LOL, my poor blog.

SO. Remember how I was going to update this thing regularly? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, best of intentions, bout of depression, etc. So I didn't. And then I got a job (two, actually!) and updating my blog seemed a lot less important? And I didn't really have very much to say?

Guess what, I still don't. BUT! I have this idea. Tell me if you like it.

First, some background:

I was born and before I was 3 I had memorized (and performed for my stuffed animals) "Big Bird Goes to the Doctor." Years later I was the kid walking down the street, riding in the car, waiting for the elevator with my nose stuck in a book. Fast forward some years and I graduated from college with a degree in Literature. I guess you can say reading has been a serious part of my life for a very long time. Getting my degree in Literature meant I read a lot of Serious Books. Books about the world and small people in it, books about ideas and thoughts, books about people who write about the world and the small people and ideas and thoughts. Even when I was assigned to read "Moby Dick" in two weeks, I read unassigned books on the side. A lot of Flannery O'Connor and Salinger, mostly, but also, for example, Ayn Rand (I can with strict authority that, except for a small handful of dictators, she is the worst person ever born). Then I went to law school and read a lot of other things, and I instead of waving "Catcher In the Rye" in front of everybody's face (I don't care what you say, it is THE American novel; in your face, "Grapes of Wrath"), I ranked my favorite Supreme Court Justices and quoted seminal cases. (I know, I was so annoying.) But the thing I didn't do was read "for fun" anymore. (Sidenote: why do people say "for fun" like assigned reading can't be fun? I was assigned books I would never have otherwise read and I count them now amongst my favorites. Reading should always be fun! It puts the "fun" in "fundamental"!) Anyway, it took a couple of years before I had time to read anything that wasn't assigned, and when I did, I started with my old favorites. Dusted off the Flannery, broke out the Shirley Jackson, and even thumbed through "Frankenstein." But something was missing. I still loved, and love, the classics and the things they put in anthologies (just writing that word, I remember my first time buying my book list for my first semester in undergrad and how studious and RIGHT I felt buying those huge collections OHMYGOD I MISS COLLEGE). I wanted something new, and to me, the thing that was truly new, the thing I had missed out on when I was reading Thomas Hardy and "The Good Earth" in high school was young adult fiction. First, it was "The Hunger Games," which I read before I knew everybody in the first-world was reading and that they were making into a movie. Then it was "Divergent," and then "I Am Number Four" and then the entire "Harry Potter" series. Then I took a break and read a whole bunch of Bronte novels.

When I went back to YA, and at some point, I read the first four books in "The Mortal Instruments" series, followed by its prequel, "The Infernal Devices." At this point I almost stopped reading YA fiction. Because it was really bad. It was my first lesson in not trusting all the stars and reviews on Amazon, which should be obvious, because look at the documented evidence of how many people love the "Twilight" series. But these series, by Cassandra Clare, have a lot of followers across the internet, possibly because she got her start by writing Harry Potter fanfiction, which is totally fine and awesome for her, but also, her writing is so amateur and her characters so trite that I don't understand the adoration. Because I hate myself, I also follow her on Twitter, and obviously the things she retweets are going to be self-serving, but it just filled my (kind of writing a novel, sort of, and also teaching myself plotting at the same time) mind with resentment. And just seeing all the self-flagellation makes me want to be a crazy dissenter.I realize that this sounds like I am just bitter and want to bitch about it. And that's kind of true. But this blog also needs direction, and I think it would be fun to try my hand at book reviews. (If you remember, I have reviewed a book before, and I am never doing it in a forum like Amazon ever again.) I am pretty good at analyzing literature in the sense of discussing themes and metaphors and fancy stuff, but when you're a lit student, you don't really discuss whether something was entertaining or a good read. At least I didn't. I was too wrapped up in churning out papers to worry about whether I "liked" a book. Literature was something you probed and dissected, like a cadaver, and you don't talk about whether you liked the body you autopsied (unless you do, I don't know. I don't watch "CSI".) Looking back, I clearly remember discussing some books more than others, and some books I learned to love through the method of discussion. Turning off the part of your brain that automatically identifies elements of a story and spots epiphanies and different kinds of irony is something else to me, but I think I would like to develop my skills in evaluating a book not just on its anatomy.

So I'm going to start with Book 1 of "TMI" as the kids on the internet say, and I'm going to talk about what I did and don't like about it, and there will probably be some Literaure-ease sprinkled in there, and then we'll go through the books. Yes, this will require that I re-read the series, which will be painful, but I'm willing to do it because I love you guys.

I realize a lot of you don't care about this at all. Totally fine. I won't be offended if you skip. Mostly, I just want to review some stuff I feel strongly about without engaging in a battle over semantics with numb-skulls that pepper Amazon. So, right now I am reading another YA novel I really like so far called "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and then I'll get on this review thingie. I just wanted to announce it now because otherwise I'm afraid it won't happen. And if the history of my blog writing is any indication, it still might not, but anyway. At least it feels good to update this stupid thing.


Sooooooo... who's excited!