Woe, my Faithful Reader… Woe!

I have missed my last two book club meetings. Not only do I miss my fellow members, but I also miss reading the books! January’s book has been announced and I pounced on the little free time I had to run out and buy the book. This is fair because I deemed my book club purchases acceptable… However… at the book store, things changed.

 

January’s book is “If I Stay” by Gayle Foreman. Less than 300 pages, and over a month to read it, I am amped to get to work. After scouring the shelves, I finally found this teen title in the worst place imaginable: The ‘Buy 2 get 3rd free’ table! As a side note: I’m not too sure about the whole ‘Twilight-fans-would-love-this’ thing… But weighing in at 237 pages, at least the torture will be over sooner!

Whenever I see this table I choose all the books I would buy and just keep them as ideas in my head. THIS time, I had already checked ahead of time to see if the prices online would be cheaper and discovered that they were exactly the same (shock!) so naturally, I justified selecting two more titles because they would be a better bargain.

The first ‘extra’ book is “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” by John Green & David Levithan. A book about two boys with the same name (one capital Will Grayson, the other, non-capped will grayson) that meet randomly in a city and oh-how-awkward one of them is gay! Written in alternating chapters, each author tells the story of one boy, which sounds pretty interesting… but the verdict is still out.

 

The second ‘extra’ is “The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun ” by Gretchen Rubin. The author spends an entire year trying to enjoy the little things in life and training herself to be happy with what that life has to offer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like she realizes that she could legally change her name to something that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from a bathroom stall in a college dorm. Instead she tells us that something as simple as ‘putting on shoes’ is enough to make someone happy. Right. Tying laces is fun, Velcro is totally acceptable in adult footware, and when you wear slip-ons, that Hokey-Pokey-foot-stomp-and-shuffle maneuver to get it in there right really makes me want to dance like a preschooler since I’m halfway there already.

 

Who am I kidding, I can’t wait to read them! 🙂

 

 

With the holidays right around the corner, I find myself in a sticky situation when it comes to the goals I’ve laid out for this blog. There are certainly many books that I’d like for Christmas, but is that the same as buying them myself? If I’m given a gift card to a bookseller, isn’t that almost like cheating? I’m still getting new material and just adding to ‘The Sickness.’ Now, most people who know me will automatically think of getting me books or gift cards for books… and of course I’m not going to tell them not to… But I’m going to do my best to remain true to what I’ve set out for myself: Read the books I have before buying new ones.

Normally I can fill a wish list a mile long with titles I can’t wait to get my hands on, but after a few months of not going into book stores or ordering books online, I realize I’m doing better. It’s sort of like when I decided to give up soda for a few months. I found myself drinking more water and juice, and I didn’t really miss it… that is, until I had one as a ‘treat’ one day. Now, years later, I definitely consume soda on a more frequent basis. This is another habit I intend to kick.

But this all brings me to something I think is a bit more important. When I strip away all of the wanting and yearning for new books or video games or the latest what-have-you, I find that there’s nothing really that I want, and certainly nothing that I need. I find myself more inclined to give than to receive. The feeling I get from knowing I’ve brought a bit of joy to someone’s life brings me more fulfillment than opening a dozen new books.

Usually, whatever I don’t get for Christmas, I get for my birthday which is about a week after. This was frustrating in the past, because this also went hand-in-hand with the “this is your Christmas-plus-birthday present!” Honestly, I don’t care if I get anything this year. In trying to practice living without the constant consumerist feeling, I’ve realized what is more important. What I want is happiness, and that’s not something that can be fulfilled with ‘stuff.’ (For that matter: It’s also not something that can really be given.) It’s something that comes from knowing that I have somehow touched the lives of the people around me, that I have made some sort of impact or left some sort of impression.

That’s all I want for Christmas.

I don’t know how everyone else shops for the holidays, but I like to get all mine done in November so it is out of the way! I’ve got a pretty hectic schedule this coming season, between working retail hours and studying for the final for my first grad class, things will be pretty tight, and last minute shopping will not be an option! (Though, Amazon Prime for Students is an AWESOME deal… with overnight shipping options for $3.99.)

For those of you struggling to come up with ideas, I’m going to make this entry a bit more interactive.

