriously, though. As a writer/publisher/editor/reader, ebooks are awesome.

As a writer, you can write, publish and sell your product directly to the public (which is made vastly larger by the Internet) and make a much greater profit than by going through traditional channels.

As a publisher, you can reach a huge market of people while dramatically reducing the cost that goes into creating a book. Not only does this allow you to publish more (and hopefully maintain a high caliber of talent), you can do it inexpensively.

As an editor, you can work with electronic texts anywhere without carrying huge manuscripts around with you -and that is awesome.

As a reader, you can access a bazillion books cheaply and quickly and without losing more storage space. I want my own library someday, because I'm a book fetishist (not in a weird way), but for practical purposes, an ebook reader will be what I'd use on a day-to-day basis.

What are your thoughts?

Back to business

I stole this hilarious picture from Angie the Anti-Theist, whose writings I find fascinating and insightful. Go check her out! The caption for this picture makes me laugh more each time I read it.

I have been gone for a while. It's Wednesday, I know it, and I haven't updated once since last week. For shame. :( I am hanging my head (over my cup of coffee so the delicious hazelnut smell wipes out any feelings of guilt I may be experiencing). I'm back, we're good. Coffee = the solution to 99% of my problems (the other 1% just take a lot more work).

I had a fabulous weekend at home -Jonah and I went to a wedding where I met the rest of his awesome family, watched his mom shake it on the dance floor. And I saw her give a man titty twisters (not even kidding -Jonah's family is beyond cool). Jonah and I busted out some dancing as well -while we certainly weren't Dancing with the Stars quality, I had a lot of fun (and I don't like dancing, as a rule). I also got to hang out with my family and surprise my mom, who didn't know I was coming home on Saturday. :)

The downside to the weekend was that, in order to get back in time to hand in a paper for my business law class, Jonah and I had to leave Findlay at 4:30 in the morning. I consider myself to be something approaching a morning person...I might stand corrected. Getting up at 3:30 is hell. I spent the rest of the day in a good-natured haze, not really understanding anything that was said to me or accomplishing much of worth (except writing 4 articles). It wasn't pretty. Today is much better.

As far as books go, oh boy oh boy!
Jonah brought me a bunch, and I gave him one too (more proof of his good taste: We've both read "The Lives of Christopher Chant" and neither of us know anyone else who has read that book. I gave him my copy of "The Chronicles of Chrestomanci," which contains "The Lives of CC" so he can re-read it and read "Charmed Life" for the first time. Has anyone else heard of these books?). I'm already 170+ pages into "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" -a book I've not read before. I've read "A Wrinkle in Time" but I'd forgotten how much I liked L'Engle.

As much as I dislike being preached to, "ASTP" is doing a good job of not irritating me with its semi-religious undertones (or overtones, depending on how you read it). I like the message of the book, and it's not overly pedantic in nature. It's just a good story.

I also read the book "Weslandia." 3 times. It's a children's book, but it is fabulous. In fact, I'll be writing an Examiner article about it in the next few days, so you'll have to wait and read about it there (and here, again).

I'm still working on getting submissions for Leaves & Flowers. So far I've received 3, and I'm loving them. It's such a fun process. Maddeningly exciting. However, I've gotten about 20 queries and only 3 people have actually sent work so far...I wish I was getting more! I also wish more people were asking for information, but that's just me getting gluttonous. ;) I am quite thoroughly enjoying this process, and if anyone wants to contribute, I'd be more than happy to work with them... spread the word! Bring me work. I'll love you forever and ever, even though I can't pay you.

Quick Update, some shenanigans and all the rest

This makes me chuckle. (It came from some scary place online)

All right, all right. I skipped yesterday and today I'm coming on late. So sue me. It's a busy week and I'm grumpy (people who take too long to give me my coffee and then forget to ring up the cinnamon roll I wanted after making me wait in line for half an hour can be blamed). But anyway, I'm here now.

