A respite

It has been a long week. The days are zipping by without so much as a by-your-leave, and I am hard-pressed to keep up. I've been so tired, the words coming out of my mouth or through the keys are sometimes not the words I come up with in my head. I am unaware of how many potentially embarrassing blunders I've unleashed into the Universe. Perhaps my brain is feeling weary and is now making the necessary dissociation from the rest of my body. School has been relentless.

Now on to other things:

I have actually been reading, which bodes well for ailing brain functions. Lately, though, I can only seem to finish Light Books That Make Me Giggle (but not excluding Light-ish Books With Hidden Dark Corners) and not Serious Books That Are Considered Relevant To Our Times. I will let you know when I have become emotionally primed to take on the latter. For now, I will continue to wade in the refreshing pools of pleasant distraction.

TV, as always, has been kind enough to comply with my need for lighter fare. White Collar is back, and what can be more distracting than Matt Bomer in suits? His eyes are like the ocean. Haha. There are new episodes of Chuck too, but I cannot say I'm pleased with where the story is going. I've also been watching Friends a lot, because it shields me from the anxiety that wells up when I think about school things.

The Australian Open is coming to a close, and neither Federer nor Nadal will be playing tomorrow. Roger's was a particularly sour loss, because it was to Djokovic, who has been irritating to me lately. In other news, Nadsy has been modeling underwear for Armani. Good. Lord.

Hanna posted this on my Wall to confound me.

More belated, personal news: my birthday came and went quietly amid the daily blur of work and Being. Jake and I went out for a snack to celebrate.

I also got a bunch of books to show for turning a year older. Lem let me loose in a bookstore, and I made off with quite a haul. Hanna got me a birthday book for readers where I learned Lem shares his birthday with Jane Austen.

I will end here because my stomach is informing me that it is lunch time. Later.

Tales of childhood

On The Exchange, we celebrate Roald Dahl month! And we are giving away a copy of Boy! The contest details are here. Happy reading!

2011 Reads

These are the books I have read this year, so far:

1. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
2. Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block
3. Just in Case by Meg Rosoff
4. NP by Banana Yoshimoto
5. This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
6. One Day by David Nicholls
7. You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers
8. Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian
9. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
10. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
11. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
12. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
13. Dramarama by E. Lockhart
14. On Love by Alain de Botton
15. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
16. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
17. Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
18. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
19. You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons by Mo Willems
20. Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
21. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
22. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
23. What Happened to Goodbye? by Sarah Dessen
24. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
25. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
26. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Schteyngart
27. Justice League of America Volume 1: The Tornado's Path by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes
28. Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out, Edited by Ted Thompson (with Eli Horowitz)
29. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
30. Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
31. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
32. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
33. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer
34. Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
35. Encore Provence by Peter Mayle
36. No Tomorrow by Vivant Denon
37. Trese 4: Last Seen After Midnight by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo
38. The Heroes of Olympus Book One: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
39. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
40. Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson
41. Enough About Love by Herve Le Tellier
42. Fantastic Women: 18 Tales of the Surreal and Sublime from Tin House
43. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
44. Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle
45. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Read or die 2

These are Hanna's top ten from her massive reading list for 2010:

And these are unanimous 2010 favorites at The Exchange:

Read or die

Wrapping up my reading for 2010 over at The Exchange:

So sleepy...but wait!

On The Exchange, I write a long overdue review for A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. This book is one of my best reads for 2010, and now an all-time favorite:

"A Dirty Job was my first taste of what would later become an acute addiction to Moore’s work. To say I was impressed is a gross understatement. I basked in the unhinged humor, the zingy back-and-forths between kooky characters, and the thick tangle of a plot. In between all that, Moore manages to make social commentary with his study of the Beta Male and talks about death and reincarnation in a new and interesting light. I was reeling, mystified as to where all this awesomeness had been all my life. So there I was, happily wandering around in this aforementioned blur of awesome, when out of nowhere, I was accosted by hell-hounds and reanimated forest animals and sewer harpies! It was madness. It was magnificent. All this in superb writing."

The year so far

January has been okay thus far. My return to school was surprisingly uneventful (i.e. the forces of Procrastination did not make an appearance), and everything else is more or less getting on smashingly. But for some mysterious reason, I keep mucking around in the darker corners of my head. I am writing this post to remind myself that THERE IS NOTHING TO BE DEPRESSED ABOUT. And also, lists are fun.

• I live in a place with lots of strawberries.
• I have a Lemur who loves me.
• I have great friends.

• I have a large black dog who is always around for spontaneous hugging, and a tall-ish little brother who talks to me about airplanes (and is also around for a hug should he permit it).

• I have a bunch of books (understatement) waiting to be read. (Dear Attention Span, I wish you would stop disappearing at inopportune times. I would really like to finish a book.)

• I have time to read. A miracle, because I thought my only reading material this month would be evil, ungraded papers.
• I bought a smaller bag for my camera...so that I could put it in a bigger bag. Shuddup. It's preeettty.

• It's blinkin' cold up here. (We didn't need snow, you idiots.)
• I have Assam tea again, thanks to a friend. In October when I ran out (Was it October? It feels longer.), I survived, but barely. My life was in shambles without it.

So. Life is pretty great. I want I want I want to get out of my head.

2010 in photos

Here are a bunch of photos from a truly nebulous year:

         *The last six photos in the final row are borrowed from Inky of inkytakespictures.

As for resolutions, I promise to drink more cups of positivi-tea: let there be good cheer in my cold, black heart all year round.

Happy 2011, Universe!

May you continue to shower us with a slew of interesting, random serendipitous events.