Back to my Books

AWESOME BOOKS THAT IS. None of those crappy nursing textbooks or NCLEX review books. That's right bitches. I am back on track to read 50+ books this year. AND I WILL DO IT. I have my library card, two new tea mugs, a Keurig, and a ton of PG Tips. I am ready for the reading extravaganza of 2011. 

To prove my point, I went to the library and got a ton of books out:

I am done with three of them (Child 44, Are you There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea, and The Eyre Affair), and on the fourth (Confessions of a Shopaholic)! Those are books four, five, six and seven in 2011. I have a long way to go, but it's such a delicious prospect of reading 43 more books this year!!

I know I'm a nutter...but we all have to be crazy about something right? At least my addiction is books, and not eating chalk or drinking laundry detergent like those weirdos on TV.

Banned Books Week

The Library Can't Buy Books?

Sooo the awesome Mecklenburg County budget crisis has gotten so bad that the libraries can't stay open and can't buy books. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Read the press release here: 18 Local Bookstores Band Together to Help Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Libraries

It's great that these bookstores are trying to help out, but it just makes me SICK that the budget crisis is coming to this. What happens when the libraries can't buy books for their patrons?? I want to DO SOMETHING. I wish I had a bajillion dollars so I could single-handedly save the whole system. Maybe I should talk to Travis McCoy...he could include it in his next song.

Only four years ago, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library was one of three libraries honored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for it's extrodinary public service. Now it's slashing jobs and can't afford books.

Bullshit.

Wishful Thinking

Here are a couple things that I would LOVE to blog about, if I didn't have paperwork for TWO patients staring me down from the living room.

- How I read Traveling With Pomegranates and how it made me want to take a trip with my mom (and how jealous I was that they got to travel internationally SEVERAL times in a few years).

- How I'm now reading Then We Came to the End and can pull MULTIPLE quotes that refer back to the time just before my layoff. Like, "Both were good stories and together they killed a good hour. Some of us loved killing a good hour of the company's time and others felt guilty for it afterward. But whatever your personal feelings on the matter, you still had to account for the hour, so you billed it to a client." So freaking true. So far, the book is scarily accurate.

- I really, really, REALLY want to post another before and after about the house - this time about the KITCHEN which isn't completely finished, but it's PAINTED THANK GOD.

- OOOH and then there is the fact that I got to do a make-up run-through with my friend that's getting married this weekend. I think in another life I was a makeup artist.

However, I will stop blogging and get to work. Only 4 clinical days left this semester!!! Then on to babies and mothers and kids!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!

9 is my Favorite Number

I am rapidly approaching SPRING BREAK and that means LOTS of waiting tables and LOTS MORE reading!!! Right now I have nine books on my "Read" list for 2010, and I have FIVE books waiting for me at the library!!! Let me say again how much I LOVE THE LIBARARY and how library funding is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! You HEAR ME BEV PURDUE??? Sorry...SO back to the reading list. So far I have read...
1. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
2. and 3. Maus I and II, Art Spiegelman
4. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
5. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
6. A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin
7. 1000 NIghts of Snowfall, Bill Willingham
8. The Host, Stephanie Meyer
9. The Shack, William P. Young

I'm currently reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (last month's book club selection), and need to start on The Road, since that is this month's selection. Now I have an excuse to read that book! Both M and my dad told me NOT to read The Road, since I am very sensitive and have a propensity for keeping images in my head a long time. However, I talked to S, and she thinks that since I read Blindness by Jose Saramago, I should be ok. (Blindness has an extremely graphic scene in it that still haunts both of us...) And I have the following waiting for me at the library:
1. The Abstinenece Teacher, Tom Perrotta
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
3. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
4. Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd
5. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon

With three more requested but not available yet. =) I know it's a sickness - but at least I'm addicted to reading, and not crack! Hopefully I can plow through some of these during Spring Break - and can recommend one of them to my mom for her (very) fledgling book club!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Before I start, a brief whine: I don't WANNA start studying for my test! ::pout:: It's rainy and cold and gross and I want to curl up in a ball and start a new book. One that does NOT involve hearts or trach care or reading EKGs or starting IVs. Sigh.

