Everyone Loves Turn-of-the-Century Novels!

I bought Catching Fire for Kindle, because it wasn't even IN TRANSIT from the library, which means I won't get it for weeks. I'm finding myself becoming ridiculously belligerent about Peeta vs Gale, which is just silly because I've barely seen Gale so of COURSE I'm going to want Katniss to end up with Peeta. But my brain ignores this fact. "NO. I AM RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG." But, y'know, ingrained thought patterns and all.

So let's talk about how Ragtime is completely amazing and you should all read it. Daaaaaymn, E.L. Doctorow. I'm kind of a giant Broadway nerd, so in high school I was like "RAGTIIIIIIIME!" and checked out the cast recording from the library, as this was in the days before Spotify and mp3s and the like (*grumbles about kids today*). Liking it for the most part, I got the book, but being a teenage UBER-CHRISTIAN, around the 20th mention of sex I was completely disgusted and returned it unfinished.

Now, of course, I'm ever-so-slightly more mature, and beginning this spring I've gotten way into the Labor Movement (posts on the Triangle Fire/Rose Schneiderman and Carola Woerishoffer!). Oh, and you guys didn't know it, but I did this:

AND Emma Goldman's one of the characters in Ragtime (she also has a song in the musical called The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square, and it's amazing and you should listen to it). Doctorow says lovely things about her like "She wore horn-rimmed glasses that enlarged her eyes and suggested the constant outrage to her soul of the sights she saw."

Nice.

So yes, he combines figures from the period (1910, part of the most kickass decade in terms of social change), and has them interact and it's SO AWESOME. Like how whenever anyone writes a play/movie about Elizabeth I, they HAVE to have a scene where she meets up with Mary, Queen of Scots, even though that proooobably never happened. It's like that, but for all the historical figures. Goldman meets up with Evelyn Nesbit, who's looked on by Freud, who then hates America and goes back to Austria. But never mind that.

He doesn't write in I guess 'florid' prose, and although I tend to like that sort of thing, I love his writing style. It's simple and clean and extremely visual nonetheless. And just really good. Y'know, if you're into that sort of thing.

It was the music of something beginning
An era exploding, a century spinning
In riches and rags
And in rhythm and rhyme
The people called it ragtime.

Harrowing Acts of Courage (not really)

It's apparently Banned Books Week. 

I've never gotten my knickers in a twist about banned books. I dunno, I just don't really mind. There're a ton of books out there to read, and you can TRY to ban something, but people'll get it anyway, and probably be more likely to look at it because it was banned. Soooo I don't really see the harm. Other than letting the idiots win. But those idiots aren't going to learn anyway; they'll just see themselves as martyrs up against a morally profligate age if the books remain unbanned, so let them feel that way, don't ban books, and everyone's happy.

That all being said, I have indeed suffered for the cause of banned books. *looks heroic* I went to a Christian high school whose (unofficial) policy was that if anything was controversial, it was banned. I tend to be somewhat contrarian (not you, Alice!), so I was moved to extreme teenage anger anytime something new got banned.

Being a Christian/Pentecostal school, and me being in high school during the time the Harry Potter craze reached fever pitch, those books swiftly became an issue. And without much discussion, our principal banned them. She's a lovely woman, but I obviously disagreed with her. You weren't allowed to bring the books into the school, our library definitely couldn't carry them (although I heard a rumor that our school librarian had secret copies she passed out), and any kind of Harry Potter merchandise was banned.

How did I suffer for this? In the lamest way possible. Because I have a Hogwarts t-shirt that I've owned for probably ten or eleven years. It just has the Hogwarts crest on it, meaning if you hadn't read the books, you couldn't be sullied by it. But someone told my English teacher it had to do with Harry Potter and I got a detention. A DETENTION. Boo. But at least the students of my school would be safe from my controversial shirt.

