Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for sunday salon] 

I made myself a new layout last night! I think it's much improved from my previous layout, which I never thought reflected me very well. This is closer to what I'm wanting, but I only have time to do a little bit on the layout every once in awhile. Luckily I'm ahead on posts for next week so that gave me some extra time to work on layout.

I've been tossing over what to do Sunday Salon about this week. It's not quite the end of March, so I didn't really want to do a March wrap-up post, but I did just reach 25 books which I think is something to celebrate! So I think I'll do a 1/4 year wrap up today, and next week I'll do a quick, more focused, March wrap-up. You can check out the full list of books I've read on my 2010 Reads page.

Books read in 2010: 26
YA Books: 5
Classics: 7
Graphic Novels: 3
Historical Fiction: 12
Romance: 2
ARC/For review: 4
My favorite: The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen
My least favorite: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
Distributed grades: 10 A's, 8 B's, 6 C's, and 1 D.

I was actually really surprised by a few things on this list. For example, I thought I'd given out mostly C's this year, but I've actually read more A books. I think this is partially because I read a lot of C books at the beginning of this year and recently I've had a streak of awesome books. I was also surprised to see how many "Classics" I have read, since it seems like I haven't read that many. I was really surprised by how many historical fiction books I've read because I felt like I've read hardly any, although to be fair I counted graphic novels in that which I don't really consider historical fiction while I'm reading them. 26 books in three months means I should be able to read 100 books this year. This was never really a spoken goal of mine, but I thought it would be neat. I'm glad to see I'm on my way.

This week I posted a review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Aurora Floyd. I brought back Children's Book Thursday with a vlog about a great book called Library Lion. I shared my thoughts on Writing Classes and posted a review of the Moleskine Passions Book Journal. Also, don't forget to enter the contest to win a bag from Strand Bookstore in New York City! I will announce the winner next week so be sure to leave a comment on last week's Sunday Salon before next Sunday!

I know I usually post Sunday Salons much earlier than this, but I put off today's post for a special reason. If you've been following my Sunday Salon posts for the past few weeks then you know I just got back from a trip to New York City. I wanted to let you all know about my trip to this fabulous city, but I couldn't very well do that without pictures, could I? Which is why I had to wait until I got back to Iowa City to post this.

The two main pilgrimages I made during my trip to NYC were the Strand Bookstore and the New York Public Library. Strand was the first place I went and I managed to spend less than $100 there which was actually pretty amazing. I just kept reminding myself that I had many more places to go to. In case you don't know, Strand Books is famous for its 18 miles of books. That thought scare my parents, but it's actually just a three floor bookstore. Don't get me wrong, it's big, but I mean, it's not that big. I got some amazing deals on books while I was there though. I highly recommend stopping at the Strand if you're ever in NYC.

I was also pretty jazzed to get this awesome bag while I was there. I think I'm going to use it for my used bookstore shopping from now on.

From left to right we've got the heroic Dante, Emily Bronte, Herman Mellville, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Homer, and Oscar Wilde. Oh yeah... and I might have gotten something for someone else too. But you'll have to keep reading to find out about that.

The New York Public Library was fabulous and beautiful, although it was quite strange to have my bag searched before entering a library.

I got an awesome children's book at the library amongst a few other things. I actually bought three children's books while I was in New York so you can look forward to those during some upcoming Children's Book Thursdays! And now about that hint I had earlier... I got a Strand bag for one reader. It looks like this:

It doesn't matter to me if you have been to Strand or not, you can fool people if you please! The bag is brown with a green logo, I know it's kind of hard to tell in the picture. All you have to do to win the bag is leave a comment, but if you don't want to win the bag and do leave a comment please let me know. I also ask that everyone who enters the contest is a follower of English Major's Junk Food. You can become a follower by clicking Follow in the upper right hand column of this page. Oh yeah, this is open internationally.

In case you missed some of posts this week here is a quick list: Emma Volume 3, Author Interview with Alexandra Bracken, The Creation of Eve (my favorite book so far in 2010!), and Deep Bookish Questions.

I've already been busy reading for most of the day, which is good because I have a very busy evening ahead of me.

I'm reading my first George Eliot book right now, Middlemarch

. I'm really enjoying it even though it is a challenging (and long) book. I've been considering hosting a George Eliot challenge. If there is anyone interested in that please let me know. It would be a light challenge, probably only one book and a movie.