On that note, several people have asked what books I've read so far in 2010. Here they are with a wee review:
1. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - FABULOUS book that traces the very intricate history of a very old book. Told through several points of view and time periods. I really liked how the story jumped around as it told the book's history (M did NOT enjoy that about the book).
2. Maus I - Great graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. If you haven't read a graphic novel before, PLEASE go to the library and check this one out. It's the story of the author's father during the holocaust. The Jews are mice and the Germans cats - nice.
3. Maus II - YES I'm counting Maus I and II as separate books, but it's MY personal book list so I don't care. I liked Maus I WAY better than Maus II. I feel like the author kind of lost his way and didn't know how to bring closure to the story. Which, if you think about it, makes sense - because how do you find closure with the Holocaust?
4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I really, really, really loved this book. I didn't think I would ... but the idea of traveling around the world to find yourself (through gelato, prayer and love) was too tempting for me to ignore, and I'm glad I didn't. GREAT ideas in there about spirituality and finding your path to God.
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I try and read the award-winning young adult fiction, and this one didn't disappoint. However, it's the first of a triliogy (I think), which is always severely annoying. I liked the first one (loved the main character's voice), but I'm not sure I want to read the second one. The third one looks good though...
6. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - A solid fantasy novel in the vein of Pillars of the Earth and a bit of Lord of The Rings. This book was given to me as a birthday present by our friend who has the whole series. YES, once again, the first of FOUR books, so we'll finish those off when I have more time (each book is 800+ pages!!).

So yesh. I guess I'll pull out my notes and start typing. Sigh. Community Health, here I come!

Overdue Books

Libraries are FABULOUS and they should be celebrated by all, and so should library books (I don't care what you say S). The ONLY problem with library books is the fact that you have to keep up with all the due dates! I currently have five books checked out from the library, and they have two differeent due dates. Not that big of a deal, I know, but I still want this beautiful 2010 Overdue Book Calendar.

Pretty, huh?
You can get the downloadable PDF for $4 on Etsy.com. I love Etsy... AND on a different note I love Julie and Julia - I just watched my mom's copy and just loved it. And of course, I now want to attempt beef bourguignon - it looks delicious! However, since it has a "difficult" rating I may put it off for a bit. =)

Umm, on the "Books" note...

I was skimming the Web for a picture of my soon-to-be-latest-read, People of the Book, and came across SO MANY blogs about reading. And if you think that 30+ books in a year is a big number, go look for those blogs. Those people are reading 100+ books a year. Sheesh.

However, I thought this one post over at Lizzy's Literary Life was funny: The Book Bag. She talks about not knowing how many books to bring along on her upcoming trip to California, which is a dilemma that I just encountered. It was REALLY hard, but I narrowed it down and brought only four. =)

It also reminds me of a present M got me for Christmas - this bag from Barnes and Noble. It has well-known quotations from many different books, and I only had to look up two. (I was quite proud) My husband knows me so well!LASTLY, there are a bajillion "Book Challenges" out there. I really want to sign up for some but 1 - I'm worried about my class load and 2 - i don't want to write reviews. Sooo I'll figure out this whole "Challenge" stuff a bit more and report back later. Anyways, I guess NOW I'll go start on that Christmas stuff...

Book Count: 2009

Well, 2009 is over and that means I must start a new "Books Read" list for 2010. Here's a list of all the books I read in 2009:

• Persepolis 2
• Free Range Chickens (SUPER fast and funny)
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret (BEAUTIFUL pictures, really good)
• The Children are Free (really interesting take on homosexuality and the Bible)
• Mother Tongue
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
• What is the What (Amazing book, amazing story)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
• Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World
• Sula
• My Antonia (SO glad I read it, but I still like O, Pioneers! better...)
• The Stand (Made me want to read other Stephen King novels)
• City of Thieves (LOVED, LOVED)
• Pride of Baghdad (Made me cry)
• Marked
• Blue Bloods
• Twilight
• New Moon
• Eclipse
• Breaking Dawn
• Dune
• How Starbucks Saved My Life
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Another easy one that everyone should read)
• Love, Loss, and What I Wore
• The City of Ember
• The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
• White Teeth (FINALLY read Zadie Smith, and WOW)
• Born on a Blue Day

Total for the year: 31. That's three less than 2008's total...but I DID start nursing school this year...so give me a break. There IS a lot of easy-peasy fiction on there (Harry Potter, Twilight, vampire teen novels ... but once again, I was on VACATION in between school semesters and I needed something easy. Thankfully our book club meets this next week, so I 'll get 2010's list started sooner rather than later. I have a feeling this semester at school isn't really going to allow me much reading time. Sigh.

Also, this year I want to read more nonfiction. The Zookeeper's Wife was nonfiction - or really a nonfiction narrative - and both What is the What and Born on a Blue Day were memoirs, but that's it. My uncle M reads ONLY nonfiction, but I can't imagine doing that.

Anyways. I'm off to take down Christmas decorations! Woot woot!

Our Country has a Spending Problem...

