I Used to Be an English Major

Lindsay’s review of Beastly reminded me of an article I read recently in a librarian magazine about pairing modern books with classics.  An idea I LOVE.  It included a few suggestions (like pairing Peter & the Starcatchers with Peter Pan and Leaves of Grass with Paper Towns), and it listed what I consider the GREATEST pairing and I disappointed I didn’t think of it myself:  The Hunger Games with the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.

Have you ever read that?  I read it for a class in college & loved it!  I don’t want to explain too much about it because it’s a short story and I’d basically give it all away, but it would be awesome to pair with The Hunger Games!  That’s all I’ll say.  :)  You can read it online HERE.  This was turned into a movie at some point because I caught it on TV one day.  Keri Russell aka Felicity was in it!  But it wasn’t very good, so I didn’t even watch the whole thing.  But apparently I should have because according to imdb, Mr. Feeny was in it!  Shoot.

Anyway, while I was re-reading “The Lottery,” I remembered my other favorite short story that I read as an English major – “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

(Nerd alert!)  I think I even wrote a critical analysis paper on it.  I read a few years ago that it was going to be a movie, but I don’t think it got much attention, and I’m not even sure if it ever came out.  (Boo.)  You can read “The Yellow Wallpaper” online HERE.

Now I’m in a short story mood.  Have you read either of these?  What do YOU recommend?

- Jill

Jen is Done!!!

Even though my time isn’t technically up until 6:30 tonight, I am definitely done.  This challenge has wiped me out.

Since I am very excited to get back to my normal life of watching tv and being an all around lazy fool (and lounging around in my brand new air conditioning) this will be brief.

Last night:

9:16-9:41 Blog blog blog

9:41-10:57 Finally finished The Lincolns!!  Huzzah!!!

When I read the quote on the 2nd to last page about Mary Lincoln (something about a crazy woman lurks inside) I couldn’t help but think of the story Candace Fleming told that went along with it.  The story was perfect and touching and too long to go into here, but it was one of the things that made me love her (both Mary Lincoln and Candace Fleming).

9:40-11:41 Specials by Scott Westerfeld  (opinion below contains spoilers)

Ugh.  So glad to be done with these books (I am NOT reading Extras).  This quote pretty much sums up how I felt about the main character Tally: “This was the final price of her massive ego.”  Yep, that was my entire opinion of her, just one big massive ego.  I also didn’t like how everyone thought she was so awesome because she could think for herself and she changed her own mind.  But really, when you think about it, she only ever changed because of the BOYS around her.  She never thought for herself, she needed help from the guys in the story to help her realize what she needed to do.  It was pretty much the opposite of the classic beauty and the beast story.  She changes for the better because of the men around her.  Great message.  Also, I was really pissed off at the ending.  I would have been much happier if Tally would have wasted away in that tiny cell for the rest of her hundred years.  Yeah, that’s right, I can be cruel to fictional characters.

11:41-1:00  And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

1:45-2:16   “”            “”

This was a rather broken up reading experience first because I ate lunch in between and also because my landlord came over to install my window air conditioner.  He’s a very nice guy but not a great landlord.  He hasn’t cashed any of my rent checks and he totally knocked over and chipped one of my pitchers while trying to install the air conditioner.  Thank God that’s over.

Anyway, I loved this book!!!  The beginning was very slow and I almost stopped about 13 pages in, but then they got to the island and things took off.  I don’t usually like horror movies, but reading this book felt like watching one.  It was super suspenseful and I had no idea what was going on.  Very very good.

2:33-4:00  Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

I have wanted to read all of Sarah Vowell’s stuff ever since I saw her extra feature on The Incredibles DVD (she played the voice of the daughter Violet).  She comes across as a little crazy in the book, but crazy in a good way.  It is all about how she travels to different places that deal with the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.  It is hilarious and informative and all around awesome.  I’m not done with it yet, but I’ll hopefully finish it soon.  I also have two of her other books checked out too so I am looking forward to those as well.

So not including this last blog (which is just too much math for my brain to handle), here are my totals

Total books:  7.5

Total hours: 20 hours 12 minutes!!!!

Yea!!!  I think all my math is correct, I can’t vouch for it right now because I am a little loopy, but now I am going to go eat a Buster Bar from Dairy Queen and lots of potato chips.

Jen

Jen’s 2nd Day Update

A lot of things got in the way of my reading today, but hopefully I am not completely done yet.

This morning I went to lots of garage sales in the rain (yea for a new pretty cat carrier!) and then got a new driver’s lisence (yea for looking like a drowned rat in my picture!!).  There was also a lot of other unnecessary running around in the rain as well (Amber, I bought some of that Be Curly stuff!!).

Unfortunately as the morning wore on I started to feel very icky.  Yesterday I had a really bad sore throat that I attributed to one too many classroom speils about the summer reading program.  Well last night it was really terrible and today I started to get the all-around-exhausted-icky-malaise feeling that comes with actually being sick.  This is not good.

Anyway, to quit rambling, here is what I accomplished today.