I'm also reading The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon

by Philip Graham. The book is a travelog about Graham's year in Lisbon with his wife and daughter. It's a quick read with some really beautiful passages and great questions about place and travel. I'm about halfway down with it.

I spent about nine hours reading yesterday (mostly homework) so I'm kind of taking a lighter day today. I have three meetings to go to tonight so I will be very busy for the rest of the day.

This week I plan on continuing the books I've already mentioned as well as finish The Lover

by Marguerite Duras. I will probably pick up another book but I haven't decided which yet.

Find out more about Sunday Salon here.

Last weekend I was so busy with the Iowa City Book Festival I didn't get the chance to post a Sunday Salon. This weekend has been equally busy but I've managed to find a little more time. I've been in Madison, Wisconsin with my boyfriend this weekend. It's a cool city and I'm thinking about going to library school here in a couple of years so I wanted to check out the area to see if I might like living here. I think it's safe to say that I would really enjoy living in Madison. My boyfriend and I are all about biking, walking, canoeing, and "green" living I suppose you would say. It seems like Madison does really cater towards that. Plus it's only five hours away from my hometown and three hours away from where I go to school now.

The main street downtown is State Street. Yesterday we went to some places my old roommate (who is from Wisconsin) suggested like Dobra Tea and Maharani Indian Restaurant. The Indian food was superb and I have to agree with her now. The Indian food in Iowa City just does not measure up. Of course no vacation would be complete with a stop at a bookstore. There were four bookstores I saw on State Street but we only went to two and I think the first one was the best.

Bookworks and Avol's Bookstore are actually two bookstores I guess, connected by an open door. I really only checked out the Avol's said because by the time I was done in there I had already found plenty. I got Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris because I just finished Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby and he really enjoyed it, although judging by the writing the person who originally owned this book did he didn't have as high of an opinion. I also got Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and a children's book called Mathilda and the Orange Balloon by Randall de Seve and illustrated by Jen Corace. It's very cute.

To finish off the day we went to watch the sunset over the lake. It was so pretty and relaxing. I don't remember the last time I sat to watch a sunset.

So the Got Books Event is over now, but contest is still open until midnight tonight. If you haven't checked out my giveaway yet please do so. I'm giving away two books, one to each winner. The first book is Notes From No Man's Land by Eula Biss and the second is The Moon, Come to Earth by Philip Graham. If you're interested in winning either book please enter!

How is it Sunday already? I have finished my first week of second semester now. So far everything is going well, but I know soon the bomb will drop. Amazingly I actually stayed on schedule here this week! I posted reviews of Mansfield Park and The Virgin Queen's Daughter. I also talked about a children's book I love called Superhero ABC. I asked questions about textbooks and talked about what makes me happy for the Happy 101 Award. Overall it was a very productive week blogging!

Reading however... it was fairly productive. It's taking me a very long time to get through Villette by Charlotte Bronte. This is mostly because it takes me an hour to read thirty pages, so usually I only read an hour every night. Still, I should have it done with week. I've posted a few quotes on Smmash, which is my tumblr page. I finished my first romance novel ever! Lessons from a Scarlet Lady by Emma Wildes. I probably won't be reviewing this book, but I might write a post about reading my first romance novel. I started Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzburgh this week and yesterday I started The Woman in White by Wilkie Collings. I also finished Emma Volume Two by Karou Mori this week (which was fabulous).

Well that's it for me this Sunday. Happy reading!

This is my last week as a teenager! I'm going to be 20 on Sunday. In case you are interested I am going to The Lion King for my birthday at the Des Moines Civic Center. I have never been to The Lion King before so I am very excited. I'm also going to celebrate my birthday by participating in Maw Books Blog's Bloggiesta, which runs from January 8-10. A Bloggiesta is basically just a chance to improve your blog. I worked a lot on my layout this past week, but I'm going to be using the bloggiesta time to make some post templates and work on a few other things for my blog. I'm going to try and work on my blog for a total of 24 hours over the weekend. My challenge to myself is to work on my blog for ten hours straight from Saturday to Sunday. You obviously won't see a lot of the work that I do on my blog, but I'll make a post at the end of the weekend to share what I've done.

This week I posted the books I got for Christmas and my plans for this blog in the coming year. I also posted reviews of The Clumsiest People in Europe, The Time Traveler's Wife, and A Great and Terrible Beauty. I also joined one more challenge: The Essay Reading Challenge.

