Wohoo a new month. I finally finished This Side of Paradise and absolutely loved it! Of course I am a bit biased as I love Fitzgerald in general. Now I am attempting to read Swim to Me while also reading On the Road for class, and writing a paper. All while suffering through a miserable cold. I hate having a stuffy nose! And why is it that no one else ever seems to be sick whenever I get sick? The questions that life is made up of. Amory Blaine would be proud of my fever induced musings. On a completely unrelated note, I love my new microwaveable popcorn popper thing I got at Crate and Barrel. I have eaten nothing but popcorn for the whole weekend, everything else takes to much energy to make. Alright back to knitting and reading since sleep seems to be elusive when one cannot breath through the nose.

A Late October Welcome

I love the month of October, along with November and December. It is a great time of the year. I watched the movie Transylvania 6-5000 yesterday. What a funny movie, great for getting in the mood for Halloween. I have been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I have not been reading much. Can you believe that my library does not have a copy of This Side of Paradise? It's Fitzgerald, one of the great American novelist and he is missing from the local library. That is partially what is wrong with our society. Then again I know that the poor libraries are getting neglected in a huge way from government funding. Again our society and it's priorities. Deplorable! Hoping to go to Salem, Massachusetts today. I have never been before in October. I have this mental image of idyllic New England, which is exactly where I grew up, so I have no clue why I expect anything different. Ah well, the romanticism we gain from reading.

How Silly of Me, I Forgot

I forgot to mention that I finished A Highlander in Her Bed. It was ok, like I said a paranormal romance novel. The story is about a male ghost who haunts a bed he made back in the 13th century or sometime way back when. This girl comes along and falls for the bed and the ghost haunts her because she is of a clan he has a vendetta against (for good reason). This ghost can manifest "in the flesh" so to speak and that of course is where the romance comes in. There is nothing scary at all in the whole book, so I am going to assume it does not count for the R.I.P III challenge. Anyhow back to classwork reading and essays.

Insanity

If I had of known there would be so much writing in this class, I never would have signed up for it. This is crazy! Every class we have a quiz that is three essay questions, answers supported with text quotations. Then we have critical essays and other essay exams, along with all the reading. Just finished Ethan Frome. I have always disliked that book, still do. How can there be so much depression and suffering in so short a novel? Next up is A Passage to India, which is absolutely beautiful from what I have read thus far. The language is amazing, I can see why it is hailed as the greatest 20th century novel. Arguably of course. So instead of writing why Ethan Frome is a chain of cause and effects, I am blogging about nonsense. I can honestly say I am semi looking forward to a science class to have a little break next semester. Though I do not find science or math to be very easy (well if the science does not have math it is easy), I need a break from writing. I just want to be lazy and read. I am dying to read the latest Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde. I love those books!

Things are going to get crazy...

I am proud to say I have finally completed a reading challenge. It was ridiculously easy this time around, what with only one book to read. I'm going to move onto another book for the challenge, A Highlander in Her Bed. I am almost ashamed to admit that I will be reading this as it is a paranormal (? does that count as supernatural) romance novel. It combines my love of all things Scottish with trashy romance. Can it get any better than that? And to think that I enjoy reading the classics as well. The Turn of the Screw was a good book but the ending was a bit anticlimactic. I really enjoyed James style of writing, and the slow build up of suspense. However near the end it seemed a bit rushed. Either way it was creepy in a non-scary way, you know your imagination makes it out to be worse than it really is. I wonder if he knew people would do that. It was the Victorians, of course they would do so. Just to depress everyone Christmas is only 12 weeks away or so. The family has decided to do a handmade holiday, so I need to get crafting.

