just finished/starting

i just finished reading dog handling by clare naylor, a book i picked up from the e.l. public library book sale for 1 dollar in may. it was horrible, to say the least. one of the worse, if not the worst, chick lit books i have ever read, and i have read a lot of them. i could barely finish it, which is why it took me almost a week. i even brought it up north with me and still didn't finish it. the writing was horrible, attempts at being comedic just didn't work, and the lead character was not likeable. she was a complete moron, who treated everyone she met like shit. i wasn't even going to bother finishing it, but picked it up while listening to the thunderstorms and ended up finishing it just by skimming through it and not really paying attention.

i'm ready to begin something with substance. i just received my amazon.com shipment this afternoon. i am going to start with middlesex by jeffrey eugenides tonight. i'm really looking forward to it, although virgin suicides was not really up to par, in my opinion. it was a great, easy read, but just not what i expected, i guess. maybe i should re-read it. i have it at home.

i can always tell by the first page whether i'm going to like a book or not and whether it's worth my time. clever writing and word usage always gets me. i don't think middlesex will disappoint.

my current summer reading list

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon
middlesex by jeffrey eugenides
memoirs of a geisha by arthur golden
infinite jest by david foster wallace
a long way down by nick hornby
extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer
you shall know our velocity by dave eggers
a heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers
the party cloudy patriot by sarah vowell
the losers' club by richard perez

more being added daily. i'm an amazon.com junkie the way some people are imdb.com whores.

thoughts on chick lit

i'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Red Dress Ink books, but they publish a ridiculous amount of chick lit. i.e. books that focus on a single woman in a big city with a fabulous career, usually something in the fashion industry, journalism or book publishing. they always glamourize journalism to the point where it's completely absurd, but i still enjoy them. the girl is usually in her mid-20s to early 30s, and recently broke up with a serious boyfriend and wants to discover herself. there are some that stray from the norm, but the overwhelming majority just make you feel good, they always deal with mistakes the women have made, which, chances are, you have made too. they are basically just fun to read.

i have read a large amount of these books, and a number of knock-offs. i can finish one of these in a night, and i usually reserve them for airplane rides, long car trips and outside reading material. however, i bring them out whenever i want to read something composed entirely of fluff for the sole purpose of feeling good about life. i like to mix it up, i'll read a thought-provoking novel or two and then read a couple of girly books to relax my brain muscles before moving on to something else that requires thought. i'm one of those readers who likes to re-read and analyze and look up words i don't know. when i was younger, i would always keep a pen and pad of paper with me when i read to write down all the words that sounded nice or that i fell in love with. i have hundreds of scraps of paper with odd words written on them lying around in boxes and inside book covers at home. i wish i could find them now. have you ever noticed many words sound strange when you repeat them out loud numerous times? i used to do that. i would read entire books out loud to myself just because i like how words sound. and i always hated being read to, even as a young child. absolutely detested it. i think it's because i'm a super fast reader, but i like to read sentences more than once if they sound good. i also like to go back and re-read certain parts of books to understand other stuff that happens later when i catch the earlier references.

this started out as an ode to chick lit, but it ended up being more about my reading habits than anything else. i also enjoy quite a bit of young adult fiction. i adore roald dahl.

i was going to start this reviewing/commenting with some books i have already read, but the majority of them are at home so i can't reference them. i read quite a bit two summers ago, when i had that internship in birmingham. i was living with my parents and wasn't 21 and had a limited number of friends to hang out with, so i read. a lot. i also had a lot of dispensable income since i had virtually no expenses. i used this money to buy books and buffy dvds.

the last recent-ish book i read was diary: a novel by chuck palahniuk, one of the few books i actually have here. i know most of my friends have already read that, so i'm not sure if want to comment on that one.