I'm working on where I'm going to live next year and I will probably be signing a lease for my first apartment soon. Yesterday was a busy day for me because it was a day of making plans. I'm planning a couple of trips, applying for a couple of internships, and I'm looking into the first apartment situation. I'm most likely going to be living by myself, which won't be very different from how things are now. All of this apartment talk has got me thinking about decorating though! Decorating is probably my second passion after books. I spent this entire past summer thinking about how I was going to decorate my dorm room for this year, and anyone who has seen my dorm room will tell you that it is pretty sweet. I thought I would share a few things I found about decorating with books, a challenge for any avid reader. I found a link on Better Homes and Gardens about Decorating With Books. Some of the ideas aren't that practical, but they are pretty. I might use some of these ideas next year. I'm also lusting after At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries. It's a little expensive but I think it's something I would use for many, many years. Perhaps a birthday present to myself?

Happy reading!

I am in Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

It's been a big day for me! Today I was on KRUI's show Not Your Literati to talk about English Major's Junk Food. It was a great show and if you haven't heard about it before and are in the Iowa City area you should tune in next Sunday at 11 AM. They also put a post about our interview on their blog today, and you can download the interview if you care to listen to it. Just head over to Not Your Literati. They also have posts on their blog about past shows so be sure to check it out!

Last week was crazy busy for me so I didn't get quite as much reading done as I wanted but I was a lot better about getting posts done on time. This week I reviewed Harriet the Spy and Villette. My children's book this week was Old Bear. Rather than writing a review of the children's book this week I decided to do a vlog and read the book. This seemed to work out pretty well so I think I might do this more in the future. Friday I complained about the University of Iowa's Intro to the English Major and yesterday I had a picture of a weird initial letter.

This week I'm planning on finishing three of the four books I'm reading. I'd like to finish The Woman in White, The Jungle, and The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I'm going to put Pride and Prejudice on hold until I finish those three. I've got three awards recently and I will probably post those this week, and then I'm considering doing a post on literary talk shows. I was inspired to do this by Not Your Literati. There are a few other podcasts I listen to that I'd like to highlight. It should be an exciting week!

Happy Reading!

I was a very unsuccessful blogger this week, mostly due to an illness which left me exhausted pretty much every night. This is the last day of January though! With February we are all one step closer Spring! Hopefully as the days get longer I will get more energy, I become quite the bear during winter.

I really only had three good posts this week. On Monday I posted a review of Rumors and on Friday I posted a review of Emma: Volume 2. I also did a post on The Lorax, an amazing children's book by Dr. Seuss. One thing I have been meaning to do for a long time though was make a Facebook fan page for English Major's Junk Food. And guess what!?! I finally did it! So if you would like to be a fan go to the English Major's Junk Food Fan Page and join all of those who have beat you to it. Excellent.

And to continue to make myself feel like I've had a mildly successful week I will list all the book I have read in January. Technically I haven't finished two of these books yet but I will finish them today.

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (B)
2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (C)
3. Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (C)
4. The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase (B)
5. Rumors by Anna Godbersen (B)
6. Lessons From a Scarlet Lady by Emma Wildes (C)
7. Emma Volume Two by Karou Mori (B)
8. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (B)
9. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
10. The Girl Made of Cool by Alan Fox

Happy Sunday and Happy Reading!

Today is Do Nothing But Read Day, which is kind of like a readathon but more relaxed. We're not staying up for 24 hours trying to read, we're just relaxing and spending the day reading as much as we can. Here is a little information about the day:

On December 3, 2009, Amanda Lanyon-LeSage said something on Facebook that could possibly change the world. She merely wished that she could take a day off and do nothing but read. Her idea was seconded–and thirded and fourthed–and then it happened for real.
The first Do Nothing But Read Day was held on Sunday, December 20, 2009. Hundreds of people took a day off from the mad rush of holiday preparations and other things to just read.
Required:

• You have to read. This can be whatever format you want: paperback, hardcover, eBook, newspaper, comic book, etc.
• You have to enjoy yourself.

Yeah, how awesome is that? If you're not doing anything today you can still sign up at their website, Do Nothing But Read Day and you'll be entered to win some prizes! You just have to sign up before 11:59 tonight.

Today I'm going to start off by finishing The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, which I only have about sixty pages left in. Then I'm going to move on to the Passage by Justin Cronin. I'm about halfway through that one right now so it will be interesting to see how far I can get in it. I'd like to read at least a little bit of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell today and then I'm going to read some of No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July for breaks.

