Literary Roses

What makes a good book? There is an unlimited amount of things that can be taken into account: word choice,descriptions,plot,characters....

For example--There is a book called The Historian that I'm fond of. If you just take into account the plot, then I might accept it as okay if a bit dry. The thing that I really enjoy about it is the descriptions of places. The characters travel all over Europe and England and the author goes to great lengths to make sure you can visualize your surroundings. The words enable you to see a Romanian forest in minute detail, down to the moss on logs.

I know that reading is only limited to your imagination. If I was reading a book lacking descriptions then I could easily create scenery of my own to go with it. Probably with ridiculously unrelated decorations, but that's one of the many wonders that accompany fiction. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to let the story teller guide your attention to the warm tile of Venice and the colors of the sunset. Not for plots sake or any particular purpose. Just to stop and smell the literary roses.

A List and Some Books

Alright! *rubs hand together* There are many about to happen.

1. I go back to school Monday.
2. I have band tryouts on the 15th.
3. This is the second semester and as such I need to endeavor not to screw it up as badly as I did the first.
4. I'm going to tell you about some of the books that I read over break.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

A book set in Nazi Germany and narrated by a sentimental misunderstood Death. Death has been carting ( or carrying if you want to be picky) souls to heaven since the beginning of time and sometimes it gets a little overwhelming. He can't just let souls wander around wreaking havoc so he finds an outlet in distractions. His main distraction is the color of the sky. I found it slightly confusing at first, his mentioning random colors, but I finally realized what he was talking about. Most of you will probably pick up on it quicker than I did. Especially if you've read this first...Right. He is reluctantly drawn into the story of Liesel Meminger, The Book Thief.

The story centers around a young girl who is trying to survive in a world of hunger,suspicion, and the terrors of the Nazi Party. Thankfully, it doesn't get hung up on those things. :) The book does make nice political points just by being and showing what it was like, but it doesn't use the girl as an instrument of education by putting her through untold horrors and making her act twice her age.$ My horrible bit of reviewing aside...this was a book worth reading.


A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

I've put off buying this book for about six months now. I pick it up,look at it, decide it's too cliche, and then put it down. I finally caved and bought the thing so I could get it over with. It's set in the quickly industrializing Victorian age$$. Gemma Doyle is sent to a finishing school in England after the brutal murder of her mother. The murder that she saw in a vision.

The fear of cliche-ness isn't as bad as I had feared, but you do have a group of girls sneaking out to do magic, a finishing school, and other things typical of almost cliched novels. I enjoyed it and plan on reading all three books in the trilogy, but if you can't stand overused plots then I would advise you to keep on browsing...I hate to condemn a book, but there it is. One of the main problems I have with it is how flat the Realms are. --Realms being the secret place they can access through the use of magic.-- You don't meet any interesting characters there that actually have feelings or visit any places that are going to stick out in your mind. Of course, this is a number one out three. The final verdict will be saved until the entire Trilogy has been read...

$This is with vague reference to a certain Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlett Letter. I'm not a big Hawthorne fan and the fact that Pearl was used as a symbol of truth irks me to no end. She was a good thing to use for it to be sure, but she just as easily could have been used to add a little entertainment to it as well. Mayhap then I wouldn't have bored out of my mind reading it...

$$The Victorian Age. Just a random thought to share--Has anyone ever noticed the amount of weird and kinky things that went on with these people? All that sexual repression was probably starting to get to them...Lay back and think of England!

Feeling Some Paragraphs...

Okay, I've been trying for the past week to get my posts to actually hold paragraphs, but they refuse. Why is this?! If I put them in paragraphs and then click preview on the posty thing it shows my paragraphs, but then when I actually post it...Nada. This is really annoying. I don't like reading large uninteresting blocks of text. I can't stand to read my own blog due to my utter lack of computer-y skillz.

Thought about trying to fix it by much fiddling of settings etc, but the last time I did that it murdered my blog. New Plan: Wait it out. The computer doesn't have my human stubbornness...it'll fold eventually.

**edit**

Ah ha!! Fixed it.

Tamora Pierce likes to...rock?!

