A New Job, Summer Reading, and a Great White Whale of a Book

May I just take a moment to talk about how THRILLED I am with my new job?  I absolutely love it!  The people are awesome, the work is fun, and the time simply flies by!  (Plus, I got my first paycheck today, and was rather pleased with what I saw).  And did I mention that I work in a library?  Yes?  No?  Well, I work in a library and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

So, yeah.  Life after college isn't looking too bad.  True, I miss my college friends, but I am so happy with where I am right now...I feel as though God has some really good things in store for me, and I can't wait to see what He has planned.  Life.  Is.  Good :)

I'll be posting some more book reviews real soon.  Currently reading a few books at once, so hopefully one of these should finish up in the next couple of days.  Sarah and I are still reading Moby-Dick, which is surprisingly good, but very strange.  Also, I'm attempting to tackle my LXG Reading Challenge this summer, starting with King Solomon's Mines.  Moby-Dick, meanwhile, will count towards my Summer School summer reading theme.

Speaking of summer reading, did I mention that the summer reading program is starting up at my library in a few days?  I'm really excited.  You all should see if your local libraries are hosting summer reading programs.  They're a fun way to earn some cool prizes, and read a lot of good books :)

Reading Challenge 2013

Happy New Year, guys!

Just a quick update....last year, my reading goal was to complete 50 books.  I managed to get through 51.  This year, I want to top that, so I plan on tackling 52 books in the next 12 months.  I'd love for you guys to read along with me, so I'm going to make a genuine effort to actually post the things I'm reading and include reviews and such for all of you to follow.  I'll also be posting reviews on Goodreads, and will be including the Goodreads Reading Challenge widget on the sidebar, just like I did last year.  Hopefully this one will be better about updating things (the last one seems to have frozen around 17 books).

I'm also hoping to try and put a bit more of a dent into my LXG Reading Challenge, too!

If you have any books you'd really like to suggest, please let me know :)  If not, I'd be happy to suggest some to you guys, too!

Any fun New Years resolutions or goals?

Looking forward to hearing from y'all :)

Summer Reading 2012

Hi, everyone!  I'm finally back for summer!  And that means that there will be plenty more posts forthcoming, as well as book reviews, quotes, and summer stories!  I'm really looking forward to a lot of fun this year :)

First things first, a bit of business.  This summer, as with every summer, I hope to have a theme.  This year, it's "A Summer in Middle Earth".  I'm going to try and tackle the entire Lord of the Rings series this summer, as well as sample from some of Tolkien's other works.  As I'm sure many of you know, this December, the first part of a two-part movie series of The Hobbit is coming to theatres, and my excitement knows no bounds!  That's the reasoning behind this theme; I'm really trying to get into the Tolkienien spirit!  As a kick-off to the summer, therefore, I'm going to be starting with The Hobbit, which I read last summer.  After that, I'll be reading the other LoTR books, along with anything else I can get my hands on.  It's finally time to pull out the trusty reading list (a fat little notebook packed with books to read and movies to watch).  And of course, I'll be reviewing most of what I read :)

A running list will be kept of all the books I read this summer.  I've established it as a tab at the top of my page, along with Weekly Wodehouse, Wilde Wednesdays, and of course, the ever-present LXG Challenge.  I'm going to try and read at least one book from that list this summer.....Last year, I sadly only touched on one book from the challenge: The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Hopefully, I'll be able to add a couple more completed entries to that list.  (I have a copy of King Solomon's Mines sitting in my room--perhaps that will be next?)

So, with all that established, I believe it's time to get back to reading The Hobbit so that I can start posting as soon as possible :)  And, also, those of you who follow me on Goodreads can also see possible reviews and ratings of my reading selections.  (Not going to lie, though, they are not going to be as good as the reviews I'll post here; my heart's just not in Goodreads as it is in this blog).

LXG Reading Challenge Update

I've come to a bit of a snag in my LXG Reading Challenge.  Namely, I'm not going to have time to read all of those books this summer....

But Emmy! I can hear you all say, there are only like 7 books!  What's so difficult about that?  Besides; it's not like you don't have the time to read!

And yeah, that's true....but here's the issue:  Every time I pick up one of those books, I find about three to seven others that I want to read as well.  And....well, after a while, it just gets to be too much, and I don't want to pass up on stuff that I really want to read, just because I have to read something else.  That's school.

But, don't worry!  I'm going to keep my LXG Reading Challenge up on the blog, and I fully intend to continue it, but on my own time.  This might mean that I'll be reading these books well into next summer.  Not really sure.  But, I do intend to read them.

This is the part where you are all allowed to yell at me.  But, please don't use ALL CAPS or bold letters because that's really intimidating (just kidding-- but you are allowed to yell).

