Book #31: Frankenstein

I don't have excuses any longer. All I can tell you, dear internet of love and kindness, is that I am enamored of you. Would it help if I batted my eyelashes coquettishly?*

Frankenstein was required summer reading. I had to force myself through it; while the writing was often pretty, I couldn't get into it. It was engrossing in places but failed to capture me. Frankly, I found it rather boring. It went on and on without much action. In some ways this is preferable, as I would rather little action than constant turmoil, but in others it drove me up the wall. At one point it was all a bit "story... within a story... within a story... within a story.... what?!" But there you are. Required reading has never sat well with me in the first place.

To stop myself from killing something due to billions of pages still to go, I read this on my phone. Thus, while I have fantastical magical quotes for you, I am without page numbers. I will number them instead.

You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. (1)

. . . their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation. (2)

Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate, but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity. Rely, therefore, on your hopes; and if these friends are good and amiable, do not despair. (3)

Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? (4)

I fell at last in a state of utter exhaustion; a film covered my eyes, and my skin was parched with the heat of fever. (5)

*Yes, I just wanted to use the word "coquettishly." That was pretty much the object there.

Book #30: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight

I have excuses, many of which are valid, for getting so behind in my reading. This does not benefit you, however, and for that I apologize.

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight far exceeded my expectations. At first I was put off by the fact that the main characters were only fifteen, but this quickly changed. The book isn't overly heavy, yet it carries such weight. The themes explored really struck home with me, as clichéd as that may sound. What's more, the way the themes were handled impressed me; had they been written any differently I could definitely see myself disliking the book.

Ultimately, it easily could have ended badly. But it didn't. And sometimes you need that, I think. Sometimes you need a hopeful ending. I know I did. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this book, despite my vagaries here.

But what do I know? I like saying that, because I can pretend not to know everything I know. (19)

You say things that the truth can fit around, and it feels OK. Except, really, it doesn't. Every time I do it, I feel like I'm inside something and only I know what it is, and I'm alone in there, like I've built this big empty room around myself and there's no door. (21)

"Phi's okay," Abel says, taking the tongs and offering me a clean paper towel in exchange. I squint at him and he smiles. "I mean, if you like self-centered, overly muscled alpha males." (127)

"What if they think I'm a heathen?"

I tighten my arms around her. "Are you?" (261)

Book #29: The Catcher In the Rye

Please feel free to leave me hate mail in the comments for not keeping up with this. This past month has been an explosion of stuff happening, and reading fell to the wayside. Which is not at all awesome, but I'm still motivated to do this... so here we are.

I read most of this over a month ago, but I only just finished it now. There were, I kid you not, only about five pages left for me to read. The fact that I do this so often annoys me, but I do. Even more incriminating is the fact that I just looked and I have eight such books awaiting completion. Oops?

In any event, I enjoyed Catcher in the Rye much more than I thought I would. Maybe this sounds odd, but I always figured I might hate it. Holden's way of speaking was really neat to me, and his observations apt, and lots of other nice things.

I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot. (18)

As a matter of fact, my father was a Catholic once. He quit, though, when he married my mother. (112)

It always smelled like it was raining outside, even if it wasn't, and you were in the only nice, dry, cosy place in the world. (120)

Book #28: Bless Me, Ultima

I just realized I hadn't blogged about this book yet, despite the fact that it should have been book #23 or so. I could rearrange the order, but I'm not going to, so here goes. This book was assigned in the online English course I took, which was lovely and fun not really at all, which I took about eight or so months procrastinating on. Talk about hardcore subconscious awesomeness.

So I finally read it, which was rather like pulling teeth, but I did it and I don't want to talk about it anymore because ahhhh help I don't know. I just don't want to. It existed. I wrote an essay on it. Great fun, I assure you.

Book #27: Best Foot Forward

Let me tell you a story. When I was about eleven or twelve years old I visited my grandparents in their summer home in Colorado, which was very boring la la la awesome, and one day my grandma gave me a book she'd gotten at a garage sale. This book was Rules of the Road, which I read and loved et cetera.

Fast forward five or so years and I find that there is a sequel to the book I find a bit iconic of my childhood (in that I liked it and... things). No pressure or anything.

So I finally got around to reading the sequel, Best Foot Forward, and I have to say that while I liked it, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe this is typical of something like this, something with Expectations, but I suppose it is still a valid feeling. Much like book #26, I enjoyed many parts of it. I loved Mrs. Gladstone and Murray, but everyone else just confused me, including the main character. I think this may have something to do with my not having reread it in a while, but Jenna's obsession with [insert name of person who she knew for a week in previous book and had a big impact on her life] confused me. Also, the whole Tanner dynamic, then OH I LIKE THIS DUDE SORT OF, confused me.

This is all probably to do with the fact that I haven't reread the previous book in a long time, as well as it being more of a book for middle grade readers, and that I loved Rules of the Road so much when I was younger. But anyway. This may have been confusing, but that's how I felt when reading it. I didn't quite know what was going on.

Book #26: Lock and Key

Lock and Key felt very different to me in comparison to Dessen's other works. Maybe that's because it is rather different, though. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it caught me off guard a little.

Still, and maybe because of this, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed pieces of it, I know, and I think the minor characters made the book for me. It was also very weird to read this book, almost a bit surreal, because I wear a key on a chain as well. Talk about deja vu.

I didn't not like it, if that counts for anything.

"Do you even realize how happy the average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We're at the mall. I want to buy you things. It's like adolescent nirvana." (342)

Book #25: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is completely amazing. It. Just. Is. So. Much.

I understood so many pieces of the characters. From o.w.g.'s hurt regarding his friendship with Tiny Cooper to w.g. feeling as if everyone else has it easier than him, like no one can truly understand. Also, Tiny Cooper was just pretty awesome, despite his flaws. His character was beautiful.

In the case of o.w.g. and Jane I particularly related to the discussion/metaphorical actuality/whatever it was regarding Schroedinger's Cat. The idea was, if they opened the box with the cat in it (their relationship), would they (the physicists) find it to be dead? Should they risk opening the box, if it might be dead?

So, um, to explain this better: there's this boy. Yeah. So I was wondering the same thing at the time, but all is wonderful now.

i feel like my life is so scattered right now. like it's all these small pieces of paper and someone's turned on the fan. but talking to you makes me feel like the fan's been turned off for a little bit. like things could actually make sense. you completely unscatter me, and i appreciate that so much. (37)