Lazy Ovaries

Okay, since she won't write an entry till this blog is in a better way- i.e. pictures of Ricky Ullman pastered EVERYWHERE- I'll just take some time to write here. I'm bored, anyway. Trying to come up with a list of songs to burn into a CD... But, understandably, that kinda thing takes eons (largest interval units into which Geologic Time is divided). Sorry, I'm lame like that. :P

Currently, I'm reading "...then he ate my boy entrancers." which is more mad, marvy confessions of Georgia Nicolson. I ADORE THAT GIRl. She is absolutely bonkers (plus a bit mad on the side) but she is just toooo hilarious not to love. Boy entrancers, by the way, are what Georgia calls her fake eyelashes. Seriously. She reminds me a little of Ol' Labs.

Rorie, of course, may just match up to her in levels of bonkerosity. Just a few minutes after eleven, she messages me to say she was absolutely CRAVING for a chocolate sundae (from McDonald's, no less). My reply: "Oh dear God. Rorie, your spaceship has arrived. Please get in." Not entirely original, but it'll do.

That reminds me. I've got an English essay 'test' coming up. The topic's My Portrait as a Reader. Now's as good a time as any to start a draft!

My Portrait as a Reader

Well, for one thing (one vair vair important thing), I love reading. Does that sum it all?
Fine! Ok, the portrait's real colourful, etc etc, because I don't really have a specific genre of books I read solely. I read anything and everything... Even the backs of shampoo bottles.

I love funny books (you can't go wrong with humour). Not so much books with LOTS of description but minimal dialogue (eg Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Heartwarming, enlightening, heartwrenching stories that can make you cry are great too. In fact, any book that can make me cry is way up there on my list. Following close behind are books that force me to bring them into the shower with me to read.

But it really helps if the front cover of the book is attractive. That's why authors/publishers should always republish their books- especially since no one wants a smelly yellowed old book even if it is, indeed, a good story. Which is sad, but also unfortunately, reality. I love picking up books from the Marine Parade Library (a stone's throw away from my block) and seeing '2005' or the current year beside the Copyright. Don't ask why.

It's also become a habit of mine to check the blurbs for reviews from e.g. The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, or favourite authors. Also, I look out for books which have won awards, such as the ALA Top Ten Picks for Young Adults, etc. Not so much winners of the (eg) NewBerry Award (with a large shiny coin shaped thingy pasted on the cover of the book. Another quirk? 'Bestselling' works are also almost always guaranteed a nod from me.

Another important thing to consider: A good title never hurt. I usually go for those that are original, quirky or maybe even downright outrageous. An example of a title I like: Sleeping freshmen never lie. Not only is it a pun (sleep; lie, get it?), but it relates loosely to the idiom "Dead men tell no tales". The story's about a guy just about to embark on high school life (and is terribly dreading it), thus the origin: Sleeping freshmen= Dead men, Lie=Tell Tales.

Book series are also enjoyable. It's the thrill of discovering the latest of the series out in the library, perhaps. Two particular ones which have gotten me hooked on are Gossip Girl (about life among the rich, but still v. human, teenagers in the Big Apple- extract of a review: '..sex and the city for the younger set') and Confessions of Georgia Nicolsen (you can tell from the title of the first book of the series "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging" that it will be a rather nonsensical- and ballistic- but still 'seriously funny- be careful about reading it in public' series). Both of them are bestsellers. The latter, internationally.

But in the end, the most important thing, I guess, is the willingness of the person to pick up a book and his or her determination to finish it. After all, even if there are awesome reviews and everything, there still wouldn't be books if there weren't readers around. =D