Good News

I finished Team of Rivals over the weekend. And have since started and finished Austenland. It's a quick read. And it was so nice to be reading fiction again that I just had to stay up and finish the last 60 pages. (And it didn't hurt that it was finally getting into the fun stuff with Jane and Mr. Nobley.) Yay for reading fiction!

I discovered the URL for Shannon Hale's website while perusing the reading group guide at the end of the book. And even though it was ungodly early in the morning I felt duty-bound to check it out, which is how I found her blog. On her blog I found this post, which notes that Austenland is the rare movie written, directed, produced by, and starring women and, therefore, the Hollywood establishment is sure it will fail. If you have any interest in the film please see it in the theater. It's always fun to prove the Hollywood establishment wrong.

And I must say that I really liked Team of Rivals. (I wouldn't have been able to bang out 40 pages at a time if I hadn't.) I bawled my eyes out when President Lincoln was assassinated. I hadn't expected to cry since I knew it was coming, but then again there are books and movies and TV show episodes that never fail to make me cry no matter how many times I read or watch them. (There are even some movies and TV episodes that I watch when I want to cry.) I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised by my reaction.

And now to read some more Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before I go to bed.

Austenland

I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to see Austenland when it finally hit theaters down here, but my fear was unfounded as I talked my mom into seeing it with me last Friday. (We had to do something to kill the time before my brother and sister-in-law flew down after all.)

I absolutely loved it! In fact, it will be on my Christmas list (assuming it's released on DVD in time for Christmas). Naturally, I tended to focus on things that didn't fit with my memory of the book, but I was much more willing to let them go than I was the first time I watched The Host (which may or may not have been due to the fact that I much prefer the casting of Austenland to that of The Host). Incidentally, I did enjoy The Host much more the second time I watched it, so buying it was a good idea.

As for my mom, she's pretty sure she stayed awake for most of it (which is the best you can expect from her when watching a movie in the theater). She liked it, but probably not as much as I did. That's okay, though, because I don't think she liked the book as much as I did, either.

Speaking of Austenland the book, it has jumped to the top of my TBR list. I still have about 100 pages to read in Team of Rivals, but I had 140 pages to read this morning, so things are looking up :)

Powering Through

I know, I missed last week entirely. I'm sorry. Let's not dwell on that, though.

I've been reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin for the past month and a half and I can't tell you how often I think about abandoning it in favor of re-reading a YA series. That's not to say that it's a bad book; it's not (and it's gotten much better since the Civil War started). It turns out that I much prefer fiction to non-fiction. And my preference for fiction is why I can't read one of the YA series that are calling my name while I'm reading Team of Rivals. I actually tried that in January and Team of Rivals lasted all of eight days. I'd tell myself that I'd read a little of whatever novel I was reading at the time and then 10 or so pages of Team of Rivals, but then I'd get caught up in the novel and by the time I pulled myself away it was too late at night to attempt something as dry as the beginning of Team of Rivals.

Why am I forcing myself to continue reading a book that by my own admission I don't want to be reading? Because I actually do want to read it. I may really want to re-read Harry Potter, but I also want to read Team of Rivals. And I would like to finish it sometime this year so I can give it back to my dad, so I may as well read it now. Harry Potter will keep. So will Uglies, Divergent, The Selection, and The Hunger Games.

An Apology And Penance (In Link Form)

I have been remiss with this blog and I apologize. (I never said it would be a good apology. It is, however, a sincere one.) In my defense, I must tell you that I came home last Wednesday and discovered that my Internet was dead (it turned out that my [physical] cable was cut in two different places). My cable company, like all cable companies, wasn't particularly interested in fixing the problem at a time that was convenient for me (because, really, why should they make sure I'm happy with the one and only service I pay them for?), so it wasn't fixed until Saturday and by then I'd forgotten that I hadn't blogged. And that forgetfulness carried over to this week (apparently I need to do something more than once a week if I wish to make it a habit), but I remembered now.

As for my penance, it's from BuzzFeed. I can always find interesting and/or funny lists at BuzzFeed and that's why I love it.

