Sometimes you buy a Christmas present for yourself

And sometimes that present is The Mockingbirds. See you after I've read it!

Another year over

It is that time of year again. Of course, I am referring to the end-of-year-list time. Have you been losing sleep wondering what your favourite things from 2010 are? No longer. Putting things in lists ranked from best to worst is everyone's favourite Christmas gift to themselves. I can't get too snarky, because reading these lists is always fun, and they are great for drawing your attention to books you didn't know existed. With that, I admit shamefully that I had not heard of any of the books on this list from NPR. They sound great, though, and I am particularly interested in The Things a Brother Knows. Fodder for my next trip to the bookstore? Not that I needed it.

Thinking over the year, I actually read very little. Reading for a living (I am a proofreader) is wonderful, but one negative side effect is that it can be difficult to come home and delve into a book when you've been reading all day. And sometimes when I do read, I find myself mentally adjusting the style of the book to our house style, correcting sentence structure I disagree with, etc. This doesn't happen all the time, and the more books I read outside of work, the better I am with it. But it's deciding to pick up a new book that can be a challenge.

Solution: the book club I mentioned in an earlier post. It starts this January, with the topic Wars of the 20th Century. I am so excited, you guys. Though I have neglected it in recent years, I used to have a bit of a love of history (history award, twelfth grade, *ahem*), and this might turn out to be the best category. As for what book to read, I haven't decided for sure, but I am thinking about Pierre Berton. Some might say I should move my focus from the most famous wars of the 20th century, but to those people I say make your own book club. Canadian history is really impressive, and I miss it. I am not sure which book by Berton I'll choose yet, but I am leaning toward Marching as to War.

The actual details of this book club have been vague so far, except for the picking-categories part, so I am not sure how the discussion is going to go. But I will definitely post my thoughts here, and you all would certainly be welcome to participate in any conversations about them. Starting in January 2011!

A glimpse into my brain

My thoughts on an ereader in the past month:

1) Hmm, ereaders seem to be the big Christmas gift this year. They're cool, I guess, but I love real books.
2) Don't have too many ideas of what to ask for this year for Christmas. Maybe I'll put a Kindle on the list. What the hey. If it's free. But I'm still going to ask for a real book just in case.
3) I want to buy this book. But what if I get a Kindle for Christmas? Better wait.
4) IF I DON'T GET A KINDLE FOR CHRISTMAS MY LIFE IS OVER.

What happened? Ereaders have completely seduced me.

A Tale of Two Nerds

No time to post lately, but I would like to direct your attention to this blog post my friend Chloë wrote about how often we dork out about Harry Potter. Timely!

Have a good weekend, everyone! Gryffindor!

Procrastination Makes It Happen

It is approximately 8 pm on a Friday night. I just woke up from a little thing I like to call a procrastination nap. Tomorrow morning, ridiculously early, I have to be on a train. Before that happens, I have to do about five loads of laundry, pack, take a shower, and attempt to clean up my disgusting home. I am thinking about making some cookies.

So, obviously, it is time to sit down and write a blog post.

This week a long-distance friend of mine [okay, cookies are in the oven. Some cravings just can't be ignored] posted a link to a Salon article suggesting that instead of writing for NaNoWriMo, people make an effort to read more. The idea is that you read 10 books from 10 different categories in the space of 10 months (totalling 100 books—10 from each category). Now, as a person with a full-time job, this is impossible. But we decided that reading 1 book from each of the 10 categories was a respectable challenge. So now we are in the process of choosing the categories. It's looking like popular history and popular science will make it in, as well as short stories and contemporary bestsellers. I'm excited to broaden my reading scope a bit, and I'm looking at this as both an excuse to buy new books and motivation to read some that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. All in all, good reading project. I'll probably blog as I go (somehow using blog as a verb still sounds pretentious, but whatever), if you're interested. And even if you're not.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Procrastination time is probably over. For now.