According to what seems to be a legitimate Tamora Pierce website ( It's rather terribly done in typical author fashion. XD), Ms. Pierce has a fondness for...Marilyn Manson. Yes, quite odd. I like Tamora Pierce. I like Marilyn Manson. Yet, I've never had the hankering to read a good ole fantasy book to the accompaniement of loud screamy music. --> I say again, " I DO like Marilyn Manson, but I realize that his music is loud and screamy. There's nothing wrong with a bit of loud and screamy."

To quote the page exactly:

As always, since I have gotten my iPod Podkayne, I have wondered far and wee over the world's musical scene. As a result, I have found some truly interesting things:

"Song"
"Tainted Love" as covered by Marilyn Manson (rock)
"Song"

Okay fine, it wasn't an exact quote. I just didn't want to take up an enormous amount of space listing what songs she found interesting. :D But everything else is correct.

So, one of my favorite authors meets one of my favorite musicians. ( Well, not meet exactly, but you know what I mean.) This is cool. Yet, for all of it's coolness I'm still having problems meshing 54 year old fantasy author with our favorite shock rocker. ( Note: Doesn't completely agree with shock rocker label) 'Til later then.

Books

I have written ( or typed if you want to get picky) 89 posts on this dilapidated blog of mine. Frighteningly few of them have adressed any books. This is oddly surprising to me considering that my life revolves around reading. How could I not have at least ranted about the injustice that is living in a small town sans bookstore? (We'll save that for another time.)

Now, where to start? First off, I don't have a FAVORITE book. Books are so different and varied it's impossible to say firmly, " This is MY favorite!" The closest you can come to it ( Fine, the closest I can come to it.) is to say, "These are the books that I read over and over."

Books like Spindle's End by Robin McKinley or Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Yeah, I'm a big fantasy nut.

Books that I don't care for range from macho guy novels to Douglas Adams books. ( Exception of Hitchkiker's Guide)

Mmm! I love my tea thick.

I'm the only one in my family that drinks hot tea in my family. They drink tea, just not hot. Actually, I would say that my house goes through at least three gallons of tea a day. The concept of water has yet to be introduced.

Now, I like my tea, but I like it in tea bags. I've never tried loose leaf tea and don't plan to until I take time to go buy a tea pot,strainer, and a nice set of china! Then I'll invite of Mary Sue and Diane for some nice biscuits and....right. I'm usually in a hurry and throw a bag in a mug and then pour some water over it right as I walk out the door. Sure, my tea would probably taste a million times better if I took out time to properly fix it complete with strainer and pot, but I do not. I'm sure every loyal tea drinker out there cringes at my caloussness concerning there prefered beverage.

All of this is getting to a story that happened two years back. Look with me into the past...

My friend and I had been pointlessy surfing the web and chatting about many a pointless subject when I came upon a slightly shifty looking page about divination. Of course the curiosity of my fantasy based mind was instantly piqued. Anything involving divination brought up fond memories of a certain Prof. Trelawney. I find that the site is really just a list of symbols and their meanings with directions to make tea, drain it, and then look at the leaves.

I IMd my friend and we immediately complied with said directions! Oh wonder of wonders, we were going to start a business of tea leaf reading. (Possibly with nice china and biscuits...) Unfortunately, I had no loose leaf tea. Just some nice Lady Grey tea bags. Oh Well. I ripped one of them open, dumped it into a mug, and then sloshed some water over it. My friend on the other side of the internet did the same. We waited the required brewing time of 3-5 minutes and then proceeded to down our dreggy brews. Absolutly disgusting. In waiting our 4 minutes we failed to take into account the time it would take to drink it. So by the time we got half way through the cup the taste could safely be compared to a fragrant varnish. By about the 2/3 mark it was getting nice and thick with our incy wincy tea bag particles. Mmmm.

Finally, the cup was finished. I looked deep into the cup and realized all of my effort was for naught. First of all, tea bits do not lay the same as tea leaves. Second problem, most of the dregs had been swallowed due to their small nature.

What moral was learned from this? What lesson was learned? Well, it turnes out that loose leaf tea is probably superior due to the plain fact that it's actually made of leafs. Tea bags contain small bits of leafs that have probably fallen onto the tea factory floor and then been swept up. Disgusting.