I'm off to go read! I'll post an update later of exactly what I accomplished- happy reading!

Happy Valentine's Day Blogging World! I hope you all are having good days with your sweethearts, or otherwise having good days appreciating singledom. I personally celebrated Valentine's Day last night. I went out for dinner with my boyfriend and then we watched When Harry Met Sally, which he had never seen before! It's always a good one. I miss good Meg Ryan movies.

So this week I posted a review of The Girl Made of Cool and Love Letters of Great Women. I read everyone Leonardo the Terrible Monster for Children's Book Thursday and talked about my experience reading my first romance novel. Finally yesterday I posted an extremely long Awards post. You should all check out to see if I gave an award to you! I would really appreciate it if the people who have received awards would comment on the post, if you do not comment by Wednesday I will assume you haven't seen it. Then I will comment on those blogs who have not seen the post. Thanks for your help!

This week I finished The Woman in White, Love Letters of Great Women, and The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I actually did not read all of the Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I pretty much skimmed to the end. You can probably guess what my feelings were about that book based on that, but I will be reviewing it later. I know last Sunday I promised I would have post about literary radio shows and podcasts. I'm still going to do that, most likely this week. Today I will finish The Jungle which is very exciting. The Jungle has been the strangest experience for me. I'm reading it for my American History class and did not think I would enjoy it all. I think that stigma has carried through the whole experience of reading it because I never seem to want to read it. In all honesty though, it's one of my favorite books so far in 2010.

And now I have some exciting bragging to do: I'm going to New York in four weeks for Spring Break! I have never been to New York before so I am super excited about this! If you have been to New York and have someplace I cannot miss please let me know! Especially if it's a must see for a book lover.

Happy reading!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

First of all I'd like to clear up some confusion. I think some people thought my birthday was last Sunday, but it is not. It is today! Yes my friends, today I turn twenty. Thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday already! As promised I went to The Lion King on Friday for my birthday which was AMAZING. For my actual birthday I am going to my Grandma's birthday party. Yepp, we were born on the same day! And she's the person who taught me how to read, how cool is that?

Well if you can't tell I have been participating in Maw Books Blog's Bloggiesta this weekend. Today is the last day, so I'll save my wrap-up post for tomorrow morning. I have another wrap-up post coming up this week. Yesterday I finished my 19 Going on 20 Challenge so I will be posting a wrap-up this week for that. My final review for this challenge was Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot. I had so much fun with this self-challenge that I'm considering doing another self-challenge in the near future. I have never been interested in all of the vampire hype right now, but then I started to see Blue Bloods everywhere and it sounds more interesting to me than Twilight. I am thinking about doing a Vampire Self-Challenge in February and reading Blue Bloods and a few other vampire books. I will talk about this more in the future.

I also posted a review of The Swan Thieves (which comes out on Monday) this week. I got the Honest Scrap award this week from Sasha and the Silverfish. This is my first award so I was super excited! I also joined the Jane Austen Challenge this week.

So this week might end up as a wrap-up week which means I won't be posting any reviews. I'd like to have a few reviews to post under my belt before school starts and I get behind on everything again. I have some longer books coming up as well, so if I take this week off from reviews I will be in a good place.

If you were here last weekend then you know I bought a nook. Since Sunday I have almost finished two books (finished one and almost finished another) on the nook and I can say already that I have really enjoyed the experience of reading on it. I'm planning on posting an actual review towards the end of June, so if you're thinking about buying any e-reader be sure to check out my review later this month!

I am going to keep this post pretty short, mostly because my head hurts and I've had a bit of a rocky weekend. This week I posted a review of Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age, which is a really interesting book if you are interested in libraries or archives. I also posted a review of The Carrie Diaries, which is a fun summer read, particularly if you are a Sex and the City fan. I did my first Booking Through Thursday post about signed books and I talked about my third week at my internship. Last Saturday I had a guest post about The Graphic Novel, which got a great response so next Saturday check back for guest poster Ron to fill us in on his must read graphic novels!

As for reading this summer, I've done pretty well on the weekends on the beginning and end of the weeks, but since I work Tuesday-Thursday I'm usually pretty tuckered out at night and then I want to spend time with my family and the boyfriend. I am still getting quite a bit of reading done this summer. Originally I thought I would read more heavy books during the summer since I wouldn't be reading them during school, but I've found that the only stuff I've really gotten into have been memoirs, essays, and junk food (particularly Meg Cabot and romance novels). At first I was kind of bummed with myself for not reading more challenging books, but hell, it's summer. And frankly I don't give a damn.

