Reading this book is slow because I eventually have to write a paper on it, so while reading I’m also bookmarking, highlighting, taking notes etc.

And now for the mini challenges!

Get the heck out of here mini challenge hosted by Jennifer:

Well, this challenge sort of implies that today has been successful, which it hasn’t. But it was due to circumstances beyond my control! So here it goes!

1. What steps did you take to ensure you’d be able to read as much as possible today?

I’ve been psyched for this for a while. I knew I wanted to read Sister Carrie for my class and I also had a pile of research books to read as well. Basically, this day was going to be for reading, but also for research. I figured I’d combine the two. I took Saturday off work and told my boyfriend I’d be busy reading!

2. Of those steps,  which proved to be the most beneficial to your day?

Knowing what I was going to read was key. Even though I’ve only gotten through almost one book :(

3. Is there anything you might do differently next time?

Next time I need to make sure to book the WHOLE weekend off.

I also need to make sure I kick a headache in its ass the day BEFORE the read-a-thon. My migraine started yesterday in the mid morning and sort of faded away in the evening, but was lingering. I went to bed and figured it would go away. I woke up and it was worse. Next time, I need to tylenol that bitch right away!

In October for the next read-a-thon, I’m hoping I’ll be migraine free!

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Next up, the Early Favorites mini challenge hosted by Michelle:

This is a hard one….

I have a pretty bad memory, so early early books I wouldn’t really be able to remember. I know I used to think I was reading books when I was really young and I would read them upside down, my mom told me that.

I think one of my early favorites was probably a school related read. We read “A Tale of Two Cities” in grade 8, high school. I barely remember all the details, but I remember how much it moved me and how it made me cry. I think it was probably the first book that I really found beautiful.

Oh and another book that I remember I randomly bought from the bookstore I currently work at. I went there constantly because I loved looking at all the books. I was browsing the bargain section and found something that seemed interesting… and cheap! I bought it and it captivated me, it was called “The African Safari Papers”. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but it was intensely intriguing and I read it fairly quickly. It was one of the first books I bought on a whim like that, without hearing about it, or knowing about the author, I think it made me more likely to explore random books in the future.

——

The Title Teaser Challenge hosted by Shelly

I’m the worst at these sorts of things… but I figured I’d give it a whirl! Sometimes it helps to work in a bookstore! Some of these are guesses!

1. The Dark [The Dark Tide]
2. An _____  _____ Girl –> no idea!
3. The Lost _____ of _____ May _____ [The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott]
4. Necessary _____ –> no idea!
5. She’s So _____ to _____ [She's so dead to us]
6. _____ Over Toccoa [Fireworks Over Toccoa]
7. _____ Dead [Generation Dead]
8. Scones & _____ [Scones and Sensibility]
9. All _____ Things –> no idea
10. Beautiful _____ –> no idea
11. _____ to Dream –> no idea
12. The _____-_____ Waves [The Dead-Tossed Waves]
13. I Kissed a _____ and I _____ It [I kissed a Zombie and I liked it]
14. Prophecy of the _____ –> no idea
15. Very _____ –> no idea
16. The Girl Who _____ from the _____  [The Girl who Fell from the Sky]
17. Marriage and Other _____ of _____  [Marriage and other acts of charity]
18. Making _____ –> [Making Toast?]
19. _____ Cat [Just Cat!... I saw a book once that was just pictures of Cats and was called Cat hehe]
20. Letters to My _____ [Letters to my Daughter]

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Once Upon Reading Challenge hosted by Sheila

I decided to sit in front of my bookshelf and pick out the ones that my eyes fell upon first, unless it didn’t make sense.

The Crazed with their sole AK47. They were taken hostage by the American Psycho. In these war zones there are the lost and found. This is generation kill. The prisoners of war are restless. They can no longer count on the Fatherland.

(Clearly my bookshelf is full of war related reading….)

Although I missed a good chunk of the day already, I’m totally set to pull an all-nighter. I’m ready and set with my kindle

First book? Sister Carrie by: Theo Dreiser

It’s not my cup o’ tea, but it’s for a class. And it’s a pretty easy read. As a hope-to-be historian I’m so used to reading primary source documents that jumble my brain that early 20th century lit is easy as pie for me now!

How’s the reading going ya’ll? I hope good!

I won’t be calculating pages read because I can’t on my kindle… since it’s locations based (because you change text size and all that fun stuff) I’ll let you know when I finish this gem of a book on my kindle!

I had already started reading it earlier last week, so I have a head start. Next book? LOCUSTS… it’s for a research paper i’m writing… on… guess what? Locusts!

And I totally loved Bart’s challenge by the way. Titles with books! I’m going to vote now…and… my favorite is “God’s behaving badly after dark, in my father’s den”… hilarious

As for Rebecca’s (@The Book Lady) challenge….