LXG Reading Update

I realized that I've been going through my LXG Reading Challenge a bit haphazardly, and as a result, I wasn't really reading anything. So, I've decided to tackle the books in organized chunks. First, I'm going to finish off the vein I've started with The Picture of Dorian Gray, and read the other Gothic novels on the list: Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. After that, I'll move onto Science Fiction, with The Invisible Man and Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Finally, Adventure: King Solomon's Mines and Tom Sawyer. So, that being said, Dracula is next on the list, and with it, I'm reading several supplemental books on Count Dracula and vampires. This wasn't planned, but I found a ton of interesting Dracula supplements and commentaries just sitting there on the shelf! How is any self-respecting English major/Gothic novel fanatic supposed to pass that up??? Haha; well, that being said, please check back soon for more fun :)

Tabs

Hi, guys :)

As you might have noticed, I've added two tabs to my blog, just under the header. These are to help keep track of my summer reading progress. The first is for my LXG Reading Challenge, and the other is for my basic summer reading. Once I return to school, I'll take the tabs down, but I thought they would be a nice addition in the meantime.

LXG Reading Challenge: Dorian Gray

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June....If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

And it is with these immortal words that Oscar Wilde's only novel really takes off. Young Dorian is beautiful and unblemished by society; he is the friend of Basil Hallward, a brilliant (if somewhat dull) artist who is secretly harboring powerful feelings for him, and greatly desires to keep Dorian safe from the manipulations of society. Through a combination of influences (Basil's breathtaking portrait of Dorian and the corruption of their common friend Lord Henry Wotton), Dorian makes a wish that he would never age, and that the portrait would age instead. What he does not realize is that his plea will actually come true. The portrait ages, and displays upon the canvas the very contents of Dorian's corrupted soul.

If there ever was a book to startle a person into seriously considering their actions, The Picture of Dorian Gray would have to be pretty high on the list. And after reading it for the third time, I can honestly say that the powerful message has not been diminished. However, each reading provokes more and more questions, and of course, there is the ever-lingering question....How would you live your life if you knew that your sins would never affect your appearance? If your mouth would never be marred by harsh, cruel lines from sneers and scorn? If a certain hardness would never enter your clear, earnest eyes? Would you strive to live a good life, or would you plunge yourself into a life of debauchery and crime, because your sins would be printed on the canvas but not on your person?

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the character of Dorian is portrayed in a very different way. Instead of a corrupted young man whose very soul is imprinted on his portrait, Dorian is a suave gentleman whose physical appearance is not only unaffected by sin, but is also spared by the ravages of any physical abuse. Nothing can phase this guy....very cool, but the allegorical aspect of the story is totally lost.

Finally, I was curious to read this story again with full knowledge of the homosexual undertones in the story. If anything, it did not change my experience very much. It only cleared up a few points that were foggy to me before (ie. Basil's devotion to Dorian).

All in all, this was a wonderful book, and a delight to read again. For any of you who are following my LXG Reading Challenge, this is one you really should read :) It's a quick read, too, so even if you're too busy to read much, you could easily slip this into your schedule.

Sibyl Vane

"How horrid you are! She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. You laugh, but I tell you she has genius. I love her, and I must make her love me. You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me! I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God, Harry, how I worship her!"

~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

**Artist Credit goes to Fiammetta1993 of Deviantart.com**

Dorian Gray: False Portraits

When it comes to fan art or transformations of characters from words on a page to a visual image, there are always going to be some differences; some creative liberties taken by the artist. However, one does not expect to find glaringly obvious mistake from something as professional as a book cover. It was of course, a great disappointment to see that a very obvious character trait (mentioned within the first two chapters several times) would be so easily skipped over when it came to making the book cover for The Picture of Dorian Gray: ie. Dorian is supposed to be a very youthful blue-eyed blond, not a brooding, mature, dark-haired, brown-eyed man. Still, these are cool covers, and worth sharing :)

Summer Reading 2011

Hello, everyone!

Just wanted to send out a quick announcement and let you know that I'm finally done with school for the summer, so it's time for the Summer Reading 2011 posts to begin!!! Those of you who followed me last year will remember that my summer reading theme was Gothic Novels. I still have a ton of books from last summer on my reading list, so you can be assured that some of them will probably creep their way into this summer. However, the main theme for this year is going to be my LXG Challenge. So, to kick off this summer, I'm starting out with one of the only books from the challenge list that I happened to own: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. This will of course fulfill the challenge for our dear friend Dorian Gray from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Not sure who will come next on the list, but we shall see ;)

In the meantime, I'll be posting quotes, fan art, and definitely a review of the book. I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray twice before, but this is my first time reading it with a full knowledge of Wilde and the homoerotic undertones of the book, which I suspect will make for a completely different experience than I've had in the past.

Hope you're ready for some interesting books and book reviews! Summer Reading 2011 begins NOW!

P.S., if you have any books to recommend, please, please, please let me know in the comments feed :)