Dystopia and Young Adult Novels

So I tried the Hunger Games series a while back. I persevered thru the first book because I'd heard/read so many people talking about how they were completely drawn into the series. But I've gotta be honest, I really didn't want to finish that first audiobook, I was so angered (disgusted?) by the situation the kids were in.

When I tried the 2nd book about a month after the first, it was seriously dragging me down. I'm all about pushing thru and finishing a book series once you've started it. I mean, I finished The Work and The Glory series, even though I couldn't handle the cheesy writing style (everyone spoke with a "husky" voice and looked up thru their eyebrows in an anatomical feat of contortionist excellence when emotional). And it's not like I'm trying to avoid pain completely, I am a Mets fan. But there was something about the Hunger Games series that I just couldn't deal with.

Wonderful Wendy said that I didn't have to finish. She answered the few questions that I had and I moved on with my life. Rarely do I not finish a book series. But, wow, Hunger Games haunted me.

500! This deserves a nerd admission

Hello, 500th Entry, let's do something exciting for you. And what can be more exciting that telling the blogosphere that I got to meet my favorite historian?! Yes, I am a nerd; I have a favorite historian. But, when you got it, flaunt it. Thus I'm going to share the story quick.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a presidential historian who loves baseball. She was in Baseball by Ken Burns, which is where I first heard of her back when I was 15. I thought she was awesome. Come to find out she writes great history, too.

She gave a lecture yesterday at UVU and I went an hour early so that I could get a good seat. Then she signed books:

Like the uber nerd that I am, I told her that she was my favorite historian, that I first heard of her in the Baseball doc. We talked for like 10 seconds about the Red Sox winning the World Series and about the 10th Inning premiering this month.

I was on cloud 9.

Thesis writing analysis

I decided to analyze my thesis chapters like I did my blog in my last post.

I wrote the Introduction like Edgar Allan Poe.
The Lit Review got David Foster Wallace.
Methodology got H. P. Lovecraft, and I think the title of his Best of is extremely apropos.
The Results also got David Foster Wallace.
The Conclusion also² got David Foster Wallace.

And the preliminary bits?
Abstract: H. P. Lovecraft.
Acknowledgments: Ian Fleming. I'm trying to decide if it's more James Bond-esque, or his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I write like...

So there's this website* that purportedly analyzes your writing and tells you who you write like:
http://iwl.me/
So I dropped in various bits of my blog, this entry and that. I tried it over and over and over. So who do I most commonly write like? Stephen King. arg. Who do I most commonly write like #2? Dan Brown. pathetic.

This makes me so sad.
I did get one James Joyce, though. There is hope.


I wonder about my thesis? I'll have to try an excerpt later on.

*Someone posted about this on Facebook, and I can't remember who. But whoever you are, credit where credit is mysteriously due.

Nuns, Hell & Relationships?

A while ago I was at Borders wandering around the books when I saw this interesting shelf:
Okay, that's funny enough, relationships and celibate nuns. But what was directly beneath it made me laugh even harder:

What, do they just throw random things onto the Relationships shelf for lack of anything else?

Finding a piece of yourself in a short story

That's exactly what I did last night when I was reading some Flannery O'Connor (thanks for the Christmas present, Mom). It was in a way unnerving, but good in the same breath. "The Barber"

A couple of things: books

First, a good friend of mine recently blogged about books and then asked what books others thought she should read. I am now asking the same thing:
What books should I read? What dramas? What humorous books? What short stories? What books did you love growing up. Please comment.


I've needed new jeans for months and months and months. I ended up with some time tonight so I went book shopping. I had decided that I wanted to read The Once and Future King. I went to Barnes & Noble (I prefer the no-blee pronunciation). I found that book and then spent another 85 minutes looking at book after book after book. And I found a journal that I love. I already have a blank one waiting for me, but I might end up going back and buying this particular one.

I tend to buy books that have a lot to do with the human struggle. You know, books that may be a coming-of-age theme, or an adult learning to deal with a situation or deal with something from the past. I think this is why I love Chaim Potok's book so much. He is an amazing author. Lately I think I might just be tired because I'm not sure I want to read something that might be emotionally draining. So what do I get? A novel about epic struggle. Sigh...I can't hide from me.

So, during my 85-minute perusal of B&N shelves, I took cell phone memo pad note of future books to read. Here's the list:
Conversation in the Cathedral by Vargas Llosa
Homeland by B. Kingsolver (read The Bean Trees. The book means so much more to me now years after reading it.)
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
José Saramago (I just don't know if I wanna read them in English, though)
The Known World by Edward P Jones
Dreaming in Cuban by García
Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut
Eudora Welty
Dawn & Day by Elie Wiesel (2nd and 3rd in a series with Night being the first book and a must read. I read Night during my junior year when I was a history major. I read it in one sitting and then sobbed for an hour. But it is important.)
True Compass by Ted Kennedy