Random List

• I am very happy with where my book is right now. I just wish I had more time to work on it.
• I don’t seem to need as much sleep as I thought I did. I’m a little bitter that I’ve wasted all those extra hours sleeping in the past.
• Though summer was fun, I think I will be getting a whole lot more done once fall kicks in.
• I wish the mailman would hurry up and get here. I’ve been waiting to get Mockingjay all week!
• As I write my rough draft I vaguely sense some story problems I’ll have to address. I choose to store them mentally and worry about them later.
• I found five CDs that I hadn’t added to my iTunes yet, one of which I’ve been looking for for months. That oversight has been rectified.
• I’m a little tired of blogging–I don’t want it to be a chore, so I’m going to back off a little, wait for some really good ideas. I’m actually pretty impressed with myself that I kept it up regularly for this long.
• I have tons of books, but when I reorganized my room I managed to make space for more. Yay!
• I’m going to go check the mail now. Adios!

Living in Panem

All of last week I felt like I was still on vacation in Jamaica–all relaxed and with that “no problem, mon” attitude. This week I feel like I’ve been living in Panem. I stayed up really late a couple nights in a row until I finished Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It was absolutely wonderful and completely absorbing, and ever since, I have been replaying the book in my head, reliving it, rethinking parts of it, and pretty much eager to read them both (The Hunger Games was part 1) all over again.

And I totally would, except I have two new books to get to, both of which don’t come close to the excellence of the ones I’ve been reading, at least so far–but, again, my head is still in Panem.

It has been way too long since I’ve been absorbed into a book’s world like this, and I love it. I feel like I know the characters personally–that the world of the book is almost more real than my own. Sometimes when I’m really into writing my own books I feel that way about them too, but when I’m reading someone else’s book it’s a different sort of experience because I’m pulled into a brand new place–not out of my head but someone else’s.

On a tangent: I am deeply disturbed about the idea of a Hunger Games movie. I hate the way great books are turned into commercial money-makers. Not every good book needs to be a movie–constantly seeing a movie’s commercials and merchandise takes the beautiful world of the book out of my head and alters it irrevocably. This happens even if the movie is good–like how I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies at the time but now am completely sick of the saga and probably won’t ever go back and re-read the books, though before the movies came out I would re-read them every couple of years. I don’t want them to do that to The Hunger Games–I just discovered the trilogy and they are already talking about ruining it. Please don’t do it! The Giver was never made into a movie that I ever heard of and the world didn’t end.

Anyway, enough of my pathetic whining. If you haven’t read The Hunger Games yet, go out and do it before the movie ruins it for you.

Bookstore and Library

I spent some time in my local (chain) bookstore yesterday and found it a bit of a frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable time looking at books. I never thought I would say that I prefer the selection of YA in my very small branch library better than at a big bookstore. First of all, I couldn’t even find the YA section at the bookstore for a long time. I looked through one section (unlabeled) and realized that it was middle grade. Then I wandered around for a while…I guess I could have asked someone, but I like exploring and finding things for myself. Finally I found the unlabeled YA section.

The book I was looking for, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, was not shelved alphabetically–it had a separate shelf. Though, The Hunger Games had a separate shelf in the library as well, so I was expecting that.

I’m glad that in both locations the YA shelves are not anywhere near the children’s section. I don’t mind looking around there, but a teen will most likely feel differently.

I found what I was looking for, so I’m ultimately happy. I think most disappointing to me was the selection offered at Borders. At the library there are lots of new books, and there are a wide variety of types–like mystery, literary, historical, fantasy, and romance, but at Borders the books I saw didn’t seem nearly as varied. They seemed to be the hippest and edgiest. I guess when you’re selling books instead of lending them you have to be a lot more selective.

Overall, the experience left me with the feeling that my library is where I should go to browse for something new, and the bookstore is somewhere to go with a goal of what to buy. I’m sure there are many bookstores around that are great places to browse–especially ones that aren’t big chains like Borders, but with so many closing lately I feel like my options are pretty limited.