Tuesday, April 22, 2014

What I've Been Up To

I've taken this whole glorious week off of work! And it's very much needed. I've started a tradition with myself where I take vacation the week of Dewey's readathon. It's a good way to guarantee myself two weeks of vacation a year and this really couldn't come at a better time! Today has been wonderfully relaxing so far. I slept in and went to the grocery (not so fun) and then did a little bit of book shopping and went by the lakefront to read for a little bit. Gorgeous weather outside today too :) We're in the 70s and there was a lovely breeze coming off of the lake and I found a beautiful old oak tree dripping with moss to sit under while I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (which hooked me from the first page, by the way!).

I finished Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird last night and I don't even know what to say about that book. Sometimes, all to rarely, you read a book and just know right away that you've found a new favorite author. That happened to me with Oyeyemi. Wow was this book amazing. The thing is, I don't even think I can review this book because I don't think there's any way in hell I could begin to do it justice or speak on all of the important things that she touches on. There are fairy tale retellings, and then there's what Oyeyemi did....she used the tale of Snow White as a platform to talk about gender and racial issues, taking it above just a retelling for entertainment's sake. Though there's plenty of entertainment and absolutely gorgeous writing to be had. She put EVERYTHING I love about book into this one. It even turned into an epistolary novel for a short while and I swear I just clung to this book during those scenes. Her characters were all so perfectly flawed if that makes any sense and I now just want to get lost in all of the worlds that she's created.

In other news, READATHON!!! This Saturday :D :D :D Who else is participating?? I'm so excited as usual, but even more excited this year because there are friends participating that haven't been able to in awhile :) My blog will be more active that day than it has been all year, lol. I've made quite the ridiculous pile for the readathon :p I have more books in my pile than there are hours in the day. But that's ok. Whatever I don't get to in that day....well there's the rest of the year for that :p With the rate my reading is going, I won't even finish this pile this year. I went to my shelves and picked only books that I'm truly dying to read to assure that this will be a day of reading that I'll love. I'm going to let random.org dictate what I'll read for the day. Here's pictures of my pile:


You should be able to enbiggen them if you can't read the titles :p Think I have enough? And I bought  food for the day as well! I'm making velveeta and rotel dip, there are frozen grapes (one of my favorite snacks :p), Oreos, Sandwich fixings, and a myriad of other assorted crap. There will likely be donuts too. And coffee of course. 

Hope everyone else is having a good week!





8 comments:

Bellezza said...

If I wasn't pumped before reading your post, I'd be even more so now! Love that enthusiasm, Chris. I think you have a lovely plethora of books to choose from,mand I should probably make a similar pile of the most-I-want-to-read. Are you sharing any of those edibles? ;)

Anonymous said...

Was this your first book by Helen Oyeyemi? Totally exciting for you if so, because now you can read through her backlist! The Icarus Girl and The Opposite House both show the seams a bit (she was quite quite young when she wrote them), but this and Mr. Fox and White is for Witching are all three stupendously wonderful. I love her so much.

Monica said...

I love how excited you are for the readathon! It's going to be so much fun on Saturday, and you have so many good books to chose from! :)

Debi said...

I don't know, Sweetie, you might want to add a few more books to your pile...you know, just in case. :P I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!!! I can't wait to see what book random.org picks for your first read. And donuts--yes, there should be donuts! :D

Beth F said...

Awesome pile of books!

chrisa511 said...

Bellezza, You're more than welcome to come over and snack away with me :D

Jenny, It was my first Oyeyemi, but it certainly won't be my last! I fell so in love with her writing!! I already got my hands on White Is For Witching and it's in my readathon pile now ;)

Monica, It will indeed be a blast! I've been doing the readathons since the second one Dewey hosted and they're always the best days of the year :)

Debs, Yeah, I'm thinking I need a few more books on the pile too :p And there will indeed be donuts!

Beth, I think so too ;)

Samantha said...

Woot woot! Fangirl is on my stack too! I've gotta go shopping to get food stuffs for the day. Ah - frozen grapes that's a great idea. Have fun on Saturday!

Kristen M. said...

I'm glad that you'll still be readathoning tomorrow. I also picked books that I was excited about. Of course that makes it hard to choose which ones to read. I like your idea of using random.org! I do know that I'll be starting with an audiobook while I get dinner into the crockpot and make some scones for breakfast.

See you tomorrow at the thon!