Thank gods I don't have to be so damn cold anymore. Reading by candlelight in the winter--romantic and nice, but also cold and hard on the eyes.
And I spent about 2 hours (at least) every day in the library for the past 3 days.
Let's never have to do that again, okay?
But I did read a lot. :) Not much else to do. This is turning out to be a productive vacation--just as I'd hoped!
Update on that later...when it's all said and done.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
A little candlelight reading...
Well, my power is out.
I'm in the library, currently. Been here about 2 1/2 hours. I could only report my power outage online...and I've been continually checking to see when they estimate I might have power, but there's no estimate. So I may be doing a little candlelight reading this evening.
I did read a bunch of picture books here at the library, which is always fun. But there was a storytime, so there's lots of noisy little kids right now and I'm really not in the mood. So I'm going to be heading home.
Cross your fingers and hope with me that my power will return soon!
I'm in the library, currently. Been here about 2 1/2 hours. I could only report my power outage online...and I've been continually checking to see when they estimate I might have power, but there's no estimate. So I may be doing a little candlelight reading this evening.
I did read a bunch of picture books here at the library, which is always fun. But there was a storytime, so there's lots of noisy little kids right now and I'm really not in the mood. So I'm going to be heading home.
Cross your fingers and hope with me that my power will return soon!
Friday, December 19, 2008
New book update
I don't even think I posted my last batch of new books because I let it go for so long. Sorry. :( But here's some that I just added to my library!
Bought through various sources:
Bought through various sources:
- Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
- Angel Omnibus by various authors
- Cathy's Book by Stewart, Weisman, & Brigg
- Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
- Ouran High School Host Club #11 by Bisco Hatori
- Fruits Basket #21 by Natsuki Takaya
- Mental Illness and Your Town by Larry Hayes
- Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire
- Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
- Girls Who Rocked the World 2 by Michelle Roehm
- The Day of Revolution #2 by Mikiyo Tsuda
- Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire edited by Merri Lisa Johnson
- Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures Volume One by Robert Asprin
- Y: The Last Man: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan, Jr., & Paul Chadwick
Vacation!!
Okay, I am officially almost on vacation. Well, if the weather hadn't been so bad, I would be at work right now and my vacation would start after that. But the weather is bad and I am home and working from here and the lines between working and not working blur a little. So, I suppose I'm on vacation. Until January 4th! Woo hoo!
How many books do you think I can read on vacation? I do have the holiday obligations to fulfill and I need to get some cleaning done... But I'm working on it!
Oh, and in regards to my personal challenge of reading all those books that I'd been reading forever--I got Inkdeath and Against Happiness done! Still got Evil Genius, Breaking Dawn, and Full Frontal Feminism. But I got two done!
Happy holiday reading!
How many books do you think I can read on vacation? I do have the holiday obligations to fulfill and I need to get some cleaning done... But I'm working on it!
Oh, and in regards to my personal challenge of reading all those books that I'd been reading forever--I got Inkdeath and Against Happiness done! Still got Evil Genius, Breaking Dawn, and Full Frontal Feminism. But I got two done!
Happy holiday reading!
Monday, December 15, 2008
More book quotes!
After none for so long, suddenly, an abundance!
From Pornography by Debbie Nathan
Porn, on the other hand, is often "all about the fantasy of abundance," says California sex therapist Marty Klein. It's like a fairy tale feast where the food is perfectly prepared and there's more than enough for everyone. Even better, the diners didn't have to buy or cook it--it was no work or trouble at all. And the variety of dishes is amazing. Many, such as roast beef, new potatoes and chocolate cake, are enjoyed by almost everyone. Others--the Brussels sprouts, duck pate and pickled watermelon rinds--make just a few people's mouths water, while others absolutely can't stand them. Regardless of their likes and dislikes, the guests line up at the buffet to load what they want on their plates. No one wonders about what childhood experience made them like funny little green vegetables more than potatoes. No one thinks that watermelon rinds are evil. They just pass them up for the cake. Everyone gorges. Afterward, heartburn is never a problem.
After all, what could be a bigger turn-on than a world where everyone has the right to express his or her sexuality, without having to act out someone else's because of poverty, oppression or ignorance? What could be more exciting than sex education that helps young people know who they are--not by adopting stereotyped identities such as stud, hottie or good girl, but by understanding themselves as community members and complicated individuals?
From Pornography by Debbie Nathan
Porn, on the other hand, is often "all about the fantasy of abundance," says California sex therapist Marty Klein. It's like a fairy tale feast where the food is perfectly prepared and there's more than enough for everyone. Even better, the diners didn't have to buy or cook it--it was no work or trouble at all. And the variety of dishes is amazing. Many, such as roast beef, new potatoes and chocolate cake, are enjoyed by almost everyone. Others--the Brussels sprouts, duck pate and pickled watermelon rinds--make just a few people's mouths water, while others absolutely can't stand them. Regardless of their likes and dislikes, the guests line up at the buffet to load what they want on their plates. No one wonders about what childhood experience made them like funny little green vegetables more than potatoes. No one thinks that watermelon rinds are evil. They just pass them up for the cake. Everyone gorges. Afterward, heartburn is never a problem.