Last week I announced a self-challenge I'm undertaking in the month of May. I'm reading books that are approximately 200 pages or less for the entire month. I'm happy to say that it's gone extremely well this week-- I've already finished four books! I read Missouri

and The Only Dance in Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls' Basketball

, which I recently purchased, and Lonesome Traveler and Summer Rain

, which I've had on my shelves since high school. It was a double whammy for me because Summer Rain and Missouri are both books in translation, which helps me on my goal of reading ten books in translation for my Day Zero Challenge. All in all it was a successful week of reading. Have any of you started reading short books for this month? I'd love to hear about your progress or plans!

I have four days left of my semester. I've been a little slow with blogging lately so I'm looking forward to being in the swing of things again. I actually don't have too much work this week. I have a five page comic to finish today, a Renaissance poetry take home final to finish tomorrow, and an entrepreneurship exam on Thursday evening. Then I will be free of this semester! Next year will be the final year of my undergraduate career. It's going to be a weird one since I'm taking almost the minimum amount of semester hours and in the fall I'll only be in one English class. I'm pursuing certificates in nonprofit management and fundraising and philanthropy; next year most of my classes will be in those certificate programs.

And on a final note, I'd like to wish a happy mother's day to all the moms out there who read my blog. I'd also like to say happy mother's day to my own mother who always spoiled me with books, my Grandma Marilyn who taught me to read, and my Grandma Sheree who has always supported my love of reading. Best moms in the world!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I slept in until noon today and I definitely wasn't planning on that. Actually, I got up at eight to finish my cookies and then I went back to sleep at ten, planning on only sleeping for about thirty minutes. Silly me for not setting an alarm. It wouldn't be a big deal but I'm going to a Christmas/Birthday party at two o'clock so I have zero time.

I am not in Iowa City anymore, I'm at my parents house very far away from Iowa City. Actually not really, only about in a hour and a half. So far my mom has pushed a hydrating nasal rinse on me because I have a small nose and asked me if I'm eating enough fruit in Iowa City. Gotta love moms! My boyfriend brought his presents for my parents over yesterday but my dog has started to open them. Woops!

Last week was a good reading week for me because I had nothing else to do. I didn't finish quite all the books I wanted to, but I never expect that I will. I finished The Eyre Affair, The Moment Between, and The Red Necklace. I also posted a review of In A Gilded Cage, which I finished two weeks ago. I did some deep thinking this week about how people look at you when you read certain types of books, and how it doesn't really matter. Today I plan on finishing The White Garden by Stephanie Barron and The Clumsiest People on Earth edited by Todd Pruzan. I am also reading The Luxe by Anna Godbersen right now and I must admit that I am hooked! This week I also plan on reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors by Nigel Cawthorne. I was only planning on reading four YA books for my self challenge, but I ended up purchasing the first three of The Luxe series and I might end up reading all three before I turn 20. We shall see!

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!

Yesterday was the long awaited Twin Cities Book Festival. I got to Minneapolis on Friday night and was excited to see a Borders right across the street from my hotel. I went there right away of course, but didn't end up buying anything. That, of course, doesn't mean I didn't buy anything on Saturday.

This is the nice stack I came away with. To be fair four of these books are literary magazines (which were only $2 each, it's amazing I didn't just buy the entire table) and one of the magazines is for a friend. I got two issues of Creative Nonfiction, a magazine I love for obvious reasons but rarely get. I talk about Number 31 yesterday in my Awesome Essays post because the subject is publishing and writing in 2025, which seemed to be a huge theme in the panel discussions I went to. Check out that post to share your ideas! I also got Number 23, which is about Mexican-American writers, something I've recently become interested in. I got a little poetry magazine called Bateau and the Alaska Quarterly Review for my friend Michael.

As far as actual books, I got the first comic book in the Fables series, A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler (the publicist, Courtney, did a great job selling the book to me), and If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home by John Jodzio from Replacement Press. I'm super excited to read all of these!

