Current obsessions

I can not deny a slight tending toward the obsessive compulsive... a problem for some, but I feel like I strike a healthy balance. Some of them time. (In graduate school, my adviser once told me that I needed a hobby and I told him lab was my hobby. That represented a perhaps slightly unhealthy obsession with graduate school but I am SO beyond that now... I am a postdoc. Balance is my middle name.)

So in order to demonstrate that I do things other than read books for 15-year-olds (right now I am reading: Finding Alaska by John Green) and going to lab, I present my list of distractions/current obsessions:

1. Superman: Ride of Steel

 

Best.  Ride.  Ever.

2. Better Off Ted

"I don't like it down there. It's chilly, the people are odd, and it smells like science."  Veronica (aka Portia de Rossi)

3.  The National

To paraphrase Matty Ballgame (from one of my long list of podcast obsessions, Filmspotting), "Ninety-twenties guy says - Ride it!  Watch it!  Hear it!"

Frankie & Clio: A reputable beginning

A trip to Montpelier facilitated the start of Summer of Young Adult Fiction (SoYAF)… Between riding the bus (only the very best in travel for me) and having a relaxing weekend, I had time to finish two books: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart and Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson.

Finishing a book in a mere three hours meant that at no point did I lose track of the main plot points or characters. This is a selling point. An unexpected bonus to reading books written for 12-year-olds. However, it did mean that in both of these cases, I had to say goodbye to characters a little too soon. A sadness I am still coming to accept… However the hope that there will be a sequel to Frankie Landau-Banks (since the history covered all of ONE semester) has seen me through. Also I started reading Stieg Larson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and all of the names are Swedish and have the same letters in them so all other characters ever have been pushed out of my brain.

Two very enjoyable books to begin my literary adventure, with main characters that were self-reliant and stubborn and kind of awesome. I’m looking forward to reading more by E. Lockhart and Maureen Johnson (in the name of full disclosure, I’ve read Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever but prior to SoYAF).

I’ve also decided to join in the Forever Young Adult Book Club (http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/06/01/announcing-the-fya-book-club-omg/) where they are going to be reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I requested it from the library but am 30th on the list or something so will have to wait my turn. Patience is not (as has been pointed out repeatedly) one of the P words that describe me.