Only 960 to go!

Look at this, you guys!

(1001 Books you must read before you die).

I just got it today and then I got home and I went through all 1001 books and checked of the ones I had read. (in pencil, because writing in books is...just...wrong).
I have only read 41 of them, I feel silly and dumb and unaccomplished. Think if I had spent my life reading instead of making friends and other silly things. Think how much I could have read!

That is it! No more social-life, no more fun till I have read all 1001. (not really)

There are a couple of books I missed on their, otherwise good, list though. Yet I have a fetish for checking things of on lists, so this book is perfect nonetheless.

Now back to my book.

Oh wait before I run; a friend asked me what the score was for bought vs. read, it's 13-8 and I am fighting myself on a daily basis. I want to buy more books!

Some people should not be allowed to write - 2012 Book Quest

I am sad you guys. Really, really sad.
You know how bacon makes everything better? How an otherwise boring dish suddenly becomes the best meal ever, just because you added bacon? And how beer makes everything better? How it can be sunshine and blue skies and all seems great, but the one thing missing to make it perfect, is a cold beer?

I know that feeling. And a fool I was for believing that there was another thing that could improve something already really good. Perfect it to a point where I would be laughing so hard no sound came out, and I just sat there, clapping like a retarded seal.
Yeah I thought it was like that with zombies. That a good movie or book could only become better with a sprinkle of undead corpses craving brains.

I was wrong! Not just a little wrong either. No, I was terribly mistaken. And I am ashamed. Ashamed I ever thought anything could improve Austen. How could it? Austen is perfect, and I was a fool to think otherwise.

All this is of course concerning the latest book I read for The 2012 Book Quest. A guy named Seth Grahame-Smith took it upon himself, to ruin the most wonderful book. He no doubt intended to be funny, but I am here to tell you, he failed tremendously.

He created the abomination that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and he ought to pay for it.
He turned a beautiful, funny, well-written story in to absolute drivel.

I will not waste time by describing the story, it is Pride and Prejudice, we all know that story. I will only say this: adding zombies to a classical novel is a new and exiting idea that might have worked, had the author actually taken the time to understand the story. He seems to be under the impression, that  Pride and Prejudice  is just a love story that needs some action to make it exiting.
Wrong Mr. Grahame-Smith, Wrong in every sense of the word.

As I constantly have to explain to people, Pride and Prejudice is much, much more than just a romance novel. It is social commentary and satire.
With Grahame-Smiths additions, all of the depth of the novel is gone, erased by silly mentions of zombies and battles and warrior codes.

No, no more. I wash my hands of that book.

Transformations - 2012 Book Quest

The last couple of weeks and the next 6 months will be all about transformations for me. How appropriate I chose to read Little women, a book stuffed with transformations.

Essentially the book is about four girls becoming women and, though I am already a grown woman, I found inspiration in their quest to always do better. That is what I am trying to do in my life, do better, be better.

About a month ago I quit university, I was studying history, I realized it was not right for me and I quit. I don't like quitting and I will go a long way not to have to admit defeat. I will put up with terrible conditions or results and promise myself it will get better in the long run, just to not have to give up, I am stubborn and silly, and I should have quit a year ago.

Now I have quit and am among the scores of unemployed, I write applications and show up to when I have to, but the only valuable thing it has brought me, is a sense of having something that needs doing.
I talked to a guidance counselor who pointed me in the direction of an education that might be right for me, I have applied for it and there is a pretty good chance I will get in.
I went to a job interview yesterday and again today.
All in all; stuff gets done, which is more than can be said for the past year.

The stagnation has ended and I feel like I have awoken from a deep sleep and am ready to run a marathon.
What really helps is, I have decided two things:

1. I don't care.
2. I can do anything.

So whenever something gets in my way I just remember I don't care enough for it to bother me, and if I want, I can fix it, because I can do anything.

My doctor said, when I told her about this great sense of "nothing is impossible", that I had probably been depressed. I don't know if that is true, I don't really care either. 

All I know is that the world might be a tough place sometimes, but I am always tougher and whenever the world wants to prove me wrong, she can bring it on and I'll even drive her to the ER afterwards. 

So remember, if the world seems out to get you, kick her ass!

Geocaching - Sunday Sensations

I went out geocaching today. It has been so long since I last did that, more than a year and it was really nice. There are a lot of muggles (non-geocachers) around on a Sunday afternoon though, so I had to be careful.

Geocaching is like a treasure hunt, you get a set of coordinates, you type them into your GPS unit and when you get to the destination you try and find a cache with a logbook to sign it.
It is a lot of fun, and it is also a good way of going for a walk. I am not very good at walking around the neighborhood aimlessly, but when I have three caches to find I will gladly walk a couple of kilometers to do so.