Update time:
The deadline for Leaves & Flowers, unfortunately, has to be moved up a bit to November 5. Due to some scheduling conflicts, I have to have the whole shebang finished by about the 8th-10th at the latest. However, that's still plenty of time for photographers, writers and other artists to send me stuff! The lovely Renda Dodge (about whose book I wrote last time) has already stepped up to the plate, as have Shelby Campbell and my mom (nepotism ftw). I have 10 or 11 others on my list, and I'm hoping to snag several more in the next week or two, so we'll see where this goes.

I'm still very excited and optimistic about the whole thing. :)

Book time:
Has anyone else heard about the whole "bloggers have to disclose when they receive books to review because it's considered compensation" snafu? It's causing quite a hullabaloo right now, and given the double standards that are present in the FTC's 'explanation' for it, I can see why. A book is considered compensation when it's sent to an individual blogger (who may or may not review it in a positive light) and yet not when it's sent to a newspaper/magazine to be reviewed. The guy interviewed says it's not a problem if the blogger discloses the compensation or sends the book back, but his logic and reasoning seem pretty flawed to me. It looks more like blogs and advertisers are being targeted, in some ways.

Thoughts?

Here's another ringing endorsement for my man Christopher Moore: I gave my copy of A Dirty Job (one of my favorite books) to Jonah, and he loves it. Now that I've said that, I'm not sure if it's more exciting because it confirms my opinion that ADJ is awesome, or because it just reinforces how cool my boyfriend is. Either way, high fives all around for ADJ!

As for my own writing, I've been drawing more than anything lately (which is weird, because an artist I am not) -however, that drawing almost inevitably leads me into some sort of creative writing thought process. It's working out nicely. I wrote a weird little narrative poem/story/thingie the other day that I might read at my writing group tomorrow night and, after it's been critiqued a bit, we'll see what I do with it. It's nothing I'd publish, so I might slap it up here and see what you all think.

There are only 24 days left until National Novel Writing Month, so when that hits, you'll all see me do some serious writing.

Who else is doing NaNo?


One last thing, just out of curiosity. What do you all think about the idea of rating books (click the link for more info on what that means)?

Writing on a Friday

So here it is, 4:46 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. I'm a college student. Every time I leave my room, I hear people talking about the parties they're planning on going to. I even looked over the shoulder of the girl standing ahead of me in line at the coffeeshop, hoping to learn something interesting. I found out that Travis told her about a four-kegger somewhere tonight. Considering it's raining, 55 degrees and yucky out, I hope Travis and his four kegs are inside somewhere.

I'm currently writing my eighth article of the day, with no plans to stop or even leave my building again for perhaps as much as 24 hours (although I'll definitely need to get milk and coffee asap).

I don't understand the culture of drinking that pervades college life. I have a friend who parties pretty regularly upwards of 4 days a week -parties, in this case, means getting absolutely trashed. He's not 21. He and his roommate (who is also not 21) built a bar in their room (I am not kidding). He's reached a point where he can drink about 10 beers and not feel them. He's started drinking as early as 10 in the morning.

That looks, to me, a LOT like alcoholism. His excuse? "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a college student."
And I wonder how that makes it okay.

Drinking to excess isn't something that I imagine being fun, or cool, or exciting. It's certainly not healthy or safe. Wandering around a college campus at night while intoxicated, especially alone, and especially for women, is sometimes very dangerous, as the recent spate of sexual assault reports on campus have proven. I've dealt with enough drinking/drunk/hungover people my age to realize that it's not as cool or as fun as the media or other people make it out to be.

I've been made fun of more than once for staying in on weekends (this is not me boo-hooing, by the way. I can't remember the last time I actually was upset by someone who made fun of me). Mostly, I think it stems from people not understanding what I do all alone up here in my room (and wouldn't they like to know! That sounds so much dirtier when you don't know I'm about to tell you exactly what I do).

I write. I'm making money. I'm making good money, as it happens. Not enough to buy me a Porsche anytime soon, but enough to keep me fed, caffeinated and in school. I'm working. This, people, is my job. And I enjoy it. I would rather stay in my room all weekend getting eyestrain from staring at a computer screen and writing so much that I can't identify a red pepper (I kept calling it a banana). That, to me, sounds like SO much more fun than getting shitfaced, making a fool of myself and not remembering any of it the next day.