[cookie update: kind of cakey, since I accidentally added baking powder. dough is always the best part anyway.]

On Exercising

Unsolicited fitness update: I am extremely out of shape.

I say this a lot, but that's because it is usually true. I would like to say my relationship with exercise is complicated, but it's actually very simple: I don't really like it. I like the results, and so sometimes I can fool myself into thinking I like it. When I am in shape I am happier, I know that much. And so exercising is worth it. But I get bored. I get distracted. Most of all, I get sore muscles and want to quit.

October is a particularly bad month. My old roommate from university and I used to call it Fat Month (full disclosure: we still do) because of all the Halloween candy we used to (still) eat. This October was no exception, and now I find myself afraid to get on a scale and more than a bit uncertain about how to stop all of these bad habits. What to do?

Enter Vicki Essex! A soon-to-be-published romance novelist and friend of mine, she has decided that instead of doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, as she is already a very disciplined writer, she is doing NaNoExMo. (I am still not quite sure what the "No" means, but the "Ex" is exercise.) The gist is that she's vowed to work out for thirty minutes three times a week throughout the month of November. And because it's such a good idea, I've decided I'm going to join her. She didn't ask or anything, but too bad! I'm going to plague her with calories burned and lunges lunged all month long anyway. Hopefully this will create some good habits to replace the bad, and at the end of it all I hope to have more energy and motivation for this blog as well as other projects.

Wish me luck! I promise not to do too many boring exercise posts.

P.S. Regarding the photo: this is a picture of my family's cat, the Hulk. He is adorable but, let's face it, a little on the chubby side. So I figured it was an appropriate picture for this post.

This is Halloween

This week is Halloween. I never think I am a huge fan of Halloween, but then, in the weeks leading up to October 31st I seem to love scary costumes and cutting pumpkins into amusing shapes. Here is where I should probably write about YA horror books, but I am a big fat wimp and really hate that stuff. I don't get a thrill out of horror books/movies, I just feel terribly unsettled for the rest of the night. So instead I will recommend something that is kind of close to horror (but really not at all): paranormal fiction.
Paranormal fiction is scary in the way that it usually involves things like werewolves and vampires, only it's actually not scary because these werewolves and vampires are just like us! But more mysterious. And attractive (sometimes).
Lately paranormal fiction, and especially paranormal YA fiction, has been very popular. This gets largely credited to Stephenie Meyer. I just wrote three sentences concerning that and deleted them all because of unsportsmanlike conduct, so I'll just continue.
I sometimes think I don't like stories with vampires/werewolves/demons etc., but lately I've come to realize that when I think this, I am completely delusional. Because, you guys, I think I love them. There are some really well-written novels out there about werewolves and their (surprisingly) varied brethren.
Specifically, let's talk about an Irish author I like named Sarah Rees Brennan. Sarah published her debut novel, The Demon's Lexicon, in 2009 with Simon & Schuster. Now, as someone in denial about her love for demons et al, I was skeptical about the title, but I read the first chapter on Sarah's blog and was pretty much immediately hooked by her writing style. The Demon's Lexicon universe is compelling and original, but what I think is the real strength of Sarah's writing is the way she presents relationships between people, and specifically familial relationships. Nick and Alan, two of the central characters of the book, will break your heart. In a good way.
This is another one of those books where I can't say too much for fear of spoiling things, should any of you choose to read this book (or the second in the trilogy—did I mention it's a trilogy?—The Demon's Covenant). But I will say that the author is outspoken about featuring strong women in her books, and this is another thing I love about the book: women in it are unapologetically fierce, demanding and, even when thinking romantic thoughts about Nick and/or Alan (listen, you don't understand. It happens. They can't help it), maintain their independence and rational thought. I know some books lead you to believe this is impossible, but it's not! It's actually very refreshing and realistic.
Do you want to read it yet? I hope you do. I kind of want to read it again. Maybe I will.