Shannon

Sadly, I didn't read that many last year compared to other years. This list says 25. Shelfari says I read 30 but that includes a few re-reads. I'm going to try to read a lot more this year, at least 50. Only a few of these have comments because... I'm weird like that, okay?

1. Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake ★★★★★
2. Jonathan Lethem - Motherless Brooklyn ★★★
3. Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood ★★★★¾
4. Flannery O'Connor - The Complete Stories ★★★★½
5. Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho ★★★½
6. Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ★★★★½
7. Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting ★★★¾
8. Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ★★★★★
9. Francesca Lia Block - How to (Un)cage a Girl ★★★
10. Elizabeth Bowen - The Last September ★★★
11. Siri Hustvedt - The Sorrows of an American ★★★★★
12. Dirk Wittenborn - Fierce People ★★★★
13. Adam Haslett - You Are Not a Stranger Here ★★★★
14. Michael Cunningham - The Hours ★★★★★
15. Virginia Woolf - The Waves ★★★★★ (I just have to say about this, I absolutely hated To the Lighthouse when I read it last year, so much that I couldn't bring myself to read anything else of hers for a long time. But The Hours inspired me to try her out again and I was very surprised, and pleasantly so, to adore this book right from the beginning. The language was almost painfully beautiful and at the same time so effortless-seeming. To me, it read very differently than To the Lighthouse but, who knows, maybe I was just in the wrong place to read that at the time and might love it if I try it again.)16. Nicole Krauss - The History of Love ★★★★
17. A.L. Kennedy - Everything You Need ★★¾
18. John Connolly - The Book of Lost Things ★★★¾
19. Tove Jansson - The True Deceiver ★★★½
20. Francesca Lia Block - The Waters and the Wild ★★★★ (Best book FLB has written since Ruby though it was way too short. However, I see that two of her latest novels are about vampires and werewolves. And apparently they're not very good. Ugh, bandwagon-jumping much? I expect better from her.)
21. Jane Green - Bookends ★★ (I know this is chick lit and it's not meant to be a piece of literary genius or anything but I thought it was horribly written, even by those standards. The prose style was so unappealing and messy. A shame because I actually rather liked a few of the characters - though I detested the main character by the end - and the story could have been really interesting if in more capable hands.)
22. Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse ★★★★½ (OMG, so sick and disturbing but so oddly addictive. I couldn't put it down. I'm not sure what that says about how twisted my own mind is but... yeah. Also, I was surprised how eloquently written this was for a horror/gore/whatever-exactly-it-is novel. The descriptions were so grisly yet so strangely beautiful at the same time.)
23. Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games ★★★
24. John Connolly - The Gates ★★½
25. Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire ★★★★★ (So I thought the first book was good but not great enough to live up to the hype but now I have to take that back because holy hell, I loved this one! I read it in record time because I literally could not put it down. Now I'm excited/nervous to see how it all wraps up. I've heard some not so favorable opinions of the end so we shall see...)

Books I read in the first half of the year. Split up because Livejournal is stupid and can't handle extremely long posts. Yes, there are spoilers so read with caution if you're planning on picking any of these up in the near future.

( Reviews/Ratings )

I've come to the sudden realization that I think I spend more time looking for new books to read than actually reading the books I already have. Seriously. I have probably fifteen to twenty books sitting on my shelves that I've yet to open; despite that, I've spent the last few hours savagely investigating new ones and trying to find them for as cheap as possible so that I can buy as many as possible and bookmarking them for purchase. I guess there are just times when I'm not in the mood for anything I currently have but then I stumble upon some random recommendation and read the summary and it just speaks to me and I need it now. For real - I've got almost fifteen books that I think I need right! this! instant! and I'm finding it almost impossible to narrow it down anymore. And I know I can't afford them all at once (or shouldn't anyway - I do have the money but I need to start being more careful with it) but it's going to kill me when I have to make the decision not to buy some right now. But that's so stupid! It's not like I'm going to read them all right now! But I just need them. It's such a hard feeling to explain. It's seriously a sickness at this point. But I love it. I love the feeling of reading a plot summary and having my hairs stand on end because it just sounds so perfect and exactly what I'm craving at that moment. Of course, that just makes it all the more disappointing if I end up being underwhelmed by the book once I actually read it, but when that feeling is just intensified once you're finished reading - so amazing.