So. This blog started out as a PF blog, and I was planning to return to it's roots with today's entry. I was going to ask a bunch of questions and hope against hope that someone out there would hear my pitiful plea and answer some of them. But, I talked to my friend over at American Judgment and we ended up having a 30-minute conversation about everything I wanted to rant/ask about.

So instead, I'm going to quote from American Judgment's most recent post - he asked the question that has been in the forefront of my mind ...

Explain how it is mathematically impossible to bailout the banks, spend $800 billion (plus interest) to stimulate the economy, Nationalized Health care, increase education, refinance mortgages, lower taxes for 55% of Americans (95-40% in #8), give welfare checks to 40% of Americans, and cut the deficit in half using only the savings from reduced Iraq operations and eliminating the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers. Seriously, how can anyone think that is possible? Just writing that list pissed me off....

I Agree. HOW are we supposed to do all of that at once? On borrowed money? Do these other countries know we aren't going to pay them back this century? Now, as I have said before, I'm just an English major...so if someone can explain this to me, PLEASE do! (And please, a little more in-depth than M's explanation - "we print the IOUs, so we can do it.")

Mmmk. I am going to try to be zen and happy, because really, what can we do about all this? To combat the lack of hope being reported in the media, QuarterLife Finances has followed Well-Heeled's lead and listed five things to be thankful for. I think I'll end on a similar note. =)

1. Our cat seems to be much better! No more throwing up in the middle of the night. Whew.
2. Book Club was super fun last night, and we picked an interesting book for next month - I'm excited to start.
3. I started going to the gym again, and I'm really really enjoying it (for once)!!
4. My husband is awesome.
5. Even though my current job situation kinda sucks (just an FYI, waiting tables is MUCH HARDER than my old cushy desk job), we are still OK. We can pay our rent, and eat and even do a fun thing or two. We are very very blessed.

What are you thankful for at the moment?? Leave some love and let me know!

Reading While Unemployed

Just a small note - I read four books in the first three weeks of January (when I had a job)... and I haven't finished one since I lost the job.

I'm working on a thick one...but haven't finished. It's just odd.

My Poor Link...

...the link from my last post seems to have died. =(

However...if you post a comment saying you would like the lovely book spreadsheet, I can e-mail it to you (or upload it...or whatever)!

Let me know!

-D

I <3 Reading (and a vampire named Edward...)

Sooooo my "Now Reading" section REALLY needs to be updated. Since The Ugly American, I've read Lolita, Twilight, New Moon, the first three chapters of Eclipse (Thanks S) and I'm now into Sophie's Choice. My coworkers also just handed me Nights in Rodanthe this morning, and I'm about 4 chapters in thanks to lunch.

Whew.

Anyway...I think that tiny paragraph gives you a SMALL taste of my book obsession. I mean, I saw Batman: The Dark Knight this weekend, and although it was FAB (and completely draining I might add) I was REALLY THRILLED about the trip to Borders before the movie. =) I convinced my non-reading brother to buy The Stand (which I'm totally stealing after he's done) and my mom to buy The Secret Life of Bees (which I'm also stealing to re-read when she's done). On TOP of that, M and I bought Bless Me, Ultima (for book club) and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Whew x2.

LASTLY...by other book-obsessed friend sent me this link where you can download a spreadsheet of the "1001 books you should read before you die." WHY is the spreadsheet so nifty you might ask??? WELL, because you can put a little "r" next to the ones you've read, and the spreadsheet magically tells you what percentage of the 1001 books you've read. AND how many more books you have to read PER YEAR two get through all of them before you die.

Yup. Bibliophilia meets Type A. Supersweet.

Anyway, download the spreadsheet and kill time. AND tell me how many you've read! I'm at about 75. Muwhahahaa.

Whew x3! SHEESH.

Lastly - my post title mentions a certain vampire named Edward. If you have read any of the Twilight books, heard anyone TALK about the Twilight books, or even seen the Twilight trailer...then you know what I mean. What. A. Hottie. If you haven't done any of the above, please let me know and I'll fill you in to the best of my ability. Swoon!

K. I've rambled long enough...have a lovely day!!!

Crazy Morning

My cat thought it would be cool to wake up before dawn this morning. Soooo not cool cat…just not cool. In response to hit obnoxious noises, I shut him in the other room – and then proceeded to sleep about 45 minutes past my alarm. Supersweet.

So, now I have wet hair at the office. Which really isn’t that big of a deal since we have a business casual office and no clients will see me today – BUT my office is freezing. And so I am doubly cold. I’m currently sporting a really cool jean jacket – over my long-sleeved sweater and long pants – and drinking a hot cup of tea – on the first day of July.

