Anybody read the new Dan Brown book yet? I haven't...I might eventually, but all the build-up hype made me back off. I don't like hype. I read all of the Harry Potter books, actually worked at a midnight release in a bookstore, but I didn't much care for the insanity there, either. I'm not one for mob mentality.

Speaking of books, those are what I'm immersing myself in today. I spent all weekend killing myself over writing articles (it paid off, but it ruined my mood) so I'm giving myself permission to do no "professional" writing today and just enjoy myself. Drink too much coffee (not that I don't do that every day anyway), read some books, do some crosswords. Stuff like that.

I'm going to be reading snippets from the hilariously wonderful book Alphabet Juice, and perhaps some of this bio of Audrey Hepburn that's largely pictures. Picture book for adults = super cool.

That's all I've got for today, kids. I'm sleepy and still recovering from the massive amount of writing I did over the weekend. 18+ articles and rewrites? That's a lot. Break time! See you tomorrow.

"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.

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?

Webcomics

This picture (which I am aware is not flattering) will make sense once you get to the entry on FreakAngels.


Webcomics are awesome. I read a lot of them, usually on Saturdays. Saturday is my designated web-comic day. However, if I find a new one that I like, I'll read it from the beginning until the most recent one so that I'm all caught up. I've been doing that recently with a new one that I found. So today instead of books, I'm going to talk about all of my favorite web-comics. Well...most of them. I don't have all day to do this.

• E-merl. E-merl is weird but awesome. It's a 3-panel comic (4 with the title, which is always pertinent to the joke), pretty simply illustrated, lots of bright colors (always important) with subjects like "Other Names For Roses That Would Not Smell As Sweet". Yeah. Awesome. Minimal swearing, not too much that would frighten the kiddies. Pretty tame, but very clever. It's updated Tues/Thurs
  
• Questionable Content. Definitely start at the beginning as this one is a continuous story with new characters and plot lines added consistently. It's also very clever, but it's more focused on the people and their relationships. Sort of like a sit-com without any actors and it's usually much funnier (excluding Seinfeld, which wins at everything forever I don't care what anyone says. Seinfeld formed me as a person). It gets updated pretty much every day Mon-Fri, although when they guy who does it is busy, the very offensive Yelling Bird will take over. I follow him on Twitter (along with the other characters who update occasionally). YB is horrifying. QC is one to check out; swearing and sex are involved, so if that's gonna bug you, don't read it.
• xkcd. A classic among web-comic aficionados. Lots of mathematical and literary references -a lot of it will go above the average reader's head, but it's really hysterically good. Also, hypertext. Never forget to read the hypertext.
• FreakAngels. One of my personal favorites. Warren Ellis writes it, and he's just undeniably brilliant. I also follow him on Twitter, and he's a very interesting alcoholic. FreakAngels follows the story of a bunch of twenty-somethings who accidentally caused the apocalypse, kind of. They all have these undeveloped powers they use and they can communicate telepathically. A lot of it deals with them trying to rebuild a working society from scratch, politics and human/kind of super-human relationships. It's so well done...I'm totally not doing it justice here, but I love it. I love it so much that I bought a FreakAngels tank top using my coffee money. That should be enough to get you to read it.
  
• Bite Me!. Vampires before Twilight. Real vampires, not faggots. It's a completed comic, so it took me about 45 minutes-1 hour to get through the whole thing. It's well-written and -illustrated. Funny, fast-paced and clever, I really enjoyed coming across it. Also the author makes fun of Twilight (hypertext. NEVER forget hypertext. It makes comics 10x better). Some swearing/risque humor. Nothing shocking, but funny as hell.
  
• Penny Arcade. A classic gaming comic. I game very little (L4D. Foreva.) but even I crack up reading PA, because it's just that good. It's funny and cute and silly and crude and hilarious. The story arc is sort of continuous, but you don't need much background to be able to really get into the humor. Swearing is rampant. Get over it.
  
• Pictures for Sad Children. Not my favorite. It's a little predictable, but occasionally there will be one that just sucks you right back in to its universe. It's got some real gems, and that alone makes it worth reading right through it.
• This image specifically: Dude Watchin' with the Brontes. I laughed for about a minute straight when I read this. It's just... gold. Absolute gold. If you're a literature nerd like myself, that it.
• Least I Could Do. It's just funny. There's a lot of sex in this one, fyi. The characters are awesome though, and it's really well illustrated. If you go back to the very beginning and read through it, you can see where the illustrator changed and it really made all the difference in the quality of the comic. I enjoy it.
• Dresden Codak. Heard of transhumanism? This is where you need to go to find out about it. It's an extraordinarily well-done comic. All I should need to say to get you there and reading it is that there is a character named Tiny Carl Jung. Yeah. I love DC.
• Girls with Slingshots. I just started reading this one yesterday. It's pretty sexual and there's lots of swearing, so no-go for kids, but it's good. It's funny, well-drawn and realistic. I'm getting a kick out of reading it. One of my favorite parts about GwS is that the characters are aware of their status as characters in a comic -much like my beloved Deadpool. It adds a slightly bizarre but ultimately interesting element to the stories.
  
• Last but not least is Wondermark. Wondermark is just plain weird. Also, hypertext. WM is really, really funny and clever, especially if you like off-kilter humor and things called a Piranhamoose.
  

Those are the comics I read most regularly, although there a few others scattered here and there that I'll check in on. Be sure to read at least some of these -they will take your day, shake it by its humor gland and force it to be awesome.
I'm not even kidding. Maybe a little.

Additionally, I love picnics. :)

Review Monday

As promised, here is today's review. Richard Feynman!

You're all getting spoiled this week; I posted an extra review last night just for kicks, and later this week I have a special project that's going to result in 4 separate articles! So get excited about that, and get your reading glasses ready! ;) It's going to be a busy week for me. I'm actually going to work in addition to writing, so I actually have to leave the house for something other than the library or coffee...

As far as my experiment yesterday with going outside went....that failed miserably. I stayed inside and got active though. My arms still hurt from Wii Boxing, and I'm okay with that. I'm still white as a lily, but at least I didn't spend all day sitting in front of my screen staring at various pieces of writing. I consider that a step in the right direction. Maybe I'll actually venture outside today, who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Still reading The Things That Matter...it's taking longer than it probably should, mostly because I'm just reading at night right now. Not sure why, I've just been putzing around doing other things during the day. Like playing Wii.

Well, keep an eye out for further reviews 'n' stuff later this week :)

Newspapers and further thoughts on Rebecca

Sometimes "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" comes through -sometimes it isn't about dating or making extremely stupid choices as a result over an overdeveloped sense of competition. The episode I just watched was about the power of the press to actually enact change, even if it's a school newspaper. I wish my school newspaper had done interesting things like that, as opposed to self-congratulatory back-patting and stories about the editors' friends. Some of those people are my friends, too, and I mean them no offense, but where was the investigative reporting? Where were the stories about the teachers that played favorites or stacked grades? Where were stories about corruption on the school board? Perhaps there wasn't any, and Findlay is just as boring as the school papers made it sound...but somehow, I think the real corruption was just in the newspaper.

I'm still reading Rebecca, and still loving it. It's getting weirder and more disturbing as the story progresses, and I'm loving it. This is the first time in weeks I've confined my reading to a single book -it's a strange experience, actually, not to switch between three or so books every hour or chapter I spend reading. I wouldn't say it's more relaxing, even. It's just different. Pleasant, but different.

A review will be up soon after I finish it, and it'll probably be a hefty one. There will also be a review up tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that!