After all, what could be a bigger turn-on than a world where everyone has the right to express his or her sexuality, without having to act out someone else's because of poverty, oppression or ignorance? What could be more exciting than sex education that helps young people know who they are--not by adopting stereotyped identities such as stud, hottie or good girl, but by understanding themselves as community members and complicated individuals?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Book quotes!
From Against Happiness by Eric G. Wilson
What, then, is America becoming? It is turning into a nation of true consumers, people bent on taking in huge mouthfuls of Happy Meals, hoping too for the special prize, earned just for eating an imitation of a real hamburger. What, really, could be wrong with this? Apparently a lot could be wrong. Look at what sort of people this culture is creating. I have seen them. You have too. They haunt the gaudy and garish spaces of the world and ignore the dark margins. They tilt their heads to the side, feign bemusement, and not knowingly. They clinch their eyes in looks of concern. They blink a lot, bewildered. They murmur truisms about overcoming adversity. They say that they love their parents and puppies and all babies. They devour bestsellers about the wisdom of children or coaches. They can be smarmy war-mongering conservatives or passive-aggressive peace-loving liberals. They can be Christians hiding their meanness or New Agers hungry for power. They adore the Lifetime channel. They are happy campers. They want God to bless the world. They want us to ask them about their children. They believe that a hug is an ideal gift; one size fits all. They think that kind words make good echoes. They join Book-of-the-Month clubs and identify with sympathetic characters. They sign their e-mails with chirpy icons. They swear by the power of prayer. The swear by the power of positive thinking. They dream of having Norman Vincent Peale as a dinner guest. They would eat Jell-O and Cool Whip. They would eat turkey too and make an endless Thanksgiving.
Surely some of you have felt the same way that I do. You have turned sullenly from those thousands of glowing, perfect teeth lighting the American landscape and slouched to the darkness—the half-lighted room, the twilight forest, the empty café. There you have sat and settled into the bare, hard fact that the world is terrible in its beauty, indifferent much of the time, incoherent and nervous and resplendent when on certain evenings, when the clouds are right, a furious owl swooshes luridly from the horizon. You feel that sweet pressure behind your eyes, as if you would at any minute explode into hot tears. You long to languish in this unnamed sadness, this vague sense that everything is precious because it is dying, because you can never hold it, because it exists for only an instant.
Creating doesn't make us unhappy, unhappiness makes us creative. To create is to live, and in living, we want only to create more, to set our foundations deeper and reach higher toward the sky. If sadness is what makes us creative, then sadness is nothing else but life.
Trying to forget sadness and its integral place in the great rhythm of the cosmos, this sort of happiness insinuates in the end that the blues are an aberrant state that should be cursed as weakness of will or removed with the help of a little pink pill.
What, then, is America becoming? It is turning into a nation of true consumers, people bent on taking in huge mouthfuls of Happy Meals, hoping too for the special prize, earned just for eating an imitation of a real hamburger. What, really, could be wrong with this? Apparently a lot could be wrong. Look at what sort of people this culture is creating. I have seen them. You have too. They haunt the gaudy and garish spaces of the world and ignore the dark margins. They tilt their heads to the side, feign bemusement, and not knowingly. They clinch their eyes in looks of concern. They blink a lot, bewildered. They murmur truisms about overcoming adversity. They say that they love their parents and puppies and all babies. They devour bestsellers about the wisdom of children or coaches. They can be smarmy war-mongering conservatives or passive-aggressive peace-loving liberals. They can be Christians hiding their meanness or New Agers hungry for power. They adore the Lifetime channel. They are happy campers. They want God to bless the world. They want us to ask them about their children. They believe that a hug is an ideal gift; one size fits all. They think that kind words make good echoes. They join Book-of-the-Month clubs and identify with sympathetic characters. They sign their e-mails with chirpy icons. They swear by the power of prayer. The swear by the power of positive thinking. They dream of having Norman Vincent Peale as a dinner guest. They would eat Jell-O and Cool Whip. They would eat turkey too and make an endless Thanksgiving.
Surely some of you have felt the same way that I do. You have turned sullenly from those thousands of glowing, perfect teeth lighting the American landscape and slouched to the darkness—the half-lighted room, the twilight forest, the empty café. There you have sat and settled into the bare, hard fact that the world is terrible in its beauty, indifferent much of the time, incoherent and nervous and resplendent when on certain evenings, when the clouds are right, a furious owl swooshes luridly from the horizon. You feel that sweet pressure behind your eyes, as if you would at any minute explode into hot tears. You long to languish in this unnamed sadness, this vague sense that everything is precious because it is dying, because you can never hold it, because it exists for only an instant.
Creating doesn't make us unhappy, unhappiness makes us creative. To create is to live, and in living, we want only to create more, to set our foundations deeper and reach higher toward the sky. If sadness is what makes us creative, then sadness is nothing else but life.
Trying to forget sadness and its integral place in the great rhythm of the cosmos, this sort of happiness insinuates in the end that the blues are an aberrant state that should be cursed as weakness of will or removed with the help of a little pink pill.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Reading the same books...forever!