Another Beginning

The new semester has started, I love literature classes! I also broke down and joined another reading challenge. This one I can complete. It is the R.I.P III challenge, and I am reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I am somewhat cheating as that is also the first book we have to read for my class, but hey it fulfills the requirements for both. I plan to try to read other books as well, but living alone is not conducive to pre-Halloween reading, if you catch my drift. Put bluntly I am a scaredy cat. The weather is starting to change along with the foliage. I love the fall, the cool weather, the leaves all falling to the ground and swirling about, the smells. Especially being here in picturesque New England. I am dying to know what goes on in my book but do not want to read it before going to bed. I also need to check out what other people are reading to get some ideas. I've already read Dracula, and multiple Stephen King novels. I want to see what other people are reading, I'm just plan nosy I guess.

I do not know why I bother to continue with this blog. Right now, I am waiting for my nails to dry and so have nothing better to do. I am in the midst of an obsession with Janet Evanovich's books featuring Stephanie Plum. I love these damn books. I am reading nothing else but them until I am finished. Then I promised my friend I would read Wicked by Gregory Maguire. We tried to read Huckleberry Finn but quite frankly I enjoyed War and Peace better than Huck's adventures. Go figure. Classes will be starting up again soon, I pray that my class does not get cancelled due to a lack of students.Admidst all of this reading, I need to start getting serious about knitting and making christmas presents. The time is coming up soon. Of course it does not help that once September hits I am the happiest person on the planet. I love fall, and always rush the holidays to come. I cannot help it, they are so much fun and enjoyable.

I really do dislike titles. I find them tedious at least and daunting at most. I am all over the map, I am reading Clan of the Cave Bear, but find that it is an easy book to set down. I picked up the newest rage in reading Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer and it is excellent. Honestly I did not think I was going to like it what with all the hype and it being about vampires. But it is really, really good. Well the series as a whole thus far is amazing. You cannot put the books down. I am finding this poetry writing to be difficult but incredibly satisfying and fun. I get more enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment from penning poems than stories. Perhaps because they can be so short and you are able to end them abruptly without anyone seeing it as such.

Reading Challenges Revisited

So I was reading over the Herding Cats challenge and saw that the minimum is three books, so I am officially giving up on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I am in the long process of reading Possesion by A.S Byatt. It is an excellent book but a bit longish. I actually had to renew it from the library. I like to take books out from the library because they put a time limit for how long you get to read the book. That is how I finally managed to read Atlas Shrugged, which is one of my favorite books. So I will try to read Clan of the Cave Bear next. So busy trying to write a sestina for my writing class, why are we doing something they did in the twelfth century? Of course they had time for nonsense like that back then. Now working full time, reading challenges and school? Not a chance. Oh well.

Belated Posting

Wow, it has been a month since I last posted anything. What is my excuse even? I did not succeed in finishing the Once Upon a Time II challenge. Things got too hectic with classes and work. I have started Mr. Norrel and Jonathan Strange, but just cannot get into it. So I am moving onto the 5th book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I just love those books, and especially Jamie Fraser, who does not really? I am taking a creative writing class right now and it really makes you appreciate all the books you read and take for granted. It is not so easy to write this stuff and expose it to a bunch of strangers. I have even more respect for most authors now. I have also read some great stuff penned by my fellow classmates. I am awed by the sheer imaginative genius out there. Now I get to go and read a bunch of photocopied pages that are hard to decipher on the influence of Contemporary art in allowing photography to be more accepted as an art form. Fun stuff!