Aggresive Religion--What bullying can do for you!!

Yes, I'm back. Sometimes it's just nice to complain to something that might listen. My unresponsive mirror has became increasingly less satisfying. I have never asserted my religious views on this blog. Mostly because I"m so confused that I don't even know myself, but that's not what I'm here to do. I would just like to say that everyone has a right to believe in what they so choose. Be it faith in the unreliability in the post or in the omniscience of God, it is their right of being human to believe what they will. So why must people be constantly forcing their beliefs on others? I can understand these traveling religious types who knock on your door, say hi, and then scat, but some people...I mean, when your at school and someone starts attacking atheism or Buddhism just because it isn't Christianity. Well, just keep that up bucko! Your dissing their religion and trying to foist your own on them by way of insult is going to work smashingly. I don't want to sound like some uber teen with angsty ramblings about the expectations of my peers/family/community so I shall stop before I ramble myself into a giant vortex of text based rage!!

Just let me say this. If you believe in it then it is real. There is no one right religion. No one is wrong in their beliefs if they truly believe. The only way you can be wrong in a religon is if your play acting your part.

Catching Up

Okay, I was going to leave it at the last post, but it didn't tell you anything. This past year many things have happened. I have fallen out with friends..gotten back together with them...then fallen out again...But my rocky social life isn't what I am posting again to tell you about.
I have started a new page in life. That's right my friends. I have went from sophomore to junior since I last talked to you. My life has blossomed like a stunted cactus. Slow and painfully. I did make it into newspaper though. *nods* I know! If I had only recalled that I had this blog earlier then you could have went through my anxious sufferings with me, but alas.

I spend a lot of time on a MUSH (Multi User Shared Hullicination a.k.a. geeky text based computer program) with my friend Matthew...or err...Wilbur ( since I said I was going to stop using names...) Which is really fun. I astound myself with eloquence....

Ah, one more thing before I leave. I used to have my pootry based blog called the Ragged Bookshelf. Remember it? I didn't think so...Well, I can't remember my sign in name so I shall be moving it to here. Which means I have a lot of copying and pasting to do. :(
Well, there is a more complete albeit boring post. It will get better once I've gotten past this little bump of not posting in forever.

And I'm Back!

Hello my dear readers, I have once again returned to you. Indeed, every minute that I spent away from blogger was pure agony. No, truly...I'm serious.

Ah, drat. You've figured me out. I did in fact forget about my blog entirely. A whole year has went by without me posting and I think I shall rectify this. Prepare your self for I've an impure tale to tell! ( Quills)

Band Camp

So, I have made it through two whole days of band camp unscathed. (A record, I'm sure) It was a lot different than last year. Well, camp is the same, but it doesn't come with the feeling of complete bewilderment associated with being a freshmen. I got to see all of my friends again, which did wonders for riding me of my recent maudlin thoughts. No one has decided that I'm too annoying, sarcastic, dorky, or perverted to talk to. Forgive me if I'm not suprised. Most of my friends fall in one or more of those categories, and are not likely to leave me for such failings. :D Sorry my good friends. I'm tired, so let me get to the point. Band camp is fun most of the time and my friends are freakin' awesome. Now, I said that I would add something to about my views on things, and i'm tired.. so nothing too speech inspiring Let us contemplate the mystery of the pickle. Where did the pickle come from? and who would think to put something as alnd as a cucumber in a jar of viinegar and make it absolutely delicious. I think that the pickle is a direct result of a failed attemp at world domination. Yes, that's right my rapt audience ( ya'll had better be rapt.... grr..) The pickle was first invented by a communist Czechslavokian nun. ( Yes, this was a bit before that country split up) errr.. have to leave quickly before mom realizes I'm on so late... TBC

I found your blog inquisitive?

Okay, so about a month ago I get a comment saying that so and so finds my blog inquisitive, and would like me to visit his or her blog. I was just now browsing through several blogs and guess what. Mr. So and So finds just about everyones blog " inquisitive". :My heart is crushed. Who actually uses the word inquisitive anyway. ( No offense to those who actually use that word... a.k.a. absolutely no one.) I'm not really upset, but these findings beg the question " does he/she actually read the blogs that they post at?" . I think not my good people. If he does than I'm the peg legged aunt of the prime ministers secretary's brothers same sex partner. Which consequently I am not.

