2009 (+) Pages Turned

Following the trend, I decided to pull together the list of books I've read over the past year. My list of "to read" books grows faster than I can read them, but I'd still love to hear the number one "must read" book you think I should tackle in 2010.

Cheers!

Reading List 2009

Adorno – The Culture Industry
Alvarez – In the Time of the Butterflies
Aristotle – On Poetics
Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (Glaser)
Bauer – The Well-Educated Mind
Benjamin – Illuminations
Blake – "The Book of Urizen"
Blake – "Visions of the Daughters of Albion"
Blake – "Milton"
Bloom – Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
Braddon – Lady Audley’s Secret
Camus – “Myth of Sisyphus”
Camus – The Rebel
Camus – Reflections on the Guillotine
Coetzee – Waiting for the Barbarians
Collins – The Woman in White
Cooper – Over Sea, Under Stone
Cooper – The Dark is Rising
Cooper – Greenwitch
Cooper – The Grey King
Cooper – Silver on the Tree
Cosby – Cosbyology
Dickens – Great Expectations
Dickens – The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Dostoevsky – The Idiot (Garnett/Yuffa)
Durkheim – The Division of Labor
Eagleton – Literary Theory: An Introduction
El Saadawi – Woman at Point Zero
Eliot – The Lifted Veil
Everts – God in the Flesh
Fanon – Peau noir, masques blancs
FitzGerald – The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Frye – Fearful Symmetry
Gaddis – The Cold War: A New History
Garcia-Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera (Grossman)
Hardy – Jude the Obscure
Havel – Temptation (?)
Homer – The Iliad (Butler)
Homer – The Odyssey (Butler)
Ionesco – Les Chaises
Irving – A Prayer for Owen Meany
Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
Jones – Mister Pip
Joyce – Dubliners
Kincaid – Autobiography of My Mother
Kotlowitz – There Are No Children Here
L’Engle – The Arm of the Starfish
LeGuin – Lavinia
Levitt/Dubner – Freakonomics
Li – The Vagrants
Lynch – Catching the Big Fish
Marks – Cortés
Morrison – A Mercy
Nafisi – Things I Have Been Silent About
Niffenegger – The Time Traveler’s Wife
O’Brien – The Things They Carried
Paolini – Brisingr
Paolini – Eldest
Paolini – Eragon
Picoult – Harvesting the Heart
Ragland-Sullivan/Bracher – Lacan and the Subject of Language
Ramazani – The Dance of the Rose and the Nightingale
Rivers – Leota’s Garden
Rodley – Lynch on Lynch
Roose – The Unlikely Disciple
Roy – The God of Small Things
Rushdie – Midnight’s Children
Said – Orientalism
Shakespeare – As You Like It
Shakespeare – Henry IV, p. 2
Shakespeare – Henry VI, p. 1
Shakespeare – Henry VI, p. 2
Shakespeare – Henry VI, p. 3
Shakespeare – Henry VIII
Shakespeare – King John
Shakespeare – Richard II
Shakespeare – Venus and Adonis
Shaw – Pygmalion
Shusterman – Unwind
Stoker – Dracula
Tolan – The Lemon Tree
Twain – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Valette/Morgenroth – C’est de la prose
Walcott – Selected Poems
Weir – Eleanor of Aquitaine
Weir – The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Winter – Perfecting Ourselves to Death
Wood – East Lynne
Wrong – In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

*Books in bold are the ones I especially liked.

*Names in parentheses are translators.

O Resolutions Mine

January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!!!

In celebration, I've decided to return to a tradition begun last year--that of the New Year's Un-Resolution, otherwise known as stating the obvious. :-)

In review: this year I did not resolve to watch Veggie Tales more regularly. I did not stop (permanently) writing for my blogs. I still trip on giant dust bunnies named Bob in my room. My snooze button is still fully functional. Chaotic Christmas letter--check. No relationship status on Facebook. Despair.com--check. Alliteration--all the time. Big words--indubitably. Serious resolutions? Ha.

