Guilty pleasures

I was going to make a list of some of my guilty TV pleasures, but then I realized I have very little shame about the things that I like to watch. I actually take great pride in the fact that I’ve watched cheesy sci-fi shows and random comedies. That horrible Lorenzo Lamas series? Watched it. Jon and Kate Plus 8? Watched it. Not only do I watch these things…I then seek out other people on the internet and form friendships around our mutual appreciation of these shows. Friendship is magic! (which I’ve also watched!)

Despite my shameless TV watching, I do have guilty pleasures. My main one is my love of movie novelizations. I can’t get enough of them! Maybe it’s my author background that longs to know the motivation behind what’s on the screen. Maybe it’s my curiosity that always wants to know as much as I can about everything. I don’t know the exact reasoning, but I really love reading movie novelizations. In my bag right now I’m carrying around the Pacific Rim novelization and I’m enjoying it so much!

Library and short attention spans

When I spend a long time in a library (or bookstore) I tend to amass a large pile of random books. I just can’t help myself, I have to gather up all these stacks of books that bear little to no connection to each other.

The only connection these books have is that I want to know more about them. Today’s stack includes quantum physics, religion, biographies, mathematics, poetry and what I thought was history but might be crime fiction. I mostly likely won’t take all these books home…maybe not even any of them. Instead I’ll spend an hour flipping through three or four of them at a time, scanning and skipping through the pages. Soaking up bits of knowledge in some sort of ADD-fueled haze where I gorge myself on as much information as quickly as possible. My brain doesn’t care if it’s reading about Dirac’s theoretical work on magnetic monopoles or the twice-translated poetry of the Quechan tribesmen, it just wants to take it all in.

Even I don’t understand the way my brain works at times. I don’t get why there are times like today when I can flit from subject to subject and still retain so much information but other days I can focus on just one topic and fail to remember anything. There are days like today when I have music playing in my ears, four different books opened in my lap and three tabs of reddit open on my computer and yet I feel at peace. To switch from that multitasking craziness to days when I can barely focus on a book when there are crickets outside is such a mystery to me.

For now, I’ll enjoy it. I’ll read about poetry from ancient Egypt and modern day forensic accountants. I’ll dive through the equations of chemistry and read about the plight of the buffalo. My afternoon will be filled with a dozen different authors speaking to me about their passions and even if I don’t understand everything about my brain, I’ll enjoy the experience.

Poetry and Prayers

My friend loaned me a book the other day that I've enjoyed reading this week. While The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan prayers and devotions isn't a book of poetry, its beautifully lyrical prayers remind me of poems and have been a joy to read.

One of my favorites today is Love Lustres at Calvary
My Father,
Enlarge my heart, warm my affection, open my lips,
     supply words that proclaim 'Love lustres at Calvary.'
There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on thy Son,
     made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;
There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow;
There thy infinite attributes were magnified,
     and infinite atonement was made;
There infinite punishment was due,
     and infinite punishment was endured.
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
          cast off that I might be brought in,
          trodden down as an enemy
               that I might be welcomed as a friend,
          surrendered to hell's worst
               that I might attain heaven's best,
          stripped that I might be clothes,
          wounded that I might be healed,
          athirst that I might drink,
          tormented that I might be comforted,
          made a shame that I might inherit glory,
          entered darkness that I might have eternal light
My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,
          groaned that I might have endless song,
          endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
          bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
          bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
          experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
          closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,
          expired that I might for ever live.
O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou mightest spare me,
All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished;
Help me to adore thee by lips and life,
Oh that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,
     my every step buoyant with delight, as I see
          my enemies crushed,
          Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,
          sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,
          hell's gates closed, heaven's portal open.
Go forth, O conquering God, and show me the cross,
     might to subdue, comfort and save.

What I’m Reading This Week

This week all my books were recommendations (except Enders Game but that was just on my list of rereads). I had taken tips from a few friends and lists and requested a bunch of books from the library, it just turned out that the ones that came in were mostly young adult….and odd.

When Jeff Comes Home – Catherine Atkins

This book is apparently inspired/based on the Stephen Stayner kidnapping, about a boy who was abducted and lived with their kidnapper for a long period before coming home. In the real case, Stayner was held for seven years before he escaped, in the story Jeff was held for 2 years before his kidnapper takes him home. The book deals with his conflicting emotions about being home, trying to fit into his family and friends, and coping with the abuse done to him by his kidnapper. It was hard to understand what you wanted for the characters, obviously you wanted Jeff to be happy and healthy, but the father in the book seemed emotionally abusive to his other children so it was hard to feel happy when Jeff opens up to him. The other authority figures were horrible, the police were incompetent and the FBI agent seemed like a predator. That aspect bothered me a lot, there was no way that Jeff would have been treated that way by law enforcement. The book wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t that great either. The recommendation I got for this was “this book changed my life” and so I probably set my expectations a little high. 

Among the Hidden – Margaret Peterson Haddix

This is a story about a society in which the world was struck with famine and the government has stepped in with strict rules, including one that families can only have two children. The book follows Luke, a third child or “shadow child” as he hides from the threat of the population police. He finds another shadow child nearby and learns about the world through her, discovering that things aren’t exactly what they seem. This book was a great short story, but a weak novel. Err…scratch that. I just checked Amazon and it turns out that this is the first book in a series. That makes more sense. (I still maintain that this would have been a lovely short story in a sci-fi anthology)

The Magicians – Lev Grossman

I’m reading this along with Sword and Laser and so far it’s pretty good. They say that it’s a grown-up Harry Potter with Narnia bits thrown in. I’ve not gotten far into it, but it’s interesting and I love reading in a group!

