So many books

Do you ever stop and think about all the books that there are in the world?

There's so many books that I have yet to read and I wish I had time to read all of them!

The main reason for this thought process is that I work in a library twice a week and I am surrounded by books that I wish I had time to read. I keep telling myself that one day I'll just go to the library on one of my days off and just sit down and read something I picked up off the shelf. Maybe I'll do that next week on my day off from school...

In any case, I tend to carry around little bits of paper as I shelve so that I can write down book titles that seem interesting.

Right now, I am pushing through Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's really good, I genuinely enjoy reading it, but man, it's taking forever. I've had to renew it twice I think. I just don't have the time or concentration to focus on it. I do want to read it again at some point, but if I do, I will buy my own copy so that I can underline passages and write things in the margin because it's the kind of book that deserves to have underlined passages.


I also have to read the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for my English class. However, as I read it last year I can get away with skimming through the chapters. It's still good, I still like it. A lot of people in my class don't, but I think it's one of those books that you have to read outside of a school context first, and then read with guidance from a teacher so that you can appreciate its full value.

I'm also reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac for an independent read this semester. I don't know when the semester ends, but I've only read about five chapters so far. It's good, but I am withholding further judgements. Maybe next week when I go to the library I'll just read that.

In addition to all that, as I was working last week, I think it was, I came across a book that I couldn't just leave. It was called The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I'm not too sure what it's about, but I discreetly put it on my cart and checked it out. I haven't even had time to open it yet.

Okay, so maybe the goal for the reading over the next few weeks is this:
- Finish Eat Pray Love this weekend (which I can definitely do, I'm not too far from the end)
- Go to the library on Tuesday, do homework and read On The Road
- Read Gatsby as the teacher assigns
- Read The Friday Night Knitting Club when I'm done Eat Pray Love and when I'm through half of On the Road

So that's what I've been up to over the past few weeks!
What books have you been reading?

Books books and a movie

I am currently re-reading The Princess Bride. I'm on the second chapter currently because I started late last night and didn't feel up to staying late reading, so I didn't get far. Anyway, before I started reading it, I decided to do a little bit of research on it. There is an aspect of that book that amazes me, and that is William Goldman himself.

I liked this picture better than the book cover, even if it's from the movie

If you don't want the illusion of The Princess Bride to be shattered, don't read this next paragraph.

William Goldman wrote the book. That sounds so dumb when I say it like that, but let me reiterate. It was William Goldman who wrote the whole thing, not S. Morgenstern, as he states throughout the book. He wrote The Princess Bride as though it were an abridged version of S. Morgenstern's work of the same name. S. Morgenstern does not exist. He is made up to the same extent as Buttercup and Westley. Maybe you knew this already, but I found it amazing. Even more amazing, William Goldman invented a whole identity for himself. His wife is not a psychiatrist and he has two daughters, not a son. He made up a whole new identity to write that book. I love it. Honestly, that makes the book even better. I don't know, when I researched it I spent a few minutes just grinning at the whole situation. Also, I discovered that when I typed "who wrote" into Google, the first suggested sentence was "who wrote the princess bride" so clearly I'm not the only one who was wondering.

So yes, The Princess Bride is my current read. I finished Landlines by Rainbow Rowell as while ago, but not enough happened in it or in my brain as I read for me to write a whole review on it. It was okay, not stellar, not horrible. It was my brain-cleansing book when I had knocked out an hour of studying in the school library and had another free hour before my next class. Unfortunately, now I just spend those two hours studying and I don't have time to read.

I think I should mention here that my school library has a room called the Silent Study room. I'd never been in there since the beginning of high school, but I spend all my free time there this year. The library is easily the second loudest room in the school (after the cafeteria) despite our librarian's best efforts, but this one room is completely silent and more or less soundproof. You're not allowed to talk or play loud music or anything. I just go there, plug in my headphones with quiet music to drown out the ambient sounds of other people studying and I can get through at least 1.5 hours of work in under an hour. It's amazing.

Since this whole post is a train wreck of random thoughts, I also have to pick a book to read in English class as independent reading this semester and I have yet to decide. My top three are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I think I'm going to go with the last one, but I have to talk to my teacher about it first.

That is all for now, I am in between books, but as I have gotten many books and book suggestions in the last week, I will hopefully be reading more.

Have a great week!