Art & Literature
As Lia told you guys yesterday, I got accepted to Trinity and I am really freaking excited about this. Now when I go to school I keep thinking "In just a few more months I'll be at Trinity!" "I bet if I took anthropology at Trinity it would suck less" and stuff like that. I am REALLY excited you guys. But you all knew this already, so let's move on to the next thing: my major. I am going to be an English major! I am going to write and read and dazzle the world with my knowledge of all things literary. Well, probably not, but I can pretend!* I've been thinking about this lately and I think I might end up in the job I once swore off: teaching. I would be like, the world's worst teacher for kids. Only, maybe I could teach high schoolers (wait, no, bad idea) or college students in...WRITING. I would make the world a better place through punctuation and vocabulary! It would be WONDERFUL. Except that I don't think I'd be a very good teacher. But, it is my backup plan if my books don't sell or I can't find a good place to fit in in a publishing company (I'd like to be a copy editor!).
In other book news, for Book Talk Tuesday, I will talk about the books I'm reading now. First, I broke down and got A Wind in the Door, the second in the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (You may remember me reading A Wrinkle in Time recently) even though I have so many other things to read. And I like this one a lot better, and I'm only on page 50 or whatever. It starts out with a much more intense moment and the possibility of mythological creatures. More of Sandy & Dennys too, who we didn't really get to meet in the last book, as well as more characterization of Mrs. Murray. It's really good.
The second book is City of Secrets, the 4th in the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman. And I love the pairing presented (I've shipped it since book 1) and I kind of like the new character, Matt. The only thing I hate (and I do mean hate) is the way Hoffman presents dyslexia. She treats it like a horrible disease and that Matt is stupid because of it. Oh, he can read children's books how good for him! /sarcasm I don't understand why he doesn't at least TRY to improve himself or TRY reading. *I* am dyslexic and this representation insults me! If this were the first book in a series, I would probably stop reading, but I love this series and everything else kind of outweighs that in terms of awesome, so I'm still reading. If I could handle Georgia in book 2, I can handle Matt's dyslexia.
Related to this! My local Bargain Books store is closing, which is horrible. They sell books there for about half the price of larger bookstores, but it's never certain what they have as they get all the overstock from other stores. And now for the closing everything is half off, which means they are essentially 75% off the regular price! And I saw a HUGE stack of Stravaganza: City of Masks, the first book in the series and one of my favorite books of all time. It's one of the things that inspired one of the books I'm working on writing, even. And it has a very pretty cover, which I admit, does influence my choice sometimes. My first thought when I looked at these books (as I've mentioned to Lia) is to buy one copy for each of you to read and then we can geek over them afterwards. Like a Nerdwriter bookclub! Since these books are like $2 or something, and shipping is cheap (if you know how to do it right, which I do from work), I have no problem with sending you all one of these books! So, if you want me to, I can. Just let me know. If you don't want me having your address or whatever, I understand.
(and if you do want it, email me at whiskpirate at yahoo.co.uk)
In other news, I went to the Chicago Art Institute today and some of the things there were really amazing! It's crazy to think that some of these pieces are over 3000 years old!! Some of the impressionist paintings were very lifelike as well, which was a bit mind-blowing. We didn't have a lot of time, unfortunately (since I had school and they closed at 5), and my mother for some unknown reason invited my sisters along for a "cultural experience" and they complained a lot. It feels like we ran past a lot of stuff, but I guess we got to see more that way. I'd like to go back some time when I have hours to spend. I'll upload pictures later tonight if I can.
Comment Questions!
1. What's your intended major? What do you want to do with your life?
2. What are you reading right now?
3. Have you ever been offended by something in a book like I was?
4. What do you think about my idea for the "book club"?
5. What kind of art do you like?
*I think I'm getting hyper by eating mini marshmallows at this point.
In other book news, for Book Talk Tuesday, I will talk about the books I'm reading now. First, I broke down and got A Wind in the Door, the second in the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (You may remember me reading A Wrinkle in Time recently) even though I have so many other things to read. And I like this one a lot better, and I'm only on page 50 or whatever. It starts out with a much more intense moment and the possibility of mythological creatures. More of Sandy & Dennys too, who we didn't really get to meet in the last book, as well as more characterization of Mrs. Murray. It's really good.
The second book is City of Secrets, the 4th in the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman. And I love the pairing presented (I've shipped it since book 1) and I kind of like the new character, Matt. The only thing I hate (and I do mean hate) is the way Hoffman presents dyslexia. She treats it like a horrible disease and that Matt is stupid because of it. Oh, he can read children's books how good for him! /sarcasm I don't understand why he doesn't at least TRY to improve himself or TRY reading. *I* am dyslexic and this representation insults me! If this were the first book in a series, I would probably stop reading, but I love this series and everything else kind of outweighs that in terms of awesome, so I'm still reading. If I could handle Georgia in book 2, I can handle Matt's dyslexia.
Related to this! My local Bargain Books store is closing, which is horrible. They sell books there for about half the price of larger bookstores, but it's never certain what they have as they get all the overstock from other stores. And now for the closing everything is half off, which means they are essentially 75% off the regular price! And I saw a HUGE stack of Stravaganza: City of Masks, the first book in the series and one of my favorite books of all time. It's one of the things that inspired one of the books I'm working on writing, even. And it has a very pretty cover, which I admit, does influence my choice sometimes. My first thought when I looked at these books (as I've mentioned to Lia) is to buy one copy for each of you to read and then we can geek over them afterwards. Like a Nerdwriter bookclub! Since these books are like $2 or something, and shipping is cheap (if you know how to do it right, which I do from work), I have no problem with sending you all one of these books! So, if you want me to, I can. Just let me know. If you don't want me having your address or whatever, I understand.
(and if you do want it, email me at whiskpirate at yahoo.co.uk)
In other news, I went to the Chicago Art Institute today and some of the things there were really amazing! It's crazy to think that some of these pieces are over 3000 years old!! Some of the impressionist paintings were very lifelike as well, which was a bit mind-blowing. We didn't have a lot of time, unfortunately (since I had school and they closed at 5), and my mother for some unknown reason invited my sisters along for a "cultural experience" and they complained a lot. It feels like we ran past a lot of stuff, but I guess we got to see more that way. I'd like to go back some time when I have hours to spend. I'll upload pictures later tonight if I can.
Comment Questions!
1. What's your intended major? What do you want to do with your life?
2. What are you reading right now?
3. Have you ever been offended by something in a book like I was?
4. What do you think about my idea for the "book club"?
5. What kind of art do you like?
*I think I'm getting hyper by eating mini marshmallows at this point.