Wow.. I just read over my entire blog. I used to be so good at posting. I quit caring about this stupid blog a while back. Mostly because I was afraid someone would read it and think it was stupid and later taunt me about it while I was at school.... but since I haven't updated in forever I imagine they ( all my friends) have all forgotten about this site and me. Ues, that's right faithful readers ( me) , my once stalwart companions I hardly ever speak to anymore. Thomas and Matthew are a thing of the past. How strange to be writing that. It seems so long ago that they were my friends and life wasn't a hormone laced pool of angst. I have also Fallen out with Meaghan and my boyfriend broke up with me.

So, to start posting on this again I'm going to make a rule. Since anyone reading this doesn't know any of my friends personally, I'm going to refer to them by alias's or the first letter of their names from now on. Right after this next bit. :D

Okay, for all of you curios as to where my Thomas and Matthew friendship went.... Let me fill you in.

Matthew: I still speak to him, but not that often. We have absolutely nothing in common and I have a horrible feeling that we both get on each others nerves. Nothing big really... Just highschool came and we met new people and made other friends.

Thomas: Different matter entirely. I never speak to him and haven't for close to a year now. Miss him a lot, much more than I would ever openly admit to anyone asking. Not for sure why he quit talking to me, but let me mention it wasn't a " We just don't see each other any more" thing. It was a delibrate " I'm not talking to you" thing. There has been much speculating as to the cause for his reluctance to talk to me ( done by me of course) , but no definite conclusion.

Alright, This post was mostly for me. I'll try to be more forth coming with interesting things later. My opinions on world leaders, terroist attacks, cafeteria food, and maybe even cell phones that cause your brain to become a mash patatoe like mush...

Tootles! .... So many people to avoid , so littly hallway.

Progressively Peachy?

Well, isn't life getting progressively peachier. Just a month ago I was wishing for school to start again and here I am dreading band camp. I feel liking being thoroughly disagreeable, but that wouldn't be pleasant for anyone... Sooo... If anyone is reading this that I dislike than let is be known that I say to you " I hope you live a very long, miserable, life married to a retired nazi who looks like a baboon." If I don't dislike you then feel free to look over this post... and forgive me for being disagreeable. However you spell that.

Coffee and Funyons

So I was just sitting in my room and I had a thought.....What if i lived in a house made of peaches... Wouldn' that be awsome?! Then right after that I thought that maybe I should let people know that summer is as boring as hell . And I imagine after a couple days of burning , hell is pretty boring. Then again I may be wrong. I don't have any personal experience in the matter.... Have you ever really noticed that when you are given time to think about things you keep thinking aout them until you are drivn to insanity? There should never be a time when you have nothing to do for a period over three days. You think about one thing over and over trying to figure out how to fix it. You look at it from every angle and work through every senario and three pots of coffee and a bag of funyons later you realize something. No matter what you think about there is now way that you can go back into he past and cange anything so there is no point obcessing....which makes you deppressed and want more coffee.

Stalker's Shopping Mall

Well, I've not updaed in quite a while...... You know I think the whole Blogger thing is a bit creepy. You write stuff bout you and your life on a page and publish for anybody to see. It's like a stalker's shopping mall.Ah Well, I'm the only one who reads this anyhow.

Six Days Later and Another Post...

I'm posting again and in a short time period. Burn!! Well, this Friday will be our 3 week anniversary. By we I mean Tyler and I. He let me borrow the HitchHiker book by Douglas Adams or whatever his name is. I've only read to page 170 or so, but it's already freakin' hilarious. Hmmm.... Meaghan and I wrote James a really pretty picture today during lunch ( F.Y.I. I sit with Kelsey,Kelcie ,Meaghan,and Macy during lunch.) This drawing is in response to his drawing. We have now drawn him two stick figure pictures. Thw first one was of him getting attacked by scary flag girls. Don't worry, I didn't expect you to get it. It's an inside saxophone section thing.
Tootles!!

And Thirteen days later you get an update...