No author I know of is worthy of my underthangs. Don’t get me wrong… there are TONS of books that are worthy of me throwing my panties at them. Mother Love is my favorite book… but Kurt Vonnegut is not someone I’d throw my thong at.

But then… what about a book that I dislike? I’d throw my panties at Jack Kerouac… sexy man! Too bad he’s dead. I think it’d be weird to throw my underwear at him now. Yeah. Necrophiliac is something I am not!

OH, and Alan Alda’s written two books right? I haven’t read them… but they’re on my to-be-read list. And I would for SURE throw my thong at him… well.. a young Alan Alda… Oh Hawkeye, we were clearly meant for each other.

Oh and I’ve read tons of non-fic WWII stuff, and I’d probably do a lot more than throw my panties at those authors… men in uniform… Hmmm….

And I’m sure there’s a Russian writer from the past that was pretty smokin’, I have a thing for Russian accents.

Yeah, this challenge has made me sound like a very strange 22 year old girl. I’m totally cool with that. I leave you with a photo of me and my favorite non-fiction book, ‘With the Old Breed’…….

Edit:

Decided to be a little more daring…. this will make up for missing the first 7 hours!

—–

don’t judge me!

Except I’ve already failed. I woke up with a massive headache at 8am, and decided to try and sleep it off.

Now it’s 11am, still have a headache, so my reading start is going to be delayed for a bit, I’m going to eat something and pop some tylenol and hope it fades away! *crossing my fingers*

I hope everyone’s reading is going great so far!

I’m super excited! I’m starting to organize a plan for the day. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m not going to be doing any schoolwork. Except reading of course! So I might include some research paper books in my read-a-thon adventure. Since in my time zone the fun begins at 8am, I’ll be getting up at 6:30am to head for the track and do a workout beforehand. And then start reading!

I haven’t decided on books yet. I think I’ll just go with the flow. I have a ton of unread books on my shelf and I still have money leftover from my birthday giftcard to amazon from my boyfriend.

It’s pretty freaking awesome. I got it as a gift this past Christmas from my boyfriend, brother and boyfriend’s mom. One of the most awesome gifts ever. I can now carry around several books at once without having a bag that weighs a ton.

For my birthday my boyfriend got me an amazon gift card so I can get myself some summer reading! And though I work at a bookstore, I don’t get to talk about the books I love that much. People are mostly buying the best sellers, or Twilight. Not to mention the fact that a lot of what I read has to do with what I’m studying. This semester it’s been a lot of late 19th and early 20th Century American literature. Not really my thing, so I’m excited to get started on summer reads. But I have read a few great books this semester. Notably, Under a Cruel Star and Nervous Conditions.

I’m so excited for the Read-a-Thon, booked it off for work already and I’m currently compiling a list of possible reads for the day! I’m open to suggestions.

Feels good to be back!

I know it’s been a while.

I’ve been the busiest freaking bee you’ve ever seen.

The Holidays made me a crazy MOFO. I haven’t had that much lack of sleep in FOREVER.

I handmade the bulk of my gifts and also baked a shitload. I made 100 cupcakes and it took my 8 hours. I also did it at night. I started at 9pm and worked till 4am. And…. you’ve also never seen these cupcakes. They were lovely and I’m kicking myself for not taking photos.

The Holidays were SO lovely. I had a lot of fun. I worked a lot too though.

School has begun again and I’ve had an amazing first week. Switched my majors around and I’m officially a History and English major and it feels SO good.

I’m severely happy. I’ve been reading like a madwoman too!

And I read 37 books in 2008. In 2009? SO MANY BOOKS TO COME!

I want to wish everyone who bothers to come here a HAPPY NEW YEAR! And thanks so much for reading and supporting me in my blogging. I’ve discovered so many interesting people and so many interesting books and you’re all to thank for that! I love you all!

I’ll be catching up on my late reviews this Tuesday because I have a whole day off and I’m planning on spending a good chunk being good to my blog.

I’m also going to be trying to incorporate a new little sidebar element to my sidebar and it has to do with my new year’s resolution. The past few years I’ve been like every teenage girl, feeling shitty about my looks. I hated my body. I’m not sure I ever spoke about it here, but I had some large knockers. And I HATED them. I started exercising because I felt like it might make a difference. I lost some weight but the boobs were still there. I kept at it and really began to see a change in my sleeping habits and I just felt so much better. I was never overweight, but I wasn’t happy with myself and I wanted to feel HEALTHY. Anyways, the boobs remained the same. Last year, 2008, I got a breast reduction and I re-started my exercising and of course in October of 2007 I also became vegetarian. So this past summer I freaking lost weight like mad and I became FIT. And edging towards the end of the year I started feeling like my workouts were too easy. I was at my target weight of 120, but I couldn’t just stop, I needed to challenge myself even more. So I bought myself a Christmas gift, a treadmill and now I’m training for a 5K run. I’ve begun and I’m feeling SO amazing.

