Richer Reading Life Update

We’ve made it halfway through the year! Is my reading life richer?

Books

• By a woman – The Bell Jar
• By a POC – Bad Feminist
• By a LGBT+ person – More Than This
• Deals with Mental Illness
• Woman in Politics
• Author over 65
• Author from Africa
• Takes place in Asia
• Indie press – Pedal Zombies
• Translation – Sings Preceding the End of the World
• Poetry – Poisoned Apples 
• Published before 1850
• Genre I typically avoid
• Award Winner
• Audiobook
• Recommendation

I have Poetry done and a few others picked out. I can knock off two casual challenges as well as one of these with a library book. However I had so many holds come in at the same time, I didn’t get around to it. The titles I have in mind shouldn’t be going anywhere in the next six months so hopefully I’ll be more productive in the next quarter.

 

Activities

• Ask a local librarian for a recommendation
• Ask someone I respect for a recommendation and read it right away
• Read outside – outside a restaurant, near some shops, and on the beach
• Read a book that looks like it will make you uncomfortable
• Read out loud to someone I love – Boyfriend and Ghostly Encounters
• Dog ear a page – Never Open Desert Diner quotes
• Write in margins
• Give away a book that’s been in my TBR a long time Most of my 2nd quarterly cull
• Cull 10 books from my collection and don’t bring any home for a month Culled? Check. Working on the no-new books.
• Attend a reading event near me – This Is Why You’re Single sketch show and book tour
• Read the book, watch the movie, debate which is better
• Listen to an audio book of a physical book I DNF
• Listen to a podcast about books – Dear Book Nerd and BookTube
• Memorize a poem
• Read one page of a holy book of faith I was not raised with
• Have a conversation about books with someone you’ve never talked books with before MRI tech

Talking books with someone I’ve never talked books with before was difficult. Most of my friends are readers so books come up easily and often. However, I wasn’t expecting to connect with the fellow doing my MRI. We had a lovely chat, enjoy the same poets, and I recommended a book. I wanted to spread out my outdoor reading just so it would feel more meaningful. I was able to cross off my final location while on a trip to the coast. Boyfriend wanted to check out some attractions while I wanted to relax with my book. Win-win if you ignore the sunburn.

Reading aloud was much easier than I thought. I was wracking my brain for what to do and then a ghost hunter memoir I suggested came into the library. Jeff Scott Cole thought to include QR codes so we could see and (mostly) hear the evidence he collected. I shared several EVPs with Boyfriend and read to him from those chapters for context. As for the culling, I have definitely culled more than 10 books in this latest purge. Can I be good for the month of July?

Based on the speed at which my library holds seem to be coming in, possibly. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Books

1. Illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
2. This Is Why You’re Single by Laura Lane & Angela Spera
3. Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken & Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Green Man by Ellen Datlow
5. Sisters of the Revolution edited by Ann VanderMeer
6. Sharkpunk edited by Jonathan Green
7. The Feminist Utopia Project by Alexandra Blonsky & Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
8. Headscarves & Hymens: Why the Middle Easy Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy

I was left largely unattended in a book store while returning a duplicate I got for a gift. At least it was an indie bookstore. I plan on acquiring more books from a different indie later this year. Hopefully I can finally make good on one of my activities and not bring any books home in July.

2nd Quarterly Cull

These are all the books I’ve culled over the last 3 months.