There were two other delightful school interactions, both with idiot boys. One of them I remember hadn't read the books, and we had this exchange:

"ONE OF THE CHARACTERS DRINKS UNICORN BLOOD."

"YEAH, THE EVIL CHARACTER."

The other one stamped on a copy of one of the books and I jumped on his back. I was a lot more sprightly back then.

Don't ban books. Unless you totally know what's right for everyone else. Then you're good.

Hunger Games? More Like Hunger...Awesome..Games

Hunger Games was way better than I thought it was going to be. Because I didn't want to let myself like it, but then I did, DESPITE MYSELF. I don't even know how technically "good" it is; it's just really entertaining. Which then makes me feel a bit nasty because that's why the people at the Capitol watch the Games. For entertainment. So I'm really like the stupid Capitol people. I mean, I can live with that, this all being fictional, but I feel like it's a dirty trick on the part of the author. *shakes fist*

I still thoroughly plan on reading the next two, even if I am a bit annoyed by the direction I believe it's going to take (down with the oppressive regime! let's outsmart them by being sneaky and out-of-the-box!). If anything, it's taught me that I don't care at all that girls were arguing to death about the Twilight battle of Edward vs Jacob. Because I would engage in a lengthy debate about Peeta vs Gale, and I haven't even read much about Gale yet (but oh, I am sure he will be prevalent soon). No, I cared that Bella was a personalityless, selfish moron who made a boy the end-all, be-all of her existence. LI-TER-ALLY. 

So yes, if Hunger Games is the next series teens are way into, that is just fine and dandy. Now I won't have to write more ranty essays about how Bella behaves like an abused housewife around Edward AND LIKES IT.

Let me just un-derail that train and we can move on. Not that I really have anything to move onto. Sophie's Choice is still excellent. My small group at church is reading Karen Armstrong's The Case for God, which is extremely dense to say the least. Oh, and I am of course looking forward to the Help! I Have Not Read The Help! read-along. You just go and sign up for that if you haven't read it. Because I will post awesome discussion questions and we shall have SCHOLARLY DEBATES.

This is how I expect things to actually go:

"I loved *insert character here.*"

"WHAT? That character sucks."

"YOU SUCK."

No, we'll be respectful and so forth. Which is less funny, but whatever.

In Which I Undermine Myself, Crafty Person That I Am

I was visiting my family peoples this weekend and thus did not check ANY blogs for like three days. So in case you're like "WHY am I getting comments today on a post from Friday? THE TIME IS PAST," that's why. I am catching up on blogs instead of reading The Hunger Games which, y'know, I actually would very much like to do as it's at a very exciting part. But I respect you all too much. Posts cannot go commentless if I have the slightest thing to say, be it edifying or not.

I hesitate to say what I'm about to say, as it necessarily puts my blog in not as stellar a light as I would at all times wish. But my friend Julie, both fortunately and unfortunately, has started a book blog. Fortunately, because it's funny and clever and contains genuine book reviews, unlike here. Unfortunately, because it's better than mine, and by me directing you to it, you will be made aware of this.

I hang out with this girl fairly regularly, and I was still surprised and delighted to find that she refers to Keira Knightley as "Keira &$*%ing Knightley."

Anyway, her blog is Contractually Obligated to Like Books and you should all check it out right now.

Meanwhile, what does my blog have to offer?

APPRECIATE IT

I Tried to Come Up With a Sophie's Choice Joke, But It Made Me Sad

As part of Roof Beam Reader's TBR Pile Challenge, which I have kept up with relatively well throughout the year thus far, I'm reading Sophie's Choice. I have zero idea when I thought that would be a stellar addition to my shelf, but I asked for it for Christmas, and my at-the-time 12-year-old brother bought it for me. Yeah. Appropriate? No. Oh well.