However, things are still good. I’m halfway through my online class – HA. I find this funny because I have to be DONE in about 2.5 weeks…and it’s taken me about a month to get this far. Mind you, I’ve been completely slacking. But now I have to hunker down and get with it. woot! Also, we had book club last night and we’re reading Lolita for our next book!!! I am very excited, since it was the choice of yours truly.

I wanted to read Lolita as a group since it was soooo good when I read it a couple years ago. It’s uncomfortable and beautiful and downright disturbing. It also has a lot of facets that I didn’t see the first time around…so I’m excited to talk about it as a group. I know - I'm a dork.

Aight. Only three more days of work this week!! Yippie! AND we have plans for the fourth, which is very cool! Too bad we aren't leaving town...BUT the parents are coming in, so that should be interesting...

Annual Review

Last Friday I had my annual review – my SECOND annual review. I can’t believe that its been two years since I walked through that door and made myself at home in my widdle office (with a window!)… Two years is a long time, BTW. I’ve only had one other job longer than I’ve had this one, and that was waiting tables/bartending. AND, I had breaks from that (like small summer vacations and my semester abroad).

Anyway. I had my review. And it was positive for the most part! And I got a (small) raise!! Which is AMAZING, especially in this crazy economy. We’ve had three contacts get fired in the last month or so, and it makes me very nervous to not have a lot to do at work. I guess the only solution is just to keep plugging along…but I get really bored…and want to do something else.

That was something noted on my review – keep away from outside distractions. HA easier said than done…especially when there is NO way I have eight hours of work a day. NO WAY. My timesheets are lookin’ pretty slim lately. But…I can promise that I’ll do all my work…and then goof off.

So yeah. My review. I don’t have to stare THAT down for a while…and hopefully at that point I can say, “This has been fun, but I’m going back to school. Want to give me some part-time work?” Seriously…if we are still this slow (well, if we are still this slow a year from now, I probably wont have a job) I could do my job in only four hours. Whatever.

But yay! I can look forward to about an extra $100 every month! P-A-R-T-Y! No, in all seriousness…the raise is awesome. It means that I am worth something to my company and they believe in my work…even when I don’t. And, that made me feel really awful. I hate lying to my coworkers and my employer about my long-term prospects at my company…but in this economy, what else can you do?

I made myself feel better with a little shopping trip to Forever 21. I know their stuff ifs crap, but its tres cute, and in my budget of under $20. =) I bought a cute little dress (it seems that everyone is wearing dresses out…does anyone else notice that??) and a pair of earrings for about $21. Supersweet.

On another note, I finished Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress...and Kabul Beauty School. Now I'm readingThe Glass Castle...and it's kinda depressing...alas. I have to work fast though - book club is next week and I haven't read the book yet!!

A Note on Books

I know I have a pretty photo on the side of the blog that shows you what I'm currently reading...but there is no other way for me to keep a running list of those books than to, well, make a list. =) So when I change books, I'll also make a note of the new book in my current post. I love to read, and if anyone has read, is reading or wants to read any of these books...let me know - I also love talking about books!

Since I started this blog:
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Dijie

World War Z - Max Brooks

The Alchemist - Paul Coelho

Little Children - Tom Perrotta
Towelhead - Alicia Erian
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

2007 Taxes? Check.

We finally finished our taxes the other night – glorious. We get a little more back than we expected…but had the unexpected expense of having to pay to file. We had borrowed my dad’s tax program, and unlike the free one online, you had to pay for both state and federal taxes. Not cool. Then, if you wanted to pay your filing fee by just subtracting it from your refund (the logical and lazy choice), you had to be $35 extra! That is insane. As M was objecting to the ridiculousness of the entire process, I whipped out my credit card. (This was the FOURTH time I had read out our W-2’s to M while he entered the info, and I was not doing it again…) Oh well. Way to go Turbo Tax…you suckered another one.

I’m really excited about getting a refund, but I am more excited about our “incentive check” that’ll be coming as well. We’ve already decided to put the whole amount toward our outstanding credit card debt…but I have the feeling I’m going to be accosted with requests for “Rock Band” when we have all that cash in the bank. I love Guitar Hero, and Rock Band is soooo much fun – it’s just that the game is $150…and that is a bit nutty to me. Oh well, M is amazing, so I should probably drop the stingy wife routine for a bit, eh?