Since I know many (if not all) of my readers, I’m going to take on the task of answering some reader’s advisory questions you may have for me. Submit a comment and I will write back with some suggestions — and a link to the book.

• If you’d like a book recommendation for yourself, so long as I know you, I can probably suggest one right off the bat. (Otherwise, tell me about yourself.)
• If you are looking for a book for someone else, give me a bit of info on them, and I’ll do my best!

Ready? Go!

You know, I was beginning to think I was getting over buying new books, and then I got a package in the mail today. The package contained a book that I had pre-ordered back in July that was only released a few days ago. Once I checked back through my pile of emails, I saw that I actually saved about 4 dollars from pre-ordering. (Instead of paying $17.99 for a brand new hardcover, I spent $8.99)

 

The book is Crossed, by Ally Condie. Sequel to her debut novel Matched, one of these strong-female-protagonist-driven-dystopias that have been so popular in Young Adult literature today. The first book didn’t take me too long to get through so hopefully I can whiz through this one before too long. Just in flipping through the pages of this book, I can tell the author has taken the book in a different direction. She’s switching off narrators every other chapter and now there’s a rather pitiful looking… well… not a ‘map’… but more of a landscape with words over it… between the book’s dedication and epigraph. I’m hoping the success of the first book hasn’t gone to the author’s head too quickly… There’s still one more expected book in this trilogy, and it’ll be interesting to see where this volume takes us.

What’s really sad (as in pathetic) is that I had looked online just a few days ago and thought “Gosh, that book just came out… I really wish I could order it, but I’m trying to keep up with the blog… I really shouldn’t…” Hmm.

Since then, I’ve looked back through my history on Amazon.com and there are no more hidden pre-orders waiting to be shipped out (drats!) but with all the school work that I have, I will be hard-pressed to finish reading this month’s book club book — Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close… but so far so good!

Welcome back, faithful readers. It has been quite a while since my last update, but after a whirlwind trip to France to see my boyfriend and a few grad school assignments, I’m finally getting back in the swing of things.

Speaking of France… the trip was fantastic! I found myself yearning to go into book stores everywhere, but unfortunately, since everything was in French, there was no point in buying anything because I wouldn’t be able to read them. It was a giant tease, and it definitely shed some light on what it means to want to buy a book versus reading a book. Of course, that didn’t keep me from looking! The following photos are taken during my travels through Toulouse, France.

“Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

They have ‘best sellers’ in grocery stores just like we do in The States.

It’s just screaming my name!

I wanted to find books that were familiar to me… They even had The Hunger Games!

In France, it seems like all the books are published by the same company, or at least with the same uniform cover and format. THIS I like. I love having all of my books in the same format, same style, same everything… Thank god I don’t speak/read French because this would be dangerous!

I tried to follow the signs to find English books, but to no avail. Still, it was awesome to see them all in French. I still wish I would have picked one up, but it would have only served as more of a sentimental purpose rather than a practical want to read.

At the Heathrow Airport, I have to admit, I did stop by a book store — they had an amazing sale! And the books were in English, but I refrained. I’m still trying to work my way through this month’s Book Club book… Last month was the first time I didn’t finish one for our meeting, and hopefully it’ll be the last!

Time to get back to reality!

Is this really something that we are going to have to be faced with in the future?

I was sitting at the library the other day working on an assignment for class, and I was talking to a librarian about ebooks. Naturally, I told her about the Kindle that I have. At that particular library, they circulate Sony eReaders to their patrons for their ebooks — which is fantastic! — but she wanted to see the Kindle in action to tell the difference. So, being the eager-beaver-teacher-pleaser that I am, I was all gung-ho about flourishing my kindle around! I pulled it out of my bag and opened the cover. Virginia Woolf’s face was delicately displayed on the screen. (“Oh how nice!” the librarian exclaimed.) When I slid the power switch over to ‘wake it up’……. and nothing. I tried sliding it over and holding it, which helps reset the device, and still… nothing. Virginia Woolf just did not leave that screen.

So now I’m not only embarrassed, but I’m also annoyed that my fabulous Kindle has decided it doesn’t have enough power to turn on. Fantastic. And before any of you readers wag your finger and say “Oooh, well, you know you should plug it in all the time… it is ELECTRONIC after all!” — I know. I know. Shh. Let’s be honest here: the concept of charging up a book is a bit absurd. Having a battery in a book adds this temporal limitation on it that is very frustrating, not to mention, I well… in my opinion, just wrong.

