What makes us judge other people? One thing I am 100% guilty of, which I will readily admit, is judging people by what I see them reading in public. If I think what they're reading is silly or trivial I will totally make a snap judgment about who they are and the kind of person they are.
Today, sitting in the hallway, reading The Actor's Freedom I was acutely aware of a group of people passing by me silently judging me for reading this book. Was it because I was using my time to read a super old school acting book by Michael Goldman (who is awesome, ps, and anyone interested in critical writing on Shakespeare should check out Shakespeare and the Energies of Drama)? Was it because of the content of the book? What was it that created that weird atmosphere that I was below them simply because I was sitting on the floor reading?
We can't know what anyone else is thinking. Even when their thoughts seem very obvious - you would think that the book someone was reading said a lot about who they are as a person, but, hey turns out that that really isn't true. Just like most things in life, it is never that easy.
Example: I was reading The Actor's Freedom because I like to read everything I can about acting and different acting styles, even ones I find super ridiculous and I don't agree with at all (disclaimer, I have not read James Lipton's book, but I would if someone lent it to me), because I love knowledge. And I love information. But it struck me that some people, unaware of my insatiable thirst for information, may judge me as lame or even (god forbid!) super pretentious for reading something like that.
Why is that? Why do we assume to know anything about another person based on what they choose to read in public? How do we know this wasn't something they have to read for a variety of reasons unknown to us?
Another example!: Confession, I have read the entire Twilight series. It was terrible. It was poorly written, the characters were unbelievably uninteresting and selfish and idiotic, and in general the plot is boring and predictable (although the vampire war at the end of the last book was decently badass, and had it been a part of literally any other series I probably would even, dare I say it, admit to having enjoyed it). But the fact of the matter is, I read those books in public. Where everyone could see me. And silently judge me for thinking I am one of them.
But the truth is, I read that whole terrible, terrible series because my younger sister was obsessed at the time, but refused to read Harry Potter, saying it was stupid and could never be as awesome as Twilight. So I made her a deal: that I would read the entire Twilight series if she would agree to read at least the first four Harry Potter books (she did and quickly converted, realizing the error of her Twilight ways).
But no one could have possibly known that! Perhaps I should have written a giant note and taped a giant note to it that said something along the lines of "I'M READING THIS IRONICALLY, DON'T JUDGE ME PLZ!"
I guess the point I'm trying to make is, next time you're sitting on a subway or waiting in line a the supermarket, or passing by someone in the hallway, and you see them reading something ridiculous go ahead and make a judgment -that's your right- but! perhaps keep in the back of your mind the idea that perhaps their interest in this ridiculous doper is not as simple as it might appear.
And, moreover, don't ever feel embarrassed to read anything in public, because only you will know that those people silently judging you are actually being ....
Happy linking!
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Swamplandia! by Karen Russel, The Actor's Freedom by Michael Goldman, and The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson)
Showing posts with label Erin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erin. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Like a kick in the face, or the hump, or ... whatever
One of the things I love: borrowing books. Do I want a library someday? Yes. Do I love getting and hoarding stacks and stacks of books? Yes. But I still love borrowing books from people and seeing what they love and what they hate and how that makes them who they are.
Recently my very good friend and regular reading laaaaady Rachel lent me a book called Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
Here's a photo of the cover!
It's not what you think. It is not about charming geeks who fall in love and awkwardly find romance in their tech driven lives.
It is about freaks. Actual freaks. As in, traveling circus, incest with your brother, born with a major deformity, took drugs and radiation while she was pregnant FREAKS.
And it is FANTASTIC.
I'm basically not going to tell you anything about the story because I think you should go into it with the same mindset that I did: That you have absolutely no idea what in the fucking hell is happening.
Every time I thought I had figured out the endgame, and that I knew where the storyline was headed Katherine Dunn turned around and PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE. It was like clockwork, me going "Oh! I think I get it!" and Katherine Dunn going, "WHAT?! BITCH WATCH THIS!"
My only complaint about the book was that the ending was so sudden I almost wasn't certain I understood what happened. In fact, I am positive I had no idea what was happening. But I re-read the ending a few times and I think I figured it out, and the conclusion I came to was that the book ended in the same way the rest of the book unfolded: In a crazy whirlwind of crazy ass shit.