Anyways.

I’ll be back on Tuesday.

Now it’s time to begin homework.

And I see that it’s my Secret Santa once I open it! :) I was super happy to see two books and a lovely card from Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness. I received:

The Zookeeper’s Wife by: Diane Ackerman

&

Reading Lolita in Tehran by: Azar Nafisi

Both books that I’ve wanted to read very badly! I’ve had the Zookeeper’s Wife on my wishlist for ages but I am a student and money sucks and so usually ‘newer’ more ‘popular’ books don’t get added to my library until they become ‘old’ and ‘non-mainstream’.

Thanks so much Kim! I can’t wait to read both books and I will certainly let you know what I think of each once I’m done reading them!

Merry Christmas :)

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom is a non-fiction book and is based on experiences in Albom’s life. I was actually unaware of the fact that the book was non-fiction. If you’re going to read it, be prepared. By that I mean, make sure you are ready to shed a few tears, but also be prepared to feel a bit shaken by the whole topic of the book.

The book recounts the time that Albom spends with his old professor, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease and is dying. There’s of course a lot of bits and pieces of wisdom about relationships and that comes mostly from Mitch Albom’s realizations throughout his experience. But there’s also a whole lot in the book about death and dying. And it shook me up a bit. I’m young and Morrie is old, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that anyone is vulnerable, no one is immune. It’s easy to go from day to day and not even stop to think about that. And this book certainly makes you think.
I liked the book because it’s very raw and real and I think Morrie was tremendously courageous and he definitely taught Albom a lot.
But I disliked Albom as narrator and as Morrie’s student/friend. The story isn’t his own. And however much of Morrie shines through the book, it came off to me as being a little bit self-indulgent on Albom’s part.
Although he does redeem himself since he does point out his own flaws throughout the book. I still couldn’t help being bothered by him.
I like reading the book because it was so simple and although I didn’t agree with everything Morrie said and talked about, I believe a lot of what he said has a lot of weight and a lot of importance. Morrie was very down to earth and no doubt everyone could take a little from this book and all of the pearls of wisdom inside of it.
Still, it was very sad, and I really hate being sad and depressed.
And though it was a very inspiring account, I don’t think many people will come away from it really feeling changed, and I disagree with the fact that people do turn to books to change themselves.
I remember a couple who came to our bookstore a while ago and were raving about ‘The Secret’. They went on and on about how they were changed by it. And how now they’re nicer people to everyone. They attributed their kind-ness to a book. I find that kind of sad and disgusting. You should not need a book to become a decent person. You should be able to arrive at that through time and through life experience.
I don’t think that is the aim of Albom’s book at all. But I think some people have taken it like that. Just like the “Last Lecture” was perceived in that way. Albom was simply telling a story, a story that may wake some people up, may affect us in some ways, but reading it shouldn’t be the moment of your life where you decide to be ‘good’ or ‘kind’.
There are things you can take from the book though. But you have to realize that although Morrie’s words are so amazing and the way he acts in the face of death is quite fantastic too, we do see his weaknesses which makes him so much more tangible and real. And I loved that. Albom didn’t paint him as a perfect being. Who would be able to feel connected to a perfect being in any way?
Also, there’s the fact that what he says to Albom and what he tells him with regards to life and basically all the things he says with regards to ‘seizing the day’, this is all coming from the mouth of someone who is already dying, who doesn’t have much of an opportunity do to that anymore or at least a very small opportunity. That’s something that also stood out to me, but Albom doesn’t really talk about that fact.

Anyhow, it’s a book worth reading. It’s also a quick read which is nice.

Tuesdays With Morrie
Author: Mitch Albom
1997, 192 pages
rating: 3.5/5

H’anyways. Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit is most definitely my favorite person right now because she’s hosting the War Through the Generations Challenge. And you all know I love me some war stories. Like, hardcore. So this challenge shall be a breeze! First challenge? WWII! Running from Jan. 2009-Dec. 2009. Read 5 books.
I’m a WWII fanatic. I eat it up, like super delicious chocolate mousse that I shouldn’t eat because it makes me fat. So my shelf is packed with WWII reading material, fiction and non-fiction. And of course this gives me an excuse to get more books related to WWII. It’s a devious plan. And I love it!

OKAY. So my goals?
To read 10 books related to WWII.
Here’s my tentative list:
- Atonement – Ian McEwan
- The Diplomat’s Wife – Pam Jenoff
- The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Avengers – Rich Cohen
- Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky
- Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
- Auschwitz – Sybille Steinbacher
- The Battle of Okinawa – George Pfeiffer
- Fatherland – Robert Harris
- Greatest Generation – Tom Brokaw

Oh and here’s an AMAZING list of books on, about, related to WWII: http://home.att.net/~newbooks/WWIIbooks.html

Oh man, I feel my bank account dying already.