Books Read - January 2009

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Stephen King, Just After Sunset
Henry Kuttner, The Last Mimzy & Other Stories
Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island
Stephanie Meyer, New Moon
James Patterson, Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Books Read - December 2008

Charles Bock, Beautiful Children
Gigi Levangie Granger, The Starter Wife
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Paul Shepherd, More Like Not Running Away
Jean Thompson, Throw Like A Girl

Books Read - November 2008

Holly Chamberlin, Babyland
Alicia Erian, Towelhead
Katie Estill, Dahlia's Gone
Thomas Harris, Hannibal Rising
Chuck Klosterman, Downtown Owl
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Joe McGinniss, Jr., The Delivery Man
Jennifer McMahon, Island of Lost Girls
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Francine Prose, Goldengrove
Scott Smith, The Ruins
Stephen J. Spignesi, The Lost Work of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Versions and Oddities

Twilight

I picked up the first Twilight book last weekend. J had to work at the colo down in Pittsburgh, so I knew I was going to be sitting on my butt during those hours, and since I have come to realize that when J says something will take a couple hours it really means several hours, I desperately needed something to occupy my time other than my favorite crosswords and anagrams game on my trusty DS. Hence the purchase. I've been wanting to know what all the hype's about, so why not buy the book on the cheap at the Bal-Mart while we were picking up routers and other mysterious computer hardware?

So I started reading Twilight at the colo, couldn't get into it, quit trying to force it and let the book sit until this week. I'm about 200 pages into it, and to be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It's not root canal horrible and it's not ohmygoodness I need to read this in one sitting wonderful either. As a fan of YA fiction, I'm just not sure where I stand with Twilight.

I'll finish it whether or not it is as nearly kickarse as everyone seems to think, and I'll probably read at least one more book in the series to see if there is an ongoing theme of "take it or leave it," but as of right now the book hasn't sucked me in in much the same way as say the His Dark Materials Trilogy, Harry Potter, or even, oh yes, I'm going there - the horribly awful, can't help yourself from finishing once you started reading Gossip Girl books.

Books Read - October 2008

Guess what? I read ZERO books during the month of September. ZERO. I read bits and pieces of What to Expect When You're Expecting and the Mayo Clinic's Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby's First Year, but that's to be expected. For some reason, I did not do any reading for pleasure. Hmm.

I did pick up my snail pace a bit in October, even if most of it could be construed as "mindless but enjoyable" reading. Whatever gets you through, right?

Andre Dubus III, The Cage Keeper
Terri Gerritson, The Keepsake
Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics
Lowis Lowry, The Giver
James Patterson, 3rd Degree
James Patterson, 4th of July
James Patterson, The 5th Horseman

The winner of the month was Freakonomics. It took me about 75 pages to really get into it, but once I did get into it, I plowed through it. The book's pace was quick, the writing was smart, and the insights were ones I never really considered/correlated before, so it kept my interest. Freakonomics is definitely worth a read.

Runner-up of the month was The Keepsake. My awesome mom got me this book for some reason and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would - especially because I think it's a book that is/was part of an ongoing series I of which I am not familiar. It was the first book I read this month and it got me motivated to start reading for pleasure again. Thanks mom!

I'll Miss You, DFW

I don't know what rock I've been living under for the past week, but today I found out that one of my favorite authors, David Foster Wallace, committed suicide on September 12.

Introduced to his work during my first year of undergrad in Arizona through a conversation I had with one of my TAs, I didn't give much thought to Wallace's writing until a year after this conversation even though I did read one of DFWs books before then. It all started one day while my TA and I were going through one of my essays which was going to be entered into the freshman composition publication contest for the following year's textbooks, and my teacher made mention of how he had noticed my writing style more or less rejected typical norms (whatever that meant...I think he was just trying impress me) and my thought process adhered to a more post-modernistic perspective - much like David Foster Wallace. Who was Wallace? Why had I not heard of this author before? Post-modernistic? Really?