Anyway, I think what sparked this current phase of obsessive book investigating was watching American Psycho on IFC last week. It inspired me to look up the book and then look up the rest of Bret Easton Ellis' work and after doing that, I've come to the conclusion that pretty much all of his novels sound like they were written specifically to fit my literary tastes from their summaries. Seriously. They all sound so good to me. American Psycho is actually the least interesting-sounding one right now and I'm especially intrigued by his first two books which I absolutely must get. If I do not love them as much as I think I will, I might cry. Because they seem so me! They are literally speaking to me and I barely know anything about them.

Also, apparently his first novel, Less Than Zero, was highly influential in the making of this movie called Nowhere (which is not available on DVD in the States even though it's got like... every teen heartthrob '90s star in it; seriously - Ryan Phillipe, Alyssa Milano, Christina Applegate, it's pretty impressive) and I also saw that movie on IFC forever ago and, oh my God, it was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen. Soooooo weird and trippy and vulgar. I'm kinda upset it's not widely available because I want to watch it again just because it was so damn ridiculous. So if that book is anything like it, I'm sure it'll be highly amusing.

And, semi-related but really not... before American Psycho came on, there was this short little featurette on Bright Star which I unfortunately only saw about ten seconds of but that one glimpse of Ben Whishaw made my heart get all fluttery like the little fangirl I am. Ahhhhhh. Now that I'm not so obsessed I forget how much I love him but then I see his face and I freak out again. I <3 Ben. Unfortunately, I will probably not be able to see this movie for ages after it comes out (or any of the others he's currently working on, probably) because I have to live in the stupid middle-of-nowhere where they only show the popular stuff and not the artistic indie stuff.

Buuuuuut... some of the popular stuff is not so bad. My sister and I went to Drag Me to Hell a couple days ago and it was insane and disgusting (seriously, all the stuff going into and out of mouths - ick!) and ridiculous - and I mean all of those as compliments, by the way - and ultimately mind-blowing and awesome. I still can't think straight about it. Horror movies don't generally have such an impact on me but I'm still thinking about the ending. It was executed to perfection.

Anyway, this really had no point. I just had to ramble for awhile. I really need to try and write something besides rambly journal entries; I haven't even attempted anything in so long and it's just making me even more rusty. But I've been so lazy the past few weeks. Not just in writing but in everything. I don't know why. I guess summer just makes me feel like not doing anything.

Oh my God. Is it possible to love books too much? Because I think I need to join Book Buyers Anonymous or something. I swear, I was only going to do the Amazon 3-for-4 thing and then buy some Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers but I got a bit carried away. Do I really need all these right now when I still have, like, twenty unread books waiting on my shelves already? No. But it's so much fun to buy them and so exciting to get them! I am officially addicted. I'm a compulsive book-buyer. I guess there are worse things I could be addicted to though. Anyway, my spoils, let me be ridiculously excited about them.

( Does anyone else care? )

Oh God. I am far too obsessed with buying new books. Lately, I've been all burnt out on reading and have only been reading a new book, like, once every two weeks when at the beginning of the year I was reading two or three in one week... yet I just can't help myself from drooling over more books I want to read (even when I still have a bunch of unread ones sitting on my shelf) and adding them like crazy to my Amazon wishlist. Which is currently about fifty books long. Eep. But right now I'm mostly drooling over these; I mean, there are a lot of writers there that I don't really know very well or don't care about but the concept as a whole is just brilliant. I especially want this one and this one, like, right this instant. But that's a shitload of money to spend on authors that I've never actually read anything by no matter how sure I am that I will love them. But the want is so much more overpowering than practicality! Plus, I think I am taking a rather large sum of money out of the bank soon. Which is technically to go towards the Maria Taylor concert I am attending (next Sunday, oh my God!) but I know I'm not going to spend that much there so perhaps I can fulfill these very strong urges as well. I also want this real bad even though I am not familiar with Alice in Wonderland at all. It just looks so nice and definitive. And come on. If you're pretty certain you'll like something, wouldn't you rather buy the fancy, collectable, definitive version if there's one available first instead of buying some less awesome copy and then figuring out it's an amazing book therefore spending more money to replace it with the fancy version? This makes sense, right? I mean, $60-70 is a crazy amount for three books (especially considering the fact that I haven't bought an actual brand new copy of a book in quite a long time), but considering the amount of content in them?... not so crazy anymore and pretty worth it, I think. Though this also looks really good and I still need to get this and also T.S. Eliot, anyone? That also happens to be rather expensive (but sturdy and quite definitive!). Also, this seems good and kind of Special Topics in Calamity Physics-esque (and not in the totally insane plot developments aspect but in the "outsider comes in and changes/ruins everyone's lives" aspect which is a premise I'm very fond of); it looks as though it's rather impossible to get new in the U.S. but relatively cheap to get used. Not to mention the forty-some other books on my list. Argh! Why can I not be rich?!? I would just spend all my money on all books all the time. Seriously. I've gotten crazier about buying books than I am about music now. Probably because you can enjoy music the same whether you pirate it or actually buy it but, for me anyway, reading a book on your computer screen is nowhere close to the same experience you get from actually holding a book in your hands. And this is getting rambly. But if anyone wants to buy things for me?... I'm totally into that. :P

