I <3 Literary Things

I just found a new online shopping website to fall in love with. It's like your cozy little neighborhood gift store but on the web! You can get t-shirts with the names of fonts on them, notebooks made out of recycled Dr. Seuss books, and a plethora of "Reading Is Sexy" paraphernalia. I myself really want to get the brown "Helvetica" t-shirt. It's chic and brainy! Yay! All you book lovers out there should definitely check out http://www.buyolympia.com for lots of cute trinkets, notebooks, shirts, and accessories. I've gotten a ton of gifts for my friends there as well as some prizes for my contest that I held a while ago...Let me know what you think!

 

Adorable, right?!

John Green is Freakin' Amazing

The "Puff"The Happy Dance

Two girls with some pretty awesome t-shirts

Last night, The Loft Literary Center in downtown Minneapolis hosted John Green, author of Looking For Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. I was lucky enough to be able to go with some of my friends at it was probably the coolest author event I've been to. I'm a big fan of his books and watch his Nerdfighting videos obsessively, so it was really neat to see him in person.

He spoke about his inspiration for his books, the "shape" of them, how he writes, the details behind the two covers of Paper Towns, and tons of other stuff. Strangely enough, the majority of the audience was adults. My friends and I might have been the youngest people there, and we're really not that young. Even so, the room was filled and everyone seemed really excited to be there, cheering loudly when John came in. 

He was very funny, nerdy, and engaging, which was what I had hoped for. :) He's the kind of speaker that you want to listen to. I loved hearing him talk about the Paper Towns covers and reading the prologue from it (you can read more about the covers in the post before this). I was totally hooked and can't wait to read it; which I can actually start doing now, as Paper Towns was on sale exclusively for the audience, three weeks before it's released. I need to start reading! Hopefully I'll get through it quickly, so that I can pick up Song of the Sparrow and finish that soon! They also had Let It Snow on sale, which John coauthored with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, which I think is being released on October 2nd, so look for a review of that soon too. 

The people in the audience asked some great questions and he gave some really insightful answers. He even did his Happy Dance for us. :P Overall, it was an awesomely fun experience and I'd love to go to an event of his again, if I could. I highly recommend that if John's coming somewhere near you on his tour that you go and see him. It'll definitely be worth it. 

The best part of the evening by far was when we were leaving. We were the last people to go and while walking out, John waved to us, we screamed to Hank through his phone, and he thanked us for "being awesome". A great way to end a fun-filled night. :)

Oh and one little tidbit that I learned last night was that the movie rights to Paper Towns have already been sold. Wow! And even better than that is the fact that John himself is writing the screen play and the movie's being made by the same people who did Juno (which is a fantastic movie, btw). That news made me super excited and now I definitely need to finish Paper Towns soon so I can start visualizing its complete on-screen awesome-ness in my head!

Booking Through Thursday/Saturday #4: Well, That Was Different!

On Saturday

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?
And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

Before this school year I had never really read any unusual books. I read mostly mainstream YA fiction books which have normal plots, normal characters, and normal themes. But then during the first month of school, we were required to read Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I've read a few classics before but none as chilling and weird as this one. It's chalk full of symbolism and meaning that I was only able to decipher with the help of my teacher. It was definitely not a book I'd choose for myself to read. It is not a book that you read for enjoyment. At all. 

And after having gone through heated class discussions on loaded questions, I think that this is probably one of the most boundary-stretching books I've read. It makes you consider the nature of humans at their very core. Are we innately good or evil? Is a person born to one side or another? What would happen if we were left to our own devices without any structure or civilization. 

William Golding's viewpoint on those things is that we as humans are beings who are savage at heart. If we were left to ourselves we would regress to a point where there would be no order or structure. There might be a sensible person here and there, but the evil in us would win out in the long run. 

I'm not sure myself if that's what I think and it's too big and controversial of a subject to get into here, but reading about a situation like the one in Lord of the Flies really makes you consider yourself as a human being. And there are little snippets of symbolism thrown into the book to emphasize Golding's point. Piggy's glasses, the conch, the signal fire, and the beast are all crucial elements that help to get the story across. I would love to hear what you guys think of this book, if you've read it, or if you haven't, what your take is on the questions that a proposed. 

