Chameleon

Ok, so I’ve been thinking lately (never a good thing, probably). In my mental wanderings two things have come to my attention. 1) I cannot stand misspellings (typos we all make, granted) and 2) I need to be selective in what I choose to read.

So, as far as the misspellings go, Blue-Eyed Bride already touched on this in her recent post. But, yesterday I was reading a fanfic (my recent obsession) and two things kept annoying the hell out of me – the use of “your” vs. “you’re” as in “your in trouble”. One time I can overlook, but when a writer does this every time, it tells me they don’t know the difference between the two. This writer is apparently also a fan of shopping at Victoria Secrets or also sometimes referred to as Victorias Secrets. First, Victoria is possessive. Second, Victoria only has the one secret. If it’s so confusing, just say “La Perla”.

As far as the second thing on my mind, what first brought it to my attention is the book I’m reading for Book Club. I am slogging through this book. We always get our book assignments in threes, and of this last set of three this was the book I was looking forward to. Unfortunately, it sucks. It sucks hard. And while the last two sucky book were only about 100 pages of suckage, this one is in the 250 page range. Gah! And as I’m reading along in this book, I just keep thinking “life is too short and my time is too important to be reading a book I hate.” But then the other voice in my head says “but you paid for the book club session and you paid for the book, so you need to read it.” So far, the “you need to read it” voice is winning out. And there are moments when the suckage level goes down just slightly and the book is readable. Can’t say I’ll have it finished by next Friday, though. Oh well, at least there will be wine with the discussion.

But, along with my “life’s too short” revelation, I also had something else come up for me. I love reading, absolutely cannot get enough of it, although in the past few years I haven’t had as much time for it. I think some of the reasons I love reading so much are because I have a very active imagination and I love escaping into a book, my suspension of disbelief kicks in really quick with a good book, and also I tend to get really invested in the characters and stories. All three of those things combined allow me to really delve into a good book and live in that world for a time. That is such a curse and a blessing. After I read a really good book, one that I have fully immersed myself in, it often takes me awhile to get back out of it. I am still thinking about it and the characters, and the feelings that the book brought up for me are still there on the surface for a time. I’ve never really been able to explain to anyone why this happens so strongly for me. But, it does. A really sad, depressing storyline can leave me feeling listless and depressed for days after. Also, due to my vivid imagination, I do have to be careful what I read right before bed. I had to ban myself from reading The Historian right before bed, because it stayed with me all night and I would wake up during the night totally freaked out. But, damn that was a good book. You might be thinking to yourself, if she’s so sensitive why does she love vampire books? I can’t answer that. And yes, admitting this does make me feel like I am totally hypersensitive, or being overly dramatic or like I have a weak constitution or whatever. But, maybe I’m not the only one that books have this effect on? What brought all of this up for me is a fanfic (yes, I know) and the storyline is just horrible. I mean horrible in the sense that what is happening in the story is horrible. And yesterday after reading about twelve chapters, I just thought, I can’t take this anymore. I was so upset (granted I was also hungry and had a headache, which didn’t help), that I just couldn’t stomach any more of it. It made me realize that I really do need to maybe be a bit more selective with what I choose to put in my brain. I am pretty selective about television, so I’m not sure why I’m not that way with books. Maybe I’m too trusting of books, and when they let me down, I don’t know what to do with myself.

So, anyway the past couple of nights I’ve picked up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to read when I get home. It’s been a while since I’ve read it (this will be my third time through), and with the movie having been released on Wednesday it seemed only fitting. And I’m finding it rather soothing after all the yuck that I’ve put in my brain. So that’s what’s been on my mind and I just felt the need to share. Miami photos next time, I promise. And it’s Victoria’s Secret, people. Google it.

And P.S. for the fool on Goodreads: it’s Yul Brynner, not Yule Brenner. Seriously.

The photo at the beginning of this post is one of the photos I took in Miami. It’s a Chihuly.