Notes from a bibliophile

I know this is a departure and kind of flies in the face of my "bibliophile" moniker, but I am a -phile of many things, and after books, movies are probably my next great love. When I first saw this trailer I was thrilled. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in space?!? It looked so stylish too. Just take my money already. Then came the reviews. If you want to see the film, you may want to stop reading because I'm going to go into some detail. The main reason for most of the negativity is the main plot point. Here comes the spoiler: Chris Pratt's character Jim is the only one that is awoken by the malfunction. Not both characters, just one. He has no idea why, and no idea how to get back into his pod. He finds manuals and tools and tries, almost trapping himself in the pod at one point. He tries to break into the crew quarters. I mean he TRIES!  You may only see a few moments, but as the camera pans out, you see all the tools, all the panels he's removed, all th...

I started out the year so full of literary promise, and that train derailed quickly. I started binging The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, and I was forcing myself to read books that I wasn't truly into, and the impetus with which the year began soon faded. I know months went by without me cracking a book, and that made me sad because I identify myself as a book lover. It is who I am as much as the color of my eyes. What's a book lover to do when they just aren't loving books? Relationships can grow stagnant without some variety. Interpersonal relationships can get tricky - people can resort to infidelity, friendships can wither and die. But, thankfully, a relationship with books is easily reinvigorated. All it took for me was a little shift in format. In total I read 64 books, by far the most of any other year that I've been keeping track. So here is my list of what I read this year, ranked by the number of stars I gave it on Goodreads: 5 STARS Wayward volumes 1-...

I love listening to classical music. Not exclusively. I'm kind of a music slut. Outside of a few performers that I am loyal to, I kind of get around - U2, Weird Al, Adele, Kid Rock, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, DNCE. But as for classical music, Bach is by far my favorite composer. I find Baroque music intricate and beautiful. This Great Courses audiobook is a really great introduction to the period and to Bach specifically. Here's the listing of the different lectures in the course: Introduction Christmas 1722 Introduction to the Baroque Aesthetic Fugue Historical Overview from Constantine through the Great Thinkers of the Baroque Style Features of High Baroque Music Part I - A Musical Glossary Style Features of High Baroque Music Part II - A Musical Glossary Style Features of High Baroque Music Part III - A Musical Glossary Bach's Inheritance Part I - The Protestant Reformation and the Rise of Lutheranism Lutheranism, the Chorale, and the Chorale Prelude Bach...

Yay, mythology! I'm not sure where I got the recommendation for this graphic novel series. There was some article I read about the 25 best comics this year, so it could have been there. Goodreads may have recommended it. Who cares, it happened and it's AWESOME! We begin with Rori Lane. She's a teen like any other. Her mom and dad have been divorced and she no longer gets along well with Pops in Ireland, so she's going to live with her mom in Japan. As she wanders the streets in the days before school begins, she gets accosted by some street thugs. But these are no ordinary street thugs. These are yokai, Japanese fairytale creatures, specifically kappa. Rori has no idea how to defend herself until a girl named Ayane leaps out and begins to kick kappa ass. It's here that Rori's veneer of sameness falls aside and she finds she can see patterns, glowing red lines that lead her where she needs to go to accomplish what she needs to accomplish. She can also manipul...

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.     I have always loved books . I can't remember ever not loving books. Like Ross and Rachel, we may go on a break every now and then, but we always find our way back to each other.  I sometimes have very passionate feelings for these inanimate companions  and I want to put these thoughts somewhere. Let's start from where I am now. The book I've been reading the longest right now is The Wizard of Oz series. Good Lord, is this long! When I worked for Borders they had some bargain books of the entire collection of L. Frank Baum's books - it's 3 volumes. I have been trying to make it through the first volume since July and there's always something better that I'd much rather be reading, even if that's a  product label on the back of my Snickers. The first - and most familiar story,  thanks to the film - was pretty easy, but Dorothy just seems t...