Edit: OMG, this looks pretty brill too. The preview on Amazon was really funny. I hate reading those, though, because then I want to read more and I can't and it drives me crazy! I really need to stop now. I should be in bed. But it is a disease, I'm telling you.

Oh God. This post is going to be massive. Bear with me, okay?

First of all, it was Christmas! Which means I am suddenly rich. Well, I'm about half as rich now as I was a couple days ago, but I'm still rather rich compared to any other day. Anyway. You are probably wondering what I've purchased so far. Or not. But I'm going to let you know anyway. Okay? First, I went to this website because I had some coupon for $5 off and I started out not thinking I would find very much that I wanted, but I ended up ordering nine books. Yeah. For $50 though, which is a very good deal. So these are what I decided on (with convenient Amazon links if you need more information):

( THE BOOKS )

Alright, so. No, that wasn't enough books for me. Are you kidding? We went shopping yesterday and I bought four more. And will probably buy even more. What? I need to get a good surplus built up for next year. So here are the other ones I got:

( MOAR BOOKZ! )

And besides the books, I bought some earrings and hair clips and a purse and new headphones. And I also bought two DVDs: Marie Antoinette because it was cheap - I think it's only an okay movie but it's so gorgeous visually and it was only $7 so I couldn't resist - and Heathers which was also pretty cheap but I've actually been meaning to buy. Hilarious.

Also, I have to say, in regards to books again, I just finished Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and it was so so so so insanely good. I can't decide which I like better now - it or Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I spent most of the book thinking that EL&IC was better but then I got to the last few chapters and it just got so great and sad and now I have no idea. I just love this man's writing and I wish he had more books.

So I think I'm just going to paste my list of books I've read this year in here right now and call it good. I'm adding Franny and Zooey to the end because, although I'm still reading, I'll definitely have it done tonight or tomorrow. So I have 56 57 books overall (62 if you count books I read twice) which is pretty damn good, I think. I'd love to do at least one hundred next year but I don't know how possible that is. I'm really going to try, though. Anyway, here's the list. Italics = really good. Italics and bolded = insanely good, near perfect. With my cracked-out, barely decipherable random comments attached, of course.

( BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS )

Okay, I was going to put Sims pictures in this post as well but I'm so tired of typing and just want to stop so I will do that later. So now this post is all nice and totally book-centric.

Time for more Ruby and Will gushing? Yes, I think it is.

( You know you want it! )

There are about a gazillion more pictures in the gallery. So I've decided that they are basically my favorite Sims ever, everrrrr. Too. Cute. I'm way more excited about them than the storyline I'm really supposed to be working on right now, but at least they're kind of part of that, so I can be obsessed with them without completely abandoning everything else. Though Ruby is now one day away from growing up and Will is about eight or nine days away, so before I can play them again in college, I have to get all the other Sims involved in the story grown up as well, so I will not be able to squee over them for awhile. Sad, I know. However, it does give me more incentive to play through everyone else's childhood years. Just so I can see Will and Ruby! They are going to be beyond adorable in college. Gah. I can't even think about it without imploding with cuteness.