The Creek – Jennifer L. Holm

…I haven’t actually read this yet. Or know where it’s currently hiding. I may need to track this down.

Oh, I also finished The Hum and The Shiver (finally!) and boy did that novel pick up at the end. The supernatural elements also increased, but there was never a lot of description. The novel just sort of…stopped. It was a good ending, but I wanted more answers, more assurances of what was going to happen to the characters.

Book Sale!

Hunter thinks the amount of books I got this weekend is nuts. Three bags isn’t so bad! One whole bag was for my mom and a half bag was for the women’s shelter so it’s not like they were ALL for me.

Yeah…okay…it is a lot of books. But I had a lot of fun at the sale! My archenemy was there and took every sci-fi book from that section, but I snagged a couple of classics from a different section and laughed in his general direction. (I’m soooo mature) I also got some amazing books in the history section and they had a great science section this year too. Yay books!

What I’m Reading This Week

With new library fines on late books, I’m making more of an effort to actually read the books I check out each week. There are plenty of times I pick up a stack of books and turn them back in without ever cracking them open. I’m also trying to be more selective in what I check out, quality over quantity. Although you get hits and misses in every bunch and my misses this week seem to all be focused on the fact that while I tried to pay closer attention to what I was checking out, I didn’t seem to be focusing that closely.

Lost Christianities: The battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew – Bart D. Ehrman

I got this due to a recent conversation about how the bible was put together and why certain books were chosen. I thought this would be along those lines but it was more about what was left out and how people in the early church had different texts. I know my brain and how easy it is for me to find reason in things so I quit reading in the first chapter. It might be a perfectly fine book, but it wasn’t really on the topic I needed.

Bound By Guilt – C.J. Darlington

I didn’t realize this was a sequel when I picked it up, and I’m glad that skipped my notice because I really enjoyed this novel and I would have passed otherwise. The story follows Roxi, a teen stuck in a bad situation that only gets worse when she’s involved in a robbery/homicide. The other half of the book follows the fiancé and sister of the man killed (who are characters from the previous novel) and their search to find the culprits. I really enjoyed the characterizations, and the story was paced well even with the switching between characters. For a Christian novel the focus on God was surprisingly light, but it was handled well when it was present. The only problem I had was that the ending felt like it was vague on what happened to all the characters, although that might be just set-up for a third novel in the series.

The Hum And The Shiver – Alex Bledsoe

I’ve had this book for a couple of weeks and am still stuck in the first 75 pages. It’s interesting but I’m struggling to get connected to the characters and the plot. It doesn’t help that I picked up the book based on the bit of the back cover that talked about a woman returning home injured from Iraq…and it turns out there is some quasi-supernatural aspects to the book. I don’t mind supernatural elements in my fiction, I just didn’t know that was what was going on in this book. Curse those stupid stickers that cover the back cover!

The Girls Guide to Homelessness: A Memoir  – Brianna Karp

My best friend works at a women’s homeless shelter so the stories of homeless women have been on my mind lately. Again with the theme of checking things out without paying close attention, I didn’t catch the little pink “a memoir” on the front cover. This book wasn’t so much a guide as it was Karp’s story of her life, the title taken from her website, which, to be fair, does deal with homeless life. For my own tastes, the book dealt more with Karp’s family past and romantic relationship than I was interested in. I was more interested in her life and perspective as a homeless person and those parts of the book kept me the most interested. I appreciated her views on how people try to pigeonhole the homeless with their own ideas of who/how/why someone is in that situation. She dealt with people saying she didn’t ‘count’ as homeless because she had a job or nominal housing. Another part I appreciated was her perspective on so-called luxuries. People get so upset when they see a homeless person with a cell phone, laptop, good clothes or eating anything better than scraps, judging them as spending resources foolishly. Her quote from pg 109, “Whenever I meet a homeless person, I assume that if she were financially or mentally capable of affording and maintaining a home, then she would be in one, regardless of any “luxury” items I see in her possession. It’s that clear cut for me.” I need to remind myself of that more often when I find myself judging others, whether they are homeless or not.

Geek Widsom: The sacred teachings of nerd culture – Stephen H. Segal

Oh, this book. It’s a compilation of quotes from video games, movies, comics, tv and even t-shirts with commentary talking about how they help define or speak to geek culture. It’s no secret that I identify as a geek and this book had many of my favorite quotes. The commentary was insightful and funny (loved the footnotes!) and I found myself reading bits out loud to friends and family. As much as I loved the quotes that I was familiar with, what really pleased me was all the ones that were new to me. After I was finished reading, I flipped back through to write down a list of movies and books that I want to check out now. My only complaint? Too short!

Uh…that last book is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and that’s actually one of my own books. I have a not-so-secret passion for epidemiology and I happily devour books, movies and tv shows on the subject. Preston is my favorite author in the subject because of this book and his novel, The Cobra Event. He writes in such a clinical way that there really isn’t a huge difference in writing styles between his fiction and nonfiction and he beautifully straddles that line between scientific explanation and watering it down for the masses. I always feel smarter after reading one of his books. These are my comfort books, the ones I read when I just want to get lost for a bit, one or the other is usually next to my bed. (I am aware that this might make me seem weird, I don’t care. The heart wants what the heart wants and mine wants deadly viruses.)