This book gets 4 1/2 stars from Lady Erin, who heartily recommends that you get yourself a copy, and enjoy the feeling of your brain melting into the world of the Binewski circus.
Best wishes,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov [translated by Tom Stoppard], The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson [ebook], and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx [both because I have to for a class but also because I am a huge nerd and want to read it])
Recently my very good friend and regular reading laaaaady Rachel lent me a book called Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
Here's a photo of the cover!
It's not what you think. It is not about charming geeks who fall in love and awkwardly find romance in their tech driven lives.
It is about freaks. Actual freaks. As in, traveling circus, incest with your brother, born with a major deformity, took drugs and radiation while she was pregnant FREAKS.
And it is FANTASTIC.
I'm basically not going to tell you anything about the story because I think you should go into it with the same mindset that I did: That you have absolutely no idea what in the fucking hell is happening.
Every time I thought I had figured out the endgame, and that I knew where the storyline was headed Katherine Dunn turned around and PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE. It was like clockwork, me going "Oh! I think I get it!" and Katherine Dunn going, "WHAT?! BITCH WATCH THIS!"
My only complaint about the book was that the ending was so sudden I almost wasn't certain I understood what happened. In fact, I am positive I had no idea what was happening. But I re-read the ending a few times and I think I figured it out, and the conclusion I came to was that the book ended in the same way the rest of the book unfolded: In a crazy whirlwind of crazy ass shit.
This book gets 4 1/2 stars from Lady Erin, who heartily recommends that you get yourself a copy, and enjoy the feeling of your brain melting into the world of the Binewski circus.
Best wishes,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov [translated by Tom Stoppard], The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson [ebook], and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx [both because I have to for a class but also because I am a huge nerd and want to read it])
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
News Flash!
I'm about to deliver some shocking news directly to your brains. Are you ready? Here it is:
Finding the time to do recreational reading while you are in school is a frustrating, enraging task.
That is all. Please stand by for spring break and a blog post from Lady Erin very soon.
Lots of love!
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Geek Love - Katherine Dunn)
Finding the time to do recreational reading while you are in school is a frustrating, enraging task.
That is all. Please stand by for spring break and a blog post from Lady Erin very soon.
Lots of love!
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Geek Love - Katherine Dunn)
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Free is Always the Best Price
Hello, my name is Lady Erin. And I am addicted to books.
This is not just a slight or passing addiction. I am hardcore addicted to books (which turns out to be decidedly convenient since I am also a hardcore reader). And let me tell you, it is a job in and of itself acquiring as many books as I have over my long running obsession. I will search and hunt and scrape up books from every possible source. There is no simply walking into Barnes & Noble and poking around to satisfy my need for books. Will I walk into Barnes & Noble with no plan to buy anything and inevitably leave with half a dozen books that I never knew I could not live without? Yes. Would some people say this is unhealthy? Yes, but... whatever.
But it does not end there.
My addiction to finding and attaining books started when I was very young. I remember very clearly getting the Scholastic catalogs in elementary school. I would take my allowance that I'd earned from doing horrible things like emptying the garbage and setting the table and other horrible tortures designed to humiliate and destroy the soul of 9 year olds, and every time a Scholastic came I would search through it and find all of the 50 cent and dollar priced books and order every single one, almost regardless of what it was about. And when they were finally delivered to the classroom I would get so excited and promptly read each and every single one of them and absolutely love it.
And thus began two of my life goals: 1. Own (and read) as many books as possible, ideally enough to have my own library at some point in the distant grown-up future 2. Never ever pay full price for anything, ever.
(I am very good at both of these things)
Now, gathering the books for what will some day be an obviously epic library while remaining true to your life goal of "Never spend money" turns out to be rather difficult if you're not willing to work for it. Which I am. It involves lots of time committed to combing the 99 cent books on Half.com and Amazon, to searching through the (mostly crap) in the discount sections of Barnes and Noble, Schuler's, Borders and any other store you can find, and convincing all of your friends to give you all of the books they no longer want or have no desire to read or re-read.
It's a job.
But the end result is that you 1. are exposed to many, many, many books that you may never have even imagined would cross your path, 2. have spent virtually no money while somehow acquiring an awesome collection.
And now we come to the whole point of this blog.
