Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts

1. I'm hosting a giveaway... maybe you've heard? Follow this link.

2. I'm quite disappointed with the readings LA has to offer lately; I know "tis the season," but I haven't been to one for a few months and am missing my dose of culture and smart people.

3. I was at a restaurant this weekend and ordered the "Grapes of Wrath" Pizza- goat cheese, grapes, pumpkin seeds, and grilled butternut squash. It was amazing. Oh, and I've never read the book. 

4. I have to admit a guilty pleasure- Gossip Girl. Yup- "you know you love me, xoxo" Gossip Girl. I want to look like Serena but hang out with Derota all day. Anyway, Dan, aka "Lonely Boy" published a book (I'm a season behind). Like it's just that easy. Vanessa sends in the manuscript and they agree to publish it without meeting Dan under the name "anonymous." Sure. This isn't fucking Primary Colors, for crap's sake. All I can say is that I'm glad it didn't hang out on the best seller's list for too long.

5. My students are killing me this week. They're not doing their reading, failing quizzes, and won't shut up. It's almost worse than the elementary kids, except with the older ones I can at least threaten finals.

6. Speaking of my students, I had them read this piece from Slate last week on Elf on the Shelf in order to practice some long-lost rhetorical analysis. Their responses were hilarious- the overwhelming consensus is that the Elf is "creepy." While he is pretty effing ugly, I do understand that parents and kids have fun with it. I do think this aticle is interesting, though- what happened to Santa being enough? What about discipline (for those parents who use it to control their kids in December)? And the tattling aspect of him is a bit much. Cue the "Oh, Christine, you'll understand when you have kids" crap. Seriously, if my husband and I had one of those things we'd end up making it hump the dog toys or leave it next to a bottle of vodka and empty shot glasses.

7. Sometimes I feel guilty when I decide that I don't want to read books about things like Jews and Nazis or women struggling to read in Afghanistan. I feel like I owe it to those who have been oppressed, to recognize their plight, but it's just generally not the type of genre I gravitate towards. I seriously feel bad.