Writing is my passion, though. It's my excuse for being anti-social, and more often than not, also my excuse for being social. I don't know how people who don't write occupy their time in many cases, but that's just because it's such a huge part of my life. I guess I should modify that -I don't know what people who don't have a passion do with their days. Maybe that's why kids go out and drink on weekends, because they don't know what else to do with themselves or where to look.

Personally, I think that's sad.
Right now, I am surrounded by people who are preparing to go kill off brain cells, injure themselves and spend the next 2-3 days feeling like they're going to die. In some cases, this is because they just don't know what else to do. How depressing is that?

Granted, I go to the #4 (or are we #5?) party school in the nation, so the whole culture of drinking is much bigger here.

That doesn't mean it's excusable or should be encouraged.

I've had people try to convince me to drink by saying, "All writers are drunks or druggies. You have to give in sometime." My only response to that is to shake my head and sigh, and think of Stephen King (one of my favorite quotes of his deals with treating alcohol like a road to creativity -to him, that's just an excuse to be a drunk. I agree). I've got better things to do with my time.

I wish other people did, too.

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Some books on this and similar subjects:
Dying to Drink
College Drinking
Pledged

I know I presented a brief (well, actually it's pretty long. Mostly it's rambling) and unspecific look at college drinking, but it's my blog. I'll do whatever I want. Seriously, though; this is just a glimpse at some of the things I've seen and experienced as someone who is within the college culture and yet looking at it from a pair of eyes that isn't seeing things quite the same way a lot of other 20somethings are.
What do you think of all of this? Am I too hard on other people?

Books and coffee

I live on those things. Coffee especially. It's kind of a symbiotic thing...without coffee, I can't concentrate long enough to read or write, and without reading and writing I wouldn't exist so I wouldn't need any coffee. Not the best example, maybe, but it's true.

So this morning, when I got to my usual coffee spot to find that the line was out the door (and it was 35 degrees out), I wasn't happy. I was even less happy when I found out that they had no espresso left, and only decaf coffee.

I'm sorry, what? Blasphemers. I went elsewhere.

Then I came home and wrote about dental veneers...super exciting stuff, no? No, I guess not. At any rate, it's up there, along with several other articles about everything from Thanksgiving crafts for kids to literary and nerd tattoos. Cool stuff.

As far as books go, I'm still reading Clive Barker's Incarnations...it's fantastic, and I'm delaying over every page because I don't want it to end. It's dark and spooky and sad and beautiful -very much like Barker. Fantastic stuff. :)

What are you reading?

Leaves & Flowers

Hee hee

Woo! Sorry for the long absence -can't believe it's almost Wednesday already (my day off. Aka the day I spend writing and drinking too much coffee [just like every other day, I guess, except I don't go to classes]). That was a ridiculous sentence. Back onto my point -long absence, I'm back now, regular updates start TODAY.

Leaves & Flowers is the official (so far) name of the literary magazine I am creating. Tomorrow there will be a whole bunch of information on it available for your perusal. Please please please pass any and all information along to the creative types in your life (whether it's you, your mom or some hobo you meet on the corner wearing one of those apocalyptic sandwich boards). I will be including pretty much everything you need to know except the details of the submissions, which are only available upon contacting me, whether that's with an e-mail, a phone call, a Twitter follow or whatever -get in touch with me, and we'll be buddies.

For the first issue of L&F there will be no rejections. Revisions? You bet your ass I'll be asking for some, or at least permission to do weird things with the text, but I won't reject anything (unless it deserves it). I may someday be creating a website for all of this, too, so stay on board with it and we'll see where it goes. I am incredibly excited to be working on it, and getting other people interested is proving to be really fun.

BOOKS!

My awesome boyfriend Jonah let me borrow a copy of Clive Barker's book of three plays, called Incarnations. I am used to Barker's novelizations, and so the play "atmosphere," if you will, is very different -until you start paying close attention. Then you realize it's absolutely true of Clive Barker and his style and his oeuvre -that is to say, this book is rocking my socks off. And I'm only like 45 pages in. I love it.