Did you know, that when you lend out a book from your Kindle to another Kindle, the lendee will only be able to read it for two weeks, and at that time, the lender will be unable to read/access the same title?  Sure, it sort of makes sense in the real world… when you lend out a book obviously you won’t be able to read it at the same time… but we’re talking about a digital file here, people. Only lending it out for two weeks? That puts some immense pressure on the lendee to read quickly! And the book cannot be lended to the same person again — ever! Non-renewable! AND not all books are lendable!! Before I go all crazy-eyed over this, I will say that this has certainly made me ponder over a few different things. Perhaps you should too!

1. Going ‘green’ — if we have to plug in our ‘books,’ aren’t we still consuming vast amounts of energy?
2. Electronic device — this means I have to wait until a safe cruising altitude to read on an airplane now.
3. Paper — yeah, real books don’t need batteries. I think I’ll continue to take real books on my travels.

For those of you that may be a little out of the loop when it comes to the book world, I wanted to share some sad news: Borders Book Stores are all closed.

(Photo credit to reddit user Jessers25, taken at an empty Borders location)

In an article posted by GalleyCat, Borders employees vented some frustrations that I wanted to share, because several sound as though they came out the mouths of librarians.

Some of my books still have Borders stickers covering the ISBNs on the back (why, I still don’t quite understand… the prices were always the same as the MSRP) and I normally love peeling those stickers off. Now, I think I’ll leave them on. I wonder if I still have a Borders bookmark around here somewhere.

Sadly, I know that now when I visit one of my best friends down in Rhode Island and we go to the Providence Place Mall… we won’t be able to browse around Borders and gossip about the books for hours. No more “Oooh, have you read this one yet?” or “Oh, yeah… that one… Don’t waste your money” and “Seriously? THAT’S a NY Times Bestseller?!”

I must mention: I do support ebooks. They are inevitably the future for a lot of published content like newspapers. I understand their convenience and availability, but consumers need to understand that they are simply buying a licence to view the content — a license that can be revoked at any time. Translation: We do not OWN ebooks! (Likewise with any music downloaded from sites like iTunes, and that is a scary thought.) I will always stand by my printed pages. I love the book as an object just as much as I love the stories bound between their covers. I appreciate their scent, the creases in their spines, the yellowing edges of their pages, their size and weight… However, my shelves will never look like this:

Someone asked me once why I buy so many books that I haven’t read yet – why do I let them take up room on my shelves – why don’t I just buy ebooks? And I told them that it’s because I’d like people to see how full my shelves are.

Now, yes, some may say that is a bit shallow; however, I love seeing them up there because they give me a sense of purpose. Some gravity, maybe. (Gravitas, certainly!)I know that this is MY collection, my own special library. I know that one day my children will root through my bookshelves just as I rooted through those of my parents. I want them to discover their own favorite stories. I will read to my children, and when they’re old enough, they’ll read to me. With the help of a librarian (and maybe a professor ❤ ), my family will be rich with imagination, knowledge, and understanding.

There has been a resurgence in Book Arts programs across the world. Another one of my best friends has her own printing press (please check it out!) in the Bahamas — and I fully support her endeavor. Does anyone remember reading Steven King’s The Dark Tower series, or any other post apocalyptic literature for that matter? Paper is precious. Paper is rare. Paper is worth more than gold. Once I have the time, I’d love to learn how to make my own paper. Hey, if Gordon Ramsay can print his menus on paper made from sheep poop, I can certainly learn a thing or two about tree pulp.

~

P.S.
This entry is chock-full of links, so be sure to click around on the bold print to see where it takes you!

Forgive me, Reader,

For this may be a sin. I have to share an indulgence that I have previously left unmentioned. Not only do I love books, but I love comic books, graphic novels and manga. Now, at the moment, my book count is about 210, however that doesn’t include my graphic novels. You can easily add another 200 to those numbers. With many of them on my bookshelf at home in The Bahamas, I wouldn’t be able to account for them without either going on vacation (which isn’t a bad idea), or recruiting the help of my mother for the time being. (Don’t worry, Mom, I wouldn’t put you through all of that…unless you want to take on a new project!)

