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Showing posts from August 3, 2008

Short Story Saturday - "Harrison Bergeron"

It has been my intention for some time to read a commonly available short story every week and share my comments on it. But if you have been for while, you know I have A LOT of intentions. Sometimes they get thwarted by other acceptable life goings on, but other times, more commonly, thwarted by my own laziness. A while ago I asked my buddies on plurk to suggest some short story titles to me. I got A LOT of suggestions, but very few that were actually available online. Luckily, digitalrob was paying attention and came to my rescue. As you can tell, I have been feeling quite a bit more productive (I think my adventure helped!) So I finally got around to read the story he recommended. So, I definitely owe him a big thanks. **** The first line of "Harrison Bergeron" sounds like a world many of us have dreamed of. "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal." But what happens when equality is taken to the extreme? If no one could be prettier or smar

Here I Go Again

What is this plurk thing? And who are the pleeps? If you don't get it yet, well you probably don't want to. I have been waiting my blogging career to be TAGGED, and you know what? IT HAPPENED! (Happy dance!) For those of you have been paying attention when I have been pimping out the pleep love, perpstu is one of my adoring fans. She tagged me and I was more than willing to comply. What was I doing 10 years ago? This time of the year ten years ago I was between my junoir and senoir year of high school. I had just completed a summer of college tours including my first trip to Utah. I was wasting away in front of a semi constant stream of videos popping in and out of the VCR. What are five things on my to-do list today? 1. buy milk - I had been hording the last of the nearly sour milk for my coffee but emergency starvation lead me to use it all in 6 (yes, 6!) bowls of cereal. (Small bowls, I swear.) 2. Find Good In Bed. 3. Write blog post on digitalrob recomended short story &

Heaven

It is odd to find Heaven inside such a heavy book. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see the paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen. With wonder, she smiled. That such a room existed! **** Steadily the room shrank, till the book thief could touch the shelves within a few small steps. She ran the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails gliding across the spinal cord of each book. It sounded like an instrument, or the notes of running feet. She used both hands. She raced them. One shelf against the other. And she laughed. Her voice sprawled out, high in her throat, and when she eventually stopped and stood in the middle of the room, she spent many minutes looking from the shelves to her fingers and b

Booking Through Thursday - Worlds and Authors

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live? Well, I don't read much fantasy or books that involve other worlds. There are not really any places from books I would like to live, I am very much a homebody. But there are tons of places I would like to visit! So places that come to mind come from C.S. Lewis's Prelandra series and also Pullman's His Dark Materials series. I get this sensation much stronger when I am watching a movie than I do when I when I am reading. I got it strongly when I saw The Shipping News and it made me buy the book. I wanted to see how the location was captured in text. But I had a hard time getting into the book and still haven't read it. When I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I went on a book tour of Savanah and that was amazing and interesting. I think it would be fun to do more things like that. Experience places I read about. Or where you certainly would NOT want to live? Recently when I read The Luxe I

On the Road

So I sort of went on this sudden, semi unexpected road trip the other day and it was completely fun. Before I left for my trip I went to the library. I was there for almost an hour trying to our the best audiobooks for my journey. The book needed to be engaging, but not so engaging that I would want to be taking notes. (Blind Assassin, out!) It also, of course, had to be unabridged. Ideally it would have a full cast (spectacular example: His Dark Material) I was interest in, but not limited to, young adult titles. I ended up with three book, and yes, in the end they were all young adult. Feed by M.T. Anderson Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata Girl, 15, Charming But Insane by Sue Limb When I got out of the library I quickly shoved the first CD of the first book into the player. Because the most important requirement was that the narrator didn't put me to sleep. Girl, 15, Charming but Insane - occasionally dry British lady skating a very thin line in terms of boring. The book w