Here's the thing. I love this blog. I love it. I check it every day. I consult it for ideas about books and authors and marvel at the constantly intelligent and amusing things my fellow bloggers have to say.
AND YET.
I get so very stressed out about posting! What if I am not as intelligent and amusing as my blogging counterparts?! Will the internet judge me for my taste in literature, most of which seems to center around food and impetuous teenaged heroines?! Will I type a review, only to second guess and regret each and every word of it mere hours later?!
AND SO.
I do nothing. I fall behind on the posting, which stresses me out, which causes me to fall more behind on the posting. Then I read at a slower pace, which gets me behind on the fifty books goal, which stresses me out more and fills me with feelings of inadequacy blah blah blah and so then I don't read as much and fall even more behind.
TODAY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I BREAK THE CYCLE.
I shall briefly catch myself up on my posts, clean the proverbial slate, and rock and roll all the way to fifty (Babysitter's Club counts, right?!).
Taming of 
the Shrew
by William Shakespeare
I read this for a class. I took a Shakespeare class (and oh boy let me tell you me performing a monologue in an acting class was almost as anxiety-inducing as the trek to 50 books) , and the speech picked for me was Kate's final monologue in this ol' gem. Perhaps we have all read it, or at least seen Ten Things I Hate About You*, but I have to say I think it gets a bad rap about being all misogynistic and stuff. I mean, I'm not Neil LaBute or anything, but I stand by my argument that Shrew is not, in fact, an anti-woman play. Anti-bitches, yes, but aren't we all?
The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
I am embarrassed to say that I had never read this one before. Somehow it slipped underneath that high-school-required-reading radar. But I sure am glad I read it now. Margaret Atwood is the best, right? We can all agree on that. The be st. So that, combined with the fact that it seems the only fiction I enjoy reading these days is of the dystopic future ilk, made this one a huge winner. A note about dystopian futures: I used to HATE such novels. And I mean hate. And then, all of a sudden, within this last year they're all I want to read. What's that about? Have I gotten so cynical? Is my worldview so bleak? Am I, in my adulthood, seeking out literature to balance and perhaps quell the more grating, Pollyanna-esque aspects of my personality? Riddle me that, world. I don't claim to have the answers for this shift from hating to guzzling, but it has certainly planted some seeds of inquiry into the Ritchey psyche. But back to the book. I wish I had read it as part of a class or book club or something, because I am just ITCHIN' to discuss this one. Hey, other nerds out there, let's grab some coffee and discuss feminist theory!
The Lost City of Z
by David Grann
The Amazon! Maggots burrowing into the skin! Victorian-era exploration! Snakes that make your eyeballs bleed if they bite you! This non-fiction, nerdtacular page-turner is definitely worth a read. It's quick and gripping and generally delightful. Here is the best recommendation I can give this book: I was curled up reading on the couch at my boyfriend's apartment, and I said "Hey Peter! I think you'd really like this book!" And he said "Oh, yeah?" And then later when I was doing something else (most likely sleeping or eating ice cream), he started reading it. Then he couldn't put it down, which was a problem because neither could I (unless I was sleeping or eating ice cream). Then the custody battles began. Let me keep it while you go to work. No I get bored at work and want to read it. But you had it yesterday. And on and on. Ultimately we both got to finish the book, to both of our delight, and now we can have all kinds of exciting conversations about how to best build a tent in an Amazon downpour. Read the book and you can too! I would, however, recommend hiding it from your loved ones until you finish, so as to avoid snatching.
Freakonomics
by Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner
Yikes. Overrated. And I found much of the information to be dubious. And presented in a way that made it less interesting than it otherwise might have been. Any fans out there, please share with my why this is such a big hit? There's even a sequel coming out called SuperFreakonomics (it's super-freaky), but let me tell ya I will not be rushin' out to get that one at the ol' midnight release party, no sir. In its defense, I did read it in a day and a half, so if you are looking for a book to read that requires little to no mental effort on your part - the kind of book you could read while perhaps learning Latin via audiobook or cooking a six course meal - this is the one. The best part about it is a cover. I mean, the apple that looks like an orange slice inside? That's pretty cool.
Now, comment away, Asian spammers!!
*I have not actually ever seen Ten Things I Hate About You. It just seemed like the kind of hip, relatable, pop culture reference that this post needed.
The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
I am embarrassed to say that I had never read this one before. Somehow it slipped underneath that high-school-required-reading radar. But I sure am glad I read it now. Margaret Atwood is the best, right? We can all agree on that. The be st. So that, combined with the fact that it seems the only fiction I enjoy reading these days is of the dystopic future ilk, made this one a huge winner. A note about dystopian futures: I used to HATE such novels. And I mean hate. And then, all of a sudden, within this last year they're all I want to read. What's that about? Have I gotten so cynical? Is my worldview so bleak? Am I, in my adulthood, seeking out literature to balance and perhaps quell the more grating, Pollyanna-esque aspects of my personality? Riddle me that, world. I don't claim to have the answers for this shift from hating to guzzling, but it has certainly planted some seeds of inquiry into the Ritchey psyche. But back to the book. I wish I had read it as part of a class or book club or something, because I am just ITCHIN' to discuss this one. Hey, other nerds out there, let's grab some coffee and discuss feminist theory!
by David Grann
The Amazon! Maggots burrowing into the skin! Victorian-era exploration! Snakes that make your eyeballs bleed if they bite you! This non-fiction, nerdtacular page-turner is definitely worth a read. It's quick and gripping and generally delightful. Here is the best recommendation I can give this book: I was curled up reading on the couch at my boyfriend's apartment, and I said "Hey Peter! I think you'd really like this book!" And he said "Oh, yeah?" And then later when I was doing something else (most likely sleeping or eating ice cream), he started reading it. Then he couldn't put it down, which was a problem because neither could I (unless I was sleeping or eating ice cream). Then the custody battles began. Let me keep it while you go to work. No I get bored at work and want to read it. But you had it yesterday. And on and on. Ultimately we both got to finish the book, to both of our delight, and now we can have all kinds of exciting conversations about how to best build a tent in an Amazon downpour. Read the book and you can too! I would, however, recommend hiding it from your loved ones until you finish, so as to avoid snatching.
Freakonomics
by Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner
Yikes. Overrated. And I found much of the information to be dubious. And presented in a way that made it less interesting than it otherwise might have been. Any fans out there, please share with my why this is such a big hit? There's even a sequel coming out called SuperFreakonomics (it's super-freaky), but let me tell ya I will not be rushin' out to get that one at the ol' midnight release party, no sir. In its defense, I did read it in a day and a half, so if you are looking for a book to read that requires little to no mental effort on your part - the kind of book you could read while perhaps learning Latin via audiobook or cooking a six course meal - this is the one. The best part about it is a cover. I mean, the apple that looks like an orange slice inside? That's pretty cool.
Now, comment away, Asian spammers!!
*I have not actually ever seen Ten Things I Hate About You. It just seemed like the kind of hip, relatable, pop culture reference that this post needed.
3 comments:
Dear Julie,
You are not only creative, witty, intelligent, and humorous, but you also have good taste in books. I'm so glad you discovered The Handmaid's Tale. That's a goody!!! And ignore what that spammer said. He's so full of it!
I agree about Freakonomics. I couldn't even finish it (you can see I notated it with parentheses on my list...didn't want to forget I'd tried it).
Julie, The Lost City of Z was one of my favorite books that I read this past year. Such a great book! I'm glad you covered it.
Karen
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