Last night I went to a bar for the first time (which is less than a block away from my house, and so is somewhat amazing that I still had not managed to once go there before last night), and discovered my own personal jackpot.
A thing that occurs sometimes, much to my great surprise and delight every time, is that people give away books. Free! For nothing!!
And, it just so happened that of all of the places I could have possibly gone last night, at this bar less than a block away from my house, sitting at a table with my friends I look over and there next to me is a small bookcase, full of books, and a box underneath it labeled free books. And so obviously I dug through all of those books (mostly crap) and walked away with four books (an anthology of Roman drama, a memoir of a man coming of age in the 50's, a book about a woman in her 30's discovering herself, and ... something else that escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure it was awesome) and a feeling that I had accomplished something. Part of that something of course was convincing my friends who kept saying "Are you sure that you're allowed to take these?" that "Hello, the box said free! If they didn't want me to take them they should never have put such false advertising on it!"
So what does this mean to you?
It doesn't mean anything. Except that I love books. And that if you want to send me your old, no longer wanted books, I will gladly accept them.
Best wishes,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Dr. Nina and the Panther by Shirley P. Wheeler)
This is not just a slight or passing addiction. I am hardcore addicted to books (which turns out to be decidedly convenient since I am also a hardcore reader). And let me tell you, it is a job in and of itself acquiring as many books as I have over my long running obsession. I will search and hunt and scrape up books from every possible source. There is no simply walking into Barnes & Noble and poking around to satisfy my need for books. Will I walk into Barnes & Noble with no plan to buy anything and inevitably leave with half a dozen books that I never knew I could not live without? Yes. Would some people say this is unhealthy? Yes, but... whatever.
But it does not end there.
My addiction to finding and attaining books started when I was very young. I remember very clearly getting the Scholastic catalogs in elementary school. I would take my allowance that I'd earned from doing horrible things like emptying the garbage and setting the table and other horrible tortures designed to humiliate and destroy the soul of 9 year olds, and every time a Scholastic came I would search through it and find all of the 50 cent and dollar priced books and order every single one, almost regardless of what it was about. And when they were finally delivered to the classroom I would get so excited and promptly read each and every single one of them and absolutely love it.
And thus began two of my life goals: 1. Own (and read) as many books as possible, ideally enough to have my own library at some point in the distant grown-up future 2. Never ever pay full price for anything, ever.
(I am very good at both of these things)
Now, gathering the books for what will some day be an obviously epic library while remaining true to your life goal of "Never spend money" turns out to be rather difficult if you're not willing to work for it. Which I am. It involves lots of time committed to combing the 99 cent books on Half.com and Amazon, to searching through the (mostly crap) in the discount sections of Barnes and Noble, Schuler's, Borders and any other store you can find, and convincing all of your friends to give you all of the books they no longer want or have no desire to read or re-read.
It's a job.
But the end result is that you 1. are exposed to many, many, many books that you may never have even imagined would cross your path, 2. have spent virtually no money while somehow acquiring an awesome collection.
And now we come to the whole point of this blog.
Last night I went to a bar for the first time (which is less than a block away from my house, and so is somewhat amazing that I still had not managed to once go there before last night), and discovered my own personal jackpot.
A thing that occurs sometimes, much to my great surprise and delight every time, is that people give away books. Free! For nothing!!
And, it just so happened that of all of the places I could have possibly gone last night, at this bar less than a block away from my house, sitting at a table with my friends I look over and there next to me is a small bookcase, full of books, and a box underneath it labeled free books. And so obviously I dug through all of those books (mostly crap) and walked away with four books (an anthology of Roman drama, a memoir of a man coming of age in the 50's, a book about a woman in her 30's discovering herself, and ... something else that escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure it was awesome) and a feeling that I had accomplished something. Part of that something of course was convincing my friends who kept saying "Are you sure that you're allowed to take these?" that "Hello, the box said free! If they didn't want me to take them they should never have put such false advertising on it!"
So what does this mean to you?
It doesn't mean anything. Except that I love books. And that if you want to send me your old, no longer wanted books, I will gladly accept them.
Best wishes,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Dr. Nina and the Panther by Shirley P. Wheeler)
Friday, January 14, 2011
You Should Give a Fuck
I am not a blogger. I am just a person who loves to read. I also love parenthesizes.