So I'm pretty near the beginning, and I have been CONFLICTED, because I hate -- HATE -- when authors use unnecessary words. Like Nabokov and his damn 'nates' in Lolita. Screw you, sir. He also FOR REAL used 'nictitate,' a word I made fun of in my high school SAT prep class because all it means is 'to wink,' only it sounds nasty. Our sample sentence in the book was "The old man was nictitating at her." Gross.

Anyway, so the book is narrated by an author, a young Virginian who -- dare we guess? -- is supposed to basically be William Styron, who was born in Virginia and would've been the character's age at the time the book takes place. The young Virginian narrator author person (more words! more!) likes the English language. A lot. And he uses it almost to its limit. And I am TORN because there is a very fine line for me between using unnecessary words and reveling in the language. I love reveling. It is my fave. 

Here's an example of him treading this very precarious line: "He was an amorphously fleshed, slope-shouldered, rather ovoid-looking young man of about twenty-eight, with kinky brick-colored hair and that sullen brusqueness of manner of the New York indigene."

Ovoid?? Indigene?? Who uses these words?? No one! No one uses them! No one but William Styron and a few annoying grad students! From my basic principle, I should dislike this book, but the thing is that I super-super-love it. I think he uses these words not to mess with the reader, as Nabokov kind of does (I hate that guy), but because he just really loves words.

I have this image of him coming up with the incredibly depressing idea for this book and then flailing and saying "I WILL USE ALL THE WORDS." At the rate he's going (I'm only 50 pages in), I feel like he could succeed. While maintaining an interesting narrative. Good job, Styron. Good job.

New Idea! and Oh, It Shall Be Fun.

Okay, so as many of us discovered yesterday, we suck for not reading The Help. Boo us. So I propose that in the month of November, we do a group readalong of this. Look, I even made a graphic for it!:

Get it? Yeah...

So...I guess...Mr Linky? And I never knew that the 'leave a comment after linking' thing was automatically in it. Screw that, I don't beg for comments. So let's do this, people. Hopefully November 1st (a Tuesday) is late enough that we all have time to get it from the library, overly-checked-out though it might be. Oh, the discussions we shall have! So exciting.

edit: Yes! You can "read along" with the audiobook. It's not like you'll be understanding fewer words than the people reading a paper copy.

Top Ten Books Everyone Has Read But Me

I have missed an astonishing number of books that most people did not. 


1. The Help - YES I WILL READ IT. Eventually. I got shit to do, people. Those 30 Rock reruns aren't going to watch themselves.


2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - I started this after buying it for Kindle, and I genuinely did like it. But then I got sidetracked and have not yet made it back. But I'm totally pro-running with the crowd so long as the crowd isn't mass-reading something idiotic *coughEatPrayLovecough*


3. The Kite Runner - I read someone's hilarious review of this on Goodreads (this is me, by the way) and now I can't find it. But rest assured, they convinced me that if I read it and liked it, I was a dribbling moron. So now I cannot read it. Plus I soooo don't care about the subject matter. (*hides from thrown rocks*) (edit: review found)


4. Hamlet - Yeah. This. Like two years ago I thought 'Hey. I've never read or watched Hamlet. I mean, I've seen The Lion King, but that's not exactly the same thing. So how about I read the play and then watch some movie version?' Yeah. That play is WAY TOO LONG. I got to maybe Act II and then called it quits. Screw you, Shakespeare, and your overly long works.


5. Lord of the Flies - I tried this. Twice. Guess who has two thumbs and doesn't care about a group of boys stuck on an island? "Oh my gosh, who could have predicted that they'd act in such a savage way?" Seriously? SERIOUSLY. I hate this book.


6. The Handmaid's Tale - Yes, yes, going to read it eventually. Atwood isn't really my cup of tea, but one of my favorite comedians, Jackie Kashian, made a Handmaid's Tale joke, and I didn't get it and felt bad. So this must be rectified.


7. The Diary of Anne Frank - I tried this when I was maybe 11? And I got bored and put it down. Maybe I'd be less bored now. I dunno, my favorite thing about this is the Onion article: Ghost of Anne Frank: 'Quit Reading My Diary.'


