Brrrrr! Thank God It's Friday!
I survived Polar Vortex 2019! Temperatures in my neck of the woods went down to about -40C with the wind chill. Needless to say, I did cab it to work and home on two occasions, because standing around waiting for a bus when the weatherman is warning that frostbite is a possibility in minutes is probably not the best option. Somebody pointed out that our work should provide free taxis for us during such extreme weather.
Yeah. I snorted.
I'm one month in to my not-really-bullet-journaling habit-tracking fun-pages journal, and I think it was a great idea. I'm keeping on track with MOST things (okay, the health stuff fell by the wayside) and I'm still playing around with the set-up. For February I put all my habit-trackers for the entire month on one page, so I think that'll make it even easier to follow. I love all my book pages!
Speaking of books, to stay on track for my 80 book goal I have to read approximately 7 books a month. In January I managed 8.
08. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
18 year old twins Cath and Wren head off to their first year at university. While Wren embraces the party lifestyle, Cath is alone - dealing with her social anxieties, her blunt roommate, her worries over her manic father, two boys who may want to be more than friends, and mostly trying to reconcile her love for writing fanfic with her desire to hone her skills in a prestigious writing class.
The awesome persnickett recommended this to me last summer, but I put off reading it because I feared that, even with the best intentions, it wouldn't be able to communicate what fandom is really like. I needn't have worried. Cath is a prolific fanfic writer and a BNF in her fandom (the Simon Snow book series, this alterna-world's Harry Potter.) Ms. Rowell perfectly captures the thrill of falling into that pre-made world and finding the voices of the characters and creating new adventures, of writing slashfic in a hetfic world, and the worries of not knowing how to begin when the time comes to create your own 'verse. The love of reading and writing fanfiction is never looked down on snidely, or patronized, or treated with confusion. It's the world Cath lives in, and even those who don't initially understand it tend to treat it with respect.
The dialogue is fast and crisp, the original characters are ALL unique and interesting in their own ways (honestly, how rare is it where you can imagine *any* of the secondary characters taking the lead in their own stories?), and the premise kept me entertained. The book is interspersed with snippets from what is supposed to be the "Simon Snow" series and from Cath's fanfic continuation of it, called "Carry On, Simon", which is a super creative way of bringing the reader into Cath's imaginary worlds.
Ms. Rowell states in her intro that she read a lot of fanfic. I would venture to say that she wrote it as well. And in a sort of meta-way, Ms. Rowell does in this book what Cath struggles with so hard in "Fangirl" - she creates new, inspiring, intriguing characters out of thin air. I loved hearing that she had previously written a more somber book and was having trouble selling her second one, so she decided to do Nanowrimo one year and to write just for herself. She wrote the first half of "Fangirl" in one month and finished it six months later. And she discovered that you don't have to write Big Serious Issues. That you should write what makes you happy. It'll probably make others happy, too.
One more thing: after I finished this book, I checked Amazon to see what else Ms. Rowell had written. Turns out she published a book called "Carry On", which is a story from the Simon Snow universe that Cath is writing in "Fangirl". Ohhhh, I want to read about Simon and Baz. Definitely picking that one up!
In conclusion, if you read or write fanfic you will love this book!
5/5 stars
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 37 - set in school
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 17 - set on college/university campus
481 pages.
Books Read 8/80
Goodreads Book Challenges Met: 8/52
Popsugar Book Challenges Met: 8/40
Total Pages Read: 3109
Now.. off to write alllll the things!
.
Yeah. I snorted.
I'm one month in to my not-really-bullet-journaling habit-tracking fun-pages journal, and I think it was a great idea. I'm keeping on track with MOST things (okay, the health stuff fell by the wayside) and I'm still playing around with the set-up. For February I put all my habit-trackers for the entire month on one page, so I think that'll make it even easier to follow. I love all my book pages!
Speaking of books, to stay on track for my 80 book goal I have to read approximately 7 books a month. In January I managed 8.
08. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
18 year old twins Cath and Wren head off to their first year at university. While Wren embraces the party lifestyle, Cath is alone - dealing with her social anxieties, her blunt roommate, her worries over her manic father, two boys who may want to be more than friends, and mostly trying to reconcile her love for writing fanfic with her desire to hone her skills in a prestigious writing class.
The awesome persnickett recommended this to me last summer, but I put off reading it because I feared that, even with the best intentions, it wouldn't be able to communicate what fandom is really like. I needn't have worried. Cath is a prolific fanfic writer and a BNF in her fandom (the Simon Snow book series, this alterna-world's Harry Potter.) Ms. Rowell perfectly captures the thrill of falling into that pre-made world and finding the voices of the characters and creating new adventures, of writing slashfic in a hetfic world, and the worries of not knowing how to begin when the time comes to create your own 'verse. The love of reading and writing fanfiction is never looked down on snidely, or patronized, or treated with confusion. It's the world Cath lives in, and even those who don't initially understand it tend to treat it with respect.
The dialogue is fast and crisp, the original characters are ALL unique and interesting in their own ways (honestly, how rare is it where you can imagine *any* of the secondary characters taking the lead in their own stories?), and the premise kept me entertained. The book is interspersed with snippets from what is supposed to be the "Simon Snow" series and from Cath's fanfic continuation of it, called "Carry On, Simon", which is a super creative way of bringing the reader into Cath's imaginary worlds.
Ms. Rowell states in her intro that she read a lot of fanfic. I would venture to say that she wrote it as well. And in a sort of meta-way, Ms. Rowell does in this book what Cath struggles with so hard in "Fangirl" - she creates new, inspiring, intriguing characters out of thin air. I loved hearing that she had previously written a more somber book and was having trouble selling her second one, so she decided to do Nanowrimo one year and to write just for herself. She wrote the first half of "Fangirl" in one month and finished it six months later. And she discovered that you don't have to write Big Serious Issues. That you should write what makes you happy. It'll probably make others happy, too.
One more thing: after I finished this book, I checked Amazon to see what else Ms. Rowell had written. Turns out she published a book called "Carry On", which is a story from the Simon Snow universe that Cath is writing in "Fangirl". Ohhhh, I want to read about Simon and Baz. Definitely picking that one up!
In conclusion, if you read or write fanfic you will love this book!
5/5 stars
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 37 - set in school
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 17 - set on college/university campus
481 pages.
Books Read 8/80
Goodreads Book Challenges Met: 8/52
Popsugar Book Challenges Met: 8/40
Total Pages Read: 3109
Now.. off to write alllll the things!
.