I come to find out that David Foster Wallace was a UA alum. Small world, eh? And while I kind of disagreed with my TA about my personal style of writing, I thought I should read some of DFWs work, so I picked up The Broom of the System and read it over the course of a couple days. I thought it was good, but I had no deep thoughts regarding the essays. At the time I was a nineteen year old who, in her free time, was more concerned with caloric intake and how to burn off mysterious fat that wasn't really there, so my deeper thoughts were mostly limited to the several credit hours I was taking combined with my psychotic exercise regimen.

Fast forward to late fall 1997, sophomore year. I was unwillingly pushed into recovery for the first time during my adult life. And with this particular stint at recovery came less exercise, and less exercise meant more free time to do things I wouldn't normally do in years previous, so I bought DFWs book, Infinite Jest. I read it over the course of two weeks, and then had to read it a second time. I'm not going to go into the story line(s), but this one thousand plus page book changed my life. Literally. It changed my perspective on the writing craft - the many different possibilities on how to tackle subject matter, creating characters while injecting my spin and narrative, ensuring inclusion of theoretical concepts, how attempting to write philosophically did not have to equate to pretension, and among other things, introducing me to my love of metaphysics.

Many people claim that DFW wrote an esoteric, elitist tract in Infinite Jest, but I would have to disagree. Yes, the book is lengthy and filled with parody and theory, but that doesn't necessarily make it esoteric. You should give it a read and see what you think. In fact I still have my battered copy of Infinite Jest. Complete with highlighted passages, notes in the margins, and its dog-eared, yellowed pages. I've had the book for over ten years and I've probably read it about ten times. Every time I read it, I get some new insight out of it.

DFW was one of the most talented contempory writers of the twentieth century. And while it saddens me to think he committed suicide, I cannot say it surprised me based upon what I know of his life and his works. He showed glimmers of his depression in some of his writings and he certainly analyzed everything. I mean, he could turn something seemingly fun and possibly trivial into a complete existential crisis - as an example, read his article on the Maine Lobster Festival, "Consider the Lobster." I guess I just think that someone who thinks that much, is bound to do something drastic. And while I am no great theorist or writer, I understand how thinking too much takes its toll on one, thus leading to drastic measures taken. News of his death also forces me reflect on my own writing and life.

Will I ever be able to get back to my own constantly morphing style of pomo writing? Will I ever get be able to get around the roadblocks in my brain? Will I ever write again as writer versus mere thought thrower outer? I feel I have become "dumbed down" over the past several years working the grind in the business world as HR champion and writer of the technical. Is it true? Am I dumber? Or is it just self-sabotage? This is all a mystery to me, but something for me to ponder.

Thank you David Foster Wallace for the gifts you bestowed upon the world. Your presence will be missed.

Books Read - August 2008

Caroline Cooney, The Face on the Milk Carton
Joe Hill, 20th Century Ghosts
E.L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
Dean Koontz, Brother Odd
Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Joyce Carol Oates, Expensive People
Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Books Read - July 2008

Brock Cole, The Goats
Caroline Cooney, The Terrorist
Lois Duncan, Killing Mr. Griffin
Katherine Dunn, Geek Love
Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity
Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck
E.L. Konigsburg, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
Dean Koontz, Forever Odd

I highly recommend Geek Love to anyone who loves a challenging read. I'm not going to write about how it might challenge you, as I think you need to discover that for yourself. I will tell you this book is possibly the Karoline favorite of the year. At least thus far. But it will be hard to top.

Books Read - May/June 2008

Kate Atkinson, Case Histories: A Novel
Candace Bushnell, 4 Blondes
Candace Bushnell, Trading Up
Jacques Derrida, Dissemination
Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy
Joe Hill, Heart-Shaped Box
John Irving, A Widow for One Year
Karen Kingsbury, Missy's Murder
Dennis Lehane, Gone, Baby, Gone
Marti Leimbach, Daniel Isn't Talking
Pam Lewis, Speak Softly, She Can Hear
Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
Jennifer Weiner, Goodnight Nobody

The Chocolate War

I was talking with my friend Adam over gtalk earlier today, and the conversation turned to books - which isn't altogether unusual considering. He had emailed me over the weekend regarding A Confederacy of Dunces, which I have not yet read, so of course I added it to my book bucket; Then over our IMs he mentioned The Chocolate War - which I have not yet read either. Also added to bucket.