8. Where the Red Fern Grows - I'm going to read this. I didn't read it in 7th grade SPECIFICALLY because I was told what happens to the dogs, and I wasn't putting myself through that, damnit. But I feel bad never having read it when absolutely everyone else did for some reason. I'm not sure what's so intrinsically great about this book, but I will have read it. And that's all that matters.


9. Eat, Pray, Love - There is no way on God's green earth I am reading this book.


10. A Game of Thrones - I'm kind of at the point with this series that I'm angry that so many people love it. Which is an unfortunate reaction, but now I refuse to give in and read it. Because that would be letting the book win.

IS NO BOOK SAFE FROM THE TWILIGHT COVER

*stamps foot and screams*

Mystery! Fire! Dresden Figurines!

I have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, one of the two I chose for the RIP Challenge!

First off, PENGUIN YOU WIN AT COVERS. I cannot tell you how many people who normally don't fricking care one jot as to what I'm reading have asked about this book. The cover kicks ass. It, in my opinion, still doesn't justify the $15 Penguin is apparently charging for it (I got it from the library), but still. Awesome.

I haven't read The Lottery, because my high school had a substandard English dept, but I read Haunting of Hill House last year because I was told it has some ladies-liking-ladies stuff, and I'm always up for reading that, especially if written in the '50s (verboten! fun between-the-linesness!). I was disappointed in it, not only because the ladies stuff was perplexing to me, but it just felt SO VERY VAGUE. In general. Like, a fog of vagueness surrounded the entire thing, and I am only okay with that happening in Henry James' stuff, because I EXPECT IT of him.

This was not vague. This withheld facts, but eventually elucidated them in an 'oh, by the way' fashion, which I can get behind. You start out completely in the dark (and with an unreliable but interesting narrator), and as things happen, you piece together how everyone ended up where they are.

Oh, and Cousin Charles? HATE. He was causing me intense frustration and anger in the break room at my workplace, which is not conducive to a healthy work environment. So fie on you, Charles.

I don't think I can ever give a Jackson book more than 3/5, but not because I think she's bad. She just doesn't fit me. Kind of like how Hemingway pisses me off, but I get that he's not terrible. So I thought this was most excellent indeed, and might read it again someday, but it didn't Resound Within My Innermost Parts like, y'know, Calvin & Hobbes does. But thank you, O Ye Billion Who Suggested It. You have done well.

"You die two pages later of TB."

Your Move, Dickens just posted on A Room With a View, which reminded me why I can't take any book that was made into a Merchant Ivory film seriously.




Oh, French and Saunders. You are my favorite.

"Excuse Me, Your Religion Is Showing."

So, despite railing against YA book blogs, I do indeed read YA fiction. But I like to think of the YA I read as "not shitty," and therefore, it is different than what those blogs talk about.

Rick Riordan: Lover of '50s toys?

Last year I became a big fan of Rick Riordan. No, his prose isn't the most carefully crafted, but eh. He blends mythology into modern life really well, and he's actually much funnier than his dorky author pic would have you think (this picture makes him look like he still plays with Howdy Doody dolls).

So I bought The Throne of Fire in May (the second in The Kane Chronicles trilogy) and, as I am horrible about reading books I own, have only recently picked it up. It's Riordan's Egyptian mythology series (the other is Greek/Roman), and it's really good and I very much like it, but it's made me face some things about myself, people. Some unpleasant things. Yeah. Short sentences make better points.

The book blogger's default position on censorship is "GAHHHHHH KILL THE CENSORS!" And I mean, yeah. Sure. I guess I'm on board with that. But my background is HYPER-literal Christian. Meaning everything in the Bible is to be taken literally, and if you say otherwise, you're someone who's gone off the true path and will be dealt with on the Day of Judgment. If you have any kind of serious religious background, you're probably aware that it's reeeeally hard to completely rid yourself of those thought patterns.