Throughout the Day (3 hours 7 minutes)–Percy Jackson The Demigod Files audiobook

This morning while I was out and about and then tonight while I ate dinner I listened to the inbetweeny Percy Jackson book of short stories.  I found it relatively amusing and I always like to see what my favorite characters are up to.  I don’t think I got the whole experience by listening to the audiobook because I think there are portraits of the characters in the actual book, so I am sad that I missed those.  Thank the Gods for being able to listen to an audiobook to break things up!

1:13-2:19 Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras by Cathy Hopkins

This book was okay.  It didn’t really have much substance and the characters didn’t really resonate with me but I am so glad that I read it because I adore the name Nesta!!!  And anything British-y is fine by me.

2:19-4:46 Had to take a nap…..darn sickness catching up with me.

4:46-6:36  Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

I liked this book a lot!  It is right up my alley.  I totally have a weakness for fairy tale/princess stories.  I loved that it was told from the guy’s point of view.  Now I need to get my hands on the 2nd one.

6:36-7:31  Ate dinner and finished the Percy Jackson audiobook (not counted in time since audiobook was already listed)

7:31-8:26  Continued The Lincolns by Candace Fleming

Still liking this book a lot.  One thing that really hit me was that I would not have wanted the Lincoln family to visit my library.  Apparently Mary and Abraham let their kids do whatever the heck they wanted and they totally would have gotten a mean librarian glare from me.

8:26-8:41 Blogs and stuff

Then I was interrupted by my mom calling, which was a nice break and now I am blogging again.  I think I will keep reading a little while longer, but I don’t know how much longer I can go tonight.  I don’t plan on waking up real early in the morning, but I know I can make my goal of 15 hours.

Totals so far:

4.5 books (still working on the Lincolns)

7 hours 13 minutes counted today (including blogging and audiobook) so far and with the 6 hours from yesterday that makes 13 hours 13 minutes……….oooooohhhhhh, unlucky way to end the day…..must read some more!

Jen

P.S.  I know I said I would read Specials today, but it just didn’t happen, we will see about tomorrow.

48 Hour Book Challenge….Here We Come!!!

This is just a quick post (hurridly thrown together over my lunch hour) to let everyone know that all four of the NerdGirls………..that’s right, all four of us………..are going to be participating in MotherReader’s 4th Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge.

There are many specific details of the challenge, but basically the goal is to read for as many hours as possible during a 48 hour period.

I am planning to start reading at around 7:00 tonight (I have to go out and get treats and milk in order to sustain me) and keep reading until I fall asleep.  Tomorrow is going to be rough because it is the Friends of the Library Garage Sale Days and I have been looking forward to it forever.  So I am going to be out and about all morning and won’t get to read till the afternoon.  I toyed with the idea of checking out an audiobook and listening to it on my walkman (I know, I don’t have an ipod), but I just moved to the community and don’t want to appear stand-offish whilst meeting my neighbors.

So, this weekend Jill, Amber, Lindsay and I will probably post about our progress and then put up a post when we finish with our final statistics.  My goal is to read at least 15 hours.  I was going to go for 20, but I think I need to be realistic.

Anyway, good luck to everyone else participating and I hope to get a lot of good stuff read (must go stock up on things when I get back to work).

Jen

What Do You Like About Yourself?

This post is going to be a feel warm and fuzzy post, so if you are not in the mood to be happy I suggest you turn away from your computer right….NOW.

OK, now that we’ve weeded out all the moan n’ groaners, let’s begin.

Do you ever have a moment when you’re just like “I really like myself!”?  I hope you do.  I have them every now and then (I like myself all the time, but don’t always acknowledge it) and it is a wonderful awesome feeling!  I’m going to go ahead and list some things that I like about myself:

1) I read a lot.  Reading makes me so happy, especially when I get to read a new book!  Nothing is better than taking time to read something from one of your favorite authors.  And I like that I still free read – I feel like I’m in an exclusive club.

2) I catch myself dancing and mouthing the words to songs in public.  Sure, you may think I’d feel stupid, but instead I feel kind of special, because people are looking at me and I like to think that maybe I’ve given them something to laugh about now or later on.

3) I like math and am good at it.  Seriously, when I’m working really hard on a good math problem my ears turn red because of the focus that’s going on up there.

4) I have really nice friends.  My mom told me once that you attract people who have similar personalities to you.  My friends are really nice, ergo I am really nice.  It makes me feel good to think that people probably think I’m really nice.

5) I can procrastinate like crazy but still get everything I need to done on time.  This is probably not the best thing in the world, but I still like it.  I think it’s kind of funny that I have to wait until crunch time to get things done,  but there’s a reason my dad calls me Last Minute Lindsay.  Sometimes I wish I can be super organized and disciplined (w00t Alison), but then I probably wouldn’t have half as much fun as I do (like when we played baseball in the office with an easter egg as the ball and a sharpie as the bat).

I want everyone to post at least one thing that they like about themselves in the comments page.  It will seriously make you feel good about yourself and give your step a little bounce today!

<3, lindsayd.

P.S.  I totally did 5 things I like about myself because there are 5 spice girls.  I’m Baby Spice pretty much every single day…but maybe I can start being Posh every now and then.