See! I said I wouldn't abandon you for too long. "Well, we only have two more football games until marching season is over which means I'll go back to being bored all the time." Is something I would have said last year. Now, that I'm in Highschool that is only a little bit true. Yes, I'll miss getting to march , but I'll have all of my friends to keep me busy. So Ha!! I know. I'll still be bored. I can't help but try and console myself.
Today is the tenth day that I have been going out with Tyler. Which I forgot to post about. Tyler is in band too and is a sophomore. All of the people out there that are against intersection relationships can just get over it!! :D
James, our section leader, drew us a really nice picture that shows him shooting "you" . I guess he meant that "you" was us. I thought it was an over all confusing picture. *nods*
I doubt that anyone reading this really cares about my intersection relationship, but then again I have a feeling that I'm the only one that reads it. So everyone who reads it does care! How sweet of you. Lol
Well, I updated in less that a month of my last update. It must be record.
Tootles!!

An All New Setup

I have once again decided to grace all of the readers who so avidly enjoy my blog *coughs* me *coughs* with me wonderous personage. :D I haven't been updating and a lot has been going on. This is mostly due to the fact that I'm a loser who needs to learn how to post regularly, but it is also partly due to band which so totally rocks. Mostly the loser part. I am now a more mature and intellectual being. Yep, that's right. I'm a Freshman in HighSchool. A.K.A. Door Mat.
Hey, at least I'm one more step closer to maturity. In your face!! Anyhow, I'm going to rearrange some stuff and rename some stuff and redo some stuff. If anyone has any advice on how to do cool stuff on Blogs then please feel free to help me figure out what in the world I'm doing. Oh and do forgive me for the over usage of the word "Stuff".
Alright, let me take a moment to paraphrase update you on what's going on. I'm in the second week of the second six weeks of school. Which means all new friends and classes. My absolute favorite class is band. Take a moment to notice the new blog title if you need any convincing. I don't really see any of my friends from DCS ( my old elementary school) anymore.
I play alto sax still. Something that will only change if I have a horrible accident and sufer brain trauma that causes me to be suicidal and kill myself. I still have strnge obcessions with stupid stuff ( so says some of my friends * Cassie*) I'm sure someone out there thinks Phantom of the Opera and Alan Rickman are the best ever. Right? That's what I thought. So, I just thoughht I'd invite you to share in my soon to be improved blog.
Farewell!!

Harry Potter

Sooo........I went and got the Harry Potter book and read it. It is so totally upsetting and I can't tell you why because that would ruin the book... Here let me try without saying any names. A supposedly good guy that veryone thinks is bad kills the all time good guy and now everyone is going to thinnk the now supposedly bad guy is evil and I don't think he is... I figured it all out and my friend Casie agrees with me. Plus the Bad guy( who isn't really bad) is my favorite character... Anyhow only 3 days 'till ban camp starts and regular school doesn't start unil August 11th. I'll strt updating again regularly when school start up again.

Tootles!!

Summer

Well, I haven't posted forever and an age. I'll probably wait another month before I post again. :D Nothing much has changed here.
It is now several weeks into my summer vacation. Which means that I'm bored out of my mind. My average day is spent rereading fanfiction and listening to my Phantom of the Opera sound track. Over , and over, and over, and over.....over.....and over again. I went to see the movie Madagascar with my friend Cassie. It was a pretty good movie, but I really didn't see much of it because one of my other friends( brook) kept looking over at this couple that was making out and then she would go into hysterical fits of laughter. So that made Cassie tell her to shut-up. This pretty much made up the most of our visit. Anyway, Phantom of the opera is like the greatest movie ever. Although I wish that the phantom had gotten the girl. *sighs* Why can't the deprived characters ever win. So he killed a few people. It isn't like they didn't deserve it. :D
I've read mostly fanfic over th summer, but have also read the last book in Artemis Fowl series, Jerlayne, and have reread about eery book that I own. all this while avaoiding my family that thinks reading is a sign that I have nothing better to do and they should give me something to do. * scowls* Horrible unappreciative peopl. hat would we ever do without books?!
Oh Well, I have to go. I have a time limit set on my computer and have to go in about 3 min. Tootles!!!!!***