Okay, so I've been reading the same few books forever...and I can't seem to finish them. It's not that I don't enjoy them, it's that I get other things that need to be read sooner. Like...library books that have holds on them that need to be read by a certain date. Or something that catches my interest better.
I vow to finish Breaking Dawn, Inkdeath, Evil Genius, Against Happiness, and especially Full Frontal Feminism by the end of winter break (which for me will be around 1/4). Of course, I have two more grad school applications to finish first and a bunch of library books that need to be read by a certain time, but I'm determined. My last personal challenge of the year. :)
I vow to finish Breaking Dawn, Inkdeath, Evil Genius, Against Happiness, and especially Full Frontal Feminism by the end of winter break (which for me will be around 1/4). Of course, I have two more grad school applications to finish first and a bunch of library books that need to be read by a certain time, but I'm determined. My last personal challenge of the year. :)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
best books of november 2008
most interesting plot for a young adult book:
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
best book incorporating other peoples' dreams:
- The Night of Your Life by Jesse Reklaw
most disappointing after all the hype:
- Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
coolest picture book (with the best pull out map ever):
- Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett
best reminder that i love learning about phobias:
- Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett
best reminder that i love psychology:
- Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling
prettiest bound, decorated, and illustrated young adult book:
- ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
added to the favorite picture book author list:
- Mini Grey
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
books i've read november 2008
11.1.08
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (YA)
11.3.08
- Angel: After the Fall #13 (C)
- Spike: After the Fall #4 (C)
11.4.08
- Nothing Nice to Say by Mitch Clem (GN)
- The Night of Your Life by Jesse Reklaw (GN)
11.6.08
- Wild Ones #1 by Kiyo Fujiwara (M)
- My Heavenly Hockey Club #2 by Ai Morinaga (M)
- Bleach #4 by Tite Kubo (M)
- Crimson Hero #9 by Mitsuba Takanashi (M)
11.7.08
- Red River #20 by Chie Shinohara (M)
- Skip-Beat! #14 by Yoshiki Nakamura (M)
11.10.08
- MySpace Dark Horse Presents editd by Scott Allie & Sierra Hahn (GN)
- Ultimate X-Men: Apocalypse by Robert Kirkman, Salvador Larroca, & Harvey Tolibao (GN)
- Wild Ones #2 by Kiyo Fujiwara (M)
11.11.08
- My Sister the Vampire #4: Vampalicious! by Sienna Mercer (Y)
11.13.08
- Bad Sex: We Did It, So You Don't Have To by the writers of Nerve (A-NF)
- Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (GN)
- Bleach #5 by Tite Kubo (M)
11.14.08
- Nobunny's Perfect by Anna Dewdney (PB)
- Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett (PB)
- The Different Dragon by Jennifer Bryan & Danamarie Hosler (PB)
11.16.08
- Satisfaction Guaranteed #3 by Ryo Saenagi (M)
11.17.08
- Otto's Orange Day by Frank Cammuso & Jay Lynch (Y)
- Cat Nights by Jane Manning (PB)
- Nui! #1 by Natsumi Mukai (M)
- Marveltown by Bruce McCall (PB)
- Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, & Nathan Hale (GN)
- Satisfaction Guaranteed #4 by Ryo Saenagi (M)
11.20.08
- Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto (PB)
11.26.08
- Sweaterweather by Sara Varon (GN)
- Traction Man Meets Turbodog by Mini Grey (PB)
- Bats at the Library by Brian Lies (PB)
- The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer (YA)
- Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling (A-NF)
- Red River #21 by Chie Shinohara (M)
- Kamisama Kazoku #1 by Tapari & Yoshikazu Kuwashima (M)
- Nodame Cantabile #15 by Tomoko Ninomiya (M)
- Broken Angels #3 by Setsuri Tsuzuki (M)
- Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki & Steve Rolston (GN)
- Burnout by Rebecca Donner & Inaki Miranda (GN)
- Water Baby by Ross Campbell (GN)
- Traction Man Is Here! by Mini Grey (PB)
- Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg (GN)
11.27.08
- Geek Chic: The Zoey Zone by Margie Palatini (Y)
11.28.08
- Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew by Ursula Vernon (Y)
- Oliver Nocturne: The Vampire's Photograph by Kevin Emerson (Y)
11.29.08
- You Just Can't Get Enough by Cecily von Ziegesar (YA)
- Infamous by Cecily von Ziegesar (YA)
- Well Witched by Frances Hardinge (Y)
- Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, & Will Conrad (GN)
- ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley (YA)
11.30.08
- Bleach #6 by Tite Kubo (M)
- The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-to-Be by Mini Grey (PB)
- The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey (PB)
- The Little Bit Scary People by Emily Jenkins & Alexandra Boiger (PB)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight #19 (C)
- Angel: After the Fall #14 (C)
- The Government Manual for New Wizards by Matthew David Brozik & Jacob Sager Weinstein (A)
11.08 total: 58
5 young adult; 4 comics; 12 graphic novels; 16 manga; 6 youth fiction; 2 adult non fiction; 12 picture books; 1 adult fiction
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)