1. Cake Wrecks
2. In the Beginning (mental_floss)
3. Forbidden Knowledge (mental_floss)
4. Instant Knowledge (mental_floss)
5. The Never Open Desert Diner
6. Exploiting My Baby Because It’s Exploiting Me
7. The Postmistress
8. Belle Weather: Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits
9. On Strike for Christmas
10. A Version of the Truth
11. Literacy and Longing in L.A.
12. Earthman Jack and the Ghost Planet
13. Johnny Hiro
14. The Help
15. Ten Girls to Watch
16. Seven Wonders
17. Y: The Last Man Vol 1
18. Y: The Last Man Vol 2
19. Y: The Last Man Vol 3
20. The Walking Dead Vol 1
21. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon Vol 1
22. The Power of Kindness
23. What They Don’t Teach You in College
24. I Am the Messenger
25. If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name
26. The First Husband
27. Up All Night (YA anthology)
28. The Boneshaker
29. Infernal Devices
30. Morlock Night
31. Arranged
32. Crazy Enough by Storm Large
33. Someday, Someday Maybe
34. Agent to the Stars
35. Picador Book of 40
36. Native Star
37. Hidden Goddess
38. Wicked City #2
39. Steam Engines of Oz Vol 2
40. The Battle of Blood and Ink
41. Laughter: A Scientific Investigation
42. Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory
43. Dog Days: A Year in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile
44. Wish You Weren’t Here: The Black Cat Anthology of Travel Humor
45. My Big, Fat, Supernatural Honeymoon
46. Home Improvement by Charlaine Harris
47. Extraordinary Engines (steampunk anthology)
48. 1oo Things You’re Not Supposed to Know by Russ Kick
49. Arena by Karen Hancock
50. The Executor by Jon Evans
51. Yoga Bitch
52. House of Cards: The True Story of How a 26-Year-Old Fundamentalist Virgin Learned about Life, Love, and Sex by Writing Greeting Cards
53. You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl
54. Rude Bitches Make Me Tired
55. The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte
56. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
57. Many Bloody Returns
58. Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
59. A New Earth
60. The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay
61. Yes Means Yes
62. Deadfall Hotel
63. Enlightened Sexism
64. Bitchfest
65. We Don’t Need Another Wave
66. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
67. Jurassic Park
68. Jurassic Park: The Lost World
69. Jpod
70. Better than Fiction
71. Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old like a Skank
72. So Many Books, So Little Time
73. Out of the Broom Closet
74. Lost Voices (mermaid story)
75. Faery Tales (memoir)
76. Malled
77. After edited by Ellen Datlow
78. Reading Women
79. The Bitch in the House
80. sTORI Telling by Tori Spelling
81. If Only by Geri Halliwell
82. The Orphan Master’s Son
83. Vamplets 1
84. Vamplets 2
85. Fort Freak
86. Busted Flush
87. Ares & Aphrodite Vol 1
88. Unbeatblae Squirrel Girl Vol 1
89. Reed Gunther Vol 1
90. Cambodian Grrrl
91. The Woods Vol 1
92. Foreign Babes in Beijing
93. Blowing My Cover by Lindsay Moran
94. The Big Tiny
95. No Baggage
96. The Cutting Room
97. World War Z
98. Below Stairs
99. Six Word Memoirs 1
100. Six Word Memoirs 2
101. Six Word Memoirs Love & Heartbreak
102. Anansi Boys
103. Metatropolis
104. A Truth Universally Acknowledged
105. What Is This Things Called Love?
106. Farhenheit 451 (graphic novel)
107. Stays Crunchy in Milk
108. Recipes for a Perfect Marriage
109. Down the Mysterly River
110. The Dirty Life
111. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
112. It’s Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single
113. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace
114. Jane Austen’s Guide to Thrift
115. Part-Time Princesses
116. The Telling by Jo Baker
117. The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss
118. Trouble in Paradise
119. They’re Not Like Us Vol 1
120. Songs of Love and Death
121. Luke Skywalker Can’t Read
122. Murder at Mansfield Park
123. Libriomancer
124. The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things
125. Coud Atlas
126. Sleep Talkin’ Man
127. This Book Is Overdue!
128. Jane Austen Made Me Do It
129. My Name Is Memory
130. Saga Vol 1
131. Saga Vol 2
132. All Stories Are Love Stories
133. Outlander
134. Indestructible
135. Firebrands
136. Black Science Vol 1
137. Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1
138. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
139. A New Earth
140. Joe Golem and the Drowning City
141. My Friend Dahmer
142. How to Build a Girl
143. What Matters in Jane Austen?
144. Jane’s Fame
145. The Stuff of Legend Vol 1
146. The Stuff of Legend Vol 2
147. Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells
148. The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination
149. Starling
150. To Be Real
151. Point Your Face at This
152. This Is a Book
153. Kraken
154. The Greatest Show on Earth
155. LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring*
156. LOTR: The Two Towers*
157. LOTR: The Return of the King*

I got pretty ruthless this time. I decided that if I can get it from the library, I don’t need to keep it. Minus a few favorites, I did just that. I even managed to sell a handful to Powell’s. Ultimately, I want to be able to store most of my books horizontally and get the total under 500. Despite many autographed book purchases at Awesome Con, I’m well on my way to that.

