The Book Aficionado

This Amused Me Greatly

2011-03-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

"Women were viewed as particularly susceptible to such excessive solitary pleasures capable of threatening social norms and modern ideals of the self. Dwelling in the pleasures of sensuous reading, readers were lost to the world, turned inwards towards their own desires and imagination and into immoderate pleasures. Hence it was not only the literary content but the intimate act of reading that was seen as a social peril."

I read that on page 146 of Porn.Com: Making Sense of Online Pornography edited by Feona Attwood, and thought the comparison of the solitary act of reading to masturbation was so wonderful that I needed to share.

Kevin Smith Sucks

2011-02-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

It all started so innocently. Hardy Boy and I were at Barnes and Noble last month, and I picked up a copy of My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith. Why? The back cover mentioned something about the filming of Zack and Miri Make a Porno (one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies) and I thought "Hey. Kevin Smith's kind of a hip and rad director with the kids. I'll give it a shot."
That's what I get for buying something because I think it will make me cool.
I wanted to like Kevin Smith. I really did. He's got some indie street cred, I think, and I assumed his life would at least be somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, My Boring-Ass Life is probably the most accurate book title in existence, because the only subject talked about is Kevin Smith's extremely boring day-to-day life. If you're interested in him answering a bunch of e-mails and a whole lot of information about his bathroom habits, then maybe you'd like it. As someone who's only seen Clerks and Dogma once each, and has a passing knowledge of Smith's existence, I found this book to be an excruciatingly slow read. Any interesting or noteworthy information is buried in between fifty pages of "Woke up, took a shit, checked e-mail, ate, watched movies, banged my wife, fell asleep to TiVo." There. I just saved you about $15 and hours of staring at the book waiting for the funny to emerge.
Plus, he's kind of a douchebag.
Because I'm too stubborn to actually stop reading the book, I now only read it over the phone to Hardy Boy at night a couple of times a week. Yes, I read to my 24 year old boyfriend to get him to fall asleep. Does this mean he probably has a mommy issue? Yeah, but it's cute and it gets me through this damn book because otherwise I'd put it off indefinitely.
Once I finally finish it, I'm probably going to try and give it away for free over Facebook. I don't even want to look at it sitting on my bookshelf anymore. I'll never read it again. I know what you're saying, "But Kelly, really. With a title like My Boring-Ass Life, what did you expect?" Next time, I'll try to pick a book that doesn't insult itself before it even begins.

Beginning.

2011-02-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name's Kelly, and I'm addicted to books.

About Me:
I tend to define myself as a 24 year old introverted female bibliophile. I was lucky enough to have parents who considered reading to be a virtue. As a child, I had some physical and motor skill disabilities, so my parents encouraged me to read as a way to boost my self-esteem. I may not have been able to cut a piece of paper, or write my name in a straight line, but I could pick up a book and read and understand it quickly. In fact, it used to be a rule that after a trip to the bookstore, I had to wait to read my newly purchased literature until we got home, or else I'd have it finished in the car by the time we got there. The big thrill of my young life came when I turned 13 and could "officially" sign out books from the Young Adult section of the local library. (There may have been some YA books signed out before then and hidden from my parents a few times.) Other facets of myself may have changed over the years, but my love of literature has remained as strong as ever. I tell you this so you have a little background on me as a reader, and my motivation for blogging about books. I actually had a personal blog on MySpace for about three years (showing my age a little there), but after starting several other blogs and never making it past three entries or so, I decided to give myself a theme in order to keep me on track and get me talking about something besides myself.

About This Blog:
The title actually comes from Hardy Boy, my incredibly extroverted and gregarious other half. Personality-wise, we're almost complete opposites, but we end up complimenting each other in this uniquely awesome way. He asked me for a book recommendation, and said "You're the book aficionado out of everyone I know." Hardy Boy's been bugging me to get back to blogging for awhile, and with that one off-hand comment, he inadvertently gave me the inspiration to start writing again. I plan to post lists of what I'm currently reading, reviews of books I've finished in the past, opinion pieces on literature, and whatever else I can think of that's reading-related. I'm always looking for suggestions to expand my personal reading horizons, so if there's a book/series you love, please let me know and I'll spend some time with it.

Some of My Favorite Books:
Anything by Stephen King: It's still my goal to read everything he's ever written. I have a good start - I've read about 40 of his books so far. My favorite King books include Needful Things, It, The Shining, and Insomnia.
(Shameful Literary Truth: King is my favorite author, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read the Dark Tower series. I own the first three or four books, and they're on my To-Read list.)
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: I own all 7 of the books, and I would recommend them to anybody. They're easy to read language-wise, but address increasingly mature themes and ideas as the series develops. I think Rowling has done a lot to make reading cool to kids again, and anything that encourages people to read is a good thing, in my view. But that's another post for another day.
The Hannibal Lecter Trilogy by Thomas Harris: My mom says I should have gone into the FBI to become the next Agent Starling. I read Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs while in eighth grade, and when Hannibal came out, Mom didn't want me to get it because she thought it'd scare me. After some carefully constructed arguments and longing looks at her copy, she let me read it. While other girls were reading teen magazines or The Babysitter's Club, I was carrying around a tattered copy of Hannibal with Anthony Hopkins on the cover. Sometime, I'm going to have to figure out why I'm so obsessed with this trilogy. (I don't count Hannibal Rising.)
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop: For Jaenelle Angelline, one of my favorite literary heroines.
The Millenium Series by Steig Larsson: I have such a girlcrush on Lisbeth Salander that it's ridiculous. I almost gave up on the series after the first book because I didn't really like Mikael Blomkvist and I thought the financial plot was boring, but I'm so glad I stuck with it because the ultimate payoff is completely satisfying.
The first eight books of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series: In a later post, I'll tell you why.
Your Movie Sucks by Roger Ebert: Everyone should buy this and read it. I'm serious. It's a collection of reviews that Ebert's given to bad modern movies, but it's written in a conversational tone and with a dry, sarcastic humor that I enjoy very much.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or reading suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know!