I think I enjoyed the book. Maybe "enjoyed" is the wrong word. Let's say I appreciated and valued it. I shuddered, felt sick, and sat on the edge of my seat while reading it, which are probably all the things that the book was meant to do to its readers. It succeeded in giving me a topic to analyze for the first time, which is good. I'd recommend that you read it as it is now a big part of literary culture. A must read.

Last night when I went to see John Green he actually talked about the good and evil parts of people, coincidentally. The two covers of Paper Towns show two misconceptions of the same girl. It says that no one person can be labeled all good or all evil as Margo is shown on the book. We each have a little of both in us. John talked about that in length and, like Lord of the Flies, it made me think. Hearing him talk about a subject like that was really neat as it totally related to what we've been talking about in class lately. It's definitely a topic which requires a lot of thinking and analyzing. 

What are your thoughts?

Little Things

So just a few reminders/catch-ups. 

Thanks soooo much to everyone who commented to help me pick out a laptop sleeve! I'm still having a hard time deciding but I think I've gotten it down to the first one shown (the one with the power lines) and a new one I discovered thanks to TC who commented like 15 minutes ago. She introduced me to the laptop sleeve site Snupped. Their bags are made out of cotton and are padded and they come in a ton of super cute patterns. I really am a polka-dot girl, but I do see the validity in some of the comments that said the sleeves with the dots that I picked below might be a little kidd-ish. Snupped has some really cute polka dot ones that I like so I might get one of those instead. I just have to decide between pattern or picture. :)

Another reminder is that I will be going to see John Green at the Loft Literary Center tomorrow night! According to his site there will be a neat surprise there (which will cost some money). I'm so excited to see what it is! Any speculations? I'll be sure to take tons of pictures and write about it in detail for those of you who aren't able to go to one of his events (click here for my original post about the event). 

Also, I will be posting my response to this week's Booking Through Thursday question on Saturday. I think it'll be pretty long and cool so be sure to read and comment with your opinions on that once it gets posted.

And that about sums it up for updates and reminders!

Bits n' Pieces - Brooke Taylor

Brooke Taylor is the author of the book Undone. You can find my review of the book here, or you can read my interview on the book over at Read, Read, Read here. You can also visit Brooke's website by clicking here. I have to say that Undone was one of my favorite books of 2008 so far and I'd definitely recommend it. Not to mention, that Brooke is fantastic and was a pleasure to interview. :) 

This or that:
Rain or shine? 

Rain (perfect for reading!)
iPod or mp3 player? 

iPod
Movies or TV?

TV
City or country? 

country
Mountains or beaches? 

Mountains
Dots or stripes? 

stripes
Dogs or cats? 

Dogs (but don’t tell my cats)
Cooking or eating out? 

Eating out
Coffee or tea? 

Diet Coke
Books or magazines? 

Books (of course!)

Favorites:
Book- 

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Book store- 

Tattered Cover in Denver
Movie- 

Heathers
Music artist- 

30 Seconds to Mars
Website- 

BrookeTaylorBooks.com (LOL)
Designer- 

Louis Vuitton (not that I can afford it)
Coffee chain- 

Starbucks
Guilty pleasure- 

Cake Batter ice cream from ColdStone
Restaurant- 

Fuddruckers
Color- 

black (but I’m told that isn’t really a color—so pale pink)

Have you ever:
Lived abroad? 

Sort of—used to live on a cruise ship and it traveled abroad.
Gotten a tattoo? 

Not at liberty to say at this time
Stayed up for the midnight release of a movie or book? 

No, but might for Twilight
Disliked your job? 

At times
Cried during a movie? 

Yes
Sang karaoke? 

No

Questions:
If you were on a desert island, what 5 things would you bring with you? 

My mom, brother, two dogs, and a lifetime supply of diet coke. I could write my books using a stick in the sand.
What’s on the list of things you have to do during your life? 

Win the Lottery
If you could have one super power what would it be? 

Become invisible
What’s your perfect music playlist? 

A very very long one—I’m always changing what I like to listen to.
What’s the one food you could eat day after day and not get sick of? 

Is Diet Coke a food?
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? 

I’d love to go back to Africa, and diving in the Galapagos would be amazing. Anywhere there are cool animals.
What moment in history do you wish you could’ve experienced?
I would’ve loved to seen the Wright Brothers first take to the sky—that had to have been surreal. Who would’ve thought people could fly?!?
What does your dream library look like? 

Gorgeous wood shelves filled with YA books, comfy couches, and dogs and diet coke allowed inside.
When you walk into a bookstore, where do you head first?
YA section.
If everyone had to read one book, what would you have it be?
That’s tough—and fiction is very hard to recommend for everyone—so I’d go with a great “self-help” series called Toxic People.
Also for the ladies—I’d recommend How to Tell If Your Boyfriend Is the Antichrist: And If He Is, Should You Break Up with Him? A fun, but informative guide. 

Thank you so much Brooke! The winner of Song of the Sparrow from last week's post is Aella! Look for an email from Lisa soon! Congratulations!

Authors; want to be featured in a Bits 'n Pieces interview? Email me at livsbookreviews.blogspot.com and we'll make it happen!

Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling

Claire Voyante has been having strange visions ever since she can remember. But the similarity between her name and her talents is purely coincidental. The name is French, and unlike the psychics on TV, she can't solve crimes or talk to the dead. Whenever Claire follows her hunches, she comes up empty - or ends up in pretty awkward situations. 

But all that changes on Claire's fifteenth birthday, when her grandomther Kiki - former socialite, fashion icon, and now permanent fixture at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel - gives her something a little more extraordinary than one of her old cocktail dresses: a strange cameo, made of onyx and ivory, on a gold chain. And it's not long before Claire's world becomes a whole lot clearer. And a whole lot more dangerous. 

New friends, old grudges, strange jewelry, and some creepy black-and-white dreams - if Claire can just survive sophomore year in high school, she might be able to get through anything.

(Summary from jacket flap)

It's a miracle that I actually finished a book. Wow. How long has it been? Like three weeks? I am infinitely sorry at my incompetence at reading right now. I'm trying so so so hard, I promise. I think part of the reason that I've been deathly slow lately is that Dream Girl had some frusterating spots. I'd hit a rough patch, stop reading, and then pick it up a week later. In between those rough patches, though, it was good. I enjoyed reading about Claire and her mischief. I might even say that Dream Girl is a better version of The Queen Geek series which I detested. This book has all the fun and nerdy elements but presented in a much more believable and enjoyable way. Claire is the leading lady who is just spunky enough to be fun to read about but not overly ridiculous like the characters in Queen Geek. Another character 

I loved was Kiki. I want a grandmother who is stylish and completely awesome like her. :) I'm so glad that she was included in the story because she added a fun new angle to the book. One of the random elements I enjoyed was the cameo necklace. I love that sort of silhouette-ish thing with the pretty black and white and I can totally picture myself wearing a necklace like that. The writing in Dream Girl might not have been all that wonderful or captivating but the whole mystery of the story and the fun romance between Claire and Andy kept it all moving and left me satisfied. I would recommend Dream Girl as a nice light read along the lines of The Gallagher Girls and The Queen Geek Books (although far better than the latter). I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

Finding The Perfect Laptop Sleeve

I recently became the proud owner of a beautiful white MacBook. Before, I was using my family's shared PC and had to compete for internet and typing time but now I have my very own machine. :) It was about time too because I'm getting to the point in my education where having your own laptop or computer is essential for research, typing, more research, and just generally looking things up. I've also discovered that having the internet so easily accessible has eaten up more of my time than I expected. I can go on whenever I want which probably isn't the best thing...I will learn to control myself in time. My current internet obsession is watching The Secret Life of an American Teenager on the ABC family site. I didn't watch it while it was actually broadcasting, but now that it's over and there's so much hype about it, I'm catching up; and loving it so far.

Anyways, onto the subject of this post, I'm trying to find myself a laptop sleeve so that I can carry my comp with me wherever I go without worry of damage and scratching. When I went on Amazon, the choices were so mind-boggling that I don't think I'd ever be able to make a decision on my own. And that's where you, dear readers, come in. I'm posting pictures of my fave sleeves and you have to tell me which ones you like best. And they're kind of expensive so I want to make the right decision. :P Let me know what you think! I'm looking for some feedback. 

What say you to this difficult decision?