Rory Gilmore Book List

Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Gilmore Girls knows about Rory Gilmore’s book addiction. (If you haven’t seen Gilmore Girls, what are you waiting for? Fix this.) Last year Australia writer Patrick Lenton compiled every book every mentioned on Gilmore Girls, all 339 of them.

Of the list I’ve read:

1984 by George Orwell

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

So many of these are on my ‘to read’ list and I look forward to getting to them. Others I’m OK skipping. I don’t think I need to know how to cheaply traverse Europe circa 2003. I’m curious how some of my bookworm friends measured up.

Young or Old

Some people made the argument that The Fault in Our Stars was sadder than your average cancer story because it was about kids. I disagree.

What about having an adult who is leaving behind young children? They haven’t lived all of their life and they’re living behind something much more important than potential. Unless you’ve been a parent to human children, you can’t imagine what it’s like to lay there dying leaving behind a part of yourself that you’ll never seen finished.

Depending on how young the kid is you’re missing out on learning to swim or ride a bike, summer camp, puberty, high school, college, first loves, graduations, engagements, weddings, grandchildren and so many other milestones.

Being a teenager and never getting to life a full life sucks. It’s completely unfair but I think watching this life you created have to go through all these milestones without you is worse. Teenagers don’t fully know what they’re missing whereas the dying parent does. I think it’s worse to know exactly what you’re losing than to never have had it at all.

Baker's Dozen Challenge Book 5

I  have completed another book. I ‘reread’ Ready Player One this time via audio book. It’s narrated by Wil Wheaton which gives it some additional nerd cred. I was never big on audio books before but I may start to come around. It was easy listening to a book I was already familiar with. If I had interruptions from the outside world, I didn’t risk missing anything crucial.

It’s a love song to 1980’s pop culture including music, movies, video games, and books. Some minor parts are from before and after (classic sci-fi books, various Star Trek incarnations) but all the relevant pieces to the story are from the time of neon, big hair, and even bigger computers.

In a dystopian future where poverty is rampant and natural resources are running out, the whole world gets away from it by plugging into The Oasis. The biggest virtual reality game ever, it allows the world to forget their problems. When its creator dies without an heir, he creates an Easter Egg that will bestow ownership of this world and his entire company to whoever can find it. But in a world of corporate greed and unexpected heroes, it can never be that simple.

This is still one of my favorite books. It is almost required reading for nerds. I have insisted several people read it and everyone has thanked me for it. Listening to it added a different dimension. I could experience my favorite book while running errands, commuting, or engaging in drudgery which was pretty great. I also enjoyed catching moments where Wheaton takes a drink or turns a page. It was like a little ‘gotcha’ moment.

I always enjoy rereading this book and I’m glad I got to do it again.

1) Another World –

2) Learned Something –

3) Movie-Book – The Fault in Out Stars by John Green

4) Graphic Novel – Fanboys vs. Zombies Vol 1 by Sam Humphries

5) Dust –

6) Nonfiction –

7) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

8) Shorts – 20something Essays by 20something Writers edited by Matt Kellogg and Jillian Quint

9) Fiction –

10) Shiny – Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

11) Retelling –

12) Wild Card –

13) The End –

Music: The Whole World Is Watching by Within Temptation

Baker’s Dozen Challenge Book 4

The Fault in Our Stars is a massively popular book and recently made into a movie. I’ve had friends who’ve loved it and it’s even been included in some of the fandom memes you see on the internet. For all the fandoms and all the hype, my biggest feeling was “It was OK.” 

My dad died of cancer half my life ago so the only thing that was brand new to me was the perspective. Cancer sucks. It steals your life and takes your dignity on its way out. Most of the teens in this book handle their situation with a grace and maturity not afforded to most healthy people.

I enjoyed the protagonist Hazel. She was very down-to-earth and likable. Her instant relationship with Augustus felt a little convenient but when you’re dying I supposed you’re pressed for time. 

For the most part I enjoyed Augustus but he was so obsessed with leaving a legacy and not being forgotten that it wore on me. At first it was an understandable feeling but eventually it felt like those that would remember him just weren’t good enough. 

The ending also reminded me of the ending in the fictional An Imperial Affliction. It stopped while action was still happening but if it had kept going we would have watched Hazel die. When you’ve got teens dying of cancer, it isn’t always easy to decide where to leave it.

I enjoyed this book but it didn’t change my life or rock my world. I’m not a big crier especially when it comes to fiction and this was no exception. If not crying at TFIOS and Up makes me a heartless bitch, so be it. As sad as this book was, it was also lovely and worth reading if you’re not turned off by the concept.