• My old roommate shared the link to 17 problems only book lovers will understand on Facebook a while ago and I've been meaning to share it here.(Yes, I know it's from HarperCollins, but they're not trying to sell anything.) And I couldn't agree more with Donnie Darko that a book is a Do Not Disturb sign.
• Did you know that BuzzFeed now has a section devoted to books? I didn't until Laurie Halse Anderson tweeted a link to it. I apologize for destroying your productivity for the rest of the day :) Of course, it's currently the Friday before Labor Day and no one is ever productive on that day. The rest of my links are some of my personal favorites that are currently on the BuzzFeed Books front page.
• There's the 13 worst things that can happen while you're reading. (Contributed by another publisher, but they're not trying to sell anything either.)
• I love all the Belle GIFs in the list of 12 signs you're really into your book. I think I may need to re-watch Beauty and the Beast.
• How could I not love a list that gives love to one of my favorite YA authors, John Green? Some of the life lessons are better than others, but that's to be expected when the list has 56 items. Would someone please buy me the poster at the end of the post?

Summer Of Jane

First, I must apologize for not posting this last night. I've been having weird sleep issues for a while and last night that led to me taking a nap at 4 PM but not waking up until 1 AM. And I just didn't feel like getting up and writing a blog post at 1 AM.

Last summer was my own personal summer of Jane (Austen). I re-read all six completed novels and capped it off by reading All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith. This summer, however, is everybody's summer of Jane. Austenland, the film adaptation of Shannon Hale's fabulous novel of the same name, opens in limited release tomorrow. I cannot wait to see it, but it appears that it won't make its way to the Tampa area until September 13.

This New York Times article makes the case that this isn't just the summer of Jane but 2013 is the year of Jane and I think it is a pretty strong case. There have been completely random news stories out of the UK about Jane, both Jane's inclusion on British currency (and the resulting controversy and disgusting behavior of people opposed to that decision) and the story of the legal limbo of one of Austen's rings that Kelly Clarkson purchased at auction last year. (By the way, I really don't understand that story. If the ring is such an important cultural artifact that shouldn't leave Britain, then why didn't culture minister Ed Vaizey prevent the auction from ever happening in the first place. It all just seems like posturing on Vaizey's part.) And then, of course, there's the upcoming Austenland movie and a bunch of books mentioned in the Times article. (I'm trying not to read the list too many times because otherwise I'll end up adding titles to my TBR list, which is already very long.) The Times piece also includes a fun interactive quiz. I only got 12 questions right, and I'm quite disappointed about that, but it was fun nonetheless.

More Links

I'm always looking out for things to share on my blog, particularly for weeks when I'm not inspired to write about something specific. This is one of those weeks.

• I nearly edited last week's post to include this skit from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but drunk Ron Weasley singing "Happy Birthday" to Harry Potter is still funny this week.
• Nick Offerman's summer reading recap from last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! is also really funny. Do schools really have summer reading lists, though? I don't remember ever having to read books during summer vacation. I did read books during summer vacation because I've always loved reading, but nothing was ever assigned. Also, was my high school the only one that didn't include Of Mice and Men or Lord of the Flies in the English curriculum? I've still never read either of them.
• Finally, a friend of mine passed along this link to pictures of the abandoned Wal-Mart that is now the largest single-floor public library in America. I would love to visit that library because a) it looks amazing and b) I want to laugh in the face of an abandoned Wal-Mart. (I am not a fan of Wal-Mart.)

Happy Birthday, Harry!

Today is Harry Potter's birthday (or it would be if he were a real person). It's also J. K. Rowling's birthday.

I still remember the first time I read Deathly Hallows and how shocked I was to realize that Harry was only a month younger than me. I'd never had any idea that the books took place in the 90s until Harry found his parents' headstone in Godric's Hollow and their death dates were listed as October 31, 1981. One of the beautiful things about the world of Harry Potter is that it doesn't really matter when Harry was born or when the books took place, but I found it interesting.

Of course, I didn't remember that today was Harry Potter's birthday until I saw this quiz on BuzzFeed. (I did not do as well on the quiz as I would've liked. I guess I don't remember the books very well.) BuzzFeed also published a list of 28 things that happened after Deathly Hallows. I knew some of the stuff on the list, but a lot of it was news to me. I think it's awesome that Rowling has thought about it, though.

Thanks to BuzzFeed, I really want to re-read all of the Harry Potter books. Like, right now. But I really ought to wait until I finish Team of Rivals. Maybe the Harry Potter books will be an effective bribe.

Not Ideal

I'm reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare right now. It was on sale for five bucks in the iBookstore about a month ago and trailers for the movie had piqued my interest, so I bought it. This post isn't about the book (which I'm conflicted about), though.

I only mention the book to explain why it is that I've finally realized that I don't like the experience of reading on e-readers. That's not to say that I'm not a fan of e-readers; I think it's great that I can carry around the complete works of Jane Austen on my iPhone (thank you, free Project Gutenberg e-books). It's just that e-readers are not ideal for reading a book for the first time.