I go to the most hippie-like Presbyterian church possible (no guitars, though. we have to draw the line somewhere), so I'm becoming pretty un-literal/non-literal/whatever, but it makes me squirm when I read things in Riordan's writing that basically belittle -- although that might be too strong a word -- the Bible. WHICH IS SO DISTRESSING TO MY BRAIN. I don't want to squirm! I want to be fine with it! It's a book for 10-year-olds!

So I started thinking, if I had kids, would I be one of those Christian parents who wouldn't let them read things by Riordan because he talks about Egyptian and Greek gods existing and being worshiped today? AGH. I don't think so. But with my background, I understand the thought pattern. There's this weird line between free speech, rational thought and "think of the CHILDREN." If you're talking with someone who's pro-censorship because of The Children, and you say "Well, I'd let my child read it, but I'd talk them through the parts I disagree with," they might pull out the ol "WOULD YOU WALK THEM THROUGH PORN TOO?"

Well...no.  I'm not sure why that seems the inevitable next step. "OMG this book discusses religious issues and possibly discounts Moses' parting of the Red Sea! Ok, we'll talk Susie through it, but then after that we OBVIOUSLY have to watch some latenight Cinemax and talk to her about that, because all controversial topics must be introduced at the same time. CRITICAL THINKING NOW OR NEVER, SUSIE."

This is a bit more caps-locky than normal. But religion in general makes people antsy (or, y'know, blissfully calm or something), so the beloved capslock is to ensure that no one take this TOO SERIOUSLY or starts some kind of weird blogging fight about Rick Riordan (I'm sure it's already been done anyway).

The point of this is I realized that while I would not condone censorship, I would probably be into "Mayyybe you should read this later" and generally hold off on it. I also realized I can still get squirmy about religion in a kids' book, which I was not expecting. I know this isn't the most popular of opinions, but we don't have these blogs just to sit around being self-satisfied with our universally-beloved opinions on things, yes? I mean, yeah, we want to do that most of the time because it's way awesome, but we should occasionally be like "You know what? Fuck The Help."*

It's healthy for the blogworld. I have decided that just now with no evidence to support me. Also 'blogworld' sounds like something from 1998.

*note: I did not read The Help. Do not stone me.

People I Think Are Cool, PLUS, I Suck

All right, here's the dealie. My body has become some kind of huge wussfactory, where all my white blood cells are just hipsters who want to lay around and talk about their awesome ironic accessories rather than fight any kind of illness. Meaning I have AGAIN been sick, this time since Sunday night. I wasn't at work yesterday, and when I started writing this entry, I had to stop because my stupid body was being stupid. And ironic. Somehow. So anyway, this is Monday's response to BBAW. Huzzah!

So I've never done this before, as this is my blog's first year of existence, but according to other blogs that I've read thus far this morning, today we appreciate each other. Which I am all for.

According to their site, "today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you." Totes. I can do that.

I come to Blogger from the now-universally-scorned Livejournal. Livejournal is mainly the residence of fangirls and super-weirdos (also Russians), but I love it for its commenting. Its main purpose is comment conversations, which forge friendships and make people generally love each other. When I joined Blogger, I was dismayed to see their standard comment section had no way to specifically reply to one person without the lame 'YourName-*insert comment*, YourOtherName-*insert comment*, which not only does NOT notify the person that you've replied, but frankly makes things all a bit too sticky and complicated to be conducive to real conversations.

Despite appearances, I do not have this blog to prattle on to myself. I got it because I wanted to join the book blogging community. Because of that, I am very very happy to have met these two bloggers:

Red at What Red Read. Aw, Red. I forget who mentioned her blog first, but I was delighted to find that not only is she around my age, but she's funny and I can respect her book choices (so rare! so rare indeed!). When I first joined the ranks of the book bloggers, I was nearing the point of despair because every blog I found seemed to be extolling the virtues of crap YA lit using giant neon font. But she does neither! AND she uses my favorite comment platform, which allows for specific-person replies and notifies you when someone's replied to you. So great. Yay conversation.

Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads). Man, Emily's great. And I super-hope we both go to BEA next year so I can meet her. She's one of the few (ok, few that I've met) who actually gets paid for interacting with books. And she doesn't hate them! Amazing! When I worked at a music library, I wanted to stab the patrons with sporks and never look at a music score again. Kudos, Emily. I think the first thing I read of hers had to do with Eudora Welty, and I was like "Eudora Welty?? That's not Dean Koontz!" And there was much rejoicing.

These're two out of pretty much everyone I follow. I mean, if I follow you, I like what you write. And TBH, the main reason we probably don't have a comment relationship is that my workplace blocks some kind of blogger software that does not let me log into Google from blogs, so unless you have the "Name/URL" button enabled, I CANNOT COMMENT. Boo. And you're apparently too shy to make the first move. I get it. It's ok, we've all been there. Maybe someday we can meet, just not now. Just...not now.

Two Posts? What Is This, St. Swithin's Day?

I was doing my daily blog-skimming from Google Reader the other day, when something on Laura from Devouring Texts' blog caught my eye. And that would be a reference to How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent, which she loved.

So I have a particular kind of love for obscure British celebrities, which is at least partially due to me finding it hilarious to know anything about them. I follow a gang of them on twitter, and they all tweet to each other, because there are ten people in all British Entertainment (it's a tiny island), so they of course know each other. They're mostly clever/funny, but they also make many references to things I totally don't get, because, y'know, two countries separated by a common language, etc etc.

The author is one of these people. My path to knowledge of her went like this: 1. Get interested in British actress Keeley Hawes. Watch her show Ashes to Ashes. 2. See Amelia Bullmore on Ashes to Ashes, google her. 3. Find pictures of Amelia Bullmore with hilarious captions on some woman named Emma Kennedy's website. 4. Find out Emma Kennedy a) knows everyone and b) is on twitter all day every day. 5. Follow Emma Kennedy on twitter, see that she's having frequent conversations with @gracedent, follow @gracedent.

I genuinely loved this book and will be recommending it to anyone who has any kind of understanding of Twitter (read: not my mother). Oh, Grace Dent. You used to just be that person who Emma Kennedy was friends with and who tweeted all the time, but now you are that hilarious woman who has far more evolved theories on feminism than I do and who pointed out, quite rightly, that on Twitter "I feel something that I feel very rarely in the rest of the world: that my sex is 100% equally represented."

There's also "If you cold-called me and asked me to help you with your survey entitled Shit I Think About Jennifer Aniston, I would go for the box ‘I couldn’t give a fuck’ every single time."

See? You clearly want to read this book.

And of course, it's much more of an extended Ode to Twitter than an actual guide to leaving it. That bit only takes up a few pages at the end. Most of it explains the types of people you meet there, why it's great, and why it's terrible. As a medium-level user of twitter, I can't say I'm familiar with all these types, but as they're also the kinds of people you meet in real life, it rings true.

Because only appx. five people in the United States know who Grace Dent is (I'm still a bit unclear, to be honest), her book's available here, but only in Kindle format. And it is the low low price of $5.50! A steal if ever I saw one! Also, did you know you don't need a Kindle to read Kindle books? No! You just need to download the Kindle computer app, then in between checking out that hilarious cat video (they're all cat videos), you can read a page or two. Reading from the Kindle app is not staring bug-eyed at a computer, forever destroying your eyesight, as some might have you believe. It is MULTI-tasking. Different.

One more quote, as there're so many excellent ones:

I am not interested in ‘think pieces’ about whether size 12–14 women should be allowed to go down the catwalk and be able to easily find clothes in shops. I don’t need to ‘think’ about that. Only a gibbering dunderhead has to think about that.

So great.

