Goals for Book-Loving Losers

A mini-library in Park Slope, Brooklyn
- GOD it's so cute

For me, this time of year means nonstop action - essays, tests, cross-country practices, holidays, and rushed, chilly walks to the subway. I like being busy, but often when I'm studying and hurrying I find myself fantasizing about the all reading I'd do if I had any spare time. I think I would be much more educated and cultured if my teachers just shut me up in a room with a load of books, rather than expecting me to come to school. Oh well.
Here are my fantasy reading goals for sometime when I have more time. (And if you happen to have a lot of time right now, why not attempt one?)

1. Read a ridiculously long book - War and Peace, or the Bible, or the entirety of that endless series about feral cat colonies, Warriors - and admit to yourself that you're mostly reading it so that you can tell people you read it.
2. Go camping/sit in a shed/climb up a tree/acquire a hermitage and read Walden.
3. Write a fan-fiction.
4. Shop at an independent book store - if you're in New York City, try the Strand, Books of Wonder, or St. Mark's Bookshop.
5. Go to LIT Crawl!
6. USE THAT LIBRARY CARD.
7. Build and stock a mini-library.
8. See an actually good book-to-movie adaptation.
9. Acquire this necklace from Out of Print clothing. 1984 reference? Anyone?
10. Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Seriously, how can I call myself a fantasy-lover and still have never read it? It's embarrassing.

- Carly

Best Reading from my Third Semester

Once again, this semester's schoolwork took precedence over this blog. It had to happen, but now I'm back to let you all know about the wonderful books I read in my classes.
On an unrelated note, feel free to add me on LinkedIn! I made an account but I only have four connections so far, it's very sad.

Novels
1. Cane by Jean Toomer - A gorgeous genre-blending novel which describes the lives of black people in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century.

2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - The greatest self-love story of all time.

3. Passing by Nella Larson - A novel which examines the complex friendship between two wealthy black women, one of whom passes for white.

4. Smoke, Lilies and Jade, a Novel by Richard Bruce - A semi-autobiographical, experimental text peppered with ellipses and the names of great Harlem Renaissance artists.

Short Stories
1. "The Closing Door" by Angeline Grimke - This story demonstrates with intimate, hea…

Review: God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

I read this book courtesy of my friend Shanille, who purchased it for a class on the novels of Toni Morrison (!!!) and lent it to me when she was done. Thank you girl!
As usual, this book did not disappoint. It is about a beautiful, successful, dark-skinned woman named Bride who sets out on a journey to confront an ex-lover, and by extension the many traumas she has experienced both as a child and an adult on account of other people's perceptions of her skin color.
My favorite aspect of the story is its characters, because they are drawn in such precise and lush detail. Bride, for example, has constructed her outward appearance in order to thrive. For example, she goes by 'Bride' rather than her given name, Lula Ann Bridewell, and exclusively wears white clothing, in accordance with the advice of a lifestyle consultant. At one point, she refers to herself as "The [woman] driving a Jaguar in an oyster-white cashmere dress and boots of brushed…

Review: Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

The stories in this heart-rending anthology open windows into the lives of women from various places and socioeconomic classes, of various races and sexual orientations, with various BMIs and occupations. Despite their differences, these women share one trait - men tend to find them 'difficult.' They are difficult because they are any combination of frigid, argumentative, gay, promiscuous, angry, melanated, fat, and kinky. None these traits are flaws, and should actually be celebrated or at least respected. But instead, these women are regarded as difficult rather than complex.
My favorite story was probably "La Negra Blanca," because it's the story that upset me the most. It's about Sarah, a biracial, white-passing woman who strips to pay her tuition, and William Livingston III, the wealthy white dirtbag with jungle fever who lusts after her. The specifics of Livingston's jungle fever are categorized with nauseating detail - his secret st…

the book bum

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