Under Construction

Please excuse the appearance of the blog right now. Lisa and I were experimenting with new backgrounds, and found this one that we both like. However, that leaves us with color and banner issues to be resolved. Paul is going to help me out with it soon, but until then, do any of you have any input? Opinions? Ideas? Let me know.

It Lives! IT LIVES!

I shall call it - Smith's monster! Ok, not quite the same ring to it. Btw, we need to read Frankenstein sometime. Maybe October?

Peter has requested that we raise this blog from the dead, and Jennie and I are cautiously optimistic. We have determined that it is my turn to pick, and I am planning on doing either Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird or Stephen King's On Writing. Peter, I think I remember that you have Bird by Bird and have not read On Writing. Is that true? Although I'll pick a book I've already read, I don't want it to be something two of us have read. My goal is to pick something somewhat episodic so that we can post while we read without destroying the content of the plot (although the above books have narrative components, there is no plot per se, which I think could be good). Another I idea I had was Saul Williams She which is fun modern poetry, and quite short. That or something similar might be a good pick for the holiday months. :-)

Jennie, is Amanda interested in joining us on this? I need to think if anyone else might like to join the group - possibly my roommates, although I'm not sure they have enough time to commit to it. Perhaps I could open it up to Facebook friends and you could create an entrance exam? Hahaha - I like it.

Ok, that's all for now! And check out my rarely updated reviews blog, Passage of Swallows. I'm posting tonight and will post ASAP once I've gotten my pretty little hands on a copy of Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games. Peter, read it ASAP, it rocks. And you love angry-people-suck-humankind-is-lamepants stories.

Ms. Secretary, tag away, I don't know what to do. ;-)

BTW, what is Frankie doing to Susan from the Discworld series???

Moving Right Along

Hello friends!

I just talked to Peter on the phone, and even though he's been busy with school, he has still been reading. :) He said he's almost finished with To Say Nothing of the Dog. I'm sure he'll come weigh in on Spacesuit when he has a moment, but until then, looks like we can move along to our second book!

Welcome, Amanda!

After much nagging and convincing on my part*, Amanda has decided to join the ranks of the Hack 'n Slashers! I'm very glad she has decided to join us, and I'm sure she'll fit right in.

*OK, so it wasn't so much my nagging and convincing that brought her here. She just hasn't been able to get a hold of our selections from the library until now. She got her hands on a copy of HSWT, though, and she's a quick reader, so I'm sure she'll dive right in.

Labels

Jennie, Have you been going through and labeling stuff for me? Because I just realized I never do that. You are the best secretary EVER.

I requested my copy of HSWT from the Boulder library system, because the bookstores were taking too long and I don't know what I did with my old copy, except that it is probably somewhere at my parents' house. I should have it in the next day or two and will blast through!

Now, what do I label this post . . .

I got bored...

What do you think? Tell me honestly.

In Conclusion

I finally let myself finish reading Ex Libris while I was in Colorado. I talked to Lisa about this on Friday, but I had an interesting experience with this book.

I find that when I'm truly enjoying a book I have one of two reactions. One, as with books like Ender's Game, consists of me racing through without stopping because I can't seem to make myself stop. This used to happen frequently...pretty much whenever I got sucked in to a book. In the recent past, however, I have come to experience the second reaction which is what happened with Ex Libris. I'd get going and suddenly have a realization of how fast the pages were going by and how few remained, and I'd stop. I'd sit quietly for a few minutes or even just seconds and then begin reading again. I'd also consciously slow down as I was reading so that I could enjoy it longer. By the end I actually avoided reading at times because I knew I only had a couple essays left. Because it was a book about books, I was especially aware of what I was doing. It was fascinating.

Now that I've finished, I'm sad it's over, but I'm excited that I have made it back to the world of reading for fun (it's been way too long).

*****

On a tangentially related note, I have one last quote from the book to discuss:

"...I realized that books get their value from the way they coexist with the other books a person owns, and that when they lose that context, they lose their meaning" (Fadiman).

This part from the final essay really resonated with me. I feel exactly the same way about my book collection, and I have never been able to adequately put it to words. I have always loved my books as a collection--how they relate to each other or not, how they look next to each other, how the entire collection is somehow different with the addition of a single new book. When I've tried to explain this to people in the past I've come across as materialistic and vaguely obsessed. ;) (Don't you wish you had Fadiman's way with words?)

I really like the idea that a person's books and how they "coexist" have a very individual meaning. No two people have the exact same collection of books. I also like the way my collection represents me. From the cheesy teen lit to the overwhelming presence of Orson Scott Card. From the books that were obviously assigned by teachers to the many that have been recommended to me by Lisa ;). Some books have changed my outlook on life and others I haven't even read yet.

*****

Anyway, I very much enjoyed our first selection for our little book club. Peter- Lisa and I decided that you should pick our next book. We have to rotate who picks so that Lisa can read books she hasn't read before. We discussed the possibility of reading books none of us have read before. The worry is that we'll get stuck reading an awful book...but we can always ditch it if we all agree. I need more time to find a book for us (Lisa has been my go-to for recommendations for quite some time now), so yeah, your turn! :)

Also, are we adding anyone to our club? It's fun as just three of us, but it would also be fun to have more contributors, n'est-ce pas?

Labels and Comment Notification

Okay, one more administrative post from me for today.

I figured using labels would be a good way to bunch together all the posts for each book. That way we can always access them quickly in the future if needed. So yeah, when you post something about blog logistics, set up, or whatever, just label it 'admin'. And when you post something about a book, label it with the title of that book.

Also, if you want to receive email notifications of comments, it's not a default. All you have to do is go under settings and then comments and add your email at the bottom of the page where it says something about receiving notifications of comments. I like to receive the notifications simply because otherwise I'm afraid I might miss a comment to an older post. I always look for comments to the newest entry, but not older ones. Anyway, whatever you guys prefer.

-The Secretary: Keeping Things Organized since 1983

Too Dark?

Post your layout thoughts here.

(Sorry I messed up your red title, Peter. You can change it back. It defaulted when I changed to the black template.)

Feel Free to Mess Around

Would you believe hacknslash.blogspot.com was taken? I don't know...did you take it, Peter? ;)

Once you all have admin status, you can mess around with the layout as you wish.