Librarians Do Not Become Librarians Because They Are Social Creatures

Isn't the internet wonderful? At least for recommending things. I had people I've never talked to before (yes, I consider commenting 'talking') suggest scary/mysterious/generally unsettling things to read, and thereby helped me overcome something of my Horror Genre Idiocy.

Everyone's suggestions got me very excited about getting new things to read, so I went to the Chicago Public Library directly after work, picked up We Have Always Lived in the Castle, marched over to the 'L' section of the broadly-termed 'FICTION' category and! -- discovered there was no H.P. Lovecraft. Well, that's not entirely true. There were two books of Lovecraft "revisions." Yeah, they decided to assemble two collections of stories Lovecraft helped revise. But they had nothing -- NOTHING -- that was just him.

Thinking I might be in the wrong section -- maybe short stories all by one author were in another area? -- I walked up to the Reference librarian, something I hate doing, as while they might be very good at their jobs, CPL librarians tend to be extremely odd. I asked whereabouts Lovecraft stories might be and he, in a happily un-odd fashion, directed me back whence I came, and then decided to walk over and inspect for himself. Upon the realization that there was, in fact, no Lovecraft there, he stated that they apparently had no collections of his. NONE. In the eight-floors-of-books-complete-with-escalators (I'm still very impressed by this seven years after first seeing it) of the main branch of the Chicago Public Library they had not a single H.P. Lovecraft book.

Fortunately, the kindly librarian said he would tell their collections person (oh, I don't know their proper title, stop making fun of me) and that they would order some. Huzzah! And I did manage to check out The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time, which has ONE Lovecraft story in it (as well as The Tell-Tale Heart, which I'd never read and was shocked/disappointed that it was basically three pages long). So not a completely failed trip.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is fricking weird, though. I rode the Brown Line almost all the way to the end and back yesterday so I'd be able to focus on it, and...I have feelings about Shirley Jackson which I cannot be specific about as of yet. I shall work on articulating them.

More Reading Challenges, That's What I Need

All right. I wasn't going to do this, despite EVERYONE doing it, but who am I to be above bandwagon jumping? Let's all read scary things!

I am not great at reading scary things, as I do not like to scared (possible problem with this challenge? perhaps). But I had a weird sort of liking for Haunting of Hill House despite giving it, I believe, 2/5 on goodreads, so I shall attempt to read other stuff that's creepy/scary/what-have-you, and hopefully it'll result in...something.

Definitely won't be able to do more than two, but now I need to pick them. Everyone's freaking out about The Night Circus now that it's only one week from release, so mebbe that. But I feel like I should read old scary stuff. I have no idea who writes old scary stuff. Poe? Yeah, him. But there have to be others; I've just always ignored them due to the aforementioned dislike of things scary.

Anyway, huzzah for challenges and I hope you're all participating if you have the inclination. Let's form a tighter community by doing the same things! (i'm sure this has never turned out badly) Yeah!

As a Worker, I Have the Right to Sit Around and Eat Salsa con Queso From the Jar Today

Hello! It's a Happy Labor Day (or Labour Day, as our friends to the north say) posting from Reading Rambo! Did you forget the blog was called that? Because to be honest, I do sometimes. But I guess I tend to think of my blogging compatriots by their blog titles, so maybe right now you're looking at me like you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Right then! In honor of today, I finished a book. Yes, a book. The Mysterious Benedict Society. And OH, what a journey it was. An awesome, awesome journey, with illustrations by Carson Ellis of Decemberists fame.

I possibly laughed. I know I cried, because I am an emotional mess today (turns out it wasn't allergies, but rather a pernicious cold, which I am still battling), and I pretty much all-around loved it.

Those who are my friends on Goodreads, don't hate on me for using the same review in both places. In this one, you get bonus stuff! (see above) So it all turns out well in the end.