Anyway... in other non-Sim news, saw Twilight yesterday. I'm not sure what I really think about it, but I'm leaning toward the bad side of the spectrum. I mean, I did enjoy it in the uber-cheesy, so-bad-it's-good way but on the other hand, I kind of hated a lot of aspects of it, even looking at them from that perspective. The biggest thing is that based on his other work, I do think Robert Pattinson is a fairly talented actor, however, there were quite a few points during Twilight that made me feel like cringing on his behalf; most notably, the part where they're talking in a tree and he starts saying "my family, we're different from other vampires..." or something like that. The look on his face is just, ugh, he looks constipated or something. And sometimes his accent seemed off and the makeup was really doing him no favors.  However, the part where Bella first walks into biology class, his reaction was hilarious and I really hope it was intended to be because I don't see how that could be meant to be taken seriously. As for Kristen Stewart, she was mostly pretty good, but sometimes she got a bit iffy as well. She mainly bothered me during the hospital scene at the end, when Edward was saying something about how she should go and live with her mom, and she was all freaking out and saying he couldn't leave her, blah blah blah, there was just way too much stuttering and stammering and it was just really awkward and seemed more campy than truly emotional. And the special effects, oh my God, they were terrible. The end fight scene with James wasn't too bad and mostly believable, but the rest - the climbing up trees and leaping through the forest - looked just horrendous. You could tell it was so low budget. But the worst offender of all was the sparkling, sweet Jesus, the sparkling. They should have just taken it out - it looked like they just put some body glitter on him and called it good. And not only that, it looked all... fuzzy and so fake, like it belonged more in an 80s-era movie than a movie made in 2008. Seriously, they should've just foregone the glittering; it's the stupidest quality of the vampires in the books anyway. And, at the very end, I think it was when Edward was trying to get the strength to stop sucking Bella's blood out, there was this uber-cheesy montage of their relationship with, I'm pretty sure, Rob's own song playing over it - and the song is just terrible and totally ruined any poignancy that may have had. Sorry, Rob, but you do not have a good singing voice. Just the use of montages in general was annoying; they replaced potentially revealing scenes with montages of them talking while music played; pretty pointless waste of space. Anyway, it wasn't a completely terrible waste of time, but it wasn't amazing either. Honestly, though, my expectations were not that high so it neither exceeded or failed to reach them. It was pretty much exactly what I was expecting it to be.

Holy shit, that was long, sorry. I'll try to make this shorter. I finished the book American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld the other day and I have mixed feelings about it. It took me forever to finish and seemed to progress really slowly. During pretty much the entire first three parts, I couldn't even focus because I kept thinking, "When the hell does he become president?!?" That is the part that the book's been hyped around and it's not even that long despite being the most interesting part. So it did get good at that point but the rest just seemed way too drawn out and detailed and boring. And something about the writing bothered me. It was just really bland or something. And when I checked it out the librarian told me that the ending was "surprising in an unexpected way" but frankly, I was not surprised at all and it was totally expected. I knew that she was going to do something to "betray" her husband because of how vehemently the differences between their political opinions were made clear throughout. And as soon as she mentioned them voting the first time he was elected, I was sure that it would eventually be revealed that she didn't vote for him, it seemed obvious to me, and I was right on that as well. So it wasn't a total letdown but I was expecting it to be a lot better.

Finally, Pushing Daisies is officially over. I am so depressed. I at least hope they show all of the remaining episodes at some point and I will be buying the second season DVD the minute it comes out. But apparently it ends on a huge cliffhanger so that makes the fact that it won't be resolved even more depressing. I really hope that talk of a movie in that article isn't just talk. While I would probably seek out the comic book version mentioned if that comes about, the reason I love the show so much is mostly because of the acting (oh my God, the glorious acting!) and the beautiful sets and that stuff cannot be replicated in a comic book. So I really hope a movie or something happens. Why must this always happen to me? I have never been this upset about the cancellation of a TV show ever. I hate that the general public is apparently too dense to realize the awesomeness of this show. I mean, I'll admit to watching my fair share of reality shows and CSIs, but I realize that that's pretty meaningless shlock while Pushing Daisies is something real and creative and smart. Gah, it's not fair. Anyway, in light of this news, I feel the need to post a bunch of PD picspam or at least Lee Pace/Ned picspam. Stay tuned for that.