Tag: reading

The Injustices of Book Release in Fall

whynotstayinLeave a comment

I have a bad habit of reading a lot of good books very quickly. I’ll pick one up and think hmm seems interesting enough and then all of a sudden my Saturday is gone. I realize that somehow I am now reading in the dark.

Photo Credit: http://www.pinterest.com

So, it’s January.

The last word has been read, the cover closed and I want the rest of the story right then and there instantly in my hands. Forget food or anything else. After a cursory search of my shelves I realize I don’t have the second, third, fourth, tenth, or umpteenth book. My heart breaks.

In point two seconds my phone is in hand as I research the next book.

I religiously read the description hoping to glean just a little bit of information before my greedy fingers move to order it.

I move the mouse down till I find the order button.

My heart more than breaks it is razed, obliterated, ground into nothingness.

Preorder.

Receive order on November 2.

I slide out of my seat into a puddle on the floor. The middle of the school year. I can’t help but think, I’ll bet a million bucks I’ll have a calc test to study for, and goodness knows how much other homework.

So I give up, I order it and put it on my shelf to look at me and shake it’s head in disappointment. Every once in a while I’ll look up at it like a scolded kid as I try to figure out the slope of a tangent line before it costs me my grade the next day.

America’s Finest News Source

raining17Leave a comment

WARNING: Do not read if easily offended.

Photo Credit: blogs-images.forbes.com

The Onion, a satirical newspaper that exists primarily to mock America’s antics, is one of my favorite forms of entertainment. While scrolling through Facebook, articles randomly pop up on my news feed, and never fail to provide amusement.

Even funnier than the articles themselves though, are the headlines – I cannot explain my love for them. I admit, I don’t always get around to reading the actual stories – that’s a big commitment – but the headlines, a short and easy read, are simply genius.

Impeccably sarcastic and wittily worded, these headlines are the epitome of satire  – I love it.

Here are ten of my all-time favorites, in no particular order.

  • ‘I Am Under 18’ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet
  • Miracle Of Birth Occurs For 83 Billionth Time
  • Taylor Swift Now Dating Senator Joseph McCarthy
  • Secondhand Smoke Linked To Secondhand Coolness
  • Gay Teen Worried He Might Be Christian
  • Kitten Thinks Of Nothing But Murder All Day
  • Dwarf Falls Equivalent Of 10 Stories
  • Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids
  • Alcoholic Father Disappointed In Pothead Son
  • Buddy System Responsible For Additional Death

It doesn’t even matter if you read the articles themselves– the headline is all you need.

Enjoy, and thank me later.

Live by Curiosity, Not Fear

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Photo Credit: mymarketingdiary.wordpress.com

Friday October 23rd my parents and I made the relatively strenuous drive at 8:30 at night to Redlands University to see my brother at his college Homecoming.

To be honest, I couldn’t care less about football. In fact, I chatted the whole time and not about the plays being made on the field.

But, on Saturday, the day of the largely anticipated game (admittedly, not by me), I went to see something truly unforgettable.

A few hours before the game, Redlands hosted a guest speaker and that speaker was Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love.

I read the book a few years ago and loved it, so I was looking forward to her speech. The main idea of Gilbert’s speech was her desire to live a creative life, her journey to attaining that life, and to encourage others into also living this life.

First of all, she was very clear: to live a creative life, you must follow curiosity rather than fear, and the two are closely intertwined.

This deeply resonated with me, as I am the type of person who thinks of every bad side to a situation and lets those (usually improbable) reasons sway me from not doing something.

Gilbert was inspiring, intuitive, and an amazing speaker. The speech was definitely worth having to watch a football game afterward, though I did leave at halftime.

Sweet Sting Sunday.

Yourcupatea1 Comment

Bee
I had my first bee sting of the year today, and man it hurt a lot more than I remembered.

So I was casually reading my book as you do on a Sunday afternoon, admiring the view from my porch chair and relaxing in the shade of the huge oaks over head. The birds chirped away singing sweet songs as they played and splashed in the water of the bird bath unaware of the dangers that accompanied them in their play.

Yes, it turns out bees like water too. In fact one may say it is the typical hang out or meeting spot during the spring/ summer months. Little did I know reading my book sweetly would I become a target for their fun.

Now I’m no wimp, and if a bee were to buzz around me I would remain calm and still but when one lodges itself in your finger it’s not that easy to do either of these things.

It was well and truly stuck, chained down by the sting that was embedded in the tip of my middle finger and you know what I was scared to pull it out incase it stung me. Obviously it had done that already but in a moment of panic I just let it stay there wiping it off carefully, after a few minutes, with a pair of tweezers afraid of its next move.

Little did I know its next joke was to leave the sting in me, how cleaver, leaving me deal with the pain for a little longer. I’m sure it sought amusement from that.

I eventually managed to get it out after a refusal for help from my father “because he didn’t have his glasses,” but luckily my Mum came to hand proving her skills on Mother’s Day.