So while we were IMing, I was being my supernerdy self and wikiing the authors, and then somehow I came across the American Library Association's (ALA) web page on banned books...Probably because The Chocolate War is a frequently challenged book. This year banned book week is September 27 - October 4, 2008.

I think I am going to challenge myself to read 25 of the ALAs 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000 as well as the the books on the 2007 list which I haven't yet read. I've only read 39 out of the 100 challenged books from the former list, and I have not read 3 or 4 out of the 10 on the latter list, so I have a decent pool working in my favor. Goodness knows I don't read enough already. Ha ha ha ha.

I'm going to further my challenge by restricting myself to buying only half of the books, and the other half needs to be checked out of the Greater Cleveland Area Library System. Yes, I usually purchase used books at Half-Price or Amazon Used or McKay's if I'm in Knoxville, but today Adam pointed out that I should use my library more often. And I agree.

I used to spend hours upon hours in the library - whether it was in Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, or Tennessee. Why, just 7-8 months ago, the Maryville library in Knoxville was my regular after work haunt for a few hours a day. There is always something to learn and discover at the library.

And just in case you missed it, I am a supernerd.

Game on.

Books Read - April 2008

Candace Bushnell, Lipstick Jungle
Caprice Cane, Forget About It
John Irving, The 158-Pound Marriage
Cormac McCarthy, No Country For Old Men
Emma McLaughlin, The Nanny Diaries
James Patterson, Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever
Jodi Picoult, Salem Falls
Joyce Carol Oates, The Falls
Lauren Weisberger, Everyone Worth Knowing

Books Read - March 2008

Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Freeman, Head First Design Patterns (ongoing; reference)
Stephen King, Duma Key
Stephen King, On Writing
Erika Krouse, Come Up And See Me Sometime
David Sawyer Mcfarland, CSS - The Missing Manual (ongoing, reference)
David Mitchell, Number9Dream
Joyce Carol Oates, Foxfire

Books Read - February 2008

February was a month of new reads, with the exception of Wasted which I have read so many times I stopped counting at a billionty times twenty. This time I managed to read it during an exceptionally awesome workout session on the bike and elliptical.

Cynthia Buchanan, Maiden
Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth
Marya Hornbacher, Wasted
Fred Leebron, Six Figures
Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant's House
Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water
Joyce Carol Oates, Man Crazy
Ruth Rendell, Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Elisabeth Robinson, The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

First Encounter

My friend Adam recently sent me this: half fart and half yellow horse piss

Prior to this I had not encountered the poetics of Al Purdy, which is kind of interesting and humorous to me seeing as how I've had that multi-year-not-so-secret-secret-love affair with the works of Charles Bukowski. Interesting, indeed.

On another note, Adam also sent me this:

Sagittarius: Have you been thinging about making a change in your life? Well stop thinking and start doing! Regardless of whether it's a major or a minor change you have in mind, make it fast! Gradual transitions are not going to cut it now, because they give you way too much time to change your mind. Use your energy to its maximum effect and get things going in the right direction as quickly as you can. That way you will start to see the rewards of these changes faster, too.

I don't usually put much stock in the astrological aspects of life, but this one particularly rang true to some things I am going through right now. Astrology is all about the interpretation, so I guess I decided to correlate it closely to my life today. Thend.

Books Read - January 2008

For those who might be interested in what I read, I am going to post my bookreads on a per month basis. Or you can also always find me on good reads. Last year I read one hundred thirty-seven books.

Not that I am bragging, but I just think that it is absolutely wild. The fact that I read that many books. And it kind of is. It kind of is absolutely wild. Really.

It is. Absolutely wild. One hundred thirty-seven books. Wowsers, Gadgetry.

January has been a month of decent reads. Fluffy fiction, serious fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and history.

Alpha, by author:
David Allen, Getting Things Done
Felix Luna, A Short History Of The Argentinians
Joyce Carol Oates, The Tattooed Girl
Joyce Carol Oates, Missing Mom
James Patterson, 1st To Die
James Patterson, 2nd Chance
JK Rowling, Order Of The Phoenix
JK Rowling, Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter Number Five & Six

If you know me well, you know I read compulsively. If you do not know me well, you will learn that I read compulsively. My latest journies taken were of the Harry Potter sort.

The last Potter book I read was back in 2004. I started to read, and then proceeded to opt out halfway through Flight Of The Phoenix (#5) because I was bored. Yes, bored. So I put the book down and didn't look back until 2008. Four years later.

I felt I should reread the first half and finish the book since I do want to see the film now that it is out on DVD; Yes, even though all the HP films have disappointed me in varying degrees. (And oh man, I sound so pretentious!) So I used one of the lucky gift cards I received for Christmas and purchased another copy of HP 5 seeing as how I lost my last one in one of the many geographic moves I've made over the past four years. And I plowed through it.

HP 5 was a practice of patience for me. I wasn't entirely enthused about the book, but I figured it had to be good or maybe something reeeeeally interesting would come along seeing as how the book is over 800 pages long, but sadly, no. At least not to me. It was all stick and no carrot for me. Read: contrived.

At any rate, I had to forge ahead with HP 6 seeing as how I already had that book in my personal stockpile - thanks to my wonderful mom! So I picked it up and read it in a few hours, and was left feeling similarly as I had upon finishing HP 5. I felt a little empty, papery, and let down.

Maybe it is just me, but I feel like JK Rowling lost something somewhere between HP 4 and HP 5. Like she lost her inspiration, her vigor for the extraordinary. The pages just didn't glitter to me. I am not altogether sure yet, as I am still fleshing out how I feel about the books.

As a Harry Potter fan, I am glad I finally read and finished books 5 and 6 even if I am a bit letdown. I will read HP 7 soon, and maybe that will restore my Harry Potter adoration, maybe not.

Am I heretical for blaspheming Rowling's books?

I have a confession to make.

I keep spreadsheets of all the books I read so I can keep a running total of how many I read on an annual basis, as well reference particular genres I classify books by in order to revisit certain texts that are relevant to my life at any given point in time.

Quote, End-Quote

In dreams I open my mouth and butterflies come pouring out. But what happened wasn't a dream. What happened was real. I opened my eyes and the shadows took shape. They folded into origami wings. I opened my eyes and began to see.

I opened my eyes and out flew bats.

lame ways to spend the day(s) you are sick

i posted this on myspace, but thought i would x-post here, too.

lame ways are as follows:
-- upload pictures onto your flickr account – which will inevitably lead to irritation on your part

For instance, I spent the better part of two good hours today (Saturday, Feb 17th) uploading pics form my August 2006 trip to Maine to my flickr, and about 84 pictures into the whole process, I thought it would be better to break down the entire Maine set (which was going to be over 200 pictures) into smaller subsets - Acadia, Bar Harbor, Portland Head, Moosehead Lakes, etc. so what do I do? I go into batch organize and delete 25 pics after I had already created my Portland Head subset and guess what? Flickr decides I want to delete both the pics in the Maine set AND the Portland Head subset. SOOOOO irritating. Ugh. I've about had it.

-- spend the day thinking about all the delicious food you want to eat, but are unable to eat because it hurts too much to chew and swallow

Mastication is not over-rated. Right now, I would really kill someone if it meant I could chow down on some delicious cavatelli or prierogies or tacos or pizza or ANYTHING. But definitely not any more chicken bouillon or freeze pops. It's been THREE days since I have been able to get something solid and crunchy down my esophagus (sp?). I am jonesing for some celery. Some carrots. SOMETHING, ANYTHING THAT I CAN CHEW.