Today I actually got caught by a muggle. I was standing with the cache in my hand, trying to be sneaky, when a woman and her 5 y/o daughter walks by. I hadn't even seen them coming.
The girl asks her mom "what's that in her hands mummy" and the mom goes "Oh that's just her lunchbox".
Thank god for people using Tupperware for cachecontainers!

The rest of the day I think I will read, I should really finish my book. I like it a lot, I have just been so busy lately, so all I am going to say is:

"To the comfy chair with a book and a coke!"

Sunshine - Sunday Sensations

Happy Sunday everyone!

The sun is shinning like crazy here, the temperature is up a bit and the sky is clear blue. My faith in spring is restored!

This will be a very short post, because I am going for a walk. No time to waste inside on such a lovely day. I will bring my book with me and I will sit and read by the river. I have a secret spot near here which is so beautiful and serene. I wish I could take you all there, but if I did you would see it's magnificence and it would no longer be peaceful. I can however show you what it looks like in the early summer.

Nice huh?

Have a nice Sunday.

Edit: I am now back from my walk and some noisy kids had decided to hang out in my secret spot *Shakes fist* "Damn kids, get of my lawn".
Instead I found a nice tree stump with plenty of ducks running around it. It was acceptable, but not quite the same *sigh*.
I did however get my walk on, and took a tour of the neighborhood after my bum got too cold to sit still any longer. All in all a good Sunday afternoon.  

Of sins and darkness - 2012 Book Quest

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.

Yesterday I was doing really well on the quest. After finishing Heart of Darkness I had bought 9 books and read 6. Then the used bookstore happened, and then my roommate wanted books from Amazon and today I found a thrift store that had books. So now I am at 13 bought vs. 6 read. Whoops...

I bought Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises at the used bookstore, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on Amazon and at the thrift store I got The Shining and Grapes of Wrath.
Now my "To-read" shelf is looking crowded as ever, I mean just look at it:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies not pictured because it has not come yet. (And my camera sucks, I know I know)

As I wrote above, I read Heart of Darkness, but I don't really want to write about it. Let it be enough that I tell you I didn't like it. Not one bit.There was no story, no counterpoint, no points of no return, nothing. And when an author goes out of his way to write the title of the book in the book, it pisses me off! I feel like shouting "I get it dammit! He is in the middle of an undiscovered spot on the map, no civilization, everything is described as gloomy and the people there are "in the dark" when it comes to the modern world. There is absolutely no need to point it out even further by repeating the title of the book every 30 pages or so."

And I ended up writing about it anyway... Well on a much happier note, I am reading a book I quite enjoy so far. Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott. To no ones surprise I really like Jo who is a tomboy and finds female ideals silly and restricting. Go Jo!

In other news nothing particularly exciting has happened here lately. And with that I shall leave you.
Till next time, stay safe and read the manual!

Books - Sunday Sensations

I figured it was about time I spend a little time explaining why I love books so much.
I was sort of an outsider when I was a kid, I only had a few friends, very good friends, but not too many. When I was 12 we moved, not far, just one town over, but I did not know anybody and I had a lot of free time on my hands.
I found sanctuary in the local library, it was dusty and dark, and just how a library should be.

I had always read a lot, it is what we did in our family, especially my mom. I remember going to the library to get her books whenever she was home sick from work. I would get three or four books and she had usually read at least two of them before.

A little while after the school year had started a classmate who had noticed I read a lot, handed me a book. She told me to read it and bring it back the next day. I looked at her like she was crazy, I mean the book was 300 pages. How would I ever get through it in one day?
I did however. I finished it at 2 AM that night and when Harry beat back Professor Quirrell and Lord Voldemort and Gryffindor won the house cup, I admit, I cried a little.

That was my first "big" book. 300 pages is not a lot, but when you are 12 and you have mostly read 150-200 page books, it is overwhelming.

From then on, there was no stopping me. Later that year I read Bent Haller's Lille Lucifer which is a 850 page tome filled with pure, golden awesome.

I read just about everything I could get my hands on and it has been like that ever since. I find it hard to explain exactly what it is about books that make me happy. But I stumbled upon this image the other day, and it is the closest I have ever come to an explanation.




If any of you Danes out there remember the old Bookie bookmarks they had at the libraries, they were sort of the same. I was actually looking for images of those when I found this.
I used to have a ton of them, now I cannot find a single one, it makes me a little bit sad.

The bookmarks had a drawing of a boy reading a book on the front. He would be lying in a bathtub or sitting under a tree, and on the other side, he would be diving under water in a submarine or exploring through a jungle.
And that is exactly what books are like. They are a gateway to a world beyond this one. A place where magic is real and evil pirates kidnap wenches, where good always triumphs over evil and where everyone gets exactly what they deserve, good or bad.

I believe I just answered my own question; I love books because when you start reading, anything is possible.