Just Sayin'

So, the other day I was on Facebook, you know, like your typical college student with three billion pages to read a night, and I found one of those list challenge where you go through a list of things and mark all the things on the list you've done. Anyway, I found one that was called '50 Books to Read Before You Die'. Anyway, I read a lot, so I thought it I would try it, but out of 50, I'd only read 19, and, while most of the books on the list are famous and well known and note-worthy, I don't think my life would be significantly different if I hadn't read Frankenstein. Which, by the way, was like the dullest book I've ever read. I don't really like this whole idea of list of "necessary" books. It's hard to create a list of books that everyone should read before they die because, obviously, not everyone likes the same sort of thing. That's not to say that I don't think dark or boring books can be valuable. For example, Heart of ...

So, as any good English major should, I get really upset when people under value the letter W. For some reason, people are constantly under-pronouncing the letter W in words. It's a very important letter for the English language. Think about it, without the letter W, we wouldn't have words like 'word' or 'who' or 'what' or 'Wednesday' (and you all know how I feel about Wednesday). Also, speaking phonetically, the W sound is produced by an voiced bilabial glide, and doesn't that just sound cool? Like, I have this one friend who just refuses to pronounce the W in the words 'drawer' and 'dwarf'. And I'm all like, I'm not sure if you know this, but W is actually the best letter. It upsets me so much! English, as a language, is super frustrating because most words have letters that aren't supposed to be pronounced. But I cannot think of a single instance of a word that contains a W in which the W is not supposed to be...

So, I'm like a month into my fall semester and it's going pretty well so far. Of course, I have a lot of homework but, fortunately, I get to do a lot of different sorts of things, sometimes I read, occasionally I read, and, when I don't have anything else to do, I read. So, clearly, I've been experiencing some of that famous college diversity. Occasionally, I read novels, sometimes I read novels, and the rest of the time I get to read about parts of speech and bilateral symmetry in ancient Meso-American cities. So that's always fun. All. I. Do. Is. Read. I know that you're thinking that since I'm an English major, I should like reading. I do like reading, of course, but, since the first day of classes, my life has been: wake up, go to class, go to work, come home, read , eat, read some more, go to bed, and repeat. Besides that, when ever I have free time, I read for pleasure because I have this problem where I go to the library and check out all the book...

So, this past weekend I read the Old-English poem Beowulf for one of my English classes. In case you don't know, Beowulf is an Old-English, epic poem about the hero/warrior Beowulf who kills the monster Grendel (and his mother) and slays a dragon. I had read parts of the poem before in other classes, but I sort of skipped over a lot of the supernatural details in the poem. Like, for example, when Beowulf kills Grendel's mother, he battles her underwater and he spends like an entire day at the bottom of a lake, and no one thinks its weird. And, I guess because no one in the poem thought it was weird, I just sort of ignored it. Like, Beowulf is constantly doing things that are physically impossible. On premise, I don't really have a problem with this because I understand that it's a legend, and things are 'legendary' for a reason. Also, as an English major, I am constantly reading books in which people are doing impossible things, so, at some point, you k...

So, the other day I started rereading The Great Gatsby . It's a great book and all and I am enjoying it as much as I did the first time, but I noticed something that I didn't notice the first time. F. Scott Fitzgerald writes really complicated sentences. Point out the obvious much? I mean, Fitzgerald doesn't just write a sentence; he writes a little adjective filled, adverb flavored pie with a thin, flaky verb crust on top. He writes a sentence like he's riding a stampeding wildebeest in the Lion King: very carefully. Because writing a sentence can be a dangerous thing. I mean, you don't know how dangerous a semi-colon can be until you misuse one and suddenly it's punching you in the stomach while a pair of quotation marks hold you down. However, reading a sentence can be just as hazardous. As an English major, I'm used to complicated sentences, but that doesn't change the fact that every time you read a sentence, you are diving into that sentence...

Recently, I've noticed a problem in my life. It's actually not a very problematic problem; I'm buried in books. Now, before you tell me about how wonderful e-readers are and how I don't have to have the clutter of physical books, let me tell you this. I have a nook and I like it a lot, but nothing compares to that book smell and the texture of the paper and all that other nostalgic, sentimental stuff that is causing me to lose all floor space in my room. Seriously, I have three book shelves in my room, one with three shelves and two with five shelves, and I still have big piles of books lying on my floor. Not to say that my room is a mess. I have everything very organized. I have one pile for library books, one pile for textbooks I'll probably never look at again but I didn't want to sell, and about a bazillion piles for books that I bought in the past couple of weeks and can't find a place for. Yes, my friends, I'm buried alive in books. I think my ...

So, the other day I was at the annual AAUW used book sale in my town and let me tell you something, people will commit murder for a one dollar copy of A Game of Thrones . Of course, I've been to this particualr used book sale before, and I've been to other used book sales in the past, but I don't think I've ever gone to the first day of the sale before. Don't get me wrong; I'm an English major, I love to read; I love books, but this isn't just a few boxes of books at the local library. This book sale is held at the Ag Arena, which is this great big building where they have cow shows and stuff. I mean, people start lining up outside at six o'clock in the morning with big, cardboard boxes and shopping carts! Anyway, I ended up getting some really great books, like normal, but I practically got trampled trying to find a copy of The Lord of the Rings . I think the big problem was that there were just too many people. I swear there must have been like six o...

So, right now in my English class we're reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and let me tell you something, I think Dorian Gray is a vampire. I mean, if there can be a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, certainly there can be a Picture of Dorian Gray and Vampires, right? Anyway, there's tons of proof. Like, we know that Dorian Gray does all these horrible, scandalous things towards the middle of the book, but we're never told what they are. For all we know, he's out biting people! That's why everyone is so suspicious and wary of him. Maybe that's what really happened to Sibyl Vane O_o. Also, there's blood on the portrait, which is supposed to be a visual representation of his conscience, so, I don't know, put two and two together. Plus, I don't think we ever actually see Dorian eat normal food. And of course, most obviously, he doesn't age . Like seriously! If that doesn't spell vampire, I don't know what does; besides, he...

So, I've been required to read Frankenstein twice, once in college and once in high school, so I know that the book raises a lot of questions and themes, like the nature and importance of beauty and appearance in society and literature, what is considered monstrous in popular culture, the dangers of scientific exploration, etc, etc. But, to me, perhaps the most important question the book raises is what happened to Ernest ? In case you are unfamiliar with Frankenstein, let me give you a brief plot summary. Victor Frankenstein, the title character, decides that it's a good idea to build an eight foot tall quasi-man, animal creature while he's away at college. After he brings the creature to life, he has a freak out and runs away. After this, his creature, through a series of convoluted events, ends up killing everyone Victor cares about as revenge for Victor not creating a female creature for the monster. That is, everyone except Ernest. At the beginning of the book, V...

Agreed So, I don't know how many of you read the Song of Ice and Fire Saga (aka Game of Thrones) but I finally got around to reading the fifth book ( A Dance with Dragons ) and I have some things to say about it. I read the previous four books pretty quickly, but I had a little trouble getting into this one and I've finally figured out why: the characters are too good . I mean, I don't know what it is, but everyone is hiking up their moral socks in this book: Jon invites the Wildlings to come south even though it would solve like five different problems for the Night's Watch just to let them die, Dany marries what's-his-face because she can't abandon Meeren even though practicality dictates that she climb on her dragons and cross the Narrow Sea, not to mention that Arya can't even kill people in good conscious anymore. Now, to most readers, I'm sure this seems like a good thing and, if this was real life, I would agree with you. But, fiction i...