-- watch movies while sucking down copious amounts of freeze pops

Over the past three days, I have watched five movies. And sucked down about fifty freeze pops. But these were not all good movies either. Freeze pops, always delicious. Movies I watched were: The French Connection, Imagine Me & You, But I'm a Cheerleader, Just My Luck, and Forbidden Secrets. The last two were definitely departures from my usual choices. Don't get me wrong, I heartheartheart a good chick flick and Lindsay Lohan…well I like her in her chick flick movies, but Just My Luck sucked. It sucked in much the same way me losing my Portland Head Light pictures sucked. Forbidden Secrets is a LMN classic. It has Kristy Swanson in it – original Buffy – but something about it is chapping my ass. Maybe because it sucks in much the same way that Just My Luck did for me. Where's Carol Seaver when you need her…wait, no, her real name is Tracey Gold. Yes. Where is she, when you need her and her LMN resume to intervene and supply good mindless movies for you to view in the midst of an antibiotic and sleep-aid haze?

-- try to eat popcorn because you want to chew SOMETHING, but then have that experience backfire on you because you can't swallow solids for some reason

I hate you cruel, cruel world. I'm in a place in my life where I actually want to eat and I can't. The world works in funny ways, I suppose. Laugh. You know you want to and you know I am.

-- look up spoilers for this coming week's Grey's Anatomy episode

LAME. I said it. My weekend has dwindled to me researching spoilers regarding the melodramatic show on the ABC network, GA. Make fun of me all you want. I know some of you watch the show, too. Don't deny it. I'm stuck in between wanting Meredith to die and to not die. In one way, I would be exceedingly happy since I detest her raspy voice, watery eyes (not to mention one eye is slanty a lot like Shannen Doherty's), and her pseudo-Renee Zelwegerrist stance. But on the other hand, I don't think my strange fascination with the show would continue without Ellen Pompeo. While I don't like her, I do like her. Both Ellen Pompeo and the character she plays – Meredith Grey.

-- order witty shirts from threadless with money you don't really have to spend at the moment

All I have to say is f(x) = sheep(x)m. Do you have a shirt that says that? I didn't think so. Do you want to wear a shirt that says that? I didn't think so either. I am senseless.

-- cruise amazon looking for new books that pique your interest

Just so I can order them from used booksellers and get a book for $2.50 instead of $8.99. While I love my half-price books and borders, the used booksellers on amazon tempt me oh so much. Especially when I am sick and home alone spending money I should not be spending on things like books. What I should do is go to the library and check some books out and read them that way. But then that leads to me not having paperbacks (my favorite) because libraries often only have hard-covers available of the books I want to read…and it leads to me not being able to dog-ear and write in the margins of the books. I have some pretty bad habits, don't I? I do. I really, really do.

-- write really bad musings and chuckle when you go back and reread because, "man, you haven't written anything this bad since your freshman year of college."

Oh the angst. The angst of being 18-19 years old and writing your woes down for all advanced freshman composition teachers to read and criticize. Writing your woes down for that intermediate poetry class you somehow got into as a freshman, all the while having your woes shot down because you wrote/write like Bukowski and, "he's not a real writer in the American canon." It is what it is. And today – to this day – you cannot take that away. I suppose that is why I was an immense failure in the poetry/fiction creative writing schools of thought, but succeeded and did and do very well in the non-fiction school(s) of thought.

Being sick and wasting away in front of my computer and the television is not how I would ideally like to spend my weekend. Especially because I waste away in front of my computer during the week. It gets tiring, you know? I guess I just wanted to complain about that. Nothing interesting to note, other than that I am mad at the world. And technology. And my doodle eye. And my doctor for not giving me Tylenol with Codeine. And my stomach. And Shonda Rhimes. And Orville Redenbacher. And my lungs. And my throat. And youtube for not having a Positive K video on their site.

That is all. That is enough.