* – Don’t tie yourselves in a knot. I want to read these but I had cheap movie-fied mass market paperbacks. When I’m ready to read them, I’ll get prettier editions.

Read-a-Thon

I see these Read-a-Thon videos all the time on BookTube. Who starts them? Where do the rules come from? How does it all work?

I did a bit of homework and it looks like most read-a-thons are like book tags. Anyone can create one but you need a decent number of people to make it take off. I just described every meme ever created.

I found one taking place this month: the High Summer Read-a-Thon. No rules other than plow through your TBR pile with gusto which kind of works for me right now. Whenever I go to the library, my eyes are always bigger than my proverbial stomach. Hopefully I will down the various titles staring at me from my TBR and library piles.

I predict a graphic novel heavy TBR since they’re among the few things I can down in an evening but I’ll let you know what I decide.

Music Monday: Road Trip

Summer is the perfect time for trips to the lake, beach, or wherever your good times happen. This playlist is about hitting the road.

Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones
Highway to Hell by AC/DC
Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf
Life in the Fast Lane by The Eagles
Life Is a Highway by Tom Cochrane
Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett
Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles
I’ve Been Everywhere by Johnny Cash
Runnin’ Down a Dream by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Where the Strees Have No Name by U2
Get Out of My Dreams by Billy Ocean
Ridin’ by Chamillionaire
Shut Up and Drive by Rihanna
Greased Lightning from Grease
I Drove All Night by Cyndi Lauper
Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots
Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf
Girls Fast Cars by The Wombats
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers

My Dream Bookshop

Inspired by this video from Jen Campbell, I got to think about what kind of bookshop I’d like to open.

It would either be on a bustling downtown street in a townhouse or in a scenic downtown near the water. The basement and top floor would be used for storage and the office. The shop pet or mascot would be a rescue dog.

We would only sell genre fiction. Fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, magical realism, dystopia, post-apocalyptic, and horror. Ideally I would have a loft or small area set aside for Teen & YA. I don’t know how many children’s books I could stock but I’d definitely have at least down to middle grade.

I’d want my shop to be compact so not too much room for squishy chairs. The register would be on a counter with shelves on the side. On those shelves would be the staff recommendations. Our window display would always be themed. Women’s history month? Here’s some stories with bad-ass women. GoT premiering? Here’s the books and some of his anthologies. Back to school? Here’s some stuff they make you read in class. Once Upon a Time premieres? Here’s some twisted fairy tales.

A list of titles we’d carry would include but not be limited to:

• 1984
• Brave New World
• Frankenstein
• Rick Riordan series
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• All Jasper Fforde books
• Most, if not all, Neil Gaiman books
• Stephen King
• Terry Pratchett
• LOTR & other Tolkien
• GoT & Martin’s many anthologies
• Harry Dresden
• Most of Ellen Datlow’s anthologies
• Frank Herbet
• Isaac Asimov
• Ursula LeGuin
• Madeline L’Engle
• The Checquy Files series
• Harry Potter series
• The Raven Boys series
• The Hunger Games series
• Dracula
• Neal Stephenson
• Doctor Who books
• Star Wars books
• Star Trek books
• Clive Barker
• Richard Matheson
• Ray Bradbury
• Robert Heinlein
• Orson Scott Card (not many since he’s terrible)
• H. P Lovecraft
• Veronica Roth
• Sabaa Tahir
• Cassandra Clare
• John Joseph Adams anthologies
• G. D. Falksen
• Octavia Butler
• V. E. Schwab
• Patrick Ness
• Catherynne M. Valente
• Simon R. Green
• John Scalzi
• Cherie Priest
• Kelly Link
• Charles Stross
• Cory Doctrow
• Jeff VanderMeer
• Patricia C. Wrede
• John Connolly
• Joe Hill
• Ransom Riggs
• Patricia Briggs
• Marissa Meyer

There are many others but this paints a pretty broad picture of what I’d be shooting for. Maybe Twilight if there was the demand for it but I’d only ever have 3 or fewer box sets in the store at any given time.

The only nonfiction we’d have would be first hand UFO accounts & ghost stories, science-behind-the-series type of thing, a few biographies of famous sci-fi authors, and some of the nonfiction work of popular authors. Ideally, this wouldn’t require an entire shelf. I might make it share if we found any poetry that fit the theme. That is my dream bookshop.

