what i’m reading now
23
May 10
Commuting, reading, writing
Can you believe I’ve been so busy I didn’t have the chance to post since last Wednesday? It’s a good feeling.
I’ve quickly gotten used to commuting to my new job. The bus seems to come at eight on the dot every morning, which gets me in ten or fifteen minutes before my 8:44 train. Because the train is going away from the city, it’s usually pretty empty. I can get a seat by myself and write or read peacefully before the very quick 30 minutes passes and I’m at my destination.
I’m definitely glad it’s not every day though.
Yesterday morning I was able to get myself to the gym (with MB’s prodding), which felt great after not working out Thursday or Friday. I worked on my writing somewhat but not enough. I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which made me cry. Just one more in the series! Today I started The Woman in White
In writing news, I have two new pieces:
- Wrinkles in Time at The Nervous Breakdown about how reading Madeleine L’Engle made me want to be a writer.
I’m Not Beautiful, and That’s Okay at The Frisky about how while I was once hot, I’ve accepted that I’m now not, and that maybe beauty isn’t worth fretting over after all.
Today I need to work on my novel like crazy and get a couple of pitches ready.
10
May 10
Babbly little update
It was nice to take a small break from writing this weekend, after last week’s busy schedule. I did work on stuff, but in a leisurely way.
I’ve decided to continue with my corporate mystery. I can’t remember if I wrote about this, but I was going to throw in the towel since I was so bored writing it. I had an idea for another novel, but I was just as bored starting that. At least with the corporate mystery, the characters are more developed in my head, and I know where the story is going.
We saw Iron Man 2 over the weekend. I was expecting it to be lame, but we both enjoyed it. I had read something about “too many villains,” but I didn’t think there were, especially compared to that one Batman.
I finished the fifth Harry Potter and now am reading Love in the Time of Cholera. I like it, but I really love the Harry Potter books. Just two more in the series!
This weekend I started my “diet,” which for me means “not eating like a pig” as well as making sure I eat enough so I don’t binge later. For instance, at Nick’s Crispy Tacos, I usually just get one fish taco (fried: baby steps), which doesn’t quite fill me up and then I end up eating a meal at 4, as well as dinner at 8. So this time I added the tortilla soup, which was AMAZING by the way. That satisfied me but I didn’t feel stuffed and gross.
I have to remember to incorporate soup whenever I can. One, I love it. Two, clear soups are pretty healthy I think, usually full of veggies and lean meat. Three, like I said, they’re filling but don’t make you feel gross.
Last night we had fish dinners at Grub Stake, and I refrained from eating my potatoes. Just my salmon and veggies. MB got an apple crumble dessert and I had just a bite to taste it. Later I had part of Luna Bar for my “dessert.”
Today I need to work out!
In other news, I finally got an interview! I haven’t had any luck so for this particular position, I decided to have fun and be honest. My application email wasn’t so much an application as an essay incorporating what they asked for. Not a dense essay but sort of ranty and conversational, the way I write some stuff for The Nervous Breakdown. The interview’s on Wednesday.
20
Apr 10
BBC 100 Update
It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a BBC 100 update. Here are the books I’ve read since last time, with my six-word reviews.
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier. Suspenseful gothic romance – must see movie!
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens. Clever, wordy – once read is enough.
Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling. Better than Twilight. Now an addict.
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling. Better than the movie. Want more!
Persuasion, Jane Austen. Smart, entertaining. Sad Austen died young.
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden. Fascinating, but Asian blue eyes = cataracts. (The equal sign is totally not a word.)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling. My God, so good, I cried.
Now I’m reading A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I didn’t like at first but now I’m really enjoying it.
Finally, here’s the whole list again. Bold are the books I’ve read since beginning this project in October, red are my most recent reads. The other crossed out books are ones I read in the past. Thirty-six total now, more than a third, yay!
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie