Week #3: 2023.01

2023-01-08

My New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! I am starting the New Year a little less prepared than I usually am. I don’t have a clear vision of my goals, other than:

  • Prepare for my English Major by reading some preliminary works
  • Go back to the gym
  • Finish my first semester of my English Major without a hitch

It seems like I already know my goals, but I haven’t put sufficient thought into how I want to achieve them. There are probably half a dozen things I wanted to do before getting to that stage, but maybe I should look into it now.

Update on 110 Reading Challenge

I am partaking in a reading challenge that my local library is doing. So far I have read 31 hours. There are about 51 days left until the end of the challenge. Which means I would need to read about a little less than two hours per day if I want to reach 110 hours at the end… Sounds like a lot! I’m counting on reading some days more than others!

Books I’ve Read

  • Men to Avoid in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni: A rather short and cheeky book, poking fun at different types of men to avoid. The author transposed text over famous works of art. It was an enjoyable and short read!
  • Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey (Volume 2) by Akiko Higashimura: I started reading this series last year, but never continued it until now. Sometimes I wonder if the reason I didn’t pursue art more thoroughly in my free time is because I didn’t have a mentor like the mangaka did in this series. Still, the mangaka struggled quite a lot in her artist’s formative years, so it’s still not all smooth sailing, even with a mentor.

Books I’m Currently Reading

The books I’m reading right now are… a lot. I’ll just note the books that I’m reading actively right now.

  • The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz: I picked this up at the library on the whim. It’s a rather cute story about a robot who works at a tea shop and a repair technician meeting. Sci-fi but more slice of life!
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin: This is a very different kind of sci-fi… This novel is really something on another level. I am always amazed at Le Guin’s writing. The Dispossessed is quite politically charged and keeps me on my toes quite while reading it. I could only wish I had her mind.
  • Norton Anthology of American Literature (Shorter Version) 6th. Edition by Nina Baym I’m currently in a reading group for this Anthology. So far we’ve only read the preface, but our next meeting is this Tuesday. The one thing I can say thus far is that I am quite ignorant when it comes to American history, and this is a nice primer to American history!
  • Healing Rites by Mattea: Found this book on the Fediverse and decided to give it a shot! It’s a little collection of short stories about a disabled mage. I am a little on the fence about it. It drags a bit, but I love how diverse the characters are.

Nighttime Routine

I am struggling with my nighttime routine. I can’t seem to go to bed at a good time. With my schedule, I would need to be going to bed at 9pm, but it is way too early for me. I like getting up early and doing things before the rest of the world wakes up. My motivation to do hard tasks is at its peak in the morning. I only stay up late to do lazy stuff. Which makes me feel like I really do need to get my nighttime routine under control!

Week #2: December 19-25

2022-12-25

Update On 110 Years of Reading

I am partaking in a reading challenge that my local library is doing. So far I have only read 9 hours. I average around 2 hours a day. If I want to make it 110, I would need to read 3 hours a day! I don’t know if it’s doable, but I have been enjoying scratching off the scratch card they gave out.

In true fashion, I have started several books and haven’t finished any. I started reading Gone Girl in audiobook form, among several others.

Intentions for Next Week

  • Deep dive into goal planning for 2023
  • Set up my planner
  • Set up my computer in the basement
  • Read some more!

Week #1: December 12-18 2022

2022-12-18

Hello World!

I just created this website over the weekend. There were many technical hurdles I had to go through. There were some common culprits like bad ports, bad proxies, and missing SSL and there were some more software specific hurdles (if you ever have the choice of using Staticman, stay far away from it as possible). I still managed to get it in the end, which is all that matters!

110 Years of Reading

My local library is holding a reading challenge to celebrate 110 years of the library being established. It uses an app called Beanstack (which I grudgingly downloaded onto my phone) to track hours. I even went to the library on Saturday in order to grab a free scratch card (and take out some books), so I can track each hour. Do you think I can read for 110 hours from now until the end of February? We shall see…

Library Loot #1: December 14-20

2022-12-17

Library Loot is a weekly event hosted by two bloggers, Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading, that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I don’t go to the library on a weekly basis, but I thought this would be a fun event to participate in when I can!

When I went to the library today, I was perusing the stacks in my usual orderly fashion: look at the general fiction area for anything by the Brontës, Haruki Murakami, and Virginia Woolf; the science fiction area for anything by Ursula K. Le Guin; and the graphics novel section for anything I would like. Sometimes I find something there, sometimes I don’t.

I found a couple of graphics novels that caught my eye, but nothing else from the general fiction area. I decided to take a look at the literature and “English” section of the library because, after all, this is a “literature blog”!

Here is what I ended up getting and why!

  • The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton: A Biography by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge: I just finished reading The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth this month, so when I saw this in the literature section, I had to grab it! I really loved reading Wharton and I would love to know more about her.
  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller: I’ve heard a lot about this play, but I’ve never gotten the chance to read it. It is a quite slim book, so I felt like I could add this to my pile without regret.
  • Humble Pie and Cold Turkey: English Expressions and their Origins by Caroline Taggart: This one caught my eye because the title made me think, “Where DID the expression ‘Cold Turkey’ come from?” I have to know!
  • Equipoise by Katie Zdybel: Right near the check-out at my library, there are little booths with (I’m presuming) staff selected works. I was looking at the “Prose” section and found many books I wanted to read. However, Equipoise was the slimmest of them all while still having an interesting blurb on the back (I know, I know) so I grabbed it.
  • The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Arian Tomine: Yet another book (in this case, graphic novel) that caught my eye because of the title. What does it mean to be a “long-distance cartoonist”? Honestly, my mind went to Simon Sarris’s article on Long Distance Thinking, although I am quite sure it has nothing to do with it.
  • Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna and Ramón Pérez: I’m usually not one to pick up graphic novels with art that looks like it could grace the cover of a DC/Marvel/Superhero comic, but I made an exception because A) one of my friends is really into superhero comics, and B) I am a sucker for one-word titles.