Food Philosophy

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter knows I love to eat.

Good food, in my book, beats everything. So many memories come out of a good meal. There’s always good conversation–whether you are eating with family, or sitting alone at a pub, talking to a bartender, or fellow beer nerds.

Everyone’s got to eat, and everyone has a strong opinion about their food. And when the conversation veers away from what is on the plate, topics range anywhere from life to books to politics and back again.

I will almost never pass on the opportunity for a great meal. And that means I am never going to be a skinny woman. But hey, if good food and better conversation means I am not what society thinks is “beautiful,” than screw them.

Pass the beer and cheese please.

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Thanks for being patient with me this week! I’m back from vacation, and I have a BUNCH of stuff to post in the next week or so. It was hard being away from the blog, I kept journaling posts to write! 🙂

Stay tuned!

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72HR Read-A-Thon | TBR List & Reading Goals

The Lovely Sara over at Trees of Reverie is hosting a readathon this weekend, just in time for the 24 hour Readathon Day tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our vacation, along with 3 hours of yoga (!!!!), but there’s going to be plenty of reading in there too.

I haven’t set a page goal, because I have so much going on, but I’d like to get through at least 2 books, maybe three, along with the normal shorts that I read on Fridays. Here’s what’s on the list:

My normal reading from James Joyce Dubliners and Short Story Fiction that I have planned today.

Books on the upcoming list:

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 

I’ll also be doing the Daily Bookish Challenges that Sara posts, and I’ll probably be reading in some of the sprints that Becki posts too. You can always follow along on Twitter and Tumblr, you know I’m always active on those two sites during these events! Tomorrow is going to be a big reading day for the whole Booklr community, I can’t wait!

First There Wasn’t, Then There Was

Remember earlier, when I said I wanted brain candy? Um. Hm. Well…I picked a short book, but instead of being sugarcoated, my mind is completely blown.

I am Twitter Mutuals with author Troy Blackford, and we got chatting about his books a week or so ago. They are available on Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to fit it in to my next rotation…and then like an idiot, promptly forgot to do so!

I’ll be honest…in the first 15% of this book, I was pretty skeptical. I almost didn’t continue. The book starts off with four corporate mega douchebags, and the writing is nothing great. I was cringing. The sentences were long and wordy, and well…douchebaggy. Ugh.

Enter homeless man. Oh…great. What are these assholes going to do to this poor guy? Nothing good, right?

Guys, I’m not kidding you, my mind is seriously blown. *PHEW* *POW* *BLAMO*

Long story short, Douchebag #1 puts a tape recorder in homeless man’s pocket, thinking he will obviously not notice, because he’s crazy…because all homeless guys are crazy. Instead, Homeless man is absolutely aware that there is a tape recorder, and tells his entire life story.

I have 5 or 6 pages of journaling from today because there’s just so much going on here. Homeless Guy, “Kermit”, is shooting off some pretty intense wisdom. I will admit, in the middle, there is some really strange stuff going on. Blackford’s genre is Sci-Fi/Horror, according to Goodreads, so it follows…mostly I think the homeless man just had a mental breakdown. But in his very lucid moments, Kermit weaves a story of life, death, and after life.

I’m not doing any of Blackford’s book justice. There’s a reason I write a blog…and not novels. Just go read it. It only took me a few hours to read, but it was really really really great.

Watching History be Made

Today’s “History” themed post was going to be all about my love of British lore, but you guys have heard me wax poetic about that stuff a million times.

And then this morning, something brilliant happened. My twitter feed started exploding with links and hashtags as the European Space Agency got closer to landing the Philae lander on Comet 67P, 317 million miles away from Earth. Once I saw what was happening, I tuned into the live feed. At first, there wasn’t much happening–just a bunch of people standing in a control room, a dull hum of voices as they hovered over computer monitors. William Shatner joked on Twitter about one particular man who looked very serious with his hands on his hips in a gray hoodie.

But then, that dull hum started to get louder. The serious faces started to get more animated, and the hands started pointing at the screens. People started moving around. And then, all at once, HOORAY!!!!!!!!! Images started flowing through Twitter, and after another few moments, they got confirmation that Philae was communicating from the comet.

I’ve been listening now to the follow up speeches, the excitement. This is the first time anyone has ever landed on a comet. There is so much discovery that can happen, so much research to be done.

I have so many feelings about what I just watched. In the aftermath of NASA losing funding, our space program shutting down, it’s so fascinating, so inspiring to see this work being done elsewhere. Even though I do not understand everything that is happening or what can happen, I love watching the brilliance that people are striving for. History was made today. People will talk about today 50 years in the future when they talk about space. I don’t know what will come out of this project, but I know I watched it happen today. And that is thrilling.

Overwhelmed

Holy crap you guys. Thank you.

When I started this blog back in March, it was just a creative outlet for me. I had read The Happiness Project and I was determined that I was going to read more, better, harder. And I was going to write about it. I needed a way to increase the satisfaction and happiness that I got from reading and learn more from not just the books but also the people who read them.

I never expected people to actually pay attention to my silly little reviews.

But then, the more I wrote, the better I felt about what I was writing, and it started mattering to me. I started paying attention. My happiness project is working. I am learning, so much, and not just about books, but I’m so conscious about the world around me.

And that is why I’ve started posting more meaningful essays on here. At first, I was hesitant to do so, because they weren’t book related. But, they are important to me, and to my Happiness Project.