I keep finding myself wanting to go back and look for things in the book (usually because a character will say something about x and I don't remember that character knowing about x), but I don't. Rifling through the pages of a physical book to remind myself of something is second nature to me, but going back through the pages of a digital book feels like too much work. Maybe if I read more books on my iPad I would become comfortable doing that, but I doubt it. Like I said, it's not ideal.

On a completely separate topic: Jane Austen is officially going to appear on the £10 note. However, the Austen-adorned currency will not go into circulation until 2017. That gives me plenty of time to save for my trip to the UK.

Whoops

Goodness, Wednesday came and went without my noticing. And I'm far too tired to write anything of any substance tonight. Luckily, I stockpiled links to share for just these situations.

• First, we have Mashable's list of 15 YA books every adult should read. I've only read one of them (The Book Thief), so my TBR list has grown again.
• Apparently shell-shocked WWI soldiers were told to read Jane Austen. Is it strange that that makes perfect sense to me?
• Speaking of Austen, I'm going to bookmark this page in the British Library's online store.

I think this is a good place to stop. I can't run through my whole stockpile at once, can I?

Thoughts

Perhaps I should have named this post "Reviews," but that sounds too pompous or something. Regardless, I have thoughts to share on a couple of things.

First, there's Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars. I wanted to read this book since a friend sent me the link to The Atlantic Wire's 2012 YA Book Awards, in which it is described as "a clever dystopian retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion." As I said to the friend who sent me the link, there are so many magic words in that one little sentence fragment. I was so wrapped up in the story that I read it in two days and I found myself worrying over whether or not Elliot and Kai would get together, which is not something I worry about when re-reading Persuasion. It reminded me of a moment in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character says that she always worries that Lizzie and Darcy won't get together when she re-reads Pride and Prejudice, which never made sense to me before. When I started reading the book I was annoyed that several character names were a little too on-the-nose (Elliot North, Captain Malakai Wentforth, and Elliot's neighbors the Groves), but then I realized that that is a dumb thing to be annoyed by. Plus, I always enjoyed that the Mr. Elton character in Clueless is named Elton, so why be annoyed by these names?

The apocalypse of this post-apocalyptic world was interesting (though not explained as fully as I would've liked), the story was true to the original, and Peterfreund even managed to have Kai write his own version of Captain Wentworth's letter. Apparently there's a companion novel that discusses the apocalypse more fully, too, so I'll have to check that out. (Isn't that always the way? You knock one book off your TBR list and immediately replace it with another.)

Second, I finally saw The Host. I'd preordered it from Amazon and received it on the release date. I liked it and I'm glad I bought it, but I didn't love it. Since when is Melanie Southern? Did they just do that since Southern accents are easiest for non-Americans to affect? I actually have a bunch of complaints about changes they made in the movie, but I really need to stop focusing on them. They hit the important parts of the story and Ian was wonderful (even if he didn't look like Ian). I'll probably like the movie more the next time I watch it. At the very least, it inspired me to re-read the book again, which is awesome.

Huh, I just realized that For Darkness Shows the Stars and The Host were the two things I bought myself with the Amazon gift card I got for my birthday. I'd forgotten these things had that connection when I started this post.

Young Adult Fiction

My YA literature course ended six months ago, but I'm still reading a lot of YA fiction. Good stories are good stories and getting hung-up on labels is stupid. However, I realize that lots of people feel that YA books are somehow less because they are marketed to young adults (as discussed in that BBC News clip I linked to last week). If you have yet to embrace the joys of YA fiction, I highly recommend you read Chuck Wendig's blog post: 25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction (NSFW).

I'd never heard of Wendig before a link to that post showed up on my Twitter feed (don't remember who tweeted it, though), but I've enjoyed the little bit of his blog I've read so far (and not just because the post before the YA one argued for a female Doctor, which would be awesome). I realize that the post is aimed at authors, but he talks about the importance of reading YA fiction if one wishes to write for that audience.

A Couple Of Links

Wednesday snuck up on me this week. Thankfully the Internet provided me with a couple of interesting articles from BBC News yesterday.

First, Jane Austen may appear on British money. This is exciting to me because of my great love for Austen. I would seriously consider traveling to England to get my hands on Jane Austen money (and also because I've always wanted to go to England).