I'm also reading (well, just finished reading) Frankenstein for the first time. Sad, really, that I'm 20 and have never read it, but I'm also glad that I hadn't read it before -going through it with Van Winkle as my teacher has been an incomparably fun reading experience. It's very hard to capture Dr. Van Winkle in words...he's a brilliant, exuberantly weird man, and being in his class is absurdly fun. I find myself laughing at all of his little comments, even if the rest of the group sort of sits there with a collectively glazed look on their eyes. I think his eccentricity is what makes the class so much fun, whereas a lot of other people are apparently weirded out by him (not that he isn't weird -I just think he happens to be a cool brand of weird).

What's everyone else reading these days?

What day is it again?

I keep getting my days mixed up. Ever since my part-time gig at Spectrum ended, I really have no bearing on when it is. The only fixed date I've been able to keep in mind is, of course, this Saturday when I head back to Athens for my junior year as a creative writing major. Woo! But yeah. Today so far (at 11 a.m.) I have thought it was Friday, Tuesday and Monday (not necessarily in that order). I don't know what that says about me as a person, but I'm sure it can't be good.

No matter. I have coffee and Flogging Molly and articles to bullshit.... I mean write. I've already written one so far today (no guarantees on quality -this was done before I had coffee. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea) and my goal is to finish between 2 and 4 more. We'll see. I might be willing to settle for 1, depending on how the day goes.

I love old Disney movies. New ones are pretty decent as well, but it's the old ones -the ones I grew up with -that I just can't get enough of. I am very partial to Beauty and the Beast. The scene with the library? Oooh baby. That's my favorite. That right there would sell me on pretty much any movie. You let me loose in a place that has a library like that one and I will curl up like a kitten and refuse to leave. Probably ever.

Libraries -good libraries -are the bomb. Dark libraries, like OU's, where the lights are at semi-creepy levels of low and the shelves are tall and full and make big shadows... mmm. Yes please. I'd like it better if instead of those laminate-wood chairs and tables they had big oak writing desks and leather armchairs, but let's be real. Most college students cannot be trusted to maintain really nice things, especially over many many years. But still. From an aesthetic standpoint, dark green leather armchairs and oak. Still, it's an amazing library. Seven floors, tons and tons and tons of books, maps, presentations, quiet people (astonishingly enough -the only floor that's ever loud is really the 2nd one, because all of the computers and printers are there. It's also really warm)... definitely one of my favorite libraries.

I need more books to read. I'll be honest. I've still got a couple I'm working on (so, so slowly), and I think once I get back to school I'll have a jump-start on ideas and whatnot, but right now with the preparations for moving and all, I'm just kind of coasting. Which isn't a bad thing.

Where do you like to go to read? Just out of curiosity.

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Einstein knew what he was talking about. Some people never learn, and it's just something that happens. You deal.

I leave for college on Saturday. :) I'm excited and bummed and have totally not started packing (mostly). I've got stuff pulled out of my closet and from a couple of drawers and stuffed into bins, boxes and bags. I also bought a big black bumbershoot today -it looks like it should be a sword cane. Sadly it's not. I have also officially used up my alliteration license for the day. I only need to get food now and I'm pretty much good to go, aside from laundry.

As should be expected, I'm taking far more books than anything else. They're languishing in bins in my room right now, and the guilt is just absolutely crushing me. Books belong on shelves, on display, where they can breathe and are easily accessible. Crushing Jane Austen underneath my copy of "Not Quite What I Was Planning" is just not cool. I don't like it. I want to get to my room and set up my pretty silver shelves (although it'll take me a lot longer than it should, since yours truly is not mechanically inclined -maybe I can talk Jonah into helping me with this) and lovingly place my books out in the open air again.

If I could have floor to ceiling shelves in my dorm, I so totally would. How do you display your books?

In other news, I love Spongebob. And I reviewed another book.

