An Abstract Ode To Writing

When I was writing a story, each word had to be carefully selected. I sampled and savored several options in my mind before delicately making my pick and adding it to the page. Afterwards, I would parse my sentence and see if it left the right taste and flavor in my mouth. If it was too edgy, innocent, delicate, or boring, I took it back to the cutting board and tried again.

If writing was an art form, it was the only art I knew. I knew words. Once written, they were finite and meaningful but open to interpretation. They were just the right level of abstract. But they required a story, and that was the part I found hardest. 

They required story in a way that painting did not. They required that you establish enough parameters and character development and input enough transitive clues that your readers could follow you along from beginning to middle to end. With a painting, the accompanying story was written internally, and no two stories were ever the same.

So you can understand that I had a passion for writing from the very beginning. I saw true emotion rise from haunting stories, not melodies. I cried during literary catharsis, but not during an emotional movie. The written and spoken word has always captivated me. Spoken poetry can take root in my heart the way no song or canvas ever has.The strong affection I have for language with all of its idiosyncrasies and intricacies is the reason that I write and will continue to write until I depart. It is my mode of consciousness, and the way I am wired. 

Bared to You

I saw a review of this book on a blog I will link to when I’m next on my computer (I’m posting this from my phone)!!

This is a response to Fifty Shades of Grey type book. I’ve read that trilogy so I figured I should read this too, plus its set in Manhattan.

The point though, of this post, is to share what I think is an AWESOME phenomenon that occurs to us New Yorkers after a time.

Below are Sylvia Day’s words, not mine 🙂 But they are apt, and I find myself wishing for the romance of steaming potholes again. To be so naive!

“Real New Yorkers cruised right through it all, their love for the city as comfortable and familiar as a favorite pair of shoes. They didn’t view the steam billowing from potholes and vents in the sidewalks with romantic delight and they didn’t blink an eye when the ground vibrated beneath their feet as the subway roared by below, while I grinned like an idiot and flexed my toes. New York was a brand new love affair for me. I was starry-eyed and it showed.”

Isn’t this just a lovely little piece to read? The book isn’t about that in the end, I don’t think, but it is still a beautiful passage. It makes me nostalgic, because it is difficult to remember the last time I viewed my city with such reverence.

Books Read – Spring 2012

NOTE: ALL BOOKS WERE DOWNLOADED FOR FREE VIA THE SITE PIXELOFINK.COM, WHICH LISTS DOZENS OF FREE BOOKS FOR YOUR KINDLE DAILY. IT IS MY FAVORITE SITE ❤

This is a list of the books I read over the course of last semester outside of my school curriculum!! There are so many cheesy romances and vampire novels it’s not even funny xD

1. Three Girls and a Baby by Rachel Schurig
2. Bridger by Megan Curd
3. Descended by Blood (Vampire Born Trilogy) by Angelina Kace
4. Donovan’s Angel by Peggy Webb
5. The Wishing Hour by J. Adams
6. Love In a Small Town
7. Nothing Else Matters by Leslie DuBois
8. Anathema (Cloud Prophet Trilogy) by Megg Jensen
9.  Shadow of the Sun by Laura Kreitzer
10. Earth (Elemental Series) by Shauna Granger
11. Glamour by Penelope Fletcher
12. Family Magic by Patti Larsen
13. Marrying Missy by Sarah Elle Emm
14. Always the Wedding Planner, Never the Bride by Sandra Bricker
15. Awaken by Sarah M. Ross
16. Somewhere over the freaking rainbow by L. L. Muir
17. Bloody Little Secrets by Karly Kirkpatrick
18. Sing Me Home by Jerri Corgiat
19. The Prospect of My Arrival by Michele Drier
20. Tempted by Rebecca Zanetti
21. The Replacement Bridesmaid by Laurie Ralston
22. Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey
23. The Soul Garden by Cege Smith
24. Almost a Bride by Patricia McLinn
25. Promise by Kristie Cook
26. Drew in Blue by J. M. Kelley
27. By Leaps and Bounds by Jacqueline Diamond
28. You Had Me at Halo by Amanda Ashby
29. Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope
30. The Morning After by Sally Clements
31. Return of the Rose by Theresa Ragan
32. The Taste of Magic by Gina Rosavin
33. Fify Shades of Grey – MATURE CONTENT WARNING
34. Fifty Shades Darker – MATURE CONTENT WARNING
35. Fifty Shades Freed – MATURE CONTENT WARNING 

Woah, that’s a lot of books. Time to delete those titles from my Kindle library and keep reading!

I don’t pay for the books I read on my Kindle app btw. I find cool ones on pixelofink.com and discover many amazing authors in the process. They have a great compilation of free E-books every day, and I can usually find a few to download onto my Kindle everyday. I still have a stockpile of books to read through!

I would have written detailed book reviews, as that was my original plan, but I realized that I read through these too fast to provide reviews. Literature is like my water, I drink it in ❤ But if you see a book series or title that intrigues you, please leave a comment and I’ll follow up with some review posts for the books you folk are interested in.

In the meantime, since I’m not sleepy and am a completely nocturnal creature right now, I’m going to go find something to read 🙂

Book Tag!

