New Moon, The White Queen and other nonsense

This picture of my tattoo (which is reversed) relates to CAKE! Read on for more details.

I write about a lot of "other nonsense" -probably because my life is filled with nonsense. Nonsense is not bad. In fact, it's quite wonderful a good deal of the time. It just doesn't fall under the heading of the Reading Corner.

For instance, Jonah baked me a belated birthday cake with my tattoo done in the icing -not only is that awesome, the cake was also chocolate/peanut butter/hazelnut flavored. Is he the best or what? Or, another example, my little sister got a part in a local production of Seussical the Musical (she's a jungle creature).

Other examples include: what I'm wearing (as much as I love my fashion blogs, I do not follow their examples -jeans and tank tops are about all you'll get out of me. I am comfortable this way, and nobody is interested in seeing me get gussied up every day. Well... some people might be, but I don't have time to make myself look like a million bucks every time I walk out my front door. I'm cute enough as is. :P ), what I've eaten (this and drinks can be filled with one word: COFFEE. If I could eat coffee as a meal every day, I would -chocolate covered espresso beans do not a good meal make, sadly), where I've gone (unless it's the bookstore/library) or what I'm watching (unless I can make it work).

Fortunately, I tell you about most of those things anyway! That's why I allow myself room to write "other nonsense." Because I am more than my face in a book. Not much more, perhaps, but it doesn't hurt to know that I have stuff going on outside writing. It reminds me of it, anyway. I have a lot of cool things going on in my life. :)

So! Books.

New Moon the movie, as you well know, is coming out in November. Holy Jesus am I not excited about this occurring. As a backlash against the ever rising tides of Twilight-related hysteria that I'm seeing with the imminent release of the movie (which I'm sure will suck as much as the original), I wrote a review of the book New Moon and analyzed it from the (accurate) Edward-abuses-Bella (who is an idiot)-standpoint. Fun times!

I also reviewed another book I haven't read (and don't care to) called The White Queen. If you're into historical fiction, this is totally going to be your thing. If you don't give a rat's ass about it, it's probably not. I'm not into historical fiction -the reason for me being that if I want to learn about history, I'll read a history book. Rewriting history and fleshing out characters who were actual people with actual lives to make them best-selling fiction is not something that interests or pleases me. I like my history factual. Why the rewriting? Why the fictionalization? Is it just to get people interested? My high school history teachers did a decent job of getting me interested in history. Which is made up of facts.

Perhaps the only fictionalized historical account I've ever enjoyed was Loving Frank. Mostly because a major portion of the book was comprised of actual letters and journal/diary entries, newspaper reports and other, similarly factual pieces of FACT.

I'm slowly edging onto my soapbox about this one. Can anyone defend historical fiction to me? I'm all for fiction writing, creative nonfiction (which includes some liberal amounts of truth-bending, believe you me) and what-have-you but historical fiction is a genre I just do not understand. Why take an actual story that other people lived a really long freaking time ago and add a bunch of fiction to it? Not only is it confusing and misleading, it seems to smack of intellectual laziness to me. If you're going to go to the trouble of researching a time period and specific individuals in order to write about them, why wouldn't you publish a nonfiction account of it? If the story is that super exciting, it shouldn't be much harder to sell copies.

I just don't like it. I'm not expressing it well, but the genre as a whole pisses me off a bit. I need coffee before I "accidentally" kick someone in the face.

In other news, I've been writing about Halloween. Have a significant other? Want to go to a Halloween party with them in a matching costume? This is the article for you. Want to not die while out trick or treating? This is the article for you.

I need to get something productive done. I haven't written yet today and my writer's guilt is kicking in. Or something.

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?

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?