So, as Miss Stacy so poetically put it--"tomorrow is another day." Or was that Annie? Ahem.

Un-Resolution number ONE

I will not become addicted to Facebook applications...unless I do.

Un-Resolution number TWO

I will probably still dance around my kitchen on a regular basis.

Un-Resolution number THREE

I will never cease to make fun of the Twilight craze, even if I eventually read the books.

Un-Resolution number FOUR

I will drink no more or less coffee than I will drink this year.

Un-Resolution number FIVE

My computers will have names, will protest loudly at every opportunity, and will probably with a high likelihood of chance "lose" a few important files each semester.

Un-Resolution number SIX

I will make an average of two random comments or non-transitionalized remarks containing an average of one made-up word every fifteen minutes of most of my interactions.

Un-Resolution number SEVEN

I will refuse to wear rubber rain boots on campus, purely on principle. Unless I give in.

Un-Resolution number EIGHT

I will not gain a substantially higher quantity of artistic talent extending beyond rhapsodies over the stairs I trip up and the occasional caffeine-induced 3 a.m. short story or song lyric that is never written down.

Un-Resolution number NINE

I will spend at least fifteen minutes griping about the fact that all dressy shoes sizes 9 and above have a three-inch heel, regardless of the actual facts, whatever they may be. I said regardless of the facts, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Un-Resolution number TEN

I will most likely write another post very much like this one next year. Can't wait, can you?

...and...

Merry Christmas!!!

Today at the mall, doing my traditional Christmas Eve shopping and people-watching, a few things, as every year, caught my eye:

1) The number of adults leaning precariously over the railing to catch a glimpse of Santa on the floor below.
2) The men - props to you - sitting and waiting on the benches outside a store. Only one asleep, a few teens, many holding bags.
3) The men - the few, the brave - holding women's clothing items up to their own body in front of a mirror to figure out if the significant (female) other will like it.
4) The scarcity of Santa hats (one).
5) The beauty of a smile and a "Merry Christmas!"

Much as we like to pretend otherwise, there's a lot to be said for the small child in each of us who wants to giggle and finds it hard to go to sleep tonight...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Rhyme and Strain and Song

Christmas Rhyme and Strain and Song

Morning - red, and green, and white
Morning - peace: try not to fight
Morning - music; seek the light

Daylight - gifts of second fear
Daylight - lonely rush of tears
Daylight - (distant) God is near

Evening - fire is glowing warm
Evening - sit close; watch the storm
Evening - pressure to perform

Starlight - bright, the first new flame
Starlight - darkness hides the shame
Starlight - promise: freed from blame.

Midnight - day is getting late
Midnight - expectation/hate
Midnight - ill-content to wait

Christmas - fear to laugh or mourn
Christmas - digging out the thorn
Christmas - seeds of hope still born.

The Twelve Days of Finals

In celebration of finishing the first semester of grad school, and in proper holiday spirits, I am proud to bring to you, for the first time in the history of this blog (wow, that sounded very pompous, didn't it?)...The Twelve Days of Finals (to be sung appropriately).

Enjoy!

The Twelve Days of Finals OR The Twelve Final Days

1. The last week of classes, I saw a long, long road
To freedom from Tribble Hall

2. The last Tuesday classes, an abstract due at ten
Write quickly now
Toward freedom from Tribble Hall

3. The last Wednesday classes, I saw the break ahead
Course evals
Write a little more
And then freedom from Tribble Hall.

4. On the penult day of classes, I had a paper due,
Send it on Blackboard,
Course evals
Write a little more
And freedom from Tribble Hall.

5. On the last day of classes, I thought my time was free
It's getting cold
Bluff a Latin quiz
Course evals
Write a little more
And then freedom from Tribble Hall. (right)

6. On the first day of reading, I saw the light ahead
Papers keep coming
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
Only six hours in Tribble Hall.

