“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison
WARNING: Contains a substantial amount of bellyaching. Those who do not wish to subject themselves to ranting about American literature should flee immediately. Hide your librarians. The Great Gatsby was one of the few novels I remember people liking in high school. I was not one of those people. In fact, I thought it was… Continue reading Unpopular Opinions: The Great Gatsby
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE NOVEL. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I hadn’t heard about this book until after I saw the movie trailer with Khaleesi as the main role. However, it seemed like a good premise so I decided to give it a go. Here are my thoughts after having completed the novel in its… Continue reading Thoughts On “Me Before You”
I enjoy reading annotations in secondhand books. I like seeing underlined phrases and wondering why that particular passage meant so much to the reader before me. It gives me the opportunity to wonder what kind of person they were and if, in the improbably event we ever met, we would be friends. It also makes… Continue reading Writing In Books: Yay or Nay?
Is it just me, or does it seem like writers are becoming progressively lazier and more patronizing when it comes to writing about moral or social issues? I'm not talking about works like The Hunger Games where the moral questions are woven into the plot. I'm talking about stories where the author randomly stands on… Continue reading Writers and the Soapbox Trope
I remember in high school being forced to take poems apart line by line. We'd do a few together as a class, which took a better part of the hour, and then we would write one long essay over a more complicated poem on Fridays. To me, there was something weirdly clinical about the whole procedure. It… Continue reading How I Understand Poetry
Author’s Note: If you’re a librarian and you’re reading this, I’m sorry... I’m horrible at returning library books. I thought my mother raised me right, but I guess society turned me to the dark side. I used to be diligent about giving back borrowed items, particularly those taken from the library, but I’m pretty sure… Continue reading Library Books: an Overdue Apology
I, like most readers, have a friend who does not read. No matter how many conversations I and my reader friends have with her, she continues to express no interest in any form of literature whatsoever. Even the word “book” seems to make her eyes glaze over and her mouth gape open slightly as if… Continue reading Read What You Want: Don’t Feel Guilty About Your Guilty Pleasure
A few weeks ago, I read a memoir written by a twin following her sister’s drug overdose. I was interested because it promised to be a introspective look into what it’s like to have an identical sister, as well as what it means to lose someone who is so integral to your own identity. I… Continue reading Unpopular Opinions: Trigger Warnings
The Crooked Pen 