More on Book Challenges

Please forgive any and all errors in this post as I have one of the beasts sitting on one arm. I have finally decided on five books to read for the Herding Cats challenge. The books are: To Say Nothing of the Dog ; Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel; The Clan of the Cave Bear; Chocolat; and The Lies of Locke Lamora. I had read Holy Fools by Joann Harris and loved it, I just never got around to reading anything else by her. I was going over the master list and other blogs for this challenge, and realized I should tell people about my book choices. So I am going to try to go back in and edit the prior post where I listed said books. I need to get better at writing about the books I read in case anyone actually checks out this blog and is curious. I am starting to get excited about classes resuming this week. Give me a few weeks and a bunch of papers due and my enthusiasm will dwindle pretty quickly. I also finished The Doomsday Book. It took me awhile as I got sidetracked by work and new knitting projects. I went to Borders the other day for a quick pick up and was there for over an hour. It is amazing how quickly time passes in there without you ever realizing it! And after that I went to Target and bought yet another book there as well. This has got to stop. My parents have forbidden me from bringing home any more books to store at their house. As it is every room at my parents house has book cases and books just piled and spilling out of the shelves. There are books in the bathroom, under the stairwell, in the kitchen, the attic, and the basement. I even went through and winnowed out books (that brought me to tears), and there are still so many. Of course it was that way at my grandparents house as well. So I grew up that way as did my parents. I am always shocked whenever I go to others homes and there are no books, or they are in an orderly, contained space. Now I need to focus on reviews. Not to be so abrupt at changing gears. I am definitely a James Joyce type, stream of consciousness.

Finished the mermaid book, it was good but not what I was expecting. Glad I borrowed it from the library and did not run out and buy it like I usually do. Speaking of the library I should go over there, as I live right next to it, tonight is one of the late nights they are open. I love that. It is so much fun wandering around discovering new books and being amidst all those books. And people watching, I mean you see a diverse bunch of people there, I even think I saw Charles Manson there once. Summer semester starts next week and all of my textbooks are arriving in the mail. I get so excited at the beginning of every semester, then by the end you are so ready for it to be done with. What am I going to read next? I am starting to suffer from Borders with drawl, it has been so long since I last went there. Must go to Borders, I can hear it calling me!

Trodding On

So vacation was wonderful, got a fair amount of reading done. I did not bring my mermaid book, instead I read Achilles. I always felt so terrible for Hector and Troy. Obviously Achilles is another twist on a retelling of The Iliad. Great book, very short so quick to read. The author is a Keats scholar I believe and she ties him in near the end. The lyrical aspect of the book is incredible as well. While on vacation I picked up a book at a thrift store, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. The book fits in perfectly with the Once Upon a Time Challenge, and I never even realized it until today. That book is another good read but it reminds me somewhat of Timeline by Michael Chrichton (sp), even though her book was written first I believe. Trying to now finish the mermaid book, but got sick on vacation and need to sleep not staying up all hours reading.

Herding Cats Reading Challenge

I fell in love with the Herding Cats reading challenge. People have read some great books and I love to get recommendations for anything to read. My ten favorite books I chose to recommend are as follows:
Outta My Way by Elizabeth Peavey This is a collection of articles that were written for a local paper, that are kind of about her life and opinions. The woman is hilarious.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon This book is great. Do not be thrown off by how slow it is at first. Once Jamie comes into the picture (if you are a female) there is no putting the book down. It is a historical novel with romance, intrigue, and just plain wonderful reading.
The Gunslinger by Stephen King I think I will never be able to say enough for this book. It is epic and yet so short. Of course once you get hooked you will be reading thousands of pages that make The Stand look like a kids book. This is the first book in the series and yet it really is the middle of the story. It is like Tolkien in that you recognize the world however it is not our world, "the world has moved on."
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster This is the sequel to Daddy Long Legs. It is the story of the best friend as she goes off to make her way on the world. The book is written as letters to people.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith A coming of age story, and also about family. I would love to live the lives of these characters for a while. They live in a rundown castle, have no money, and yet have such a wonderful life. Cassandra, the heroine, is someone we all can connect with and recognize a bit of ourselves in her.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The best book of all time! The standard for comedy and sci-fi all in one. Well that is taking it a bit too far I will admit. Do not judge this book based on the recent movie. Go by the BBC version if you are familiar with that at all. I mean British humor, what more can I say?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte A love story. Plain Jane has an incredibly hard life that she manages to never succumb to. I would say that if you liked Wuthering Heights you would like this, but I do not like that book and I do love Jane Eyre, so go figure. But they are from the same time period, and they do have a similar style of Victorian Gothic.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Everyone knows this plot. The book really is great, Mr. Darcy's proposal in the book is much better than in the movies. The book is always better than the movie as they say. Who the hell are "they" anyhow?
The 13 1/2 Live of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers The best review I can give of this is what the book says, "part Douglas Adams, part J.K Rowling, and part Shel Silverstein." The book is funny, very long and I would recommend reading other books while taking a break from it as I did. But well worth reading. And there are other books he has written as well that tell the stories of other characters in this book in the land of Zamonia.
The Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters This is another one of my favorite books that I have reread so many times. It is the first in another series, but you can read it and never have to go on if you like. I will warn you that the later books, like seven or eight further along, are not as good as she changed her style of writing and the point of view. This book is about a Victorian woman who travels to Egypt, gets involved in a mystery, meets a man, and gets to do archaeological stuff. The books are especially great for all the Egyptian stuff.
I am still looking at everyone else's lists to decide what to read for myself. This is going to be so much fun.