Yesterday was a very long and exciting day. Right away in the morning I met Reagan from Miss Remmers Review, Sheila from Book Journey, Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, and Alea from Pop Culture Junkie. We all had a great chat about books and life before heading over to Sheila's panel discussion about the future of publishing. Her panel was awesome-- and Kim and I said that she answered all the blogger questions just how we would have answered them. After the panel we browsed some of the tables where publishers and authors were promoting their books.

It was a huge crowd! I was excited to see so many people interested in books all in one room. We all went to get lunch with Liz from Consumed By Books and Joanne from Jo Jo Loves to Read. We talked about books (more) and life (more) and then headed back to the festival because Kim, Alea, and I wanted to go to a panel about comic books and comics that Bill Willingham was speaking at. I never realized there was such a great comics scene in Minneapolis and I'll definitely be checking into the other speakers' work as well.

Later at night Sheila, Reagan, Kim, and I went to Borders for awhile and I found a bunch of books I wanted but didn't buy any, which I think deserves a round of applause. Then my boyfriend met up with us and we went to a Chinese place for dinner.

Take One: Reagan, Sheila, me, and Kim.

Take 423: Reagan, Sheila, me, and Kim.

So that was my fun exciting time at the Twin Cities Book Festival. Hopefully I'll get to go again next year and we can do another Midwest Book Blogger meet-up again soon!

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Hello fellow readers! I can't believe it but I only have four more days until Thanksgiving Break and I register for classes this week. I'm extremely ready for this semester to be over with. I don't know what's up but this semester has gotten me in such a funk as far as reading, blogging, and general attitude goes. I've gotten more in touch with other things I love though, like art and music. I'm so looking forward to a week off so I can get a rest and some good reading and blogging in before winter break.

I've actually been spending quite a bit of time on blogging lately, but it's been the behind the scenes stuff you don't know about. I'm trying to figure out how to improve the sound on my vlogs using Audacity, which is why there haven't been any vlogs recently. I hate that buzzing sound the built-in camera makes on my laptop. I also recently got Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, and I've been trying to figure out design stuff and how to edit some comics I want to post on here. And I've been considering moving to Wordpress.org-- which is a nightmare to even think about but I feel I would be happier there. If anyone knows about any good guides I could use for any of the above topics please let me know!

This week was all about writing as I (still) try to catch up on National Novel Writing Month. I did a video update and shared some of what I have. I also talked about the essay Walking With an Essayist and wrote a review of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

How was your week?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

One of the major perks of living in Iowa City is that it's a huge hotspot for writers. This past week was the NonfictioNow Conference which occurs every two years. I'm all over this conference because I love Nonfiction. Only about a third of the events were open to the public and I went to three events. The first and biggest event I went to was the Alison Bechdel reading. I was really excited about this because I loved her book Fun Home. The reading was unlike any reading I've ever been to. Since she is a graphic artist she can't really do a normal reading, so instead she creates a powerpoint with one panel on each slide and then reads the text that goes with the panel. I really enjoyed this and found that it was a lot easier to pay attention to than a normal reading.

After she was done I got my copy of Fun Home signed and got a picture taken. They were also selling broadsides of a comic she did that were printed at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. I got one of this and can't wait to find a frame for it!

Friday night was the Rebecca Solnit reading. I've never read anything by her, but I ran into my nature writing professor who gave the introduction for her and he enjoys her work. She is a probably most well known as a nature writer. I enjoyed this reading, although there were some technical difficulties with the microphone. She took it in stride though. She talked a bit about being political and being a writer, and how being an artist doesn't make you exempt from caring about politics. She talked quite a bit about Bill McKibben too, who has obviously taken the political writer status to a whole new level.

Saturday evening was a reading of more local people who write narrative nonfiction. Andre Perry gave a great introduction to this topic, mentioning how when he was school he would turn in essays and his teacher told him they were fiction because they were narrative. This is a pretty common idea, actually, but I find that some of the best nonfiction is narrative. Ryan Van Meter was the person I was most interested in hearing because I talked about his essay First as an awesome essay. He read an absolutely beautiful essay about hunting and animals. It had this spinning quality to it, where he started in one place, went to another, then returned to that original place. I wish I could have it in front of me to really parse out.

Overall what I saw of the conference was really great. This week I spent most of my time talking about comic books. I reviewed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which I loved!) as well as four comic books: Fables, The Walking Dead, Coward, and Suburban Glamour. Be sure to check out those reviews!

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Yesterday I went to Northside Book Market in Iowa City, otherwise known as the Haunted Book Shop. It was a spur of the moment stop-in but I'm so glad I went there! I got a nice stack of book, five for $20.