Generic Crunk Rap

It's stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, MC Lars. (No, seriously. Thanks. I like the song).

Yesterday was coffee night. Oh, wait -that's every night. Last night I had coffee with my friend Carolyn, which made it a different sort of coffee night. :) Very fun though. It's always nice to catch up and talk to a fellow English department-er.

Reading-wise I've done nothing lately. Well, that's a lie. I read "Morris the Moose Goes to School" before I fell asleep last night. Otherwise I've done nothing. I'm packing for school and trying to cram in as much time as I can with my family and Jonah. Reading has taken a backseat to that. Tonight I'm planning on starting the Hard SF Renaissance anthology I snatched up last time I was at the library.

I need a good dose of science fiction in my life.

Who knows? Maybe it'll jump-start something for me.

Any ideas on what else I should be reading? I'm leaving for Athens to go back to school, so I'll have a much bigger library to muck around in and find things to read.

Another thing I'll be working on is setting up a reading corner in my dorm room -which, fortunately, will be a single. I'll have a room of my own! (Blatant Virginia Woolf reference. Please somebody catch it.)

I'm thinking (wishfully perhaps) that I'll have enough room for my papasan to come with me, since I don't really have that much stuff. I'm not going to take it with me when I first move in, but if I think I have room for it, it'll come down eventually and become my reading corner. It's the most comfortable chair on the face of the planet.

What's your reading corner like?

Twilight fans are insane

Allow me to preface this story with a confession: I can be a bit of a snob. A jackass, if you will. When it comes to literature, I like to think I know my stuff -and to some extent, I believe that I do. I at least know enough to recognize good writing from bad. I have the ability to pick out themes and symbols and I can write some damn sharp commentary on how certain parts of a book relate to other things that might not even be in the book. I'm a creative writing major, for crying out loud. I know a little bit about writing.

So when I, from an informed viewpoint, say that Twilight sucks...I'm going to agree with myself. It does. If you want a detailed list of reasons, go to my review and read it (or e-mail me and I can send you an even longer, more expletive-filled list; I didn't feel I needed to get overly vitriolic in my already scathing review).

However, I will admit that I'm kind of a dick sometimes. I like pushing people's buttons, especially regarding Twilight. It's just funny to watch/read people getting all hot and bothered about a series of books that I don't like, because their defenses for the book are uniformly lame, unintelligent or illogical. And so it's a win-win situation for me: I get to piss someone off a bit, know that I'm right (at least in my mind) and get a belly laugh out of the whole thing. I've joined a few Twilight fan sites for that express purpose -that and promoting my review (the primary objective, of course).

There's one in particular that proved to be pretty fruitful, for about 3 days. I posted my link in a few relevant places, had some decent discussions and then kind of forgot all about it. I'm not so into hating Twilight that I make it a hobby. It's more of a spur-of-the-moment trolling. A drive by troll, if you will. I haven't actively promoted my Twilight review anywhere in about a month, and on the site this story concerns in over 2 months.

So imagine my surprise when, a mere 2 days ago before I went to see Inglourious Basterds (which I recommend you see, by the way, just because it's awesome) I get an e-mail telling me that someone named Rosalie Hale (one of the Twilight characters' names, for those of you fortunate enough not to have read the series) commented on my profile page. I have a Blackberry (I'm spoiled), so the e-mail came to my phone and my laptop. I don't do a lot of website stuff on my Blackberry unless I'm AFK, so I popped over to my laptop and signed into the website to check out this comment, which I was hoping would be filled with rage about the audacity of my review.

It was certainly filled with rage. And poor spelling, no sense whatsoever and a threat!

Clearly, I thought to myself, clearly this is an important comment.

I read it a few times, deciphering things like "wen" (when), "won" (won't) and there (their) before I was finally able to understand that Rosalie Hale is tired of Twilight haters coming onto the fan site and talking about not liking Twilight -and apparently she had taken it upon herself to track down each and every one of them to inform them that there are anti-Twilight websites they could get on so why not go there? This poorly spelled ramble was finished up with the following sentiment: "I would have my friend use the internet to track them down so I could kick there [sic] !@^$!$$^%^&*#!#%@ ass." I'm not sure what swear word that was supposed to be, but I would really like to find out. I'm sure it's devastating.

