Books

Fact: I do not trust people who say that do not like reading.  Now, this is not the same as when people say “I don’t like books” (which I also find to be mistrustful not but as much as the former).  Maybe they prefer books on tape or reading graphic novels or comic books.  Maybe they like being read to by a friend or a partner, maybe they like newspapers or articles from journals.  But saying “I do not like reading” is like putting the nail in the coffin of any relationship I could have had with that person.

Fact: I come from a family of readers.  Now many people can say that, and maybe it’s not that special, but I honestly believe it is in my blood to love reading.  I grew up watching my grandparents read in their chairs.  My Memere read mostly Romance but that is not to say she did not dabble in other genres.  My Pepere was a huge non-fiction junky.  He read biographies of famous figures and books about historical time periods.  It is because of him that my love and respect for history began.

But more so than anyone else in my family, I watched my parents read.  My dad in his younger years could finish a book faster than anyone I know.  His true love is hard science fiction but he’ll read almost anything.  My mom is a slower reader but no less enthusiastic.  I watched my parents read the paper every morning and listened as they read to us every night before we went to bed.

I have fond memories related to certain books.  I remember places based on what I was reading at the time, I remember friends because we shared the same excitement over the same pages.  I first read Harry Potter at the age of nine in upstate New York in a home owned by my mother’s best friend.  I read it out loud with my mom on a scratchy couch in a place that smelled old and loved in the middle of nowhere.  Most of our vacations are us just sitting around in couches and chairs reading silently.  That’s what happens when your family is made up of introverts.

Fact: While I said I understood why some people do not like books, I’m probably never going to be with someone that feels that way.  Mostly because the people I have met that feel that way, I don’t have very much in common with.  I read every day, I write down my favorite quotes from books as well as the days I started and ended it, and I think about other adventures the characters are having long after I have closed the cover.  I reread certain books every year, and yes, every time I do, I always find something different.

Fact: I talk about Harry Potter almost every day.  

Fact: Right now I am reading “Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain In Its Darkest, Finest Hour.”  I really like historical non-fiction...

And to end, these are some books/plays/epics in no particular order (except for the top two which I reread every year) that mean a lot to me.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bardbury

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe – Fanny Flagg

Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynn Jones

Song of Soloman – Toni Morrison

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Green Eggs and Ham – Doctor Seuss

The Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling

Arcadia – Tom Stoppard

The Odyssey – Homer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare  

People Who Have A Special Place In Hell

Well I’m super bored at work and once again I have been neglecting my blog.  To further avoid work and to further my already mediocre writing skills, I’m not going to write about things or people (actually just people) who have a special place in hell.  I may expand on my reasoning, but most likely I will be too lazy.

People who do not throw out their trash at the end of the movie.  The ones that are going one level further in hell are the people that jam their popcorn bags down into a folded seat like I can’t fucking see it when I’m cleaning.  Really?  Just fucking leave it on the ground, I still have to pick it up but at least I don’t have to pull your disgusting buttery bag out of there.  Giant Douchebags. 

Also movie related, people who talk through movies.  This one pisses me off the most since I have been horribly spoiled when viewing movies, as I get to screen them days in advance with only my friends around and we all love movies so much we follow the cardinal rule of NOT FUCKING TALKING.  This got to be so bad that when I was forced to see a film at AMC I turned around and told some thirteen year old asshole who was singing along to “shut the fuck up.”  This was followed by some more talking by his friends who called me a bitch behind my back which further lead me to turn around and say “I can fucking hear you.”  I have a lot of rage lately…

People who stand on the left side of an escalator.  I won’t say anymore on the topic because it will probably drive me to drink.

Actually, in general, people who walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk.  Isn’t kinda like traffic rules?  Stay in the right lane?  Why are you getting pissy at me for running into me?  I’m walking where I should be walking, I attempted to move and avoid you but you were acting like it was the running of the bulls in the opposite direction.  This and also people over the age of ten that ride their bikes on sidewalks.  I’ll leave it at that or my firm no gun policy might change.

When you are attempting to get off of a busy subway car and people are also walking into it.  Just, do people not know subway rules?  And then they get mad when I push back at them trying to get out.  Let the people off first, I promise, you will get on the fucking train.

I would say when people walk against traffic lights but since I’m a huge jay walker I won’t be that asshole hypocrite. 

When I was in college and people would ask me how much of my paper I had written a week before it was due.  NONE YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.  And they would continue to ask me up until the 24 hour mark.  Why is it so important to you how much I have written?  It in no way affects your life.  If I want to do it at the last minute then I will.  I’m still going to get a better grade than you did and I only spent five hours writing it while you spent upwards of a week and a half. 

People who say Hufflepuff sucks.  Honey badger gonna cut you.

When you tell someone bad news and their reply is, “You’re kidding.”  Yes, I think it’s a joke that my arm is broken. 

People who did not understand that the above was sarcasm.

Moving on.  I took the Myers-Briggs personality test today.  It had changed from when I had taken it as a Junior in high school.  The assessment literally told me that my personality is an oxymoron, not an altogether shocking conclusion.  I took it twice and even changed some answers I found I didn’t answer correctly and still it came to the same conclusion.  It’s pretty accurate, the only thing I don’t really agree with is that I’m goal oriented and that I work hard until it’s achieved.  Seeing as how I never set goals for myself and never do more work than needs to be done, that part was off the mark.