We had book club last night – next up is Little Children by Tom Perrotta…and we decided to read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov after that. I’m super excited about both – I’ve read Lolita already, but it’ll be good to be able to discuss that book – it’s a little racy. And by a little I mean very very unsettling. Problem is, I want to buy Little Children! The cover art (NOT the movie tie-in cover, I can’t stand those…I could talk about that all day…) is so great – with little goldfish or tiny cookies and grass… The cover is just innocent-looking, with a slightly-menacing feel. I love it and I want it. Oh well, we’ll see.

In other news, I didn’t win my office’s NCAA pool – oh well, I really wasn’t expecting to…but what HAPPENED to UNC in the Final Four? Talk about losing it…

Anyway, sorry it's been so long since I posted...but things have been crazy with work and school (I have two tests this week)!

Books, Books, Everywhere...

I’m going to keep this short because I’m absolutely exhausted – thanks to my latest reading adventure. I started My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult on Tuesday after class…and I’m almost done today. I’m a pretty fast reader, but this story has just sucked me in and isn’t letting go. Therefore, I stayed up reading until 1:30 a.m. last night, long after M went to sleep (the kitty too!). The sad/great thing is, I want to just drop everything and finish the dang book!

I’m kinda a bibliophile. I love love LOVE books – not just reading, but also owning them. Now, I am not opposed to libraries – like my best friend S – I even thought about becoming a librarian after college – but there is something about those titles lined up on a bookshelf. I had a really tall, five-self bookshelf growing up, and I think it slightly fueled my obsession. I would leave books lying around the house all the time…usually two at a time. When I got older and had even more books, it saddened me to have to move my American Girl, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley books to an attic box. In college, as an English Literature major, there were even more books lying around.

Borders and Barnes and Noble continue to be soothing spots for me (I love used books stores too; I’m really not being picky. There are just so many more BIG bookstores) I always knew books were pricey, but after I graduated from college it really hit home. $20 for a paperback? $35 for a hardback? That is NOT cool. Still, from time to time I’ll give in and go on a tiny spree, and occasionally I’ll get a gift certificate and go nuts. M and I have two Target bookshelves in our place, filled with colorful titles that range from classic to trashy – and I love every one of them.

Anyway, this is kinda random – but comes back to personal finance, I promise! If you count up all the books that I own, it would be a LOT of money. Now, it’s not quite as bad as Carrie Bradshaw owning $40,000 in shoes…but my books aren’t $400 a pop! Anyway, it’s a vice that I am trying to get over – I’ve been frequenting the library much more often (when I’m not reading for class or for the book club I started – I know, I’m a huge dork)…and I think I’ve only bought one hardback book since I completed my Harry Potter collection. So, I’m doing better. But I still have to hold myself in check when I aimlessly browse a Borders…

Well, this wasn’t that short…but I could talk about books forever! Happy Thursday!!

Cutting Cable = Joy!

When the boy and I lived at our old apartment, we got drastically reduced cable and internet - thanks to the fact that he worked for the company that was renting us the place. Well, when he changed jobs and we moved to our new and bigger apt., we couldn't get the deal anymore...which was tragic since the bill came to $130 a month. For just cable and internet!! Now to be honest, we had gotten digital cable and DVR at our old apartment, which is not only fantastic (PAUSING shows, SKIPPING commercials, RECORDING shows with the push of a button - OMG), but addicting as well. So, we had to overcome that addiction and say goodbye.

Also, as a side note, may I say that Time Warner Cable sucks??

So M went to the cable place and returned the digital receiver...and told them we wanted basic cable (like, the $11 per month kind with 14 channels) and a slower (and cheaper) internet. Lovely! At first, we didn't even notice the change in internet speed (it's slightly slower), and the cable company still has not gotten rid of all our channels (we still get HBO, Discovery, MTV, CNN, etc.). However, the new rate didn't kick in the first month (stupid TWC), but now we have a $60 credit! Woot!

Not paying the outrageous cable bill is really helping our budget. AND, not paying the bill at all this month (or next) really helps us out too! Not to mention that TV is a complete brain-drain. Seriously. There were multiple evenings when M and I would sit in front of the TV for a few hours and then comment how "I can't remember one thing that we watched tonight" on our way to bed. Yeah - awful.

So, cutting cable is an amazing thing. You don't need digital cable and DVR (although it is great to rewind LOST to catch those "easter eggs"), use your VCR! And, ummmm, as an English major I have to tote the complete awesomeness of BOOKS. And hey, you can read those at the library (or at your local bookstore - once I read the entire Third Summer of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants at Borders/Barnes and Noble - don't judge, it's a great book!) - for FREE.

Anyway, what it comes down to is simplifying and enriching your life, and cutting cable did both of those things! Less TV = Joy!