So, just to recap: this is a website that I used for 3 days, tops. I posted in 4 threads and all in all commented approximately 20 times, then left. After over 2 months, Rosalie Hale decides I'm a nuisance and should have my !@^$!$$^%^&*#!#%@ing ass kicked.

I returned her comment by asking what her comment was in reference to and why she thought threatening me would get her anything. I received a flood of comments, most of which were the word I, and which sent my phone into a vibrating frenzy, since each comment = 1 email to my phone. There were around 17 of these strange comments before she said anything else of relevance to my question, replying that she's tired of "u stupid haters" getting on to bug fans about how stupid Twilight is.

Well, I thought. Well, well, well. Here we go.

I returned her comment again, entering snotty mode. Basically I said that Twilight haters have every right to be on a fan site expressing themselves, and that fan sites are nothing but a gigantic circle-jerk for people who like Twilight anyway (I actually did use the phrase circle-jerk), so she could pretty much just quit telling me not to talk, since I hadn't said anything to her personally and she got on and told me to shut up when I hadn't even been active.

This story, by the way, is relevant only in that I like how irrational people get about stuff like Twilight. It's amusing to me. I am aware that not all fans of Twilight are insane teenagers who like to threaten people they don't even know over a series of books, but it's surprising how many are. And how many of them manage to find me (online, not in real life. Otherwise I'd be keeping a tally of how many little girls I'd gotten locked up for assault and/or battery).

Onward we go!

After remarking that Twilight fan sites are open to non-fans as well and she had no place attempting to curtail my free speech, she replied by telling me that the only reason "haters are on this site is because 1. they are total jerks and like to bother ppl or 2. they have nothing better to do with their lifes or 3. they havent read the books and are already judgeing it [sic] [sic] [sic] [sic] and [sic]." I'm sure I missed a few [sic]s in there, but we'll live. So you see what I was dealing with?

Not only does she not understand that I'm using her website solely to promote my review (and be a jerk) but she can't even argue with a semblance of intelligence, good grammar or logic. My reply was essentially that yes, I'm a jerk. But I've also read the books, know enough about them to argue with any fan and can do so intelligently and with better grammar. I told her (again) that I was inactive on the site and therefore still did not understand her apparently overwhelming desire to do me physical harm.

I received the reply that "this is a fan site there r sites for haaters [sic] [sic]." etc. and "just because someone says the books sucks doesn't mean it dose [so much sic]."

What?

So I laid out a few reasons that the books suck, reminded her that I'm not an active user, don't define myself as a hater (I don't participate in the so-called "war" that rages betwixt those who worship the ground Stephanie Meyer walks on and those who hate the books. I just hate the books all by myself -I don't need people to commiserate with) and never did anything to her to provoke this unjustified attack, and if I had, I'd have done so with impeccable grammar and spelling.

I was told that I have serious mental problems and need to check myself into a hospital.

"Look, Rosalie. I'm a perfectly normal person (okay, so that's a bit of a lie), but I'm not the one who has issues here. You threatened me for no reason, used poor grammar to do so and can't even come up with a reason why other than that the haters on the site bother you. I'm not one of them, so what's the deal?" This is not an exact quote, but that's the gist of what I told her.

I find out that she has "anger problems" and her mom taught her "never to take shit from ppl [sic]" and she's sick of haters getting onto random threads and talking about how bad Twilight is because there are hater sites for people to "bicth" about hating the books, etc. etc.

I replied without using all caps, which impressed me, because at that point I became aware that this was the sort of person on whom caps lock would have made an impression. Still calm, laughing quietly to myself over the clatter of my keyboard, I replied that she never took any shit from me to begin with. She attacked me, completely unprovoked by anything I had done or said, and all I wanted to know was why.

Her reply? "Why do u think they made anti sites? [sic]"

This person, this "Rosalie Hale," is off the charts batshit insane. The best kind of person to converse with, bar none.

