Stories and More Stories

Now that The Walking Dead Season 3 is over, Mondays mean one thing: Game of Thrones Season 3! And the rest of the week, well, I still haven’t finished watching season 3 of Prison Break. Of course, Prison Break only has 4 seasons so I will probably need to find a new old TV show to obsess about soon. Not that there’s a shortage of that. I actually haven’t caught up with the episodes of Gossip Girl and Bones and Castle. Which begs the question (it doesn’t, really, but whatever), why haven’t I been watching the latest episodes of these shows? Well, that’s because I’ve been reading. Yes, reading! Is it so difficult to believe? Maybe not. But I’m surprising myself at how far along I’ve gotten. Of course, it’s not as far as a genuine bibliophile would’ve gotten by now but forgive me, my reading skills are really barely hitting high school level.

I’ve been reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I don’t even remember why this was the book I chose to read after Geek Magnet, but it’s the book I happen to be reading these days. And perhaps I’m only on chapter four and that means I haven’t gotten to the meat of it yet, but so far it’s not boring at all. I actually have a hard time putting it down and feel quite sad when I’m so exhausted at the end of the day that I fall asleep before reading as many pages as I hope to.

Anyway, it’s about architecture, of all topics. Not something I’m particularly interested in, but I guess art is art. And Howard Roark seems like a very interesting man, what with his orange hair and his arrogance. I know, I still have a long way to go. I’m only on page 153 of 2394 pages so perhaps I’ll change my opinion later but for now, I’m enjoying the story.

I really wish I had more time. I still want to finish A Clash of Kings and the other bunch of books I’ve been trying to read. Why do I read at a glacial pace? I’m trying to read faster but when I do, I just realize that I haven’t been understanding the past few pages and would have to repeat reading them, which makes finishing the book take even longer. (sigh)

What will I do? There are so many stories to find out about and so little time to read books and watch TV. And I’m already not watching as many movies as I used to. Maybe I should stop talking to my friends then? Hahaha! Spoken like a true anti-social.

2nd Book of the Year

I finally finished reading this book that my friend K recommended ages ago. Did I mention I read at a glacial pace?

Anyway, it was pretty fun for the most part. Very YA stuff. I mean, the main character is a girl who likes the popular boy but has some “geeks” who follow her around like sick puppies. A lot of back and forth about being popular, because isn’t that the main thing in high school? And of course, the backdrop is that they’re all working on a school play. Grease, in this case, I guess to drive the point home that popularity and cliques are all just high school melodrama. Though there was that part about the lead character’s father who’s a drunk, and that the popular girl actually goes to therapy. Still pretty teenage-y, not that that’s a bad thing since this book is meant for teenagers.

The only thing I didn’t like—it seemed to lack a chapter. I mean, yeah, loose ends were tied after the curtain call (because of course, the ending revolved around opening night of their play) but it would’ve been nice to have a scene that showed how the characters interacted after the play and all of the issues (or at least most of them) were over.

Of course, the real point of why I’m posting about this is because this is only the second book I’ve finished reading this year, and I’m not very proud that it’s a YA book (and therefore an “easy read”, if you discount the cringe-inducing cliche lines like “You. Me. The dark. What do you think the universe is trying to tell us?“). So I hope I’ll read a more “productive” book after this. But it also merits mentioning, that this was the first book I finished reading on my phone, oh I’m sorry, I mean, my phablet (!!). It’s amazing! I could change the background and font size and everything! But I’m not saying I like it better than my Kindle. Because the Kindle is still pretty great. You know how its surface is not glossy? It’s pretty amazing, too.

Oh books and gadgets. Because boys lie to me all the time and break my heart all the time, I think you are the true loves of my life. Haha!

Happy 2013!

Oh, the first post of the year is always the hardest.

So I will keep this short.

My sister and I have a new blog! It’s a joint blog in fact. We’ve decided to both do a 365-day project for 2013. Because we’re bored like that. Anyway, it’s here:

Zara & Ida’s 365 day project

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In other news, I thought Sosy Problems would be my last movie of 2012 but it turned out that The Hobbit was showing in the IMAX theatre so that became my last movie of 2012. Obviously, they’re two incredibly different films and I imagine that there aren’t too many people who would see both movies in one weekend. But I am mentioning it because I liked them both. And for the same reason. I mean, that they were exactly what I expected them to be. Sosy Problems was ridiculous fluff that nobody should take seriously (and I really hope nobody does), I mean, it was bordering on Sex and the City 2 territory (minus the adult themes). And The Hobbit was a movie with fantastic vistas, battle scenes, special effects and musical scoring. I mean, the scene where the dwarves sang took my breath away.

And there you go, Sosy Problems and The Hobbit mentioned in the same paragraph (with a cameo of Sex and the City 2). I wonder if some people will find that offensive.

In more unrelated news, I go back to work tomorrow and things go back to normal, presumably. Not that I can define what “normal” is unless someone tells me that it’s just a synonym of “boring”.

And in even more unrelated news, the plastic container of peanut brittle that’s sitting behind me in my “new” computer chair just fell to the floor. I better pick it up.

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Oh! Also, it’s a new year, which means I have to start a new reading list. So for 2012, I was able to read… 13 books. I guess it’s not that many but like I said, it’s better than the zero books I was able to read in 2011 and so many years before that. Anyway, for 2013, I’m going to be a bit more realistic with my reading goal and say that I hope to read… 20 books.

Twenty. It shouldn’t be too hard, especially when I finally catch up with watching all the episodes of Castle. It’s really my addiction to TV shows that keep me from reading. But I think that’s a common thing. Anyway, I’m actually in the middle of reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Yup, you guessed it right. I’m trying to read the entire Harry Potter series again. Just because the last time I actually read them (at least, the first 4 books) was in high school and though I’ve seen the movies several times, I would like to review all the details. As for A Clash of Kings, it got a bit too heavy and difficult for me to read, which is why I took a break from it and started reading Harry Potter again, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it sometime this year. Perhaps, when season 3 of Game of Thrones in HBO is out.

Editing Goals

You see, when I set my 35-book reading goal this year, I didn’t take into consideration my reading rate. The truth is, I read very very slowly. I never used to time myself before, but due to my lack of a social life, I couldn’t think of things to put in my planner, so this year I was able to track when I started and finished reading a book. And so I have found that it takes me at least one month to finish one book. So the realistic reading goal for me, at my current rate is really only 12 books a year.

It’s September now, the 9th month of the year, and according to my Book List, I’ve finished 9 books so far. 9 books in 9 months. See? It’s just right. Nevermind that the books I read aren’t of the same length. I figure, because I’m reading the Song of Ice and Fire Saga, I’m entitled to read some really short and easy reading books along the way.

Of course, the best result is if I could go over my 12-book goal. And perhaps I should be training myself to read more quickly anyway, so maybe next year I will set a 24-book goal. Two books a month. It’s not too unrealistic, right?