So now I have the biggest swollen middle finger ever. I may just have to go and use it swearing at the rest of the bees.

Banned Books Week topic in World History

r3t5nom1 Comment

                                                         BBW
This past week we talked about National Banned Books Week. In my opinion, banning books is wrong. Why wrong you might ask? Wrong because by banning a book we are hiding and keeping information from the people. Wrong, because in most cases the content of a book is merely a reflection of a real life issue or occurrence.

A book touching on the topics of homosexuality or racial differences is not a valid reason to ban a book. A book about the old south that has the “N” word in it is not a fair reason to ban a book, especially because the “N” word is being used to provide the reader a feel for how things were in the south way back when.

Books shouldn’t be banned because there is a bigger possibility that the people reading a book about a war will be shocked and learn that war isn’t the answer, than for those people to think that they should go out an mass murder a crowd of people due to their influence from that book.

If people are this afraid of what a books content will do to the minds of those who read them, then I wish you luck with real life problems because you are clearly unaware of what sort of things life brings to the table.

If a book can change every bodies mind of what a government is doing and lead the people to revolt and demand a change, then the government was definitely doing something wrong.

Books are powerful tools for understanding and for expression, but most of all books are a way to describe a situation or a period of time in the highest about of detail possible. even if it means there is foul language, racial differences or sexual implication portrayed in the novel.

BBW

What do you think about Book Banning?

the endless circle the endless circle the endless…

yrreskrap1 Comment

It’s funny. I didn’t think that I’d find such depth and meaning in my summer reading.

 

A Confederacy of Dunces
Image via Wikipedia

 

I was assigned four books over this past summer, one of them being Toole’s The Confederacy of Dunces. In reading this book, it opened up my eyes of the vicious circle that has been plaguing our society since the birth of mankind and undoubtedly will do so for eternity (or, in my mind, the Rapture).

People want to be viewed by others a certain way. They portray themselves accordingly depending on who their audience is. As shown through the main character of Ignatius J. Reilly, one might strive for acknowledgment but receive nothing but judgement in return.

Prejudice is a instantaneous reaction, an almost inbred behavior. It may take your brain a few seconds to scan a stranger before you feel like you already have a grasp of the kind of a person he or she is.

People, whether conscious of the fact or no, put on a guise in order to recreate themselves. Most people describe going off to college as a time to “start with a clean slate.” This is essentially people putting on a new persona. You are given the opportunity to leave your past behind. So you used to be the girl who was too shy to approach anybody? Well now that same girl is the first to introduce herself at her new college. You are allowed to break the binding chains of the stereotypes that you had been associated with during these chance times. And in this vicious cycle, there are many opportunities to change.

We are afraid to be judged (on different levels of course) yet, we judge almost all we see. The circle feeds on insecurities, on fears, on secrets and it generates even more. Just as Van Gogh‘s potentials were never realized (at least not until after his death) and Ignatius’ motives were misinterpreted, humanity will always reject what is not the norm. And, in one way or the other, people will always strive to live up to the standards of their peers.

I HATE THE SAT!

yrreskrap2 Comments

Yesterday was the big huzzah. It was the day that would determine the fate of my summer. Yesterday, Thursday, March 31st, 2011, was the day I had been waiting for. And it was nothing short of disappointing.

I was home sick yesterday, but I still remembered, the moment I woke up from my slumber, to check my SAT scores. It only made my condition worse.

The screen read 650-reading, 670-math, and 620-writing. Goodness, it seemed as if my previous summer had been a waste. I had spent two months of pure studying for this one test and I had gotten a 1940. The colleges that I am hoping to get into require over a 2000.

I did remind myself, however, that I was sick that Saturday I took the test and the week following up to it. But a 1940? That is no exception.

I haven’t told my mom my score yet because I am afraid for her reaction. This summer, before taking my first SAT prep class, my diagnostic grade had been in the low 1900’s. My mom was very disappointed in me and I know that she will still be disappointed in my score if I tell her that after two months of sending me to classes, I have arrived at a almost identical score.

My goal for the SAT’s is a 2100. A 700 in critical reading, a 700 in math, and a 700 in writing. I know this is attainable because my scores (650, 670, 620) are not too far from my goal. But sadly, I will have to spend my summer not at the beach and having fun, but in a cold, isolated classroom, shoving hundreds of vocabulary words into my head in SAT classes. Oh goody, I just CAN’T WAIT!

Kindled Spirit

theycallmedameLeave a comment

People all around the world are raving about the Kindle or Kindle for iPad. They get unbelievably excited about reading a book off a bright LED screen, and it makes me want to cry.

Yes, the Kindle is helping reduce the amount of trees being cut down for paper, but the batteries they use will eventually die. Those dead batteries, when thrown away, will be sent to a landfill or be buried underneath some great big hill, or be disposed of by shooting them far away into the freaking space-time continuum.

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