With that being said, I'd like to introduce myself to you with an author named Christopher Moore.
My love affair with Christopher Moore began in 2007 with a book called A Dirty Job. If you haven't yet discovered Christopher Moore or read A Dirty Job then I don't know what you've been doing with your lives, but you need some to do serious literary re-prioritizing.
In the three years since my discovery I have made my way through all 12 of the books in his canon (yes, I did use the word canon, deal with it), making him the second author for which I have done so, following only Chuck Palahnuik. Having just finished my last book to reach this milestone, I found it only appropriate to start your love affair with my reading list over The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.
The Stupidest Angel is a hilarious Christmas novel set in Pine Cove, CA (also the setting for The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove) and is a brilliant mashup of characters from all over Moore's canon -- a specialty of his just happens to be cross cutting characters, leaving easter eggs for readers with almost any book you pick up (with the exception, ironically, of my favorite: Fool) -- including The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, and The Island of the Sequined Love Nun.
We find our hero, Theo Crow, former mega-stoner and star of Lust Lizard, once again in Pine Cove (apparently the epicenter of the world for paranormal and fantastical activity) just in time for the holiday festivities. However, the stupidest angel in the history of creation, Raziel, has come to fuck shit up. The Christmas season quickly turns into an almost slapstick game of Theo trying to manage the town (and out of town) crazies, the murder of Santa Claus, a suspicious possible robot and/or child molester, and, prepare yourself, motherfucking zombies.
Because, what's a decent Christmas novel if it doesn't include any zombies?
The Stupidest Angel was the perfect capstone to my Christopher Moore experience, and left me eagerly awaiting his next novel (which cannot come soon enough).
Links!
Christopher Moore's site: http://www.chrismoore.com/books.html
Buy his things on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Christopher+Moore&x=18&y=12
So, yeah, that's kind of who I am. I love Christopher Moore, but I also love a lot of things and will read pretty much anything. I may not be totally great at this whole "blogging" thing but stick with me, and I'll get there. And hey, if nothing else my reading list will blow your mind.
Your faithful reader,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Dr. Nina and the Panther by Shirley P. Wheeler)
With that being said, I'd like to introduce myself to you with an author named Christopher Moore.
My love affair with Christopher Moore began in 2007 with a book called A Dirty Job. If you haven't yet discovered Christopher Moore or read A Dirty Job then I don't know what you've been doing with your lives, but you need some to do serious literary re-prioritizing.
In the three years since my discovery I have made my way through all 12 of the books in his canon (yes, I did use the word canon, deal with it), making him the second author for which I have done so, following only Chuck Palahnuik. Having just finished my last book to reach this milestone, I found it only appropriate to start your love affair with my reading list over The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.
The Stupidest Angel is a hilarious Christmas novel set in Pine Cove, CA (also the setting for The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove) and is a brilliant mashup of characters from all over Moore's canon -- a specialty of his just happens to be cross cutting characters, leaving easter eggs for readers with almost any book you pick up (with the exception, ironically, of my favorite: Fool) -- including The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, and The Island of the Sequined Love Nun.
We find our hero, Theo Crow, former mega-stoner and star of Lust Lizard, once again in Pine Cove (apparently the epicenter of the world for paranormal and fantastical activity) just in time for the holiday festivities. However, the stupidest angel in the history of creation, Raziel, has come to fuck shit up. The Christmas season quickly turns into an almost slapstick game of Theo trying to manage the town (and out of town) crazies, the murder of Santa Claus, a suspicious possible robot and/or child molester, and, prepare yourself, motherfucking zombies.
Because, what's a decent Christmas novel if it doesn't include any zombies?
The Stupidest Angel was the perfect capstone to my Christopher Moore experience, and left me eagerly awaiting his next novel (which cannot come soon enough).
Links!
Christopher Moore's site: http://www.chrismoore.com/books.html
Buy his things on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Christopher+Moore&x=18&y=12
So, yeah, that's kind of who I am. I love Christopher Moore, but I also love a lot of things and will read pretty much anything. I may not be totally great at this whole "blogging" thing but stick with me, and I'll get there. And hey, if nothing else my reading list will blow your mind.
Your faithful reader,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Dr. Nina and the Panther by Shirley P. Wheeler)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)