Second, a discussion of whether adults should read children's books. My answer to that question is a resounding yes (and not just because I enjoy re-reading the Betsy-Tacy books every once in a while). A good story is a good story and, really, people should feel free to read whatever they want to read.

Decisions, Decisions

I'm facing a conundrum. I can't decide what to read next.

It's the first time I've had this problem all year but it's not for a lack of options. I still have several Christmas presents (and at least one birthday present from last year) in my TBR [to be read] pile. But none of them feel like the right book to read next. There are at least two reasons for that.

The first reason is that I finished John Green's Looking for Alaska last night. It's phenomenal, but it's kind of heavy. I want to read something a little lighter next.

The second reason is pretty much the same as the first one now that I think about it: summer (and my birthday) is fast approaching and I want to read something summery (read: light) to honor my favorite season.

The stuff at the top of my TBR pile doesn't feel particularly summery. I do have a Jennifer Weiner novel, but it's not the Jennifer Weiner book I most want to read. (I will buy the Jennifer Weiner book I most want to read, The Next Best Thing, if I get an Amazon gift card for my birthday. And the odds of that are pretty good.)

If I don't want to read any unread books, then I'm left with books I've read. But that has its own problems. For starters, how do I narrow it down? Although I am leaning towards re-reading a YA series. But, again, which one? I know I just read Veronica Roth's Divergent books and Kiera Cass' Selection books a month ago, but they're both begging to be read again. I should really hold off on the Divergent books until October, though, because that's when Allegiant is coming out. The Selection books are kind of perfect summer books, but I just read them a month ago. I'd all but decided to re-read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies books since it's been six months since I read them, but then a voice in my head just whispered, "Harry Potter." And I definitely have a history of reading Harry Potter books in the summer, but seven books is kind of a big commitment - I would like to get back to my TBR pile at some point this summer.

There is, of course, a third option that I'm not really considering: I could go to the library. I know the library is a veritable treasure trove of books I've never read. But my TBR list is really long and I don't currently feel up to wading through it to find books to check out.

I think I've just come up with the perfect book, actually: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I haven't read it since I was in college and I loved it. I saw a reference to it on the Internet recently and thought that I should re-read it, but then I forgot (of course). But I just saw it on my bookshelf and it all came back. Yes, I believe I will read The Mists of Avalon.

I'm A Book Addict

I'd never really thought of it in those terms before, but I fit pretty much all of BuzzFeed's 25 signs you're addicted to books. And if I read it on the Internet it must be true, right? Joking aside, I love that list. It is very, very me.

I love that the first item on the list uses a GIF from Matilda to illustrate its point. I've never seen the movie, but I read the book in elementary school and I still have it. I haven't read it in years, but I think it's time to give it a re-read. I really should read it before I see Matilda on Broadway in December.

The other items on the list that really hit close to home were those that talked about books having a great impact on one's emotions and books causing the reader to make bad decisions with respect to eating and sleeping. The sleeping thing is a real issue for me right now. I keep choosing reading over sleeping even though I know it will screw up my sleep patterns; the books are just so good that I don't care. (And any book that I choose over sleep must be good because I love sleep.)

I wish I knew where the "Baby Got Back"-inspired mug came from. I must have it. If you know where I can purchase it, please let me know.

Fun With Dialects

A Facebook friend posted the link to this group of maps that show various American dialects and I thought, "I'll have to check that out." Then I saw a bunch of different people talking about the maps on Twitter and thought, "I'm going to check that out right now."

It's pretty interesting. Some of the findings match my expectations, while others don't. For example, I pronounce "crayon" the way the map says I should based on my Delaware Valley roots. But here's the thing: I know very few people from the Delaware Valley who pronounce "crayon" the way I do - most people I knew growing up said "crown." I don't know how I learned to pronounce "crayon" the correct way, but I did; it's the same with "water." Speaking of, I'm surprised "water" didn't make the cut since I can think of three pronunciations off the top of my head.

I learned some things, too. I had no idea that so many people have no idea how to pronounce "Bowie knife." I learned how to pronounce it when I was a kid and we were driving past Bowie, MD and I pronounced it like David Bowie and my dad told me I was wrong and explained about Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife. Also, I finally understand why the creepy Morgan & Morgan guy says "law-yer;" I always thought he was being obnoxious but it turns out he was just being Southern.

As far as the hoagie map is concerned, that sandwich was invented in Philadelphia so I think the rest of the country should just accept that it's a hoagie. And that's a fairly recent stance for me. We called that sandwich a sub when I was growing up (my dad isn't from the Delaware Valley) and I always thought the word "hoagie" was dumb. But I really started to embrace "hoagie" when I moved to Florida. It will be interesting to see if I revert to calling it a sub if when I move back to Philly.