I replied that I had no idea, probably because they could. Anti-Twilight sites, I told her, are as much circle-jerks for people who don't like Twilight as fan sites are for those who do. I have no need to sit around and agree with a bunch of people online about not liking a series of books. That's even more pointless than, oh, say, threatening someone who never said a damn thing to or about you because there is a difference of opinion.

I think I finally got through with that comment, because she backtracked, saying only that she is sick of the fighting and people arguing all the time.

So your solution, I asked her, was to threaten me? That's how you thought to defuse the Twilight debates? By threatening to kick the ass of an inactive site member? Bullshit.

She fled, leaving me with a comment that I imagine would have been sobbed if spoken. "I'm so tired of this. I'm giving my sister my account. Rose out."

Yes. That all just happened.

Take a few deep breaths. This was a long one. I won't inflict much more on you, readers, but just let all of this sink in. That was the logic of a Twilight fan -the logic of the many who comment on my review.

"First," they must think, "I'll try to intimidate you into shutting up about my beloved books, then I'll attempt to out-logic you using circular or flawed reasoning"- (we didn't even discuss the books all that much), "then I'll act like a pitiable little puppy and run away feeling like a victim."

Her sister commented on my profile shortly after Rosalie deleted all relevant comments and asked what the deal was. I told her that Rosalie had first tried to scare me and failed, then tried to argue with me, and lost. It happens a lot.

Any takers? I'm spoiling for a fight.

Setting up the reading corner

Now this is a reading corner!


Readers out there, you know how it is when you need a place to get into that new book you just got (or that old favorite you need to refresh). You just have to have a place where you can be alone to read -or surrounded by some of your favorite things. Wherever this reading corner is, it needs to be yours and yours only. Otherwise it's just not the reading corner.

This blog acts more as a soapbox for me than a reading corner (after all, I'm not reading these entries, I'm writing them), but it's become my corner while I'm at home, since I no longer have my own room in the house (I've been told I can use the basement as my "apartment" but I don't get internet or cell phone reception down there, so what's the point of that? The love seat is less comfortable to sleep on than the bunk bed -although it's excellent for sitting on and watching, oh, say, Coraline in ridiculous 3-D glasses).

The lack of a reading corner for me is one reason I'm looking forward to going back to school. I plan on setting up one part of my room (which is a single) specifically for me to read in. The awful, uncomfortable chair the school provides will get a cushion, a footrest and a bookshelf on or around it and a nice source of light somewhere near it...and preferably this chair will be facing a wall, not my door. Or my computer. I like having few distractions when I read; although I can read through pretty much anything but kid's television shows (they are so distracting! I love them), I prefer to have some semblance of serenity. And maybe a candle.

For other people, a reading corner might consist of a big leather armchair with a lamp over it, or an old tree-house or even just their own side of the bed.

Setting up your own reading corner is important, especially if you read as much as I try to (that is, 3-4 books/week, depending on the books and what life has thrown at me). Having a space to which you can retreat and read is the best way to really get into a book. A reading corner is really always going to be a personal thing, but here are some of the things I've tried when searching for that perfect place to read.

• The reading corner should not be the kitchen/dining table, the family couch or in front of a computer -unless you can read well with over 9,000 distractions all the time, these high-traffic areas are not going to be conducive to a quiet reading session. That said, if you're a busy parent and only have a few minutes to read, the kitchen table can be a good option.
• The reading corner should be somewhere that makes you comfortable. This should kind of be a no-brainer -if you can't get comfy, you won't be able to get into the book. Whether comfortable implies big plushy cushions or a wooden chair is your call, but if you like to sit on silk and choose a rock for your reading space, that's going to take a lot more getting used to than you'd expect.
• The reading corner should be well-lit. There are all sorts of adages about not reading in low light, and even though it might not be bad for your eyes to read when it's not bright, it's still not fun. I like to have a low lamp in the vicinity of my reading corner -overhead lights are too bright and candles aren't quite bright enough (unless I have several of them, but I don't want to waste the candles I have -they smell too nice!). Too little light is just as bad as too much. Evening and morning sunlight are always nice as well, but I find I have trouble squinting at the page during midday. It's just too damn bright.
  
