I’ll try to be good and post these on the right day (I posted this on Instagram on the right day, at least). Day 1: Introduce yourself.
I’m Jen, and I read a lot of books. I’m rereading Robin Hobb’s “Liveship Traders” series right now so I’m ready for her new book coming out this summer.
I know I must be an adult now, because I can no longer go to the library, check out 14 books due in 14 days, and read them all without renewing. This makes me sad.
The library was this wondrous place when I was growing up. I could check out all the books I wanted and just read. But now there are things like work and sleep that conspire to keep me from reading all that I want to. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve read 90 books this year (yes, some of them are short, or graphic novels, but they’re still books) and I’ll try to read many more before December 31, but I could be reading so much more. I once estimated that I read 600 books in five years. I’m below that estimate now, but this year I seem to be reading faster, so go fig.
Of course, part of the problem is that I also do other things with my free time, like, say, eat, or play softball, or, you know, write…and obviously I can’t do all of them at the same time. I can read and have dinner all at once, and I’ve even been known to read while knitting, though that’s rare.
What’s the point of all this? Well, I restrained myself and only checked out two books at the library on Tuesday. See, I’m growing up.
Since it is the day before a softball game and it’s raining, I present to you a softball haiku:
softball–a dream that
never becomes realized
because it rains so
Last night I had a dream where I was a Transformer-like Eliza Dushku (yes, I was listening to the soundtrack to Transformers last night–why do you ask?) and I really wanted to read the as-yet unpublished manuscript of some famous author–dunno who. I could get anywhere I wanted because I was pretty and rich and then could, you know, transform to get out of there. So I go to this author’s place, grab the manuscript, but the police come before I can leave. Thus, I run out of the house, throw the ms. in the air, become a car, and careen off, but the policeman shoots and knocks off the license plate. Since I am a bibliophile, after the policeman has given up the chase, all he finds is the piece of plate with part of a plastic plate protector. The partial plate says OO, and the plate protector says “ublic Lib”–get it? The plate reads BOOKS (or something similar) and the protector promotes some city’s Public Library.
And then I told it all to Eliza Dushku, who was apparently at a garage sale with me. Go fig.
On a serious note: one of my favorite authors (and one who probably played a part in my wanting to be a fantasy author), David Eddings, passed away last night. He will be missed. I brought the first book in the Elenium, The Diamond Throne, with me to work to read in memoriam.
And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places the flow of our sympathetic consciousness, and it can lead our sympathy away in recoil from things gone dead. Therefore, the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is in the passional secret places of life, above all, that the tide of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening.
from Ch. 9 of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence.
Got a bit of a bombshell today when my roommate informed me that she won’t be renewing her part of the lease. There’s only a month left on the current one. I’ve been looking at condos, even have a realtor and a banker guy, but I don’t know how this is going to work out in a month. Do I sign the lease and find a subletter when I find a new place? Not sign the lease and hope something works out? Sigh.
I love the silly little things, and I really envy the people who had the time to make this. It’s Mousetrap for Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Happy release day for Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files book, Turn Coat! And yes, I have it already, and I shall read it…now!
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Check out this amazing video that, as Nathan Bransford put it, shows what it’s like for a writer. Great music and really cool special effects, too:
World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.
I need to write more.
Because I’m a geek, here’s a list of what I’ve read this year. I’ll keep updating the page all year, so I can finally write one of those “books I’ve read last year” posts when the New Year rolls around again 😉 And if you really wanted to, you could click on the book covers and buy a book from Amazon, and I’ll get a few pennies 😉
Check it out.
Oh, and happy half-birthday to me. Tomorrow it’s off to a bachelorette party! Whoo! Hope I planned enough fun. I probably don’t have to worry…drinks are fun no matter what, and I bet that’s mostly what we’ll do 😉 Huzzah Leo!
This is pretty cool – an anniversary video featuring stop motion using book covers.
This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.
Via Nathan Bransford.
Sometimes I forget how much I love it.
Take right now, for example: I have this idea for this year’s NaNo that it will have a quasi-Victorian setting, maybe based on reality, maybe a little steampunk, so I looked up books on Victorian history. For those keeping score, that was when Queen Victoria ruled England, circa 1840-1870. I now own three books on Victorian history, because not only are the books full of information and juicy little tidbits that will pad out my daily word count nicely, but sometimes they’re just hilarious. I’m sure that someday people will look back at our time and wonder what we were thinking, because that’s what’s happening when I read these. And I’m having fun. I like learning. History can be interesting!
But I’m not the sort of person to seek out nonfiction books normally. I have to have a good reason. And research for NaNo is a pretty darn good reason.
This is why I know I could be a professional writer. Because I don’t mind the research. It’s quite fun to absorb all the bits of information during the research phase then have them suddenly coalesce in a somewhat coherent whole during the draft phase.
Here’s to research. May it never get boring.
And here’s to me, who got a whole lot of books (and the 2nd season of Heroes), because it’s that little thing known as my birthday. Huzzah.