Fun With Foreign Words

Back in March I shared a link to a list of English words that are no longer used but should be. The other day I stumbled upon this list of foreign words that we could use in English at Mental Floss.

The list does not include my personal favorite foreign word that has no English equivalent, Schadenfreude, but that's okay because Schadenfreude is used an awful lot in English (particularly in the corners of the Internet that I tend to frequent).

I'm disappointed that the list didn't include pronunciation; some of the words are in languages I've never heard of and there's no way I could pronounce them. I recognized one of the words, Koi No Yokan, because it's the name of the Deftones record that came out last year, but I didn't know how to pronounce it in November and I still don't. (On the plus side, I now know what it means.)

I appreciated that the list included Schlemiel and Schlimazel; I've known those words my whole life thanks to Laverne & Shirley, but I never had any idea what they meant.

Language Is Cool

I've always been fascinated by language; I think it's a pretty cool thing we humans have developed. I'm particularly interested in the ways languages change over time (especially English since it's my native language). The Oxford English Dictionary recently tweeted a link to the English in time section of its website. I haven't had a chance to spend much time perusing it, but the article I read (on nineteenth-century English) was quite good. I'll have to make time to check out the other articles. In fact, I'll have to make time to check out all of the articles in their Aspects of English section; English in use, Shapers of English, and Word stories all sound interesting to me as well.

If you're interested in the evolution of English, I suggest you spend some time with the OED online.

That's New

As predicted last week, I bought Veronica Roth's Insurgent at Barnes & Noble on Thursday. (It's phenomenal; I finished it yesterday. Can't believe I have to wait until October for the next book.) Even though I found the book I was looking for almost immediately after entering the store I decided to browse a bit because I hadn't been in a book store in months. In the end I bought two other YA books that caught my eye (one that was on my TBR [to be read] list and one with an intriguing title).

As I was excitedly pulling my new books out of the bag once I got home I noticed an extra scrap of paper attached to my receipt. I assumed it was an invitation to fill out an online survey or something similar, so imagine my shock at seeing "You may also like" in the heading. My Barnes & Noble receipt was providing reader's advisory service. I don't know how long Barnes & Noble has been doing this, but I think it's kind of neat.

The receipt listed five suggestions based on the three books I purchased and I think it did a fairly good job. Of the five suggestions, one was already on my TBR list, one was the sequel to one of the books I bought, and one had caught my eye while I was browsing. And of those three I'm almost certain that I'll buy Kiera Cass's The Elite soon (unless I decide that I don't like the first book, The Selection, after all, but I doubt that will happen because I read 120 pages today and I didn't really want to stop to write this post). Also, the list was not solely comprised of new releases; some of the books included were available in paperback.

Is this reader's advisory service a shameless ploy by Barnes & Noble to get people to buy more books? Maybe. But I have to support anything that makes it easier for people to find new books they might enjoy.

The Joy Of Reading Fiction

I read nothing but nonfiction last month. It wasn't intentional; it was just the way things worked out. I enjoyed it because I was reading and reading is one of my all-time favorite leisure activities, but it was nothing compared to this month.

I (finally) started reading Divergent by Veronica Roth a week ago and I absolutely love it. I've got about 150 pages left to read and I already decided to buy Insurgent, the next book in the series, on my way home tomorrow. I could've ordered it from Amazon, but I'm 99% certain that I'll finish Divergent tomorrow and I want to start Insurgent immediately. Besides, I'm going to the mall tomorrow night anyway.

I can't help but wonder, though, if I would be this excited about any novel after reading all that nonfiction. Or is Divergent really that spectacular? (I'm leaning towards the second option. I'd heard raves about the book from my best friend and my YA literature professor and I have to agree with them. Also, I'm pretty excited about the movie.) It seems funny, but I'd forgotten how wonderful it feels to lose myself in a novel. So thank you, Veronica Roth, for reminding me why I love reading so much.

Saved By The Bell

Or, more to the point, saved by the thought that just popped into my head to remind me that it is Wednesday. I had completely forgotten that it was Wednesday (and that I needed to blog) until I was getting into bed. Unfortunately, the key phrase in that sentence is "as I was getting into bed;" I am far too tired to come up with anything worth blogging. However, I committed to posting something on my blog every Wednesday and that's what I am doing.