Effortless Ruminations

that awkward feeling when you love the idea of Fanny Price and Edmund ending up together because he’s the nice guy every girl wants….

….then you remember that they’re cousins

….who end up together. 

“People always say how hard it must be to move from place to place. It isn’t.”

michaelhoeweler:

Mark Twain for TIME Magazine, sumi ink and pen.

(via timemagazine)

i miss college—good thing coffee and i are still very good friends.

|think different| -enjoying every page

Pretty bummed I wasted a gift card to buy this book. I was hooked by a quote on the cover by author Chuck Palahniuk:”I laughed out loud—and I never laugh out loud.”

Disappointingly, I never laughed—nor enjoyed the story whatsoever.

[The books is narrated by an older fellow who’s name isn’t Steve (that’s still throwing me off), but goes along with that name for the entire book. Steve is sick and will die. He has a disease that no one can explain and it brings no symptoms. No one has ever had what he has. In the course of the book, Steve meets random people who take interest in him because his unique disease has made him famous. He joins a non-denominational cult that practices bizarre rituals, lives with his ex-wife and her new husband, and agrees to join an internet reality show that follows him everywhere.]

Does Steve live his everyday life as though it was his last one? Absolutely not. Lypsyte uses vague satire and uses a refined vocabulary that made me wonder if he used a thesaurus for each adjective. Characters were not explained and some of them, like the motel employee, speak in the same eloquent manner that doesn’t distinguish any of them. 

It took me a very long time to get through this novel. This year, I told myself that I wouldn’t start a new book without finishing the other, even those I really wanted to throw away.

(excited for my next read…)

my rating: C-/D+

01/15 Grad Apps Due. Cheers to the future.

Insomnia Remedy.

Sometimes I fear that my 2 year-long struggle with insomnia will come back; where I can’t sleep and thinking is a chaotic jumble. This room setup would be ideal if ‘it’ ever came back; just my friends and I in one room.

[5 hours until the call from hell in the form of my alarm].

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

YOU’RE ALL EXCITED…ECSTATIC…UNCONTROLLABLY FALLING OFF YOUR CHAIRS as I review your favorite book.

Although there is a pinch of sarcasm in that sentence, I really did enjoy this very fast-paced and easy-read novel.

The story is narrated by Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl from Panem (the future North America) who along with another boy from ‘District 12’ named Peeta, are both forced to compete in The Hunger Games. With 12 pairs of boys and girls from other Districts (12 in total), the Hunger Games is a brutal battle where everyone fights for their own lives and only one victor can come out alive. While thoughts of life and death race through Katniss’ head, Suzanne creates an intriguing heroine who is extremely poor and at the same time very bold. When she isn’t hunting for food, concerned for her mother, or worried about being picked for the next Hunger Games, Katniss is able to enjoy life outside of the District’s walls with her best friend Gale.

Putting my critical comments aside, I enjoyed being inside of Katniss’ thoughts during the Hunger Games, especially when she relies on her memories of life in District 12 to comfort her fears and remind her why she has to do her best to win.

Collins is creative and wrote a very good book to begin her trilogy. I haven’t read the others and haven’t decided whether I want to continue reading them. I suggest it to everyone, even if you think it’s juvenile or annoyed that all your friends are talking about THE HUNGER GAMES.

Personal rating : A-

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SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!

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Things I didn’t like:

-how naive Katniss is about Peeta’s feelings and how Collins forces us to buy book #2 (that there my friends, is where her creativity makes her a great writer) to find out if lover boy is getting friend zoned—á la Jacob Black (guilty of seeing the films).

-the relationship between Katniss and Rue; while their friendship was only 20 pages long, I didn’t feel the emotional distress when she died. My initial thought was: “Well, somebody has to die. Bye Rue. Katniss—WAIT, why are you picking flowers? Start running!

-the lack of descriptions and backgrounds. How I don’t know much about Gale or other other D. 12 citizens for that matter. 

Things I thoroughly enjoyed:

-reading each chapter while doing short tasks and wanting to skip through pages

-the love story (it sucked me in)

-the idea behind the story; children who are surrounded by the importance of war and how it’s outcome is supposed to instill fear from treachery and respect for those making the rules.

What do you think about the parts I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy?

by Joseph M. Williams

Although I first read this very short ‘how-to’ book (143 pgs.) in high school, reading it as my first book of 2012 was a quick and fresh reminder of writing clearly and concisely. You might think that this book can’t possibly be useful to you, but Williams’ principles are useful for even you bloggers, and those like me, who are working on admissions essays. You can finish it in the time it takes you to each lunch and learn so much about the way you write.

You might be writing about the most interesting topic, but if you can’t write it well, the effect on readers may be unknowingly confusing. Williams covers the misuse of words (anxious as uneasy and not eager), grammar, and sentence structure.

Just flipping through the book will give you a few “I do that!” realizations with helpful tips.

P.S. According to Williams, the use of irregardless for regardless will be judged irredeemable of writers.

“That’s what turns young men and women into writers—the happiness you discover living in books.”  -Paul Auster

It is a truth universally known, that every great and aspiring writer has been known to be an eager reader.

Like a mechanic who has fixed different types of cars and thus, has gradually become skillful at his job, all writers require a background in reading that has given them a knack for style, vocabulary, plot, etc.

With this in mind, I will be reading an array of books this year and writing reviews about them here, in Effortless Ruminations.

I’m confident that these reviews will give you a sense of a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ book (subjective, of course) while helping me as a writer.

[Message me with any suggestions of books you love and would like me to review.]