Then yesterday happened. I had written “A Lack of Baby Fever” because it is a message that is extremely personal to me, and it is one I want to share with women who 1) may be feeling the same way but don’t know how to express it, or 2) are maternal and don’t know how to communicate to those who are not. Somehow, my essay got posted to Reddit and oh my gawd. My little blog got so many hits you guys. SO MANY. I was in tears almost all day because I never believed THAT MANY PEOPLE would want to read, not just any post, BUT THAT POST. The response was overwhelming. From the commentor here, to the comments on Reddit, and the tweets and retweets.

And just now, I hit 200 followers. My silly little bookworm blog that I started just for me has 200 people who read regularly. And so I just wanted to say thank you. Because you probably have no idea how much writing this every day means to me. If I could hug each one of you, I totally would. I have some fun stuff planned coming up. More challenges, more books, of course, and definitely more essays, thoughts, etc. The blog is going to grow, as I am growing. Stay tuned!

Movie Adaptation: The Maze Runner

We finally went to see The Maze Runner this afternoon. This is probably my favorite of the big dystopian action trilogies, so I was pumped when I found out they were making a movie out of it. It’s so much different than the others–violence is not the main component. It’s rough in the Glade, sure. But the guys work together as a team, not to save their own skin. And yes, Dashner did include some females, but romance really doesn’t take much of a role. The goals are teamwork and problem solving and thinking outside the box. All really good things to have in a series about a broken world.

The movie did not disappoint. The casting, first of all, was dead on. I’m not even talking about Dylan O’Brien. He made a great Thomas, yeah. But can we talk about Blake Cooper? A more perfect Chuck could not exist in this world. He was sweet and chubby, just like he was supposed to be. And he had the balls he needed to have to back up the rest of the crew. He was one of those best friends every guy needs. I loved him.

Will Pouter as Gally–Yep. If you’ve read the book before you watch this, you know exactly who he is as soon as the box opens. He’s the absolute hard ass he needs to be. Done. Those eyebrows are scary, man.

And Newt? Um. I feel really dirty about much I liked watching Sam from Love Actually run around with leather packs and spears. Who told him he was allowed to grow up and be this fantastic actor? Couldn’t he at least look a LITTLE different than he did as a kid? All jokes aside, Thomas Brodie-Sangster was a perfect fit for the role, and he did a great job.

The landscaping and set up was really interesting. The maze looked amazing–so complex and industrial. The grievers were so freaking scary, and they really nailed the sound effects to go with them. Everything was right on pointe with how I had imagined it, only better.

I had listened to the soundtrack before seeing the movie, so I already knew it was brilliant. It was hard not to be revved up about it though…James Dashner had been talking about it for weeks on Twitter. If you thought John Green was an author excited about his movie–you should follow Dashner. That guy doesn’t stop. He’s absolutely giddy about this series coming out, and for very good reasons.

Love this Quote

My quote for today didn’t come from a book, but I’ve written it in my journal repeatedly. Every time I see it–on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter–I am compelled to write it down, as a reminder to let go of the prejudices that plague our society. I’ve seen another post making it’s rounds that tells us that the first thought we have when we look at someone is the conditioning we’ve been given to think about someone. “They are fat, they are gay, they are psycho.” You know those thoughts. It’s what you think secondly that matters. “They are beautiful, they are in love, they look hurt and maybe I could help.” We can change our thinking, and we should do our best to move away from the hate. There’s way too much of it out there, in my opinion.

 

 

“Each of us bears a responsibility to reject hate whatever its form, whatever its justification. A soul filled with hate can devastate a community. A nation filled with hate can devastate a people. It must start and end with each of us.”

–George Takei

Newest Purchase

I had a pretty great book haul in September. Some new books, some used ones. Even a free one, thanks to a Twitter contest! Here’s what I picked up:

 

I’ve blogged about most of these already, so I’ll keep this short. But LOOK at that gorgeous purple Drop Caps from Penguin Books! Sorry if you follow me on Twitter and get annoyed by my constant retweets, but it was well worth it. Even the pages are purple on the outside!

The bottom green book I threw in to the picture because technically…I own it. But, that’s definitely a husband book. I may read it, eventually, when it makes it way into my TBR rotation. We’ll see if I even understand it. It’ll be awhile before that happens though.

And of course, I finally have a Sherlock book. I’ve read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but I haven’t yet read this one. I couldn’t resist it, when I saw it on the clearance rack!

Our Generation

Today’s poem was posted on twitter awhile ago, and absolutely floored the web. I have seen it everywhere, and for good reason. It was written by an 8th grader, and posted to the web by his brother, @DerekNichols0. The poem so accurately portrays people today, and it spread quickly on social media.

Our Generation

Our generation will be known for nothing.

Never will anybody say,

We were the peak of mankind.

That is wrong, the truth is

Our generation was a failure.

Thinking that

We actually succeeded

Is a waste. And we know

Living only for money and power

Is the way to go.

Being loving, respectful, and kind

Is a dumb thing to do.

Forgetting about that time,

Will not be easy, but we will try.

Changing our world for the better

Is something we never did,

Giving up

Was how we handled our problems,

Working hard

Was a joke.

We knew that

People thought we couldn’t come back

That might be true,

Unless we turn things around

(Read from bottom to top now)

–Jordan Nichols Grade 8