Bout of Books Challenge Day 3

A haiku inspired by The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, my current Bout of Books read.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Next week I will be participating in the Bout of Books read-a-thon. You can follow my progress on this blog, my instagram @Literatigeek or my twitter @Literatigeek . 

Brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish

May 5: Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

When I was in school I hated the really vague "write something generally related to this topic" type assignments. I like my restrictions. I like to know what rules I can stay within. Due to this mentality surviving into my twenties I placed the restriction on myself to choose from the "Popular 100 Books to Read Before You Die Shelf" on Goodreads, specifically from the first two pages.

(As always; no particular order here, other than the order in which they appeared on the list.)

1.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: This is one of those books I missed out on reading during High School. I'm not 100% sure what this book is about, maybe one day down the road I'll crack the spine. As for right now, it's not anywhere near my TBR list. 

2.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: I feel like I should have a stronger desire to read this than I do. I have a vague memory of testing out the first book freshman year of high school but didn't really feel connected to it. Perhaps I'm past the age to read this one now.

3.) Ulysses by James Joyce: I dislike modernist writing and I dislike pretentious English Major boys with their head so far up James Joyce's behind they can't talk about any other author but him. Both these elements have led me to not want to go near this anytime soon.

4.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac: I'm beginning to realize most of my dislike of novels comes from having to hear about how amazing they are by pretentious English Major boys. To be honest, I don't care for the beat generation which I feel like is pretty strong in the pretentious English Major boys spectrum of acceptable novels to live by because they like the sense of purpose it gives their academic pursuit. Anyways, if someone can tell me the difference between this and Catcher In The Rye I might give it a chance.

5.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback: I kinda feel bad for Steinback, by the time most kids reach high school they hate his guts. I read The Pearl, attempted Of Mice and Men; you do you Steinback but I'm gonna chill somewhere else.  (Another one I think I might have out grown.)

6.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: Saw the movie, I'm good. (How did this get on this list?)

7.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom: I feel like I heard Oprah talk a lot about this book. Also, a lot of the girls in my high school who also read "A child called It" read this book and it was about the only books they read so that fact kinda drew me away from it. (That's another book I intend to never read. Also, did anyone else's high school have more copies of that book than students?)

8.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: I swear, I saw other students reading this in high school and yet I was never required to read it. This one I'm a little closer to reading than the others just cause it actually intrigues me over the others, but at the moment it's not near my TBR pile and I don't know when I'll be in the mood for it. 

9.) The Call of the Wild by Jack London: I had to read Jack London for my American Lit class in college and this dude really likes wolves. I mean he really likes wolves. Someone should have checked into this. At this point, I'm pretty sure I just don't like 1900s Manly American Writers who like to compare stuff to trees.

10.) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: I WANTED TO LIKE YOU DUDE. But sadly he blasted C.S.Lewis and I haven't been able to forgive him. I found this out when I was still in the age range for these books and held onto that grudge long enough to grow out of it and now I know life without reading these books and it's pretty okay so I think I can survive.

What books do you think you'll probably never read? Any of the same? Any of these I should give a second thought to perhaps?

April Wrap up

By The Numbers

Books Read: 6
Books borrowed from the library: 7
Books bought: 2
Books on TBR shelf: 42
Books towards 2015 Reading Challenge: 15 of 50
Books towards Reading England Challenge: 2 of 39

The beginning of April, it was a lot easier to read considering I was unemployed. I'm still trying to figure out how and when I can read while having a full time job. Not going to lie, taking the bus every day does help with this. I can read while traveling to and from work. And on the plus side I've now figured out how to read on the bus and not get motion sickness. My next task is to figure out how to read during lunch.

April was tainted by one book in particular "The Greatest Traitor" was in a mood when I picked this book up. I had never heard of Roger Mortimer, I was in a biography mood and specifically historical british biographies. This book is taking forever and a day to finish. Nothing particularly interesting has happened yet, and the author feels the need to list at least 5 men (full names and titles) whenever he wants to tell you who's present as if you know who these obscure 1300s british lords are and will be able to remember them. I have made it to a chapter titled "Rebel" so I'm hoping stuff will go down now.

Additionally, this month I took part in my first read-a-thon. For my first experience I enjoyed it, and I look forward  to using this experience for my next read-a-thon, I learned a lot. I'm pretty sure it was due to circumstances I couldn't give it 100% this time, and plan to actively participate more in the next one. I also went to my first book festival. I really wish these two events hadn't been on the same day so I could appreciate them both more.

So, this month I found a new author I thoroughly enjoy and wish to read more of (Georgette Heyer), got rather good advice from a woman I look up to (Amy Poehler), realized I identified a lot more with a woman I wasn't aware I did (Mindy Kaling), cried over people I never met (We Two), gave a book a shot that I was weary of and ended up thoroughly enjoying it (Station Eleven), and finally read a classic I never had (The Great Gatsby).

Bookish Saturday

This Saturday was a bit hectic, which is due in part to why for the second week in a row I was unable to make a post for #ReadingMyLibrary. It started with the Ohioana Book Festival and continued through the rest of the day taking part of the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon. Both of these were a first for me, and both an awesome experience.

About a month ago I decided that considering at the time I was out of work I would get to know my city a little better. I had gone to school here for 4 years and never really went further than campus or downtown. It started with visiting museums and markets, and with research I found an event that interested me. The Ohioana Book Festival. The basic set up is a continual "book fair" where authors sit with their books and you can meet them and have them sign the books before you buy them, and then groups of authors would go to separate rooms to give panel discussions. Sadly, I was unable to make it to any of these, I traded in the panels to go home and read for the marathon.

My intentions when going was just to buy one book; "Everything I never told you" by Celeste Ng. The problem is I am weak, and I have problems getting the courage to go up to booths at these types of things as is so to have the author just sitting there made it even worse. I ended up buying another book "The Midwife's Tale" and instantly felt the guilt of my pocketbook. However, both authors were very nice, one seeming more nervous than the other (probably out of lack of experience or just shyness).

I'm not going to talk about how Jenna (@LostGenReader) was discussed with Celeste Ng as a mutual twitter friend because Jenna's head is big enough.

In all, I plan to go back next year when buying two books wont make my bank account hurt and I can stay for the panels.

This was my first read-a-thon. I know my own limits. I get that I'm a bit slower of a reader than most (at least it seems to me that I read slower than your average "avid reader") and I get my own attention span. Add in that sitting in one position starts to hurt after awhile (due to old sports injuries) and I didn't expect to get through half my stack of books but I wanted to have my options.

In all, I finished "Steven Eleven" and "The Great Gatsby" (I'm an anomaly of having made it through high school and an English degree without ever reading it), and started "Everything I never Told you" before I gave in. I feel like I would have gone longer if my stomach hadn't started feeling funny (I'm not sick, don't worry, it didn't amount to anything). 

I'd like to take part in this readathon again, and hopefully I'd be better prepared and not have anything else going on that day. I loved interacting with everyone over social media; seeing what they were reading, eating, where they were reading. It was fun just meeting new people. Not to mention the ego boost I got from my klout score going up from that one day alone.

Did anyone else take part in the Read-A-Thon? How'd your experience go?

Dewey's Read-a-Thon

www.24hourreadathon.com

Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon is happening tomorrow, and I along with almost 1,700 other readers will be reading all day (as the name declares). There will be plenty of updates on social media so make sure to follow me on those (I'll provide at the end of the post) if you're interested. 

This is my first time every taking part in a read-a-thon, and I'm kinda curious if my attention can actually keep all the way through it. I will get off to a rocky start, I had already planned to attend the Ohioana Book Festival, so I will be getting a 2 hour break....to buy more books...

As it stands this is my current stack (you can also find it on my Goodreads account):

1.) The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer by Ian Mortimer (finishing)

2.) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (finishing)
3.) The Prince by Nicoolo Machiavelli (finishing)
4.) Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler
5.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6.) Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
7.) Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
8.) Wicked by Gregory Maguire (rereading)
9.) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Not pictured: Buried Giant, which is waiting on me at the library, and Everything I never Told You, which is waiting for me at the book fair.

I doubt I'll get through all 9 in 24 hours. I'm hoping the smaller books will get me through the rough patches. I've been working on The Greatest Traitor for awhile now and I'm hoping this will give me the push to finally finish it. 

Are you taking part in the marathon? What are you reading for it?

Social Media to follow along:

Twitter

Instagram
GoodReads

Hashtags:

#Readathon #Dewey

#MiniChallenge #RahRahReadathon

Three Funny Women Walk into a Bar

In the past month or so I have read the memoirs of three famous funny women. Each one inspired me in a different way. Each one made me laugh in a different way. I went in with certain conceptions of each and left with a different understanding. I believe there is an ease with learning through laughter. A memoir doesn't need to be dark or overly inspirational to leave it's mark on you.

I have reviewed each of these books separately which you can find on my blog, this is not to discuss the merits of the books but to wrap up the women and how they inspired me (through a really long drunk metaphor) and how I now view them.

There's a particularly popular post on the blogging site Tumblr. It simply asks:

Are you a Wine Mom?
Or a Vodka Aunt?

To those who don't have a tumblr sensibly, I'll explain. There's a stereotype of the middle-age mother who ultimately drinks wine every evening to relax and inevitably lets loose in her tipsy-ness. They over use Facebook and tend to appear in denial about their age.

The Vodka Aunt is the wild and crazy aunt who has no kids and thus no responsibilities. She's loud and the life of any family reunion (even if she's the family disappointment). You'd go to her house if you ran away from your wine mom.

For the purpose of this post, I have made up an entirely different category that you'll see later on.

Wine Mom Tina Fey

She's quirky and supportive. She has a bit of self doubt but can put herself out there. Give her a glass of wine and she'll ramble on about a life story with a sentence wrap up moral. She doesn't always stay on topic, but its usually cause something annoyed her and she wants you to know about it. She's been there, done that, she'll tell you how and the regrets she had that she doesn't want you to have too (or maybe she secretly does for fun).

Vodka Aunt Amy Poehler

She's led the Rock and Roll life. The current world bugs the hell out of her and she's too sober to deal. Due to being pissed off at the man (and men in general) she'll give you awesome advice she probably wished she had at your age. She's loud, up front and sometimes swears like a sailor but she hits home hard with truth. She wont tell you everything she did, but that's likely for your own good. But she'll tell you how to get through your own problems cause she fought through hers.

Tequila* Sister Mindy Kaling

She'll tell you how pretty you are before getting distracted by how pretty she looks. She's the one to call all men jerks and crack up at her own joke. She's the lethal combo of smart/funny/sharp. She can make you laugh and think at the same time. She'll make you feel better about your own problems by joking about her own. She'll convince you to do that thing you were worried about doing because COME ON JUST DO IT!

*Mindy Kaling doesn't drink much but her natural personality is equal to the confidence you get after a shot of tequila so I thought it applicable.



In the end should any of these women walk up to you in a bar, after having the drink of their choice, and see you're in a bit of a funk, they'll likely start to console you by expressing:

Tina Fey: "You don't even know, let me tell you how I got here..."

Amy Poehler: "Trust me, I've seen some shit. Let me tell you how you should handle this..."

Mindy Kaling: "That is the worst! And let me tell you, I'm right there too."