I don’t know what the name would be but I’d want it to be something punny like Out of This World or Once Upon a Time Machine books

Capsule Update

My pre-Firefly outfits

During Firefly I wore all 4 wicking capris, all 3 sleeveless tops, and the blue tee. Only 2 sports bras got worn so I may return the unworn one.

Tuesday was the blue bird dress and then then the green skirt + black tank + cream shrug. Here’s some of my other combos

Sunday was the start of Shark Week so I had to celebrate. While they’re off capsule, it was an occasion and they’ll be going back in their drawer for a few months after this.

My other outfit was my Kylon Ren tank and casual capris. I may do some shuffling around of pieces so if my base capsule changes, I’ll let you know.

Richer Reading Life Activity 7

I read aloud to someone I love. I convinced my library to get a copy of Ghostly Encounters by Jeff Scott Cole. Cole is a teacher/history buff by day, paranormal investigator by night. He talks about how he got involved, tools of the trade, and various experiences/encounters he’s had. He included several QR codes that link to (mostly) audio and video evidence.

Boyfriend and I were on a Ghost Adventures binge last fall and he’s listened to several episodes of Jim Harold’s Campfire podcast. When one of the EVPs was incredibly clear, I had Boyfriend listen to it. He was impressed and I read to him several times from the book so he could have context for the EVPs or would know the creepy tales of the various places.

I give Ghostly Encounters 3.5/5. It was interesting writing and the interactive QR codes were excellent. However, I often had to stockpile them since I read on the train and had no signal. They weren’t easily found on the website either. My other big complaint was the lack of book. The memoir/narrative stopped after less than 200 pages. Around 60 pages were devoted to listing some haunted places in all 50 states and different paranormal groups in each state.

Those lists could have been on the website. The haunted places were cool but very abridged and I don’t need to know about paranormal groups in Utah or Minnesota. I’d rather have more book and more tales. It was good, not great. It was fun being able to share it with Boyfriend though.

Music Monday: More Funny Ha-Ha

These are songs that are always good for a laugh. I’m a big fan of parodies and comedy songs so sit back and get ready for giggles.

YOLO by Lonely Island featuring Adam Levine
Amish Paradise by Weird Al
Craig by Stephen Lynch
A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash (lyrics by Shel Silverstein)
How to Be a Heartbreaker by Marina & the Diamonds
Cupid’s Got a Shotgun by Carrie Underwood
Pretty Fly (For a Rabbi) by Weird Al
High School Never Ends by Bowling for Soup
Too Fat To Troop by Mikey Mason
Low Hanging Fruit by Tenacious D
How Fucking Romantic by Magnetic Fields
Ur So Gay by Katy Perry
After Ever After by John Cozart

Book Tag: Playlist Book Tag Take 2

I had so much fun doing this tag the first time around, I’m doing it again. My music library is kind of huge so this is pretty easy go-to

Muffin Top by Tacocat
Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker TBR

Scheherazade by Abney Park
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh TBR

Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonley by BSB
Shades of Blue edited by Amy Ferris TBR

Stupid Girls by Pink
Reality Bites Back by Jessica Pozner

Only Human by Christina Perri
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness TBR

Dear Marie by Dessa
Friendship by Emily Gould

I Need You by LeAnn Rimes
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Brick by Boring Brick by Paramore
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Halloween by Aqua
In the Dark: A Horror Anthology edited by Rachel Deering

Hometown Glory by Adele
This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral – Plus Plenty of Valet Parking – in America’s Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich TBR

All the Myths Are True by Abney Park
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Bitchslut by Anna Wise
He’s a Stud, You’re a Slut by Jessica Valenti

Music Monday: Cool Covers

I discovered a very cool cover by one of my favorite metal bands so this Monday is brough to you by some very excellent cover songs.

Hit Me Baby (One More Time) by Bowling for Soup
Heartless by Dia Frampton
Summertime Sadness by Within Temptation
Shoot to Thrill by Halestorm
Don’t Tell ’em by Lorde
Teenage Dream by 5SOS
Holding Out for a Hero by Van Canto
Blank Space by Ryan Adams
We Found Love by Lindsey Stirling
Riptide by Taylor Swift
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by Miley Cyrus & The Flaming Lips