1) Another World –

2) Learned Something –

3) Movie-Book – The Fault in Out Stars by John Green

4) Graphic Novel – Fanboys vs. Zombies Vol 1 by Sam Humphries

5) Dust –

6) Nonfiction –

7) Reread –

8) Shorts – 20something Essays by 20something Writers edited by Matt Kellogg and Jillian Quint

9) Fiction –

10) Shiny – Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

11) Retelling –

12) Wild Card –

13) The End –

Amy Amy Amy by Amy Winehouse

Pro-Choice for Life

I post something on Twitter that was pro-choice. It was a picture that said “Being pro-choice doesn’t meant your pro-abortion. It means you think the choice is yours, not the government’s.”

Before the end of the day I’d been called a murderer and a dumbass by two different men.

I respect a man’s right to have an opinion on this issue. My complaint comes from men who think they have the right to act like an authority on this issue. Any man who gets worked up about this and gets in women’s faces needs to shut the fuck up right now.

This is an issue no man can ever hope to understand, especially ones who don’t try. Pregnancy lasts for 9 months. Think about the last thing you did that took 75% of a year. Imagine not being in total control of your body for that entire time. Pregnant women have to watch what they eat, drink, and do that entire time. 

Your body is constantly changing and expanding. You have to keep buying new clothes you’ll never wear otherwise to accommodate your changing shape. And those bits about ‘getting your body’ back? A lot of women say their bodies are never the same after their first baby. 

Lest we forget all those doctor’s visits that require time off work and maternity coverage on your health insurance. An alarming number of health insurance plans don’t include maternity coverage on women’s health care plans. Mine didn’t even give me the option to add it. If you’re pregnant before you try and add that coverage, a lot of health insurance companies will deny you and make you pay for everything out of pocket.

Of the women who have abortions, a surprising percentage are mothers. Someone women have had all the kids they can afford but still like the idea of sex with their husband. Caitlin Moran actually talks about having one because she had two children and that was all she could handle raising. 

Remember all those cases where pharmacists can refuse to fill birth control because it goes against their religious beliefs with no regard to the beliefs of the woman with the prescription? What’s worse? Forcing a woman into a place where she needs an abortion or not letting pregnancy happen at all. Birth control pills tend to be cheaper than an abortion.

Outlawing abortion will do absolutely nothing but have women purposefully falling down stairs or being sterilized or bleeding to death in back alleys. Keeping it legal keeps women safe and healthy. Let me repeat that, outlawing it won't stop it. It didn't before and won't in the future.

I can conceive of no scenario that a man can relate to based on the criteria above let alone one that ends in a lifetime commitment. I have no respect for men who say ugly, hateful things on the internet to women about things they have never tried to understand. I think if anyone could make these men empathize, it would change their world. All they have done is made me think less of male pro-lifers as a whole. 

I still don’t think ending a pregnancy before it’s viable is murder and I never will. Abortion goes against nothing in my spiritual code or my relationship with God (as I understand it). I will always view this as a ‘my life, my body, my future, my problem, my choice’ issue. Until it personally affects the people who scream hateful things on the internet or outside of clinics, I’m not particularly interested in what they have to say.

Baker’s Dozen Challenge Book 3

I’ve had this book since college but didn’t get around to reading it until now. I was running out of years to be a 20something so I thought I should read it sooner rather than later. 

There were some real gems in here. Sex and the Sickbed, My Roaring Twenties, In-Between Places, In from the Outside, and Working at Wendy’s were excellent. Unfortunately Rock My Network and Sheer Dominance were a fight to get through. They weren’t worth the paper they were printed on IMHO.

The geography also left something to be desiredAfter about the sixth essay, I got sick of hearing about New York. Growing up in DC, the nation’s capital, you know from birth that New York is not the world but people from everywhere else haven’t gotten the memo on that yet.

Since this collection came out, people have been really hard on millennials and just as many have been coming to our defense. Rather than reiterate what’s already been said, I’d really like to hear another collection of this same concept 10 years later. I’m sure the content would have shifted.

1) Another World –

2) Learned Something –

3) Movie-Book –

4) Graphic Novel – Fanboys vs. Zombies Vol 1 by Sam Humphries

5) Dust –

6) Nonfiction –

7) Reread –

8) Shorts – 20something Essays by 20something Writers edited by Matt Kellogg and Jillian Quint

9) Fiction –

10) Shiny – Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

11) Retelling –

12) Wild Card –

13) The End –

Music: We’ll Be Here (When You’re Gone) by The Goo Goo Dolls