Included in my list is Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy, Romola by George Eliot (which is impossible to find), Rotten Reviews Edited by Bill Henderson, The Bronte Sisters Quiz and Puzzle Book by Maggie Lane, and a copy of Jane Eyre from 1943 which I could not resist because it has fabulous illustrations. It's missing the dust cover, but you will see that you hardly need the dust cover when I show the what is on the cover of this book.

If you have read Jane Eyre then you will know that this is a representation of Lowood school, where Jane lives before she moves to Thornfield Hall. There are several other fabulous illustrations in this book and the type is double column rather than full page.

So if you couldn't tell already, I am super excited about this book because I am such a Jane Eyre lover. Thanks for listening, I think the book is pretty cool even if you don't like Jane Eyre. The illustrations are super creepy and I wonder if Dame Darcy looked at this book at all when she was making The Illustrated Jane Eyre, which I also own. I see a lot of similarities in the illustrations.

This week I posted reviews of The Jungle and Blue Bloods and a video about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I asked a few questions about class presentations and posted a link to a funny post on Stereotyping Readers By Author. And since today is the last day of February I am going to post a list of all the books I read in February. I'm including one that I haven't finished yet, but will finish today or tomorrow so I basically read the whole book in February.

1. Love Letters of Great Women edited by Ursula Doyle (A)
2. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (D)
3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (B)
4. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (B)
5. Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (C)
6. Ophelia Joined The Group Maidens Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling (A)
7. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (A)
8. Now and Then by Jacqueline Sheehan

So far I have read 18 books in 2010, I wanted to get to 20 this month but February is a short month. I know I'll make it up during a light month. Tomorrow is my job interview, wish me luck!

Have you I mentioned to you all that Jason is the best guy ever? He has gotten me two bookish gifts recently. Two things I've wanted for a very long time. For Valentine's Day he got me a reading pillow. I mentioned this on my first Best Gifts for English Majors post and I never got one. I was so excited to open it on Valentine's Day and I've already gotten a lot of use out of it.

This is perfect for reading in bed at night. I don't have to hold the book up so my arms don't get tired-- a major problem with reading in bed. I just put the pillow in my lap, hold the book open and read away. You can order these Peeramid Bookrests on Amazon if you're interested. They are hard to find.

He also got me a great t-shirt from the greatest store in world, Raygun. Raygun is a local thing, they make great t-shirts about towns in Iowa because those of us who love Iowa love to show our pride. Someone else really liked Iowa, especially the girls that live there...

Yeah, that's right, Jack Kerouac. I've wanted this shirt for a long time since On the Road is one of my all time favorite books. Sigh. I'm just so happy I have this shirt. If you're not from Des Moines you'll probably find it less exciting, so thanks for humoring me.

In other news, it's midterms which means I have way too much crap going on this week. I have several books to make, a paper to write, a presentation, and an exam. Blargh. I'm really looking forward to spring break, even if I'm only dog-sitting. Lots of time to read and relax. In my lifelong attempt to make you all read essays I posted a three sentence essay yesterday! You should all go read it! I even challenged you to write your own and so far one person has taken the challenge.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Spring break is almost over and I'm quite sad about the whole thing. I've had a taste of summer and now it's all I can think about. I'm feeling a little sick today, or maybe I'm just embracing my last lazy day. I'm planning on spending time in bed, watching TV, and reading. I haven't finished five books quite yet, but I think I can make it happen by the end of the day. Essex County

is the real stand-out book I finished and I can't wait to review it. I think it might be my favorite graphic novel.

I'm still hard at work on my Day Zero Project. I've come close to completing two more projects on my list and have several of the long term projects going too. The project has really forced me to change my attitude about life. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the things I need to and want to do (and not doing them) I now just see these as things I will finish eventually. Something that will be checked off a list. It's a little freeing, and empowering to realize you can complete your goals with planning and passion.

In other news, my book buying ban has twelve days left. I went to Barnes and Noble this week and even thought I felt like buying a lot of things I resisted. And you know what? I'm still alive. Two things are getting me through this ban. The first is the $40 I taped to my calendar. If I get to April 1st then that money is mine to buy books with. The second is the Goodreads application on my iPod. Now if I see a book I want in the store I just scan it and add it to my wishlist. Once the ban is over I can go through my wishlist and see what what books I'm still pining for and what I can probably forget about.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.