The Slackademic

I have started sharing my favorite corners of the internet with a few friends and now I want to pop them on the blog as well. Baby steps toward actually blogging!

There is a part of me that would love to collect gorgeous coffee table books that capture the most fabulous homes. This one looks wonderful:

http://stylecourt.blogspot.com/2014/04/one-mans-folly.html

This is an article on Good Video Games and Good Learning that I love (I use it in my class):

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Good_Learning.pdf

This thai tea frappe looks super delicious. The warmer weather in Chico is making me want to try making some fancy cold drinks:

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2014/04/thai-tea-frappe.html

I am always trying to make my rented apartment my own, so this blog post speaks to me:

http://www.designsponge.com/2014/04/for-two-creatives-making-a-rental-their-own-in-ohio.html

Why Eccentrics Matter (I love every single post on this blog):

http://abloomsburylife.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-eccentrics-matter.html

I fucking love glitter, you guys:

http://intothegloss.com/2014/03/glitter-makeup-pictures/

Go Fug Yourself is about to crown the "winner" of Fug Madness and the finalists are Miley Cyrus (I voted for her) and Kim Kardashian. Of course:

http://www.gofugyourself.com/fug-madness-2014-the-final-game-04-2014

Anna Kendrick is delightful on SNL:

http://jezebel.com/snls-international-nasty-girls-sight-see-dongs-all-o-1559360222

Pictures of the desert that make me want to go (sort of):

http://designismine.blogspot.com/2014/04/ten-images-of-inspiration-desert.html

I seriously would rather be chained to a bear than go to Coachella:

http://jezebel.com/coachella-is-a-scenester-nightmare-hellscape-1558502488

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Portland Part 1

Ever since getting back from my trip to Portland, I can't stop thinking about it. What a wonderful place. I feel so fortunate that I had the opportunity to go. These are some of the highlights of my trip.

Powell's Books

I heard so much praise for this place before I ever thought about going to Portland and it surpassed my expectations, which is not an easy thing to do. What I like about Powell's isn't so much the size as the organization and personal touches. I bought a book that I had never heard of from a very new author because it was prominently displayed with a great recommendation from a staff member. The book is called Cinnamon and Gunpower by Eli Brown. I could not resist such a title. I made a list of 22 books I wanted to buy and resigned myself to picking just one. I'm glad I made a list because I plan on eventually getting through all of those books. Some of them I wrote down because of the great recommendations. I have never wanted to make people leave a bookstore before, but I wanted this place all to myself.

Stumptown Coffee

We went to the one on Stark Street. It is attached to the Ace Hotel, which is a place I would love to stay. I don't drink coffee everyday, far from it, but I might develop a habit if I had constant access to Stumptown's cold brew. That stuff is so cold and sweet and delicious. It's up there with Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco. I like my coffee and tea very sweet, so this stuff was perfect for me. Plus, the Ace Hotel lobby is a wonderful place to relax. I really liked the big terrarium in the middle of the giant coffee table. The couch was massive and comfortable and the music was nice and not distracting. I felt like a cooler and more interesting person just by sitting in this place and drinking my freakin delicious coffee. This was one of many places that encouraged you to linger and enjoy yourself.

Star Trek in the Park

Man oh man, do I love live theater. It is one of my favorite things and I will often go out of my way to enjoy it. This theater group performed The Trouble with Tribbles and they did a great job. They had a woman sing the vocal part of the theme song and everything! There were so. many. Tribbles. I think the whole city got together to make those Tribbles. What was really wonderful about this event was the amount of people who came out to see the show. Everyone was so excited, it was adorable. Even waiting in line for the toilet was fun because I got to talk to people. So we picnicked for a few hours and did some people watching before the show. The park was lovely and the shade from the Hawthorne Bridge was hotly anticipated, pun totally intended. The weather was sunny and hot the entire time we were in Portland.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Book Recommendations Part One

So now that I've gotten my favorite book of all time out of that way, I am compelled to write about more books I love. The list is long. These are just the books that roll out of my head. The ones I can't stop thinking about, even years later. These books are my old friends. I'm sure other people feel the same way about the books that are significant to them. Am I the only one who pulls a book out of a shelf at the bookstore just to stare at it lovingly? I can't just ignore a book that I know. I must say hello, it's only polite. If I happen to be with someone when I visit the bookstore, and they don't leave when they see me petting and talking to the books, I will immediately start pulling out books and handing them to the person. Imagine you are with me at a bookstore and I am piling these books into your arms, because that is exactly what I would be doing.

I should probably mention that there will be a lot of women authors, science fiction and fantasy, children's books, young adult books, some victorian literature, and some short story collections in my book lists. Oh and many of my favorites have a historical bent. I was a history minor in college and I love the blending of literature and history.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

This is Butler's first book and it is an emotional punch to the face. A black woman is forced to time travel back to the antebellum South. I will not say any more about the plot. I read this book in one day.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

As usual, the book is better than the movie.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

This book is so beautiful. As I mentioned in my previous post, reading feels like an exercise in empathy to me, and Bender creates a main character who I felt deeply for and wanted to shelter. The main character, Rose, is forced to taste the emotions of the people who prepare the food she eats. I think that this book should be required reading for anyone who has ever felt alone and unsure of their place in the world (so every single human being should read this book).

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

This book is non-fiction and is basically a collection of letters between a woman in New York City and the owner and staff of a bookstore in London. The correspondence starts in the late 1940s and continues into the late 1960s. It is so interesting to read about living in London right after World War II. A warning for bibliophiles: you will seethe with jealousy over the unbelievably cheap rare books that she orders.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I simultaneously love and hate this man for wringing all the tears from me. Teens with cancer fall in love. Oh no. Now you won't read it. But you should! Because this book will also make you laugh. Green sucks you in and you will not be able to stop reading. His other books are great as well. Plus he has quite the fun online presence. You should check him out.

Alright, now I have shared a total of six books. There will be more in the near future. It would be neat to get to one hundred or something. Tomorrow I will be going to tea in San Francisco and possibly seeing Sweeney Todd in Berkeley. That leaves very little time for blogging. I don't know when I will get to it, but I would like to do a post on just my favorite science fiction. So be on the lookout for that.

My Favorite Book

So it would make more sense to start this writing project with an introduction of some kind, but I would rather start with this. My favorite book. I love to read and my passion for reading is what brings me to write in the first place, so it makes a sort of sense.

My favorite book is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have not read it in years, but I still remember vividly the pleasure I felt reading this book. There is a historical fiction vibe to it that I love. Eugenides obviously used his own life as a resource and did a lot of research, which I appreciated while reading. This book was a labor of love and I could feel that as I read it. He cares about his characters and they are wonderful and flawed and fascinating. Eugenides also wrote The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot, but I think that Middlesex is far superior to those books. There is a warmth to Middlesex that is not present in his other books, in my opinion. He strikes a wonderful balance with this beautiful novel. Balance between setting and character, stasis and movement, the ancient and the modern. I don't want to get into the plot because I don't want to spoil this book for anyone. I wish I had read it sooner, but I also wish I could read it again for the first time.

Really it all comes down to the characters for me. I could easily empathize with these fictional people in ways that I can't always manage with real people. Reading makes me feel more human. I was a literature major in college and I am an English teacher now, so I very much enjoy analyzing a text, but my connection to this book stems from something fairly pedestrian. I just wanted to spend time with these characters.

I plan on writing much more about my favorite books and this will be a common theme. For me, reading is about empathy. I wonder what reading is about for other people who love to read.