Done

"Go then. There are other worlds than these." Thus is stated near the end of the Gunslinger. I finished it, and am now moving onto the mermaid book. I am very excited to read that as I am obsessed with mermaids. Still have failed to study for my last final, my final final. Haha! Anyhow, hopefully this will free up time to read some more. I signed up for another challenge, and need to go to the library to find the next book. I already read the April book, but returned it and could not remember enough to discuss it. Oh well. Saw a bunch of my old friends this evening, it was so ice. Yet again though, no studying because I am out. I need to focus and re prioritize. One week, actually two days. Get a grip will I?! Again, I cannot say enough about The Gunslinger.Though this one I borrowed from the library had a different introduction (well actually a post script letter) from the author saying he wrote the book because he was inspired by the poem by Browning titled "Childe Roland to the Tower Went", or something like that. That is so different from the introduction in my book I have home in New Hampshire.That introduction states that he, Stephen King, was watching "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", and was inspired to write his version of Tolkien in a western form. Regardless of this the books are amazing, they draw you in, you can hardly stand to put the book down. Yes, it is that good.

Slow Going

So the reading is taking forever, what with finals and getting ready for vacation. I can hardly contain myself regarding my upcoming trip to Seaworld. All of my books will be vacationing with me, via my carry-on so they do not get lost. I am trying to finish knitting a sweater before vacation as well, so that is taking away somewhat from my reading. However the flight and layovers will allow me plenty of time to read all of my books. So it should be a nice long post about them all coming up soon. I should be half intelligent and take notes. Then again this is not a literature class, so I do not need to go into great details. The Gunslinger has made it through some tough times and gained a companion. I love this book so much (as I have stated many a time before). There is so much that is like our world, but "the world has moved on" so it is not quite our world as we know it. And of course The Beatles have a cameo through the book as well. What could be better I ask? Back to knitting and reading, and yes more studying.

Reading and Quizzes

This is insanity! The last two weeks of the semester and I decide to start a blog and a reading challenge. What was I thinking?! Anyhow, I am now ignoring the school work and have lost myself in the desert. The opening line of The Gunslinger starts as this, "The man in black fled across the desert. The gunslinger followed." That may not be the exact wording, but pretty close. I mean does that not just draw you in, feel the mesmerizing pull of an amazing story about to unfold? Speaking of mesmerizing, did you know that the word came from the man Mesmer, who was not a hypnotist. Amazing what you learn in Abnormal Psychology.

My First Book

I feel sort of like I am cheating in that I have already read some of my book selections. But I love these book so much. First up is The Gunslinger. I figure if Lord of the Rings is classified as fantasy then so is this book. Especially as Stephen King wrote it as a kind of homage to Tolkien. I can never say enough about this series of books, they are honestly some of the best books ever written! I cannot wait to reread it. I just hope I can refrain from reading all the rest!

So I have succumb to starting a blog for the sole purpose of joining all these reading challenges. And I pray that I manage to do these challenges now that I have gone through all of this. First up is the decision making process of what to read and finding the time to do so. Only two weeks left of this semester, then two weeks of vacation before next semester. Better hurry up and decide and get reading.