So there's children's lit and there's children's lit, by which I mean there's somewhat enjoyable children's lit like The Hunger Games (haven't read, doesn't matter) and Spiderwick and others, and then there's a certain tongue-in-cheek, knowledgeable, kind to and understanding of children style that almost inevitably makes me tear up at some point in the book.

Most of A Series of Unfortunate Events has that tone (kind of fouled it up after book 9), and Mysterious Benedict Society has it.

Basically, it's a group of four parentless children brought together by a Mr Benedict, who needs them to investigate some mysterious happenings on an island. And it's amazing and wonderful if you're not one of the unfortunate adults who deems well-written children's lit to be below their reading standards. No, no, go read your shitty adult vampire book. I totally understand.

One of the things that can be great about children's lit is that the author can write extremely well but not have some agenda to "prove" himself, which is what can make adult books disgustingly pretentious. Trenton Lee Stewart uses relatively simple prose, but he's a great writer. I was invested in all the characters, and I fully plan on reading the other two in the series.

*wipes sweat off brow* Ah, reviewing! You take it out of me. And now I'm off to revel in eating leftover Thai food and possibly to watch Gilmore Girls which — quick digression — I'd never ever seen before today, but I had a dream last night that I told someone I'd never seen an episode of it and they pitched a fit (this has happened IRL on numerous occasions). So I downloaded the first episode and was HIGHLY PERTURBED to find that I really liked it. Damn you, you likable Gilmore women.

Have a splendid Labor Day all, and those of you overseas, you probably get way more vacation time than we do, so I'm not even going to BEGIN to feel sorry for you.

Allergies, You Are a Stuck-Up, Half-Witted, Scruffy-Looking Nerfherder

Allergy season has hit Chicago, meaning I and most of my coworkers are sniffling/coughing/being generally gross. I used to be one of the privileged people who was unaffected at this time of year, but then oh, the distance I fell from my very high horse. If we met in person right now, I would in all likelihood glare at you and then refuse to speak, as talking hurts my throat and has made me generally irritable, but! these are the interwebs! So I can project a very happy-go-lucky state indeed. Now let's talk about books!

After a succession of reads that were just kind of 'eh,' I started to think I was going through what I've seen other book bloggers talk about as a dry spell, book-break, rest from reading, or what-have-you. But I have since revised my opinion, and decided instead that the books were really just kind of lame, and I am still very open to reading non-lame things.

SUCH AS -- The Mysterious Benedict Society! My gosh. Cannot tell you. Love. LOVE. I mean, things could change, as I'm not super-far into it, and I could suddenly find it boring or overly self-aware, or any number of things, but this morning I kissed it before returning it to my bag, and this does not happen with many books. No no no. My affections are bestowed upon a select few, and only when they fully deserve it. If memory serves, the only other book I've treated in an amorous manner is Bleak House by Dickens. I have one of those hardback, faux-old editions Barnes & Noble was selling a number of years back, and if my apartment were burning down, it would be in my top five books to save.

Anyway, the way my blog started was I entered Roof Beam Reader's TBR Pile Challenge, which I saw mentioned on Salon. It seemed like a good plan, since I have 150+ unread books on my shelves, and being the masochistic monkey who never learns, I keep buying more.

This TBR Challenge has actually proved most effective, as it's September and I'm on my eighth book (ok, I'm a little behind). I've owned Mysterious Benedict Society for two years, and since I'm behind on the challenge, thought I would pick it up since it's a children's book, and MY gosh. There's a certain intelligent, knowing tone that's in some of the children's books out today. Series of Unfortunate Events has it, and this book does too. You feel like you can trust the author, which is so important with contemporary lit, as the passage of time has not aided selecting what's good and what's crap, which leaves us with things like the unfortunate Twilight.

Anyway, it's great, and I recommend it as of 1/5 of the way through. Which isn't far, but oh well. Have an utterly fantastic Labor Day weekend, all. I plan on spending mine making an enormous amount of pasta and then eating it. Ah, America.