Long before this blog, I dedicated myself to only purchase remaining volumes in series that I have already started. That holds true to this day, with the exception of works by CLAMP — a group of four women that write and illustrate many different manga series — I will always buy their new works ❤ And, of course, the re-release of my favorite manga series.

So, since that endeavor of comic-cataloging is a bit unrealistic at the moment, I’ve decided to share some excitement about a recent republishing of a series that got me hooked on drawing, art, Japanese animation, my first serious relationship… really, without this series, I don’t know what kind of person I would have grown up to be.

That series is Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.

Usagi Tsukino is a 14-year-old girl who is destined to become Sailor Moon, fighting evil forces that are incessantly trying to conquer the world. Joining her fight are Sailors representing each of the other planets: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Later in the series, we discover additional Sailor Scouts including same-sex lovers and transsexuals, both of which obviously caused much controversy and were subsequently squashed in American adaptations.

Honestly, most of the series follows a very formulaic pattern: Kids having fun, something goes awry as evil tries to take over the world, girls transform and vanquish evil, everything goes back to normal.  Though the pattern can be very, very repetitive… its success is indisputable. We see this same pattern in other shows like Power Rangers and Powerpuff Girls. (Two more of my favorite childhood shows.) The heroes always strike iconic poses and give a speech (during which, enemies will NEVER try to attack) and throw out some corny one-liners to give off some false confidence until they nearly lose the battle, but then some deus ex machina stuff happens and somehow our hero(es) emerge victorious (or thwarted until they ‘power up’ and THEN defeat the enemy). Why is this so appealing??

~

In closing: since I bypassed the first publishing of the Sailor Moon series (mostly because they weren’t available in the Bahamas) I am breaking down and purchasing them. This is a series I know and love, and one that I know I will reread and pass along to friends. One of these days, I will have a blog page of my list of graphic novels and manga, but until my next romp in the sun, I’ll just include them in entries as they come up.

If you’re interested in some similar magical girl series, you may enjoy:

• Magic Knight Rayearth
• Cardcaptor Sakura
• Saint Tail
• Revolutionary Girl Utena

While I take a short break from homework today, I want to share a little gem I found while browsing around on YouTube a few days ago. I have to admit, it’s a bit dated… but that gives it such charm! As a side note: I can’t wait til my cataloging class so I can take care of all my books ❤

 

Did The Hunger Games leave you starving for more? Did it leave you with a stomach ache? Either way, Suzanne Collins seems to satiate everyone that partakes of her three-course meal.  (Alright, I think I’ll snuff out my food puns now!)

 

So far, everyone I have recommended The Hunger Games trilogy to has finished the entire series in about two weeks or less — including people who claim to not enjoy fiction. Needless to say, I enjoy them. Would I read them again? Perhaps! Which, considering my stance on rereading books, is saying something. And no, I did NOT reread it for book club, even though it was selected.

The Hunger Games is set in post-apocalyptic North America (Panem) some time in the future. What remains of the continent (after rising sea levels – I presume from the melting of the polar ice caps) has been divided into districts, each responsible for the production of different resources. District 1 produces luxury items, District 2 masonry, District 3 fishing….(the list goes on) All of the districts are ruled by a Capitol District. Our story follows Katniss, one of several strong female protagonists I’ll cover over the course of this blog, as she struggles to sustain her family in the poorest of places: District 12 (coal mining). Katniss is probably top three of my favorite protagonists out of the trilogies that I’ll be examining. She usually has her wits about her, and (almost always) knows exactly what needs to be done. She exhibits certain character traits that I believe readers can look up to and aspire to be. (That is NOT to say that kids should aspire to be a killers!) Her strength, faith and selflessness really stand out in contrast to some of the other characters within the series.

Each year, to prevent another uprising (which apparently caused society to collapse during the apocalypse) the Capitol District requires that every district select one male and one female between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games, essentially, is a fight to the death between the children (called Tributes) and the last one standing returns home to their district as a Victor to live the rest of their life in… well, better conditions than before.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s all televised?

