A Kind Of, Sort Of, Maybe Love Letter To John Green

Its hard to measure how depressing it is that I didn't read John Green books when I was an actual, honest to goodness teenager. Part of this is totally not my fault; he didn't publish his first book until I was nineteen, so really, there was very window there.

But it took me a while to warm up to John Green. I distinctly remember going into the library in late 2008, seeing his books, and only thinking, "Hmm." Not, "I WANT TO READ THAT BECAUSE IT LOOKS AWESOME," but, "Hmmm." Mild interest. But not enough to even pick it up in the library! The shame.

Yeah, I'm embarrassed. But I was out of the habit of picking up new things to read. In 2009, I decided that I wasn't going to reread any books ALL YEAR LONG, so I was going to have to find new things to read. This was sort of like a rebirth in my reading style. Pretty much my entire life up until that point, I had reread almost every book I had read before at least once. I didn't venture out much away from my collection much before this. (The reasons: I didn't live within a library district, and books are expensive.)

So even though I was a huge reader, I hadn't read all that much until 2009. I remember interestedly googling John Green, because I had seen his books so often in the Young Adult section in the library (and yes, as an actual adult, I still venture in there). It was definitely in February, and I was definitely out of things to do at a receptionist temp jobs. I spent the rest of the day combing through a website that cataloged famous last words. The website he had linked to has now disappeared.

I was even more intrigued, and read The Abundance of Katherines, even though I thought that the premise was kind of silly. (I mean, how many Katherines do I even KNOW?) And I loved it.

I could spend all day linking to different videos John Green has done that I loved. I really, really could. One of my favorites is this one:



[If you enjoyed that video, his video about the penny is also pretty awesome.]

I wish that I had read these books when I was in the eleventh grade. But they didn't exist when I was in the eleventh grade.

I also have a copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson that I just finished and loved to my right, and I could spend the next few hours combing it for awesomely hilarious things to quote here.

 This is pretty much it. I appreciate the John Green and everything he's been doing, and it only took two years for this to happen. And since I sort of kind of maybe should be writing in NaNoWriMo, I'm going to end it there.


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Book Snobs and Your Commute to Work

You Are What You Read only has part of the story. Natalie Southwick writes:

Clearly, other commuters indulge in this vaguely intellectual form of people-watching, or at least feel the need to employ appropriate defensive measures. I’m always conscious that other passengers may be judging my taste in books as much as I’m judging theirs, so I try my best to cultivate an ideal (although perhaps not entirely accurate) impression. That’s why Haruki Murakami accompanies me to work, while Malcolm Gladwell stays home.

I vaguely am aware that other people might be judging what I'm reading (and I've read Haruki Murakami and Malcolm Gladwell on my way to and from work) but it never really stops me. I read all the Twilight books on the metro, but would be a little pissed if someone wanted to engage me in a Team Edward vs Team Jacob debate. After all, I'm in the middle of reading. The purpose of the book is so that no one talks to me. And even when I engage other people reading, I wait until they've stopped reading to strike up conversation.

Do I judge other people on their selections? Maybe a little, but I almost never say anything, whether the selection is good or bad. And I certainly don't choose my own books on how I think it will look to other people. I choose them because I want to read them.

I've updated my New Years Resolution to not only keep track of all the books that I read for the year, but to read at least 100 books by December 31st. Part of this is possible because I'm reading books I really want to read, so it goes pretty quickly. The last few weeks look like this:

Should I be embarrassed that I'm reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels? Or that I didn't realize that Terry Goodkind was an objectivist piece of shit until I read Faith of the Fallen (well, read it in between throwing it across the room)? Or should I be feel all hoity toity because I read a collection of essays about fat prejudice? And Dave Eggers' nonfiction book about Hurricane Katrina?

Mostly I just don't care. After all, I'm busy reading. 

[Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]

Frak it Friday: Last Month I Read Ten Books!

(click to enlarge)

[This means I've been keeping at least one of my New Years Resolutions!]

Resolution Check In (What What & Anne Boleyn thoughts)

I only had two goals. Two measly goals for 2010, and I've already gotten behind on one of them.

The midway hard one. The use the wii fit three times a week one.

But I have excuses! I got sick! For a week! Its hard to exercise when you are ill! And then its hard to get back into the routine when you feel better!

[Whatever. I'm only accountable to myself]

But the other one? The easy one? I'm doing great!



Seven whole books! All written down! In order! So I can remember what I've read over the year!

If you notice, I just finished Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir yesterday.

[If you don't know, it is a book entirely devoted to chronicling Anne Boleyn's fall from Queen to the scaffold]

I have this weird tick that I need to get rid of in regards to history. I find Henry the Eighth and all the Tudors fascinating, and because of its obvious appeal, it must not be the "hard history" that other people are reading. After all, there's a Showtime show about it, there are plenty of novels and movies about it.

But am I just reacting to the fact that this is a story about women, much more than other historical stories that are told? After all, most of history is told from the perspective of the rich white guy. With recent research (Weir goes into how no one would have cared to look Anne Boleyn up if Elizabeth hadn't become queen), there is a great emphasis on how women affected the king, his policies, and the future of the crown.

And then, a generation later, you have women as supreme ruler! Making decisions! In the 1600s! And of course there are issues with gender! What isn't to love, what isn't to relate about that?

[Beyond women in power and women influencing power, there is another fascinating aspect to Tudor history: the fact that they know their own history. To a fault.

Why was Henry the Eighth so bent on getting sons? It wasn't just the normal, "I'm king and need to pass the throne on," it was, "There was immense chaos before my father became king after the sons of the king were killed and my father somehow made it out with the crown despite a massive civil war that preceded it. If there is no clear line of succession, England will be thrown back to civil war."

The other example is Elizabeth, who claimed she would never marry, and then never did. If you look at the history of marriages your father had and find that a third of them end in beheading, a third end in divorce and the other third end with one of the spouses dying just a few short years later...well, why would you want to get married?]

End of a Decade (but I'm only acknowledging 2009)

So everybody has decided to make a list about how they feel about the decade. I am not near that level of self reflection at this moment in my life.

I was only prepared for the end of 2009. I totally forgot about the whole decade thing. Seems kind of small potatoes after a turn of a century, no?

Last year I wrote that for 2009 I was going to stop re-reading books, start reading harder books, and write more.

I did re-read almost no books. (I cheated when The Time Traveler's Wife came out -- I reread some choice scenes before I went to see the movie.)

I partially failed though. I didn't really scale back the teen fiction. The only thing that I read that was massively out of my way was The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons.

What I did accomplish at the end of the year, as a result of being flexible with my reading, is that I really like listening to podcasts. I listen to This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, and various How Stuff Works.

So -- its kind of a draw. I read a lot of stuff, but not a lot of it was far outside my comfort zone. But I did push onto podcasts (with the help of Dan!)

This year I have only two goals:

1. Continue to use the Wii Fit for at least 30 minutes three times a week. (My weight has stayed stagnant since last New Years. Really, that's better than nothing, right?)

2. Keep track of all the books I read in a spreadsheet. (This will be nice if only so I can remember exactly what I read.)

So nothing too outrageous for the new year. Good luck you with your own changes.