I’m an English major, so you know I love to read (and write). My favorite nail art blogger, GretalRabbit recently posted this Book Tag and I thought I should follow up with some responses of my own. + I have 45 minutes to kill until my parents wake up. At that point, I need to shower and finish stuffing my car to drive it (and me) into my new apartment! More proper blogging on that later.

This is mostly hard because I read sooo many books every year that it’s hard to differentiate what I read in 2011 and what I read earlier. Also, I’ve been reading so much for college that pleasure reading has gone down immensely. NYU is mean.

1. The best book you read last year

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Also the followup sequel to this. Such a cute pleasure read!

2. A book you’ve read more than 3 times

I don’t read books more than once normally. For school, that’s a different story. I pick a classic – The Aeneid by Virgil. I’ve read 4 different translations of it 😀

3. Your favorite series

See this is hard, as this is my preferred TYPE of book. I love series. Single books are never filling enough. I’ll list my three favorite series (in that order):

His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
Harry Potter J. K. Rowling
The Dragonriders of Pern  Anne McAffrey

4. My favorite book from my favorite series

His Dark Materials – Bah, this is hard. The Amber Spyglass for its lovely ending.
Harry Potter –  The Goblet of Fire hands down. Although I never liked books 5-7 after HP went ‘mainstream.’ The 1st four will always be the best for me.
Dragonriders of Pern –  Dragonsdawn (Colonization of Pern and discovery of the little dragonets and also Thread) and also the The Harper Hall of Pern.

5. A book that makes you happy

Don’t really read books to make me happy, as reading ITSELF makes me happy. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is  a pretty great one though.

6.  A book that makes you sad

The Amber Spyglass. So bittersweet. Also Night by Elie Wiesel. We wrote him letters back in high school, and he wrote us all back.

7. Most underrated book

I haven’t heard much talk about the Dragonriders of Pern series, but they’re all quite amazing. Artemis Fowl too, it isn’t just for kids. I love the books! And because this is the place for shoutouts, Percy Jackson series are GREATTT. They’d be my #4 favorite series of all time, but I capped my blog post at 3.

8. Most overrated book

The Rats of NIMH. Ugh, could not stand. Also the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. LotR is sooooooo filled with “fluff” its not even funny. Also Twilight series, obviously. They’re okay, but I’ve read better Vampire novels

9. A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism, Georgia Byng. Also the rest of the Molly Moon books. SO QUIRKY!

10. Your favorite classic book

Dante’s Divine Comedy and The Aeneid. No thought needed.

11. A book you hated

Invisible Man and any and all books with existential characters. I also particularly despised The Stranger by Albert Camus. I don’t much hate books but those two were just…*shudder*

12. Your favorite book cover

Its true, I love books with a good cover. But to scour the web for my favorite right now just isn’t happening.

13. Your favorite writer

This question has soo already been asked in other forms. Because I didn’t mention the series before, I pick Rick Riordan

14. Your favorite book by your favorite writer

Hard to pick just one, so I’ll pick the first. Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It really hooked me into the series!

15. Favorite male character

Percy Jackson, Ron Weasley, DRACO MALFOY, and of course, Will from the His Dark Materials trilogy.

16. Favorite female character

Hermoine from HP, Lyra Belacqua from His Dark Materials, and Zoey Redbird from the House of Night series.

17. Favorite quote from a book

I READ 1000’S OF PAGES A WEEK. I CAN’T JUST SPEW OUT A FAVORITE QUOTE, THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I refuse. There are many. Check out the rotating text on the right hand column of this blog, it has some quotes I like.

18. Didn’t see the question on her page. Her answer was Wicked Witch of the West. I’ve never seen a musical or anything, but that one about a boy who likes ballet was good.

19. Favorite that has been turned into a film

Harry Potter! The earlier ones were great adaptations but BOOO, the later ones were such disappointments.

20. Favorite book illustration

I don’t read many illustrated books.

21. Favorite book from childhood

Winnie the Pooh. Totally partial to it, it was the first book I read by myself growing up. I’ve done book reports and illustrations on it, I love it.

22. Favorite book you own

Well if I own it, I assume I like it, right? Lol another stupid question – I love all the books in my collection.

23. A book you’ve wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t.

The entire and complete LotR trilogy. Quite sad that I’ve never been able to push through and read it all (YAWNNNN) but I need to persevere.

24. A book you wish more people would read

The Percy Jackson & Molly Moon books for sure.

25. The character you relate to the most

Meh. I relate to bits and pieces of many, many characters.

26. A book that changed your opinion about something

Night by Elie Wiesel just because it was such a thorough eye-opener at my tender young age.

27. The most surprising plot twist or ending

*shrug* Read too many to have one strike out at me

28. Favorite Book Title

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD (How could I not mention the series till now. My sincere apologies, it’d be #4 or #5 on my top series list)

29. A book everyone hated but you liked.

Not a conventional answer, but I enjoyed reading Dante’s Divine Comedy much more than some of the other students in my lectures.

30. Your favorite book of all time

Don’t have one. The 5 series I mentioned are my favorites. Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Percy Jackson, Dragonriders of Pern, So You Want to be a Wizard

 

It’s now 4:01. Time to finish packing, cheers!