7. On the second day of reading, a Latin test ahead
-bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus
Papers keep coming
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
And eight hours in Tribble Hall.

8. On the first day of finals, three papers loom ahead
Conjugate "esse"
Time to check Facebook
Save every minute
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
Elev'n hours in Tribble Hall.

9. On the second day of finals, the caffeine level's high
Three papers queuing
Free food at midnight
Time to check Facebook
Save every minute
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
And twelve hours in Tribble Hall.

10. On the third day of finals, I felt the panic grow
Don't lose your outline
Three papers looming
Free food at midnight
Time to check Facebook
Save every minute
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
Thirteen hours in Tribble Hall.

11. On the fourth day of finals, no more excuses now
Panic at midnight
Don't lose your outline
Three paper deadlines
Free food at midnight
Time to check Facebook
Save every minute
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Find more books
Write a little more
Fifteen hours in Tribble Hall.

12. On the fifth day of finals, the end of all has come
Double the coffee
Panic all morning
Back up your finals
Three paper deadlines
Eight hours of writing
No time for Facebook
Save every minute
It's getting cold
Gripe about the work
Write last words
Let the papers go
And then freeeeedom from Triiiiibble Hall.

Merry Christmas in 7 Days!!!!

DONE

C'est fini

Finitus est

I'm done.

Take that, first-semester-of-grad school.

I will now collapse for a week.

Ode to Room 201

After having spent no less than 8 hours a day on campus since Saturday and NO LESS than twelve hours a day on campus since Monday, this is the response of a brain in desperation.

With no further ado, please forgive my Ode to Room 201, where I have spent most of those hours.

----

Ode to Room 201

O Room with glued-on faux antique wood door,
a throne for ev'ry king and ev'ry queen
as long as there are only two of each--no more,
lest like Twelve Angry Men you stage a scene
with seven angry grads who fight for sway
of velvet plush that squeaks a regal tune.
Your promised hidden panels soon exhaust,
O room of caffeine flowing night and day,
where books like sphinxes claim a costly boon,
and mind-spent students scream that all is lost.

----

Yes, Wake Forest, you have brought me to this.

10 days...

...until freedom.

Lots of paper-writing between now and then. Not a good time for getting sick.

Somebody tell my germs that...

Please?

Turkey in a Clean House

Shh... don't look now, but my house is clean. Don't blink - it might disappear if you do.

You know you're turning into a grown-up when what excites you about Thanksgiving break is the chance to clean the house. It's really kind of sad, but I spent most of the day doing just that, and reveling in NOT doing work that required my brain to be functional.

But I'm excited about more than that: Christmas music becomes permissible in TWO DAYS!!! Sorry if you missed the memo (the stores definitely have), but playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving is a dreadful holiday faux pas.

In other news, the Christmas tree stands are beginning to pop up around town, and unfortunately, so are the crazy shoppers and tense, frustrated faces in line. It's kind of sad how quickly it starts. You'd think Joy to the World (which I didn't hear because I was good and blocked my ears to avoid breaking that all-important holiday rule about not listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving) would override the fear that someone else might get the last box of New Moon Jell-O with the free Jacob's...face temporary tattoo.

Guess that's a bit much to ask. That tattoo will be worth a lot on Ebay. Someday.

But in the meantime, I want to take a minute to list off some of the things I'm thankful for this year...

• Food, warm houses, friends and family;
• Turkey. And cranberry sauce;
• The end of David Lynch movies, for me at least;
• The mere 53 pages of writing standing between me and the end of the semester;
• The fact of being alive at the almost-end of the semester; and,
  
• Grace to cover my sarcasm, crankiness, and general obsession with me-ness.

Safe travels, happy eating-and-shopping-in-maddeningly-long-lines-at-five-a.m., and see you on the other side!!

First Semester of Grad School...

...in three pictures or less. As expressed by LOLcats...

Enjoy.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures