On my shelf (and other stuff)

On my shelf:

I'm currently reading two books-- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (which is the next book club pick!) and Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (which was a gift from my mom). I'm enjoying both, though I have to admit I'm only a few chapters into each of them. Somehow my subconscious keeps combining them into one book. In the morning I find myself searching for "Mud Blood" before I hop on the bus. If I was a maniacal Harry Potter fan, this might be more expected, but instead it's just kind of hilarious.

Other stuff:

So many of the books I've read since starting this blog have been turned into TV shows (all of the Sookie books) or movies, (the Twilight series, The Help, The Hunger Games, and Cloud Atlas), or were based on an event that is also the topic of a great documentary (Let the Great World Spin) that I have been thinking of adding a series to the blog. My goal would not be to become a movie critic (because I am just not cool enough, skilled enough, or... well, I think "cool enough" summed it up) but would just be to compare the works in written format to the works in the film format.

For example-- take the Twilight series. Twilight still makes me get butterflies and googly eyes in the written form, (I know, it's embarrassing and anti-feminist but I JUST CANNOT HELP MYSELF. I mean, he LOVES her but he wants to EAT her. How can you not swoon?) but the movie hurts my soul. My favorite scene of the book (in the meadow-- anyone? Anyone?) is completely ruined in the movie by awkward teenage actors and windchime sound effects accompanying the worst "glittery skin" special effects I have ever seen. The second and third movies  were not much better (though, the books weren't as good either so this is hardly a surprise). However, the fourth movie (which yes, I did see in theaters.... and not in an ironic way, sadly) was staggeringly better than the outrageous and ridiculous (first half of the) fourth book.

Okay-- enough talking about tween vampire romantic thrillers. But, just get ready, readers (and by "readers", I mean "Mom", because she's the only one that reads this), because more film/book comparisons are coming your way soon!

Resolutions (and some self-indulgence)

I have always been a fan of the New Year's resolution. Making resolutions that is, not always keeping them. When I was younger I tried to do too much and would resolve to change virtually everything. This of course, would lead to failure usually by 5 pm on January 1st.

The past few years, I have tried to focus on just one or two things which was much more successful. Last year, my resolution to have a better attitude actually stuck with me all year long! 

This year, I think I'm landing somewhere in between my two resolution strategies. My overall resolution is to "be better", but this is broken down into some very specific things that I hope I can tackle. 

1. Appreciate other people more. Quit worrying about whether they appreciate me. I know that I appreciate me, and that is all that matters. 

2. Do things when I'm thinking about them (this is kind of stolen from my friend Rachel). When I procrastinate, it just leads to more procrastinating and it ends in just feeling badly about myself. Doing the dishes when they need to be done is far less gross then doing them two days later when the sink smells disgusting. Blogging (ahh, yes, finally this post makes sense as part of this blog) immediately after finishing a book or a book club meeting is so much easier than trying to blog about something I read or met about months ago. 

3.  Write. This, you might think would also be blog related, but I'm really back to talking about life outside of my blog. I need to write a prospectus, a few IRB proposals, and a dissertation to graduate, and I need to write many manuscripts to actually get a job someday (and by someday, I mean next year... ahh, panic attack). I need to write more often and with less inhibition-- it doesn't need to be perfect the first time around, I just need to get it out there!

4. Be healthy. I had a lot of really goofy health issues in 2011 and I'm not excited about repeating them. I already feel like I live a healthy lifestyle-- I eat healthy and healthful foods, I exercise (though after the holidays and a month straight of an all Christmas cookie diet, this could definitely be improved upon), I drink water, and I sleep a LOT (I literally get 8 hours every night and not even a looming dissertation is going to change that) but things I maybe haven't done in the last year are take warning signs from my body very seriously. I need to speak up more at the doctor, quit reading WebMD and panicking over their bizarro diagnoses, and maybe I will even try acupuncture. 

In an effort to hold myself accountable, I am publicly (I use that term loosely since only like two people read this thing) announcing these... and since I'm on a roll I might even get around to blogging about the last two book club books while I'm at it! Happy 2012, kids.