• The reading corner should not be where you have your day job (unless absolutely necessary). If you bring work home, leave that work out of your reading corner. Your reading corner is for reading. I refuse to write for my job where I write for pleasure, and I refuse to read for work or school in bed (unless I'm just that tired and I really need to read it and it'll just be this once and whatever other excuses come to mind). But seriously, try to keep work and reading separate. Reading should be pleasurable -and if your job isn't, combining the two spaces can ruin it. Even if your job is incredibly fun and you adore it all day every day...you still need a break. It can just be for an hour, or half an hour, to get out of your head and into a book.
  
• The reading corner should be somewhere quiet. No matter how many distractions you can take, it's best to have quiet. If you have to have noise, play some music, but try to keep the area quiet. Whether this reading corner is in an inglenook or takes up an entire room, it's easier to read when it's not noisy. Think about a library -if all that quiet freaks you out, make a little noise...but I'm pretty sure you'll find that if you try reading in the quiet for a while, that's the only condition under which you'll ever want to read. If all else fails, a good pair of headphones can work magic.
• The reading corner should not be near a television or computer. Seriously. You'll get distracted. You'll want to check your e-mail or watch just the last few minutes of that show or read a news article or update your Twitter to let the world know you're reading...and before you know it, your reading time will have vanished. And that's a bummer, every time.
• The reading corner should be somewhere that makes you happy. Always. Whether it's your reading corner or a space you've created for someone else, it should be somewhere that promotes peace, comfort... and reading.

What's your reading corner look like? If you don't have one...what does your dream reading corner look like? Why not make it?

The price of being a bookworm

I have a bad back. I'm 19 (although not for much longer) and I wake up in the mornings and walk around with my hand pressing against the small of my back, rolling my neck to get the kinks out and it sounds like a smattering of gunfire erupts from my spine. Actually, that sounds kind of cool...and it would be, but it usually hurts. It's just not fun. In addition to that, my neck itself is beyond wrecked. A normal person's neck curves like this: ) Mine curves like this (
Know why? Because I spend all of my time with my head bent over books. I have actually changed the shape of my own spine by reading a lot. A lot is an understatement. We all know this. My neck's been like that since the seventh grade, when I started studying seriously for the spelling bee. By the time I was in eighth grade, I was spending 40 hours/week studying. I would get up at 5 in the morning and stay up late. That's 40 hours every week with my head bent over books.

I have a bad back.
It's totally worth it, though. I wouldn't change a thing. Okay, maybe if I could I'd go back into my eighth grade self standing in front of that microphone, staring at Dr. Bailly (my BFF) and scream that I know how to spell theodicy. But I can't. I loved the spelling bee, though. It's a good experience, even if I did wreck my back over it.

Today I woke up and my back is cackling to itself. I sat up to the sound of fireworks, only they were coming from me instead of the fields behind my neighborhood. It feels like someone picked me up and threw me into a brick wall several times while I was sleeping. Not fun. Fortunately, coffee fixes everything. I have already had one cup, and I'm planning on having many more throughout the course of the day. If I can't fix the way my spine is, I'll at least replace pain with caffeine jitters. WOO.

I'm going to work soon...I think it's going to be a backroom day for me, just re-filing things. It's nice. I can have my iPod and rock out, and people very rarely walk in on that. Generally.

In other news, I finally finished reading The Things That Matter last night. It took me a ridiculously long time to get through it, but I'm glad I read it. I'll be working on a review of that today, and avoiding being in the house with my little brother and his friend. I don't like kids, and Bubby + a friend = lots of unnecessary noise. I'm going to GTFO and find a seat in a coffeeshop where nobody will bother me. It'll be awesome.

Finally, I have questions for you, dear readers:
What do you want to see reviewed? What are your favorite books? What books do you hate?

If you could pick any book for me to write about, what would it be?