Yes, reality TV totally consumes our lives in the future and turns us into shallow, bloodthirsty fools. Tributes become celebrities in a similar fashion to the contestants we see on American Idol. (Maybe that’s the bit that hooks in all the readers.)

So conceptually, I love the idea. The story was one I had not encountered before, so of course, I found it interesting I thought the writing style was worth noting — being in the present tense — and it was one of the first things about the book I really enjoyed. A few of the characters are developed, but many are introduced with glances into their interesting back-stories, and never developed from there, which leads me to say this: I love its potential.

Catching Fire, the second book, was absolutely my favorite. I felt like it had enough of a twist to keep the book interesting, and the ending was suspenseful enough to pick up and read the third book immediately. Mockingjay felt a bit boring to me. I felt like much of the book could have been edited down and the focus could have been shifted a bit to make it more stimulating. Coming off of the thrill of Catching Fire – like driving 80mph on the highway – reading Mockingjay was like reaching the tollbooth plaza and realizing you don’t have an EZPass and have to sit in an hour of traffic to get through to what you think is more open road until you realize you get off at the next exit. Again: I love its potential.

Sometimes when I read a book or series, once I understand the world, I find myself really falling in love with what this new ‘universe’ has to offer. Sometimes I feel like I’m more in love with the potential the book/series has rather than what is written on the page, which I think can skew my perspective a bit. Perhaps that’s what I get for reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

~

So when you examine this new genre and ask yourself “Why is this so popular? Why is everyone going cuckoo-pants crazy over this?” I would probably say something along the lines of “It gives people confidence.”

What does that mean? Well, kids today have a lot coming at them. Pressures from school, issues with their families, inner struggles… Funny how quickly we as adults tend to forget what it really is like to be a kid again. I’m not talking about remembering what it’s like to not have to pay bills or drive or have responsibilities. I’m talking about hating going in to that one classroom because you think the teacher is a creeper. Or lunch when you are faced with the almost insurmountable task of figuring out who to sit with, or if anyone will sit with you. Or walking the school yard and flinching when someone throws a football because you think it’s being aimed at your face.

In school, everyone is in constant competition: grades, hair, clothes, friends, gadgets. So when a young adult picks up one of these books and realizes that it’s about this desperate struggle, they immediately feel like they can relate to the characters and the story. They’re comfortable because it feels like they can confide in the book. They project themselves into the story (and we all do this to some degree). They give it to their friends to read, who (usually) feel the same, and the pop-craze begins to spread.

Think about the Harry Potter craze. Harry was essentially a reject that was finally accepted into this wonderful and exclusive society – and he was special. Please point out a rejected or marginalized kid that doesn’t wish they could fit in and be special. Can you? Think about the hoards of people who read that series — that still read that series — and tell me that not a single one of them has felt rejection in their life. You can’t because everyone experiences rejection, whether it’s because they were dumped by a boyfriend/girlfriend or got a bad report card or, hey, what about when you ask your parents “Can I have some candy?” and they say “No”: rejection.

Have you ever said to someone “Oh So-and-so, you HAVE to read this book! It’s wonderful!”? Then they read it and they don’t like it. How do we react? We usually defend it, pointing out the reasons why we liked the book. I believe we do this because the book exposes and makes us aware of our insecurities, which in turn makes us vulnerable.  It’s only natural to protect yourself when you feel vulnerable.

As adults I feel like there’s always going to be a part of us that wishes we were young again, and I think that reading young adult literature is one of the few ways we feel like we can remember what it was like to feel that vulnerability again. I think part of the reason we reread books is because we feel like we want to reconnect with that part of our self that was unearthed by reading that book and the emotions we felt. We feel connected because we feel like we’ve been exposed. I think that is a beautiful and very human thing.

That’s a bit of insight into why I’ve only reread one book — but more on that in the future.

P.S.
I’m Team Peeta.
I think Katniss was feeling pressure from both Peeta and Gale to choose one or the other, but if Katniss had never felt those feelings for Gale in the first place, I don’t think there’s much room for them to fit in now. I think Gale fulfilled a patriarchal void that Katniss was feeling from losing her father and he ended up being more of a big-brother/care-taker figure than a clandestine love interest. As